At the very beginning of 1778, the chronic quarrel with Austria passed,
by an accident just fallen out, into the acute state; rose
gradually, and, in spite of negotiating, issued in a thing called
Bavarian-Succession War, which did not end till Spring of the following
year. The accident was this. At Munchen, December 30th, 1777, Max
Joseph Kurfurst of Baiern, only Brother of our lively friend the
Electress-Dowager of Saxony, died; suddenly, of small-pox unskilfully
treated. He was in his fifty-second year; childless, the last of that
Bavarian branch. His Heir is Karl Theodor, Kur-Pfalz (Elector Palatine),
who is now to unite the Two Electorates,--unless Austria can bargain
with him otherwise. Austria's desire to get hold of Baiern is of very
old standing; and we have heard lately how much it was an object with
Kaunitz and his young Kaiser. With Karl Theodor they did bargain,--in
fact, had beforehand as good as bargained,--and were greatly astonished,
when King Friedrich, alone of all Teutschland or the world, mildly, but
peremptorily, interfered, and said No,--with effect, as is well known.
Something, not much, must be said of this Bavarian-Succession War; which
occupied, at a pitch of tension and anxiety foreign to him for a long
time, fifteen months of Friedrich's old age (January, 1778-March, 1779);
and filled all Europe round him and it, in an extraordinary manner.
Something; by no means much, now that we have seen the issue of such
mountains all in travail. Nobody could then say but it bade fair to
become a Fourth Austrian-Prussian War, as sanguinary as the Seven-Years
had been; for in effect there stood once more the Two Nations ranked
against each other, as if for mortal duel, near half a million men in
whole; parleying indeed, but brandishing their swords, and ever and anon
giving mutual clash of fence, as if the work had begun, though there
always intervened new parleying first.
And now everybody sees that the work never did begin; that parleying,
enforced by brandishing, turned out to be all the work there was: and
everybody has forgotten it, and, except for specific purposes, demands
not to be put in mind of it. Mountains in labor were not so frequent
then as now, when the Penny Newspaper has got charge of them; though
then as now to practical people they were a nuisance. Mountains all in
terrific travail-throes, threatening to overset the solar system, have
always a charm, especially for the more foolish classes: but when once
the birth has taken place, and the wretched mouse ducks past you,
or even nothing at all can be seen to duck past, who is there but
impatiently turns on his heel?
Those Territories, which adjoin on its own dominions, would have been
extremely commodious to Austria;--as Austria itself has long known; and
by repeatedly attempting them on any chance given (as in 1741-1745, to
go no farther back), has shown how well it knows. Indeed, the whole
of Bavaria fairly incorporated and made Austrian, what an infinite
convenience would it be!
"Do but look on the Map [this Note is not by Busching, but by somebody
of Austrian tendencies]: you would say, Austria without Bavaria is like
a Human Figure with its belly belonging to somebody else. Bavaria is the
trunk or belly of the Austrian Dominions, shutting off all the limbs of
them each from the other; making for central part a huge chasm.
"Ober-Pfalz,--which used to be Kur-Pfalz's, which is Bavaria's since we
took it from the Winter-King and bestowed it in that way,--Ober-Pfalz,
the country of Amberg, where Maillebois once pleased to make invasion of
us;--does not it adjoin on the Bohemian Forest? The RIBS there, Bohemian
all, up to the shoulder, are ours: but the shoulder-blade and left
arm, whose are they! Austria Proper and Hungary, these may be taken as
sitting-part and lower limbs, ample and fleshy; but see, just above the
pelvis, on the south side, how Bavaria and its Tyrol sticks itself
in upon Austria, who fancied she also had a Tyrol, and far the more
important one. Our Tyrol, our Styria, Carniola, Carinthia,--Bavaria
blocks these in. Then the Swabian Austria,--Breisach, and those
Upper-Rhine Countries, from which we invade France,--we cannot reach
them except through Bavarian ground. Swabian Austria should be our right
arm, fingers of it reaching into Switzerland; Ober-Pfalz our left:--and
as to the broad breast between these two; left arm and broad breast
are Bavaria's, not ours. Of the Netherlands, which might be called
geographically the head of Austria, alas, the long neck, Lorraine, was
once ours; but whose is it? Irrecoverable for the present,--perhaps may
not always be so!"
These are Kaunitz's ideas; and the young Kaiser has eagerly adopted them
as the loadstar of his life. "Make the Reich a reality again," thinks
the Kaiser (good, if only possible, think we too); "make Austria great;
Austria is the Reich, how else can the Reich be real?"
In practical politics these are rather wild ideas; but they are really
Kaunitz's and his Kaiser's; and were persisted in long after this
Bavarian matter got its check: and as a whole, they got repeated checks;
being impossible all, and far from the meaning of a Time big with French
Revolution, and with quite other things than world-greatness to Austria,
and rejuvenescence on such or on any terms to the poor old Holy Roman
Reich, which had been a wiggery so long. Nobody could guess of what it
was that France or the world might be with child: nobody, till the birth
in 1789, and even for a generation afterwards. France is weakly and
unwieldy, has strange enough longings for chalky, inky, visionary,
foolish substances, and may be in the family-way for aught we know.
To Kaunitz it is pretty clear that France will not stand in his path
in this fine little Bavarian business; which is all he cares for at
present. England in war with its Colonies; Russia attentive to its Turk;
foreign Nations, what can they do but talk; remonstrate more or less, as
they did in the case of Poland; and permit the thing with protest? Only
from one Sovereign Person, and from him I should guess not much, does
Kaunitz expect serious opposition: from Friedrich of Prussia; to whom
no enlargement of Austria can be matter of indifference. "But cannot we
perhaps make it worth his while?" thinks Kaunitz: "Tush, he is old and
broken; thought to be dying; has an absolute horror of war. He too will
sit quiet; or we must make it worth his while." In this calculation
Kaunitz deceived himself; we are now shortly to see how.
Kaunitz's Case, when he brings it before the Reich, and general Public
of mankind and its Gazetteers, will by no means prove to be a strong
one. His Law "TITLE" is this:--
"Archduke Albert V., of Austria, subsequently Kaiser Albert II., had
married Elizabeth, only Daughter of Kaiser Sigismund SUPER-GRAMMATICAM:
Albert is he who got three crowns in one year, Hungary, Bohemia, Romish
Reich; and 'we hope a fourth,' say the Old Historians, 'which was a
heavenly and eternal one,'--died, in short (1439, age forty). From him
come the now Kaisers.
"In 1426, thirteen years before this event of the Crowns, Sigismund
GRAMMATICAM had infeoffed him in a thing still of shadowy nature,--the
Expectancy of a Straubingen Princedom; pleasant extensive District,
only not yet fallen, or like falling vacant: 'You shall inherit, you
and yours (who are also my own), so soon as this present line of
Wittelsbachers die!' said Kaiser Sigismund, solemnly, in two solemn
sheepskins. 'Not a whit of it,' would the Wittelsbachers have answered,
had they known of the affair. 'When we die out, there is another Line of
Wittelsbachers, plenty of other lines; and House-treaties many and old,
settling all that, without help of you and Albert of the Three Crowns!'
