Fredrick’s Defeat and Seydlitz’s Surprise
The Austrians fled into the city of Prague, which was closely invested
by the Prussians and bombarded with red-hot shot. The people suffered
greatly, and the prospect of approaching famine compelled them to make
many sacrifices. The Austrian army had about given up everything for
lost and was on the point of capitulating, when news reached them that
Field-Marshal Daun, with a strong force of sixty-six thousand men, was
on the way to their relief. Frederick marched out to meet him with
thirty-two thousand men, the very flower of his army, hoping with this
comparatively small force to check his advance. The two armies speedily
met, and a battle began at Kollin. At the outset fortune favored the
Prussians. The hussars cut their way through the enemy’s lines so
furiously that Daun was on the point of retreating. At this juncture,
however, the King decided, in the very midst of the battle, to change
his excellent original plan. Prince Moritz of Dessau and several other
generals differed from him, and when at last he announced his decision,
they refused to obey, for they foresaw it must lead to disaster. Drawing
his sword for the first time, he rushed up to them, sternly reminded
them of their duty, and ordered them back to their commands. The result
was mismanagement and confusion in handling the troops. The Austrians
and Saxons took advantage of this, and rushed into the gaps—for the
Prussians were no longer in solid columns—and soon were the victors. The
latter left fourteen thousand dead and wounded on the field. The
remainder made an orderly retreat, and Daun did not venture to pursue
them.
Bitterly disappointed, Frederick raised the siege of Prague and fell
back with his shattered army to Nürnberg. They were obliged to dismount
many times on the way to water the horses, and on one of these occasions
an old trooper brought Frederick a refreshing draught of water in his
steel cap, and handing it to him, said in the heartiest way, “Drink,
Your Majesty, and let battles be battles. You are living—that is good.
The Almighty also lives, and He will give us victory again.”
The King looked at him and replied with a quiet smile: “Do you really
think so, old fellow?”
The trooper nodded assent, and soon they were on the march again. The
King was in an unusually gloomy mood, and at such times no one ventured
to disturb him. When they reached Nürnberg he went off by himself
without saying a word to anyone, and sat down upon an old waste-pipe,
where he remained some time in deep thought, scratching curious figures
in the sand with a stick. Observing this, his officers stepped more
quietly and watched him with much curiosity. Suddenly he rose and said
to those about him, “Gentlemen, it is time for action. We must not
loiter.”
Without showing any sign of his great disappointment over his defeat, he
issued the necessary commands, and his aides were at once busy in
distributing them. Even the appearance of his splendid guard, which had
been so sorely treated at Kollin that out of a thousand men only two
hundred were unharmed in the fight, did not disturb his composure in the
least.
“Children,” he said with much feeling, “you have had a hard day. But
have patience, dear friends; I will make it all right yet.”
The King’s enemies were joyful over the news of his defeat at Kollin,
and decided it would be wise to attack him on all sides. In the east the
Russians invaded Prussia with one hundred thousand men. The Swedes, to
prove their bravery, attacked Pomerania, but were driven back by General
Belling. General Lehwald, however, was less fortunate in his operations
against the Russians, as he had an army of only thirty-two thousand men.
He was overpowered in an engagement at Grossjägerndorf and compelled to
retreat. The Russians might easily have advanced to Brandenburg had they
followed up their advantage, but their General Apraxin fell back still
nearer the eastern Prussian frontier. This extraordinary movement can
only be explained in one way. Apraxin had received express orders from
the warlike Empress Elizabeth to press operations with vigor, but he had
also been instructed by Grand Duke Peter to go slow and take matters
easily, for he much preferred to have Frederick a good neighbor in the
future than an enemy.
Thus the King’s lucky star shone brightly when everything was darkest.
He also received gratifying assurances of love and devotion from his own
people. In Pomerania and Brandenburg they vied with each other in making
good the losses of men and horses at Kollin. Frederick would have been
delighted with these assurances had not fresh troubles overtaken him.
His sorrow over the tragedy at Kollin was followed by bitter grief,
occasioned by the death of a brother and his beloved mother.[6] His
great sorrow, as well as his greatness of soul, is shown in his letters
of that time, one of which closes with the words, “But I, threatened
with the storm, and notwithstanding the approaching ruin, must act,
live, and die as a King.”
The French, meanwhile, who had crossed the Rhine and invaded Westphalia,
one hundred thousand strong, were giving the King much trouble. His
Anglo-German auxiliary army, led by the Duke of Cumberland, and much
weaker than the French, had been utterly defeated by them at Hastenbeck
on the Weser.[7] The French now swarmed over Hesse, Hanover, Brunswick,
and Westphalia, and destruction and ruin attended them wherever they
appeared; for it had been decided in Paris to devastate Prussia and all
the provinces which had remained faithful to the King. The French army,
which at the beginning operated in two divisions, was now united with
the imperial troops for the purpose of attacking Saxony, which was held
by Frederick. The French afterward divided again, at Erfurt, into two
bands, one of which under Prince Soubise levied contributions on Gotha
and Weimar, while the other, under Marshal d’Estrées, levied still
heavier contributions upon the city of Halle. From this point, one
division of troops, led by the Duke of Ayer, pressed forward to
Halberstadt and made inroads even as far as Magdeburg. Those were
troublous times for the old mark.