And accordingly there had never come the least fruit, or attempt at
fruit, from these two Sigismund Sheepskins; which were still lying in
the Vienna Archives, where they had lain since the creation of them,
known to an Antiquary or two, but not even by them thought worthy
of mention in this busy world. This was literally all the claim that
Austria had; and every by-stander admitted it to be, in itself, not
worth a rush."
"In itself perhaps not," thought Kaunitz; "but the free consent of Karl
Theodor the Heir, will not that be a Title in full? One would hope so;
in the present state of Europe: France, England, Russia, every Nation
weltering overhead in its own troubles and affairs, little at leisure
for ours!" And it is with Karl Theodor, to make out a full Title for
himself there, that Kaunitz has been secretly busy this long time back,
especially in the late critical days of poor Kurfurst Max.
Karl Theodor of the Pfalz, now fallen Heir to Baiern, is a poor idle
creature, of purely egoistic, ornamental, dilettante nature; sunk in
theatricals, bastard children and the like; much praised by Voltaire,
who sometimes used to visit him; and by Collini, to whom he is a kind
master. Karl Theodor cares little for the integrity of Baiern, much
for that of his own skin. Very long ago, in 1742, in poor Kaiser Karl's
Coronation time, we saw him wedded, him and another, to two fair Sister
Sulzbach Princesses, [Supra, viii. 119.] Grand-daughters of old Karl
Philip, the then Kur-Pfalz, whom he has inherited. It was the last act
of that never-resting old Karl Philip, of whom we used to hear so
much: "Karl Theodor to have one of my inestimable Grand-daughters; Duke
Clement, younger Brother of our blessed new Kaiser, to have another;
thereby we unite the kindred branches of the Pfalz-Baiern Families, and
make the assurance of the Heritages doubly sure!" said old Karl Philip;
and died happy, or the happiest he could.
Readers no doubt have forgotten this circumstance; and, in their total
lack of interest in Karl Theodor and his paltry affairs, may as well
be reminded of it;--and furthermore, that these brilliant young Wives,
"Duchess Clement" especially, called on Wilhelmina during the Frankfurt
Gayeties, and were a charm to Kaiser Karl Albert, striving to look
forward across clouds into a glittering future for his House. Theodor's
Princess brought him no children; she and her Sister are both still
living; a lone woman the latter (Duke Clement dead these seven
years),--a still more lone the former, with such a Husband yet living!
Lone women both, well forward in the fifties; active souls, I should
guess, at least to judge by Duchess Clement, who being a Dowager, and
mistress of her movements, is emphatic in denouncing such disaster and
disgrace; and plays a great part, at Munchen, in the agitating
scenes now on hand. Comes out "like a noble Amazon," say the admiring
by-standers, on this occasion; stirs whatever faculty she has,
especially her tongue; and goes on urging, pushing and contriving all
she can, regardless of risks in such an imminency.
Karl Theodor finds his Heritages indisputable; but he has no Legitimate
Son to leave them to; and has many Illegitimate, whom Austria can
provide for,--and richly will. His Heir is a Nephew, Karl August
Christian, of Zweibruck; whom perhaps it would not be painful to him
to disappoint a little of his high expectations. On the whole, Peace;
plentiful provision, titular and other, for his Illegitimates; and
a comfortable sum of ready money over, to enliven the Theatricals,
Dusseldorf Picture-Galleries and Dilettante operations and
Collections,--how much welcomer to Theodor than a Baiern never so
religiously saved entire at the expense of quarrel, which cannot but be
tedious, troublesome and dangerous! Honor, indeed--but what, to an old
stager in the dilettante line, is honor? Old stagers there are who will
own to you, like Balzac's Englishman in a case of conflagration, when
honor called on all men to take their buckets, "MAIS JE N'AI POINT
D'HONNEUR!" To whom, unluckily, you cannot answer as in that case,
"C'EST EGAL, 'T is all one; do as if you had some!" Karl Theodor
scandalously left Baiern to its fate.
Karl Theodor's Heir, poor August Christian of Zweibruck, had of course
his own gloomy thoughts on this parcelling of his Bavarian reversion:
but what power has he? None, he thinks, but to take the inevitable
patiently. Nor generally in the Princes of the Reich, though one would
have thought them personally concerned, were it only for danger of a
like mistreatment, was there any emotion publicly expressed, or the
least hope of help. "Perhaps Prussia will quarrel about it?" think they:
"Austria, Prussia, in any of their quarrels we get only crushed; better
to keep out of it. We well out of it, the more they quarrel and fight,
the better for us!" England, in the shape of Hanover, would perhaps have
made some effort to interfere, provided France did: on either side, I
incline to think,--that is to say, on the side opposite to France. But
poor England is engaged with its melancholy American War; France on the
point of breaking out into Alliance with the Insurrection there. Neither
France nor England did interfere. France is sinking into bankruptcy;
intent to have a Navy before most things; to assist the Cause of Human
Liberty over seas withal, and become a sublime spectacle, and a ruin to
England,--not as in the Pitt-Choiseul time, but by that improved method.
Russia, again involved in Turk business, looks on, with now and then
a big word thrown out on the one side and the other.--Munchen, in the
interval, we can fancy what an agitated City! One Note says:--
"Kurfurst Max Joseph being dead (30th December, 1777), Privy Councillor
Johann Euchar von Obermayr, favorite and factotum Minister of the
Deceased, opened the Chatoulle [Princely Safe, or Case of Preciosities];
took from it the Act, which already lay prepared, for Homaging and
solemn Instalment of Karl Theodor Kur-Pfalz, as heir of Baiern; with
immediate intent to execute the same. Euchar orders strict closure
of the Town-gates; the Soldiery to draw out, and beset all
streets,--especially that street where Imperial Majesty's Ambassador
lives: 'Rank close with your backs to that House,' orders Euchar; 'and
the instant anybody stirs to come out, sound your drums, and, at the
same instant, let the rearmost rank of you, without looking round [for
one would not give offence, unless imperative] smite the butts of their
muskets to the ground' (ready for firing, IF imperative). Nobody, I
think, stirred out from that Austrian Excellency's House; in any case,
Obermayr completed his Act without the least protest or trouble from
anybody; and Karl Theodor, almost to his terror [for he meant to sell,
and satisfy Austria, by no means to resist or fight, the paltry old
creature, careful of self and skin only], saw himself solemnly secured
by all forms of law in all the Lands of the Deceased. [Fischer,
_Geschichte Friedrichs des Zweiten_ (Halle, 1787), ii. 358.]
"Kaiser Joseph, in a fume at this, shot off an express to Bohemia: 'Such
and such regiments, ten or twelve of you, with your artillery and tools,
march instantly into Straubingen, and occupy that Town and District.'
At Vienna, to the Karl-Theodor Ambassador, the Kaunitz Officials were
altogether loud-voiced, minatory: 'What is this, Herr Excellenz? Bargain
already made; lying ready for mere signature; and at Munchen such
doings. Sign this Bargain, or there cross your frontier 60,000 Austrian
men, and seize both Baiern and the Ober-Pfalz; bethink you, Herr!' The
poor Herr bethought him, what could he do? signed the Bargain, Karl
Theodor sanctioning, 3d January, 1778,--the fourth day after Obermayr's
Homaging feat;--and completes the first act of this bad business. The
Bargain, on Theodor's side, was of the most liberal kind: All and
sundry the Lands and Circles of Duke Johann of Straubingen, Lordship
of Mindelheim [Marlborough's old Place] superadded, and I know not what
else; Sovereignty of the Fiefs in Ober-Pfalz to lapse to the Crown of
Bohmen on my decease." Half Bavaria, or better; some reckon it as good
as two-thirds.
The figure of Duchess Clement, Amazon in hair-powder, driviug
incessantly about among the officialities and aristocratic circles;
this and the order of "Rattle your muskets on the ground;" let these
two features represent to us the Munchen of those months. Munchen,
Regensburg, Vienna are loud with pleading, protocolling; but it is not
there that the crisis of the game will be found to lie.
Friedrich has, for some time back, especially since the late
Kur-Baiern's illness, understood that Austria, always eager for a clutch
at Baiern, had something of that kind in view; but his first positive
news of it was a Letter from Duchess Clement (date, JANUARY 3d), which,
by the detail of facts, unveiled to his quick eye the true outline,
extent and nature of this Enterprise of Austria's; Enterprise which, he
could not but agree with Duchess Clement, was one of great concernment
not to Baiern alone. "Must be withstood; prevented, at whatever risk,"
thought Friedrich on the instant: "The new Elector, Karl Theodor, he
probably is dead to the matter; but one ought to ask him. If he answer,
Dead; then ask his Heir, Have you no life to it?" Heir is a gallant
enough young gentleman, of endless pedigree, but small possessions,
"Karl August Christian [Karl II. in Official style], Duke of
Zweibruck-Birkenfeld," Karl Theodor's eldest Nephew; Friedrich judges
that he probably will have haggled to sign any Austrian convention for
dismembering Baiern, and that he will start into life upon it so soon as
he sees hope.
"A messenger to him, to Karl Theodor and him," thinks Friedrich: "a
messenger instantly; and who?" For that clearly is the first thing. And
a delicate thing it is; requiring to be done in profoundest secrecy,
by hint and innuendo rather than speech; by somebody in a cloak of
darkness, who is of adroit quality, and was never heard of in diplomatic
circles before, not to be suspected of having business of mine on hand.
Friedrich bethinks him that in a late visit to Weimar, he had noticed,
for his fine qualities, a young gentleman named Gortz; Eustace von
Gortz, [Preuss, iv. 92 n. &c.] late Tutor to the young Duke (Karl
August, whom readers know as Goethe's friend): a wise, firm,
adroit-looking young gentleman; who was farther interesting as Brother
to Lieutenant-General von Gortz, a respectable soldier of Friedrich's.
Ex-Tutor at Weimar, we say, and idle for the moment; hanging about Court
there, till he should find a new function.
Of this Ex-Tutor Friedrich bethinks him; and in the course of that
same day,--for there is no delay,--Friedrich, who is at Berlin, beckons
General Gortz to come over to him from Potsdam instantly. "Hither this
evening; and in all privacy meet me in the Palace at such an hour"
(hour of midnight or thereby); which of course Gortz, duly invisible
to mankind, does. Friedrich explains: An errand to Munchen; perfectly
secret, for the moment, and requiring great delicacy and address;
perhaps not without risk, a timorous man might say: will your Brother
go for me, think you? Gortz thinks he will. "Here is his Instruction, if
so," adds the King, handing him an Autograph of the necessary outline
of procedure,--not signed, nor with any credential, or even specific
address, lest accident happen. "Adieu then, Herr General-Lieutenant;
rule is, shoes of swiftness, cloak of darkness: adieu!" And Gortz Senior
is off on the instant, careering towards Weimar, where he finds Gortz
Junior, and makes known his errand. Gortz Junior stares in the natural
astonishment; but, after some intense brief deliberation, becomes
affirmative, and in a minimum of time is ready and on the road.
Gortz Junior proved to have been an excellent choice on the King's part;
and came to good promotion afterwards by his conduct in this affair.
Gortz Junior started for Munchen on the instant, masked utterly, or
his business masked, from profane eyes; saw this person, saw that, and
glided swiftly about, swiftly and with sure aim; and speedily kindled
the matter, and had smoke rising in various points. And before January
was out, saw the Reichs-Diet at Regensburg, much more the general
Gazetteerage everywhere, seized of this affair, and thrown into
paroxysms at the size and complexion of it: saw, in fact, a world
getting into flame,--kindled by whom or what nobody could guess, for
a long time to come. Gortz had great running about in his cloak of
darkness, and showed abundant talent of the kind needed. A pushing,
clear-eyed, stout-hearted man; much cleverness and sureness in what
he did and forbore to do. His adventures were manifold; he had much
travelling about: was at Regensburg, at Mannheim; saw many persons
whom he had to judge of on the instant, and speak frankly to, or speak
darkly, or speak nothing; and he made no mistake. One of his best
counsellors, I gather, was Duchess Clement: of course it was not long
till Duchess Clement heard some inkling of him; till, in some of his
goings and comings, he saw Duchess Clement, who hailed him as an angel
of light. In one journey more mysterious than ever, "he was three
days invisible in Duchess Clement's Garden-house." "AH, MADAME, QUE
N'ETIEZ-VOUS ELECTEUR, Why were not you Elector!" writes Friedrich to
her once: "We should not have seen those shameful events, which every
good German must blush for, to the bottom of his heart (DONT TOUT BON
ALLEMAND DOIT ROUGIR JUSQU'AU FOND DU COEUR)!" [Preuss, iv. 94.]
We cannot afford the least narrative of Gortz and his courses:
imagination, from a few traits, will sufficiently conceive them. He had
gone first to Karl Theodor's Minister: "Dead to it, I fear; has already
signed?" Alas, yes. Upon which to Zweibruck the Heir's Minister; whom
his Master had distinctly ordered to sign, but who, at his own peril,
gallant man, delayed, remonstrated, had not yet done it; and was able
to answer: "Alive to it, he? Yes, with a witness, were there hope in
the world!"--which threw Gortz upon instant gallop towards Zweibruck
Schloss, in search of said Heir, the young Duke August Christian; who,
however, had left in the interim (summoned by his Uncle, on Austrian
urgency, to consent along with him); but whom Gortz, by dexterity and
intuition of symptoms, caught up by the road, with what a mutual joy!
As had been expected, August Christian, on sight of Gortz, with an armed
Friedrich looming in the distance, took at once into new courses and
activities. From him, no consent now; far other: Treaty with Friedrich;
flat refusal ever to consent: application to the Reich, application even
to France, and whatever a gallant young fellow could do.
It was by Friedrich's order that he applied to France; his younger
Brother, Max Joseph, was a soldier there, and strove to back him in
Official and other circles,--who were all friendly, even zealous for
him; and gave good words, but had nothing more. This French department
of the business was long a delay to Friedrich's operations: and in
result, poor Max's industry there, do what he could, proved rather a
minus quantity than otherwise. A good young man, they say; but not
the man to kindle into action horses that are dead,--of which he had
experience more than once in time coming. He is the same that, 30 years
after, having survived his childless elder Brother, became King Max,
first King of Baiern; begot Ludwig, second King,--who, for his part,
has begotten Otho King of Greece, and done other feats still less
worth mentioning. August Christian's behavior is praised as
excellent,--passively firm and polite; the grand requisite, persistence
on your ground of "No:"--but his luck, to find such a Friedrich, and
also to find such a Gortz, was the saving clause for him.