Frederick, who was in upper Lusatia, was informed of the threatening
operations of the enemy. He hastened forward by forced marches,
strengthened his army by the corps of ten thousand men at Dresden under
Prince Moritz, and with his comparatively small force advanced to the
Saale by way of Grimma and Pegau. Bold General Seydlitz was in the
advance with a thousand dragoons to clear the region of roving
marauders. His brave troopers on September 7 appeared before Pegau, but
found the gate on the farther side of the stone Elster bridge blocked
and held by a large force of the enemy. Seydlitz had no infantry, but he
ordered a hundred of his dragoons, for whom no horse was too wild, no
ditch too wide, and who were splendidly trained, to dismount. They did
so and stormed the gate, and then, carbines in hand, the troop drove the
enemy at a gallop through the city. Seydlitz observed an Austrian hussar
regiment in battle-order on the other side of the city. Although greatly
outnumbered, without an instant’s delay he dashed through their closed
ranks with such fury that he captured three hundred and fifty of them
and hotly pursued the others. The flying enemy attempted to make a stand
on the bridge at Kösen and attack Seydlitz, but they were quickly
dispersed.
Meanwhile Soubise and his French generals were occupying the castle at
Gotha, and living there in luxurious style. His eight thousand troops
were quartered in the market-place and other sections of the city and
living upon the best of the land at the land’s expense. Seydlitz, who
was aware of this, decided to arrange a little surprise for them with
the help of his merry troopers. Soubise and his generals were
entertaining some foreign guests at an entertainment, for which
extraordinary preparations had been made. The tables were loaded with
the choicest viands, and costly wines flowed in streams. The guests were
greatly enjoying the superb banquet, the charm of which was heightened
by the presence of beautiful ladies, when suddenly Seydlitz and his
hussars appeared at the gate. Everything was in confusion at once. The
officers hurriedly left the festive scene, donned their gayly plumed
hats, rushed out of the hall pell-mell, and fled in a panic. It never
occurred to anyone, though they were eight thousand strong, to offer the
slightest resistance to the little Prussian band.
Seydlitz, who could not think of making an effective pursuit with his
few worn-out soldiers, contented himself with a short chase of the
French. Covered with dust and sprinkled with foam after the sudden bold
rush into the city, he and his officers laughed heartily at the deserted
tables decked out so lavishly for the enemy. With lively jokes and many
a rollicking troopers’ song, the bold heroes refreshed themselves with
the choice dishes and wines the duke’s cooks had provided so lavishly,
and passed the hours of the afternoon and night in the most hilarious
and satisfied manner. An eyewitness says:
“Only a few French soldiers were taken prisoners, but an army of
servants, lackeys, cooks, hairdressers, actors, and chambermaids, chests
full of perfumes and pomades, powder-boxes and hair-nets, parasols and
dressing-gowns, as well as a mass of those knick-knacks which are
indispensable to French elegance, fell into the hands of the troopers,
who examined their plunder with astonishment and fared royally upon the
delicacies and wines found among the equipages and cooks’ wagons, which
Seydlitz turned over to his troopers. The other stuff he sent on to the
French the next day free of charge, as Prussian troopers had no use for
it.”
Frederick, in the meantime, with his little army, about twenty-two
thousand strong, had reached Erfurt, by way of Grimma and Naumburg,
where he learned from Seydlitz that the fugitive enemy were occupying a
strong position at Eisenach.[8] The situation was so uncertain that he
decided not to venture far from Saxony and the Elbe. Believing that in
his position he could resist the French advance, he sent Duke Ferdinand
of Brunswick with four thousand men to Halberstadt to rid its people of
the enemy’s exactions, and Prince Moritz of Dessau with eight thousand
men into the region between the Mulde and Elbe to watch the movements of
the Austrians. When he heard of the departure of these forces Soubise’s
courage revived. He decided to advance and regain his former position.
He also plucked up courage to place himself at the head of his army.
With his strong force of eight thousand men he approached Gotha. As soon
as Seydlitz, who had been reënforced by about fifteen thousand men,
noticed this move of the enemy, he fell back, and pretended to seek
shelter in a ravine. He ordered his troopers to dismount, fasten their
sabres to their carbines, and spread themselves out in a long line near
their horses. Thus extended, with the hussars in front and the dragoons
dismounted and in position on the hillside, they presented from a
distance the appearance of long lines of infantry. The French, believing
the entire Prussian army was in front of them, fled precipitately.
Seydlitz’s troopers pursued them, and captured three officers and one
hundred and fifty men. Truly the Prussians had no reason to fear such an
enemy! As a result of the ruse, the French did not stop running until
they were far away from Gotha.
About this time the Austrian general Haddick made a descent upon Berlin
and levied a considerable war contribution, beside making a demand for
twenty-four pairs of fine gloves, which he intended to present to his
Empress. He obtained all that he demanded, including the gloves; but the
Berliners showed a fine sense of humor in the trick they played upon
him—for on his return home he learned that they were all for the left
hand! Frederick, who received the news of the descent when it was too
late to prevent it, decided at least to cut off Haddick’s return, and
advanced with four thousand men to the Elbe, leaving Field-Marshal
Keith, with five thousand men, to guard the Saale. Other divisions were
sent to Weissenfels and Merseburg. After the King’s withdrawal from
Thuringia, the French and the imperial troops also abandoned their
position at Gotha, and advanced to Merseburg and Leipsic with the
intention of occupying Saxony. Keith, in the meantime, however, had
notified the King of the approach of the enemy, who, recognizing the
danger, at once turned, drove the French before him, and made a halt
between Weissenfels and Merseburg. This position, however, was insecure,
for the greatly superior enemy was bent upon surrounding and capturing
the King’s little force. Indeed, Soubise carried his audacity so far
that he sent word to his King that Frederick could no longer escape him
and that he expected soon to have the honor of bringing him a prisoner
to Paris. How bitterly he was deceived!