Friedrich was in very weak health in these months; still considered by
the Gazetteers to be dying. But it appears he is not yet too weak for
taking, on the instant necessary, a world-important resolution; and
of being on the road with it, to this issue or to that, at full speed
before the day closed. "Desist, good neighbor, I beseech you. You must
desist, and even you shall:" this resolution was entirely his own; as
were the equally prompt arrangements he contrived for executing it,
should hard come to hard, and Austria prefer war to doing justice.
"Excellent methods," say the most unfriendly judges, "which must at
once have throttled Austria into compliance, had he been as prompt in
executing them;--which he by no means was. And there lies his error
and failure; very lamentable, excusable only by decrepitude of body
producing weakness and decay of mind." This is emphatically and
wearisomely Schmettau's opinion, [F. W. C. Graf van Schmettau (this is
the ELDER Schmettau's Son, not the DRESDENER'S whom we used to quote),
FELDZUG DER PREUSSISCHEN ARMEE IN BOHMEN IM JAHRE 1778 (Berlin,
1789,--simultaneously in French too, with Plans): with which--as the
completest Account by an eager Witness and Participator--compare
always Friedrich's own (MEMOIRES DE LA GUERRE DE 1778), in _OEuvres
de Frederic,_ vi. 135-208. Schoning (vol. iv.), besides his own loose
Narrative, or Summary, has given all the CORRESPONDENCE between Henri
and the King:--sufficient to quench the sharpest appetite on this
subject.] who looks at it only as a military Adjutant, intent on honor
and rapid feats of war,--with how much reason, readers not Prussian or
military shall judge as we go on.
Saxony, we ought to mention, was also aggrieved. The Dowager-Electress
Maria Antoinette, our sprightly friend, had, as sole surviving Sister
of the late Kurfurst Max, the undoubted heirship of Kurfurst Max's
"allodial properties and territories:" territories, I think, mainly in
the Ober-Pfalz (which are NOT Bavaria Proper, but were acquired in the
Thirty-Years War), which are important in value, and which Austria,
regardless of our lively friend, has laid hold of as lapsed fiefs of
Bohemia. Clearly Bohemian, says Austria; and keeps hold. Our lively
friend hereupon makes over all her rights in that matter to her Son,
the reigning Elector; with the counsel, if counsel were needed,
"Ask protection of King Friedrich; go wholly with King Friedrich."
Mecklenburg too has an interest. Among the lapsed fiefs is one to a
Duchy called of Leuchtenberg;--in regard to which, says Mecklenburg,
as loud as it can, "That Duchy is not lapsed at all; that is now mine,
witness this Document" (of a valid testamentary nature)! Other claims
were put in; but these three: Zweibruck endlessly important; Saxony
important too, though not in such degree; Mecklenburg unimportant, but
just,--were alone recognized in impartial quarters as authentic and
worthy of notice.
Of the pleadings and procedures in the Reichs Diet no reader would
permit me to speak, were I inclined. Enough to understand that they
went on in the usual voluminous dull-droning way, crescendo always; and
deserve, what at present they are sure of, oblivion from all creatures.
The important thing was, not those pleadings in the Reichs Diet, nor the
Austrian proposals there or elsewhere; but the brandishing of arms in
emitting and also in successively answering the same. Answer always No
by Friedrich, and some new flash of handled arms,--the physiognomy of
which was the one significant point, Austria, which is far from ready
with arms, though at each fresh pleading or proposal it tries to give
a kind of brandish, says mainly three things, in essence somewhat thus.
AUSTRIA: "Cannot two States of the Reich come to a mutual understanding,
as Austria and Bavaria have done? And what have third parties to say
to it?" FRIEDRICH: "Much! Parties of the Reich have much to say to it!"
(This several times with variations.) AUSTRIA: "Our rights seem to us
valid: Zweibruck, Saxony, Mecklenburg, if aggrieved, can try in the
Reichs Law-Courts." FRIEDRICH: "Law-Courts!" with a new brandish; that
is, sets more regiments on march, from Pommern to Wesel all on march, to
Berlin, to Silesia, towards the Bohemian Frontier. AUSTRIA, by the voice
of Kaunitz: "We will not give up our rights without sentence of Law.
We cannot recognize the King of Prussia as Law-Judge in this matter."
FRIEDRICH: "The King of Prussia is of the Jury!"
Pulse after pulse, this is something like the course things had,
crescendo till, in about three months, they got to a height which
was evidently serious. Nay, in the course of the pleadings it became
manifest that on the Austrian grounds of claim, not Maria Theresa
could be heir to Straubingen, but Friedrich himself: "I descend from
Three-Crown Albert's Daughter," said Maria Theresa. "And I from an elder
Daughter of his, and do not claim!" Friedrich could have answered,
but did not; treating such claim all along as merely colorable and
chimerical, not worth attention in serious affairs of fact. Till, at
length, after about three months, there comes a really serious brandish.
SUNDAY, APRIL 5th, 1778, at Berlin, Friedrich holds review of his Army,
all assembled, equipped and in readiness; and (in that upper Parole-Room
of the Schloss) makes this Speech, which, not without extraneous
intention, was printed in the Newspapers:--
FRIEDRICH'S SPEECH TO HIS GENERALS. "Gentlemen, I have assembled you
here for a public object. Most of you, like myself, have often been in
arms along with one another, and are grown gray in the service of our
Country: to all of us is well known in what dangers, toils and renown we
have been fellow-sharers. I doubt not in the least that all of you, as
myself, have a horror of bloodshed: but the danger which now threatens
our Countries, not only renders it a duty, but puts us in the
absolute necessity, to adopt the quickest and most effectual means for
dissipating at the right time the storm which threatens to break out on
us.
"I depend with complete confidence on your soldierly and patriotic zeal,
which is already well and gloriously known to me, and which, while I
live, I will acknowledge with the heartiest satisfaction. Before all
things, I recommend to you, and prescribe as your most sacred duty,
That, in every situation, you exercise humanity on unarmed enemies;
and be continually attentive that, in this respect too, there be the
strictest discipline (MANNSZUCHT) kept among those under you.
"To travel with the pomp of a King is not among my wishes: and all of
you are aware that I have no pleasure in rich field-furniture: but
my increasing age, and the weakness it brings, render me incapable of
riding as I did in my youth. I shall, therefore, be obliged to make use
of a post-chaise in times of marching; and all of you have liberty to
do the same. But on the day of battle you shall see me on horseback; and
there, also, I hope my Generals will follow that example."
VOLTAIRE SMOTHERED UNDER ROSES. King's Speech was on Sunday, April 5th,
Evening of last Monday (March 30th), at the Theatre Francais in
Paris, poor Voltaire had that world-famous apotheosis of his; and got
"smothered under roses," as he termed it. He had left Ferney (such the
urgency of Niece Denis and her unappeasable desire for a sight of Paris
again) February 5th; arrived in Paris February 10th; ventured out to see
his poor last Tragedy, not till the sixth night of it, March 30th; was
beshouted, crowned, raised to the immortal gods by a repentant Paris
world: "Greatest of men,--You were not a miscreant and malefactor, then:
on the contrary, you were a spiritual Hercules, a heroic Son of Light;
Slayer of the Nightmare Monsters, and foul Dragons and Devils that were
preying on us: to you shall not we now say, Long life, with all our
throats and all our hearts,"--and so quench you at last! Which they
managed to do, poor repentant souls. The tottering wayworn Voltaire,
over-agitated in this way, took to bed; never rose again; and on that
day two months was dead. [In DUVERNET, and still better in LONGCHAMP ET
WAGNIERE, ample account of these interesting occurrences.] His light all
done; to King Friedrich, or to any of us, no flash of radiancy from him
any more forever.
APRIL 6th, Friedrich gets on march--perhaps about 100,000 strong--for
Schonwalde, in the Neisse-Schweidnitz neighborhood; and there, in
the course of the week, has cantoned himself, and sits completing his
magazines and appliances for actual work of war. This is a considerable
brandish; and a good deal astonishes Kaunitz and the Vienna people, who
have not 10,000 at present on those Frontiers, and nothing whatever in
a state of readiness. "Dangerous really!" Kaunitz admits; and sets new
regiments on march from Hungary, from the Netherlands, from all ends
of the Earth where they are. Tempers his own insolent talk, too; but
strives to persuade himself that it is "Menace merely. He won't; he
abhors war." Kaunitz had hardly exaggerated Friedrich's abhorrence of
war; though it turned out there were things which Friedrich abhorred
still more.
Schonwalde, head-quarter of this alarming Prussian cantonment, is close
on the new Fortress of Silberberg, a beautiful new impregnability,
looking into those valleys of the Warta, of the young Neisse, which
are the road to Bohemia or from it,--where the Pandour torrents used to
issue into the first Silesian Wars; where Friedrich himself was once
to have been snapped up, but was not quite,--and only sang Mass as
Extempore Abbot, with Tobias Stusche, in the Monastery of Camenz,
according to the myth which readers may remember. No more can Pandours
issue that way; only Prussians can enter in. Friedrich's windows in the
Schloss of Schonwalde,--which are on the left hand, if you be touring in
those parts,--look out, direct upon Silberberg, and have its battlements
between them and the 3-o'clock Sun. [Schoning, iv. (Introductory
Part).] In the Town of Silberberg, Friedrich has withal a modest little
lodging,--lodging still known,--where he can alight for an hour or
a night, in the multifarious businesses that lead him to and fro. "A
beautiful place," says Schoning; "where the King stayed twelve weeks"
or more; waiting till the Bavarian-Austrian case should ripen better. At
Schonwalde, what was important in his private circle, he heard of Lord
Marischal's death, then of Voltaire's; not to mention that of English
Pitt, and perhaps others interesting to him. [Voltaire died May 30th;
Marischal, May 25th; Pitt, May 11th;--and May 4th, in the Cantonment
here, died General von Rentzel, the same who, as Lieutenant Rentzel,
sixty years ago, had taught the little Crown-Prince his drill
(Rodenbeck, iii. 187).]
"Now was the time," cry Schmettau and the unfavorable, "when he might
have walked across into Eastern Bohemia, into Mahren, whither you like;
to Vienna itself, and taken Austria by the throat at discretion: 'Do
justice, then, will you! Let go Bavaria, or--!' In his young years,
would not he have done so? His Plan, long since laid down, was grand:
To march into Mahren, leaving Silesia guarded; nay leaving Bohemia to be
invaded,--for Prince Henri, and the Saxons, who are a willing handful,
and will complete Henri likewise to 100,000, were to do that, feat the
while;--March into Mahren, on to Vienna if he chose; laying all flat.
Infallible," say the Schmettau people. "He had the fire of head to
contrive it all; but worn down and grown old, he could not execute his
great thoughts." Which is obviously absurd, Friedrich's object not being
to lay Austria flat, or drive animosities to the sanguinary point, and
kindle all Europe into war; but merely to extract, with the minimum of
violence, something like justice from Austria on this Bavarian matter.
For which end, he may justly consider slow pressure preferable to
the cutting method. His problem is most ticklish, not allowed for by
Schmettau.
The encampment round Schonwalde, especially as there was nothing ready
thereabouts on the Austrian side, produced a visible and great effect
on the negotiations; and notably altered the high Kaunitz tone towards
Friedrich. "Must two great Courts quarrel, then, for the sake of a small
one?" murmured Kaunitz, plaintively now, to himself and to the King,--to
the King not in a very distinct manner, though to himself the principle
is long since clear as an axiom in Politics: "Great Courts should
understand one another; then the small would be less troublesome." For
a quarter of a century this has been the Kaunitz faith. In 1753, when he
miraculously screwed round the French into union with the Austrians to
put down an upstart Prussia, this was his grand fulcrum, the immovable
rock in which the great Engineer fixed down his political capstans, and
levered and screwed. He did triumphantly wind matters round,--though
whether they much profited him when round, may be a question.
But the same grand principle, in the later instance of partitioning
Poland, has it not proved eminently triumphant, successful in all
points? And, doubtless, this King of Prussia recognizes it, if made
worth his while, thinks Kaunitz. In a word, Kaunitz's next utterance is
wonderfully changed. The great Engineer speaks almost like a Bishop on
this new text. "Let the Two Courts," says he, "put themselves each in
the other's place; each think what it would want;" and in fact each, in
a Christian manner, try to do as it would be done by! How touching in
the mouth of a Kaunitz, with something of pathos, of plaintiveness,
almost of unction in it! "There is no other method of agreeing," urges
he: "War is a terrible method, disliked by both of us. Austria wishes
this of Bavaria; but his Prussian Majesty's turn will come, perhaps now
is (let him say and determine); we will make it worth his while." This
is of APRIL 24th; notable change since the cantoning round Schonwalde.
Germany at large, though it lay so silent, in its bedrid condition, was
in great anxiety. Never had the Holy Romish Reich such a shock before:
"Meaning to partition us like Poland?" thought the Reich, with a
shudder. "They can, by degrees, if they think good; these Two Great
Sovereigns!" Courage, your Durchlauchts: one of the Two great ones has
not that in his thoughts; has, and will have, the reverse of that; which
will be your anchorages in the storms of fate for a long time to come!
Nor was it--as will shortly appear to readers--Kaunitz's immediate
intention at all: enough if poor we can begin it, set it fairly under
way; let some unborn happier Kaunitz, the last of a series, complete
such blessed consummation; in a happier time, far over the practical
horizon at present. This we do gather to have been Kaunitz's real view;
and it throws a light on the vexed Partition-of-Poland question, and
gives weight to Dohm's assertion, That Kaunitz was the actual beginner
there.
Weeks before Friedrich heard of this remarkable Memorial, and ten
days before it was brought to paper, there came to Friedrich another
unexpected remarkable Document: a LETTER from Kaiser Joseph himself, who
is personally running about in these parts, over in Bohemia, endeavoring
to bring Army matters to a footing; and is no doubt shocked to find
them still in such backwardness, with a Friedrich at hand. The Kaiser's
Letter, we perceive, is pilot-balloon to the Kaunitz episcopal Document,
and to an actual meeting of Prussian and Austrian Ministers on the
Bavarian point; and had been seen to be a salutary measure by an Austria
in alarm. It asks, as the Kaunitz Memorial will, though in another
style, "Must there be war, then? Is there no possibility left in
negotiation and mutual concession? I am your Majesty's friend and
admirer; let us try." This was an unexpected and doubtless a welcome
thing to Friedrich; who answers eagerly, and in a noble style both of
courtesy and of business sense: upon which there followed two other
Imperial Letters with their two Royal answers; [In _OEuvres de
Frederic,_ (vi. 183-193), Three successive Letters from the Kaiser (of
dates, "Olmutz," "Litau," "Konigsgratz," 13th-19th April, 1778),
with King's Answers ("Schonwalde," all of them, and 14th-20th
April),--totally without interest to the general reader.] and directly
afterwards the small Austrian-Prussian Congress we spoke of, Finkenstein
and Hertzberg on the Prussian part, Cobenzl on the Austrian (Congress
sitting at Berlin), which tried to agree, but could not; and to which
Kaunitz's Memorial of April 24th was meant as some helpful sprinkling of
presidential quasi-episcopal oil.
Oil merely: for it turned out, Kaunitz had no thought at present of
partitioning the German Reich with Friedrich; but intended merely to
keep his own seized portion of Baiern, and in return for Friedrich's
assent intended to recompense Friedrich with--in fact, with Austria's
consent, That if Anspach and Baireuth lapsed home to Prussia (as it
was possible they might, the present Margraf, Friedrich's Nephew, the
Lady-Craven Margraf, having a childless Wife), Prussia should freely
open the door to them! A thing which Friedrich naturally maintained
to be in need of nobody's consent, and to lie totally apart from this
question; but which Austria always considered a very generous thing,
and always returned to, with new touches of improvement, as their
grand recipe in this matter. So that, unhappily, the Hertzberg-Cobenzl
treatyings, Kaiser's Letters and Kaunitz's episcopal oil, were without
effect,--except to gain for the Austrians, who infinitely needed it,
delay of above two months. The Letters are without general interest:
but, for Friedrich's sake, perhaps readers will consent to a specimen?
Here are parts of his First Letter: people meaning to be Kings (which
I doubt none of my readers are) could not do better than read it, and
again read it, and acquire that style, first of knowing thoroughly the
object in hand, and then of speaking on it and of being silent on it, in
a true and noble manner:--
FRIEDRICH TO HIS IMPERIAL MAJESTY (at Olmutz).
"SCHONWALDE, 14th April, 1778.
"SIRE MY BROTHER,--I have received, with all the satisfaction possible,
the Letter which your Imperial Majesty has had the goodness to write to
me. I have neither Minister nor Clerk (SCRIBE) about me; therefore your
Imperial Majesty will be pleased to put up with such Answer as an Old
Soldier can give, who writes to you with probity and frankness, on one
of the most important subjects which have risen in Politics for a long
time.
"Nobody wishes more than I to maintain peace and harmony between the
Powers of Europe: but there are limits to everything; and cases so
intricate (EPINEUX) arise that goodwill alone will not suffice to
maintain things in repose and tranquillity. Permit me, Sire, to state
distinctly what the question seems to me to be. It is to determine if
an Emperor can dispose at his will of the Fiefs of the Empire. Answer in
the affirmative, and, all these Fiefs become TIMARS [in the Turk way],
which are for life only; and which the Sultan disposes of again, on the
possessor's death. Now, this is contrary to the Laws, to the Customs and
Constitutions of the German Empire."--"I, as member of the Empire, and
as having, by the Treaty of Hubertsburg, re-sanctioned the Peace of
Westphalia, find myself formally engaged to support the immunities, the
liberties and rights of the Germanic Body.
"This, Sire, is the veritable state of things. Personal interest I have
none: but I am persuaded your Majesty's self would regard me as a paltry
man, unworthy of your esteem, should I basely sacrifice the rights,
immunities and privileges, which the Electors and I have received from
our Ancestors.
"I continue to speak to your Majesty with the same frankness. I love and
honor your person. It will certainly be hard for me to fight against a
Prince gifted with excellent qualities, and whom I personally esteem.
But"--And is there no remedy? Anspach and Baireuth stand in no need
of sanction. I consent to the Congress proposed:--being with the &c.
&c.--F. [_OEuvres de Frederic,_ vi. 187.]
The sittings of this little Congress at Berlin lasted all through
May and June; to the disgust of Schmettau and the ardent Prussian
mess-rooms, "lying ready here, and forbidden to act." For the Austrians
all the while were at their busiest, improving the moments, marching
continually hitherward from Hungary, from Limburg, from all ends of the
earth. Both negotiating parties had shown a manifest wish to terminate
without war; and both made various attempts or proposals that way;
Friedrich offering, in the name of European peace, to yield the
Austrians some small rim or paring of Bavaria from the edge
adjoining them; the Austrians offering Anspach-Baireuth with some
improvements;--always offering Friedrich his own Baireuth-Anspach with
some new sauce (as that he might exchange those Territories with Saxony
for a fine equivalent in the Lausitz, contiguous to him, which was a
real improvement and increase):--but as neither party would in the least
give up in essentials, or quit the ground it had taken, the result was
nothing. Week after week; so many weeks are being lost to Friedrich;
gained to Austria: Schmettau getting more and more disgusted.
Friedrich still waited; not in all points quite ready yet, he said, nor
the futile diplomacies quite complete;--evidently in the highest degree
unwilling to come to the cutting point, and begin a War which nobody
could see the end of. Many things he tried; Peace so precious to him,
try and again try. All through June too, this went on; the result always
zero,--obviously certain to be so. As even Friedrich had at last to own
to himself; and likewise that the Campaign season was ebbing away; and
that if his grand Moravian scheme was to be tried on Austria, there was
not now a moment to lose.
Friedrich's ultimate proposal, new modification of what all his
proposals had been, "To you some thin rim of Baiern; to Saxony and
Mecklenburg some ETCETERA of indemnity, money chiefly (money always to
be paid by Karl Theodor, who has left Baiern open to the spoiler in this
scandalous manner)," was of June 13th; Austrians for ten days meditating
on it, and especially getting forward their Army matters, answer, June
24th "No we won't." Upon which Friedrich--to the joy of Schmettau and
every Prussian--actually rises. Emits his War-Manifesto (JULY 3d):
"Declaration to our Brethren (MITSTANDE) of the Reich," that
Austria will listen to nothing but War; [Fischer, ii 388; Dohm,
_Denkwurdigkeiten,_ i. 110; _OEuvres de Frederic,_ vi. 145.] and, on and
from that day, goes flowing forward in perfect columns and arrangements,
100,000 strong; through the picturesque Glatz Country, straight towards
the Bohemian Border, hour by hour. Flows over the Bohemian Border by
Nachod Town; his vanguard bursting into field-music and flourishes of
trumpeting at that grand moment (July 5th); flowed bodily over; and
encamped that night on Bohemian ground, with Nachod to rear; thence
towards Kwalkowitz, and on the second day to Jaromirtz ("Camp of
Jaromirtz"), a little Town which we have heard of before, but which
became more famous than ever during the next ten weeks.
Jaromirtz, Kwalkowitz, Konigsgratz: this is the old hill-and-dale
labyrinth of an Upper-Elbe Country; only too well known to his Majesty
and us, for almost forty years past: here again are the Austrians
waiting the King; watching diligently this new Invasion of his out of
Glatz and the East! In the same days, Prince Henri, who is also near
100,000, starts from Dresden to invade them from the West. Loudon,
facing westward, is in watch of Henri; Lacy, or indeed the Kaiser
himself, back-to-back of Loudon, stands in this Konigsgratz-Jaromirtz
part; said to be embattled in a very elaborate manner, to a length of
fifty miles on this fine ground, and in number somewhat superior to the
King;--the Austrians in all counting about 250,000; of whom Lacy has
considerably the larger share. The terror at Vienna, nevertheless, is
very great: "A day of terror," says one who was there; "I will not trust
myself to describe the sensation which this news, 'Friedrich in Bohemia
again!' produced among all ranks of people." [Cogniazzo, iv. 316, 320,
321; Preuss, iv. 101, &c.] Maria Theresa, with her fine motherly heart,
in alarm for her Country, and trembling "for my two Sons [Joseph and
Leopold] and dear Son-in-Law [of Sachsen-Teschen], who are in the Army,"
overcomes all scruples of pride; instantly despatches an Autograph to
the King ("Bearer of this, Baron von Thugut, with Full Powers"); and
on her own strength starts a new Negotiation,--which, as will be seen,
ended no better than the others. [Her Letters, four in all, with their
Appendixes, and the King's Answers, in _OEuvres de Frederic,_ vi.
196-200.]
Schmettau says, "Friedrich, cheated of his Mahren schemes, was still in
time; the Austrian position being indeed strong, but not being even
yet quite ready." Friedrich himself, however, on reconnoitring, thought
differently. A position such as one never saw before, thinks he;
contrived by Lacy; masterly use of the ground, of the rivers, of the
rocks, woods, swamps; Elbe and his branches, and the intricate shoulders
of the Giant Mountains: no man could have done it better than Lacy
here, who, they say, is the contriver and practical hand. [_OEuvres
de Frederic,_ vi. 147.] From Konigsgratz, northward, by Konigshof, by
Arnau, up to Hohenelbe, all heights are crowned, all passes bristling
with cannon. Rivers Aupa, Elbe beset with redoubts, with dams in
favorable places, and are become inundations, difficult to tap. There
are "ditches 8 feet deep by 16 broad." Behind or on the right bank of
Elbe, it is mere intrenchment for five-and-twenty miles. With bogs, with
thickets full of Croats; and such an amount of artillery,--I believe
they have in battery no fewer than 1,500 cannon. A position very
considerable indeed:--must have taken time to deliberate, delve and
invest; but it is done. Near fifty miles of it: here, clear to your
glass, has the head of Lacy visibly emerged on us, as if for survey of
phenomena:--head of Lacy sure enough (body of him lying invisible in
the heights, passes and points of vantage); and its NECK of fifty miles,
like the neck of a war-horse clothed with thunder. On which (thinks
Schmettau privately) you may, too late, make your reflections!
Schmettau asserts that the position, though strong, was nothing like
so infinitely strong; and that Friedrich in his younger days would very
soon have assaulted it, and turned Lacy inside out: but Friedrich, we
know, had his reasons against hurry. He reconnoitred diligently; rode
out reconnoitring "fifteen miles the first day" (July 6th), ditto the
second and following; and was nearly shot by Croats,--by one specific
Croat, says Prussian Mythology, supported by Engraving. An old
Engraving, which I have never seen; represents Friedrich reconnoitring
those five-and-twenty miles of Elbe, which have so many redoubts on
their side of it, and swarm with Croat parties on both sides: this is
all the truth that is in the Engraving. [Rodenbeck, p. 188.] Fact says:
Friedrich ("on the 8th," if that were all the variation) "was a mark for
the Austrian sharpshooters for half an hour." Myth says, and engraves
it, with the date of "July 7th:" Friedrich, skirting some thicket,
suddenly came upon a single Croat with musket levelled at him, wild
creature's finger just on the trigger;--and quietly admonishing,
Friedrich lifts his finger with a "DU, DU (Ah you!);" upon which, such
the divinity that hedges one, the wild creature instantly flings down
his murder-weapon, and, kneeling, embraces the King's boot,--with
kisses, for anything I know. It is certain, Friedrich, about six times
over in this paltry War or Quasi No-War, set his attendants on the
tremble; was namely, from Croateries and Artilleries, in imminent peril
of life; so careless was he, and dangerous to speak to in his sour
humor. Humor very sour, they say, for most part; being in reality
altogether backward and loath for grand enterprise; and yet striving
to think he was not; ashamed that any War of his should be a No-War.
Schmettau says:--
"On the day of getting into Jaromirtz [July 8th], the King, tired of
riding about while the Columns were slowly getting in, lay down on the
ground with his Adjutants about him. A young Officer came riding past;
whom the King beckoned to him;--wrote something with pencil (an Order,
not of the least importance), and said: 'Here; that Order to General
Lossow, and tell him he is not to take it ill that I trouble him, as I
have none in my Suite that can do anything.'" Let the Suite take it
as they can! A most pungent, severe old King; quite perverse at times,
thinks Schmettau. Thus again, more than once.:--
"On arriving with his Column where the Officer, a perfectly skilful
man, had marked out the Camp, the King would lift his spy-glass; gaze
to right and left, riding round the place at perhaps a hundred yards'
distance; and begin: 'SIEHT ER, HERR, But look, Herr, what a botching
you have made of it again (WAS ER DA WIEDER FUR DUMM ZEUG GEMACHT HAT)!'
and grumbling and blaming, would alter the Camp, till it was all out
of rule; and then say, 'See there, that is the way to mark out Camps.'"
[Schmettau, xxv. 30, 24.]
In a week's time, July 13th, came another fine excuse for inaction;
Plenipotentiary Thugut, namely, and the Kaiserinn's Letter, which we
spoke of. Autograph from Maria Theresa herself, inspired by the terror
of Vienna and of her beautiful motherly heart. Negotiation to be private
utterly: "My Son, the Kaiser, knows nothing of it; I beg the most
absolute secrecy;" which was accordingly kept, while Thugut, with
Finkenstein and Hertzberg again, held "Congress of Braunau" in those
neighborhoods,--with as little effect as ever. Thugut's Name, it seems,
was originally TUNICOTTO (Tyrolese-Italian); which the ignorant Vienna
people changed into "THU-NICHT-GUT (Do-no-good)," till Maria Theresa, in
very charity, struck out the negative, and made him "Do-good." Do-good
and his Congress held Friedrich till August 10th: five more weeks gone;
and nothing but reconnoitring,--with of course foraging, and diligently
eating the Country, which is a daily employment, and produces fencing
and skirmishing enough.
Henri, in the interim, has invaded from the West; seen Leitmeritz,
Lobositz;--Prag Nobility all running, and I suppose Prayers to St. Titus
going again,--and Loudon in alarm. Loudon, however, saved Prag "by two
masterly positions" (not mentionable here); upon which Henri took
camp at Niemes; Loudon, the weaker in this part, seizing the Iser as a
bulwark, and ranking himself behind it, back-to-back of Lacy. Here for
about five weeks sat Henri, nothing on hand but to eat the Country. Over
the heads of Loudon and Lacy, as the crow flies, Henri's Camp may be
about 70 miles from Jaromirtz, where the King is. Hussar Belling, our
old Anti-Swede friend, a brilliant cutting man, broke over the Iser
once, perhaps twice; and there was pretty fencing by him and the like
of him: "but Prince Henri did nothing," says the King, [_OEuvres de
Frederic,_ vi. 154]--was, in fact, helping the King to do nothing.
By the 10th of September, as Henri has computed, this Country will be
eaten; "Forage, I find, will be quite done here on September 10th,"
writes Henri, after a week or two's experience.
There was always talk of Henri and the King, who are 100,000 each,
joining hands by the post of Arnau, or some weak point of Lacy's
well north of Konigsgratz; thus of cutting off the meal-carts of that
back-to-back copartnery, and so of tumbling it off the ground (which
was perfectly possible, says Schmettau); and small detachments and
expeditious were pushed out, General Dahlwig, General Anhalt, partly for
that object: but not the least of it ever took effect. "Futile, lost by
loitering, as all else was," groans Schmettau. Prince Henri was averse
to attempt, intimates the King,--as indeed (though refusing to own
it) was I. "September 10th, my forage will be out, your Majesty," says
Henri, always a punctual calculating man.
The Austrians, on their side, were equally stagnant; and, except the
continual skirmishing with the Prussian foragers, undertook nothing.
"Shamefully ill-clone our foraging, too," exclaims Schmettau again and
again: "Had we done it with neatness, with regularity, the Country would
have lasted us twice as long. Doing it headlong, wastefully and by the
rule-of-thumb, the Country was a desert, all its inhabitants fled, all
its edibles consumed, before six weeks were over. Friedrich is not now
himself at all; in great things or in little; what a changed Friedrich!"
exclaims Schmettau, with wearisome iteration.
From about August 6th, or especially August 10th, when the Maria-Theresa
Correspondence, or "Congress of Braunau," ended likewise in zero,
Friedrich became impatient for actual junction with Prince Henri, actual
push of business; and began to hint of an excellent plan he had: "Burst
through on their left flank; blow up their post of Hohenelbe yonder:
thence is but one march to Iser river; junction with Prince Henri
there; and a Lacy and a Loudon tumbled to the winds." "A plan perfectly
feasible," says Schmettau; "which solaced the King's humor, but which he
never really intended to execute." Possibly not; otherwise, according
to old wont, he would have forborne to speak of it beforehand. At
all events, August 15th, in the feeling that one ought really to do
something, the rather as forage hereabouts was almost or altogether
running out, he actually set about this grand scheme.
Got on march to rightward, namely, up the Aupa river, through the gloomy
chasms of Kingdom-Wood, memorable in old days: had his bakery shifted
to Trautenau; his heavy cannon getting tugged through the mire and the
rains, which by this time were abundant, towards Hohenelbe, for the
great enterprise: and sat encamped on and about the Battle-ground
of Sohr for a week or so, waiting till all were forward; eating Sohr
Country, which was painfully easy to do. The Austrians did next to
nothing on him; but the rains, the mud and scarcity were doing much.
Getting on to Hohenelbe region, after a week's wet waiting, he, on
ocular survey of the ground about, was heard to say, "This cannot be
done, then!" "Had never meant to do it," sneers Schmettau, "and only
wanted some excuse." Which is very likely. Schmettau gives an Anecdote
of him here: In regard to a certain Hill, the Key of the Austrian
position, which the King was continually reconnoitring, and lamenting
the enormous height of, "Impossible, so high!" One of the Adjutants took
his theodolite, ascertained the height, and, by way of comforting his
Majesty, reported the exact number of feet above their present level.
"How do YOU know, Herr?" said the King angrily. "Measured it by
Trigonometry, your Majesty."--"Trigonometry! SCHER' ER SICH ZUM TEUFEL
(Off with you, Sir, to the Devil, your Trigonometry and you!)"--no
believer in mathematics, this King.
He was loath to go; and laid the blame on many things. "Were Prince
Henri now but across the Iser. Had that stupid Anhalt, when he was upon
it [galloping about, to the ruin of his head], only seized Arnau, Arnau
and its Elbe-Bridge; and had it in hand for junction with Prince Henri!"
In fine, just as the last batch of heavy cannon--twenty or thirty
hungered horses to a gun, at the rate of five miles a day in roads
unspeakable--were getting in, he ordered them all to be dragged back,
back to the Trautenau road; whither we must now all go. And, SEPTEMBER
8th, in perfect order, for the Austrians little molested him, and got a
bad bargain when they did, the great Friedrich with his whole Army
got on march homeward, after such a Campaign as we see. Climbed the
Trautenau-Landshut Pass, with nothing of effective loss except from
the rainy elements, the steep miry ways and the starved horses;
draught-horses especially starved,--whom, poor creatures, "you would
see spring at the ropes [draught-harness], thirty of them to a gun, when
started and gee-ho'd to; tug violently with no effect, and fall down in
whole rows."
Prince Henri, forage done, started punctually September 10th, two days
after his Brother; and with little or no pursuit, from the Austrians,
and with horses unstarved, got home in comparatively tolerable
circumstances. Cantoned himself in Dresden neighborhood, and sat
waiting: he had never approved this War; and now, I suppose, would not
want for reflections. Friedrich's cantonments were round Landshut,
and spread out to right and to left, from Glatz Country and the
Upper-Silesian Hills, to Silberberg and Schweidnitz;--his own quarter
is the same region, where he lay so long in Summer, 1759, talking on
learned subjects with the late Quintus Icilius, if readers remember,
and wearily waiting till Cunctator Daun (likewise now deceased) took
his stand, or his seat, at Mark Lissa, and the King could follow him
to Schmottseifen. Friedrich himself on this present occasion stayed at
Schatzlar as rear-guard, to see whether the Austrians would not perhaps
try to make some Winter Campaign of it, and if so, whether they would
attempt on Prince Henri or on him. The Austrians did not attempt on
either; showed no such intention,--though mischievous enough in
other small ways. Friedrich wrote the ELOGE of Voltaire [_OEuvres de
Frederic,_ vii. 50 et seq. ("finished Nov. 26th, 1778").] while he
waited here at Schatzlar, among the rainy Mountains. Later on, as
prospects altered, he was much at Breslau, or running about on civic
errands with Breslau as centre: at Breslau he had many Dialogues with
Professor Garve,--in whose good, but oppressively solemn, little Book,
more a dull-droning Preachment than a Narrative, no reader need look for
them or for him.
As to the EULOGY OF VOLTAIRE, we may say that it is generous, ingenious,
succinct; and of dialect now obsolete to us. There was (and is,
though suppressed) another EULOGY, brand-new, by a Contemporary of our
own,--from which I know not if readers will permit me a sentence or two,
in this pause among the rainy Mountains?
... "A wonderful talent lay in this man--[in Voltaire, to wit; "such
an intellect, the sharpest, swiftest of the world," thinks our
Contemporary; "fathoming you the deepest subject, to a depth far beyond
most men's soundings, and coming up with victory and something wise
and logically speakable to say on it, sooner than any other man,--never
doubting but he has been at the bottom, which is from three to ten miles
lower!"] wonderful talent; but observe always, if you look closely, it
was in essence a mere talent for Speech; which talent Bavius and Maevius
and the Jew Apella may admire without looking behind it, but this
Eulogist by no means will. Speech, my friend? If your sublime talent
of speech consists only in making ignorance appear to be knowledge, and
little wisdom appear to be much, I will thank you to walk on with it,
and apply at some other shop. The QUANTITY of shops where you can
apply with thrice-golden advantage, from the Morning Newspapers to
the National Senate, is tremendous at this epoch of the poor world's
history;--go, I request you! And while his foot is on the stairs,
descending from my garret, I think: O unfortunate fellow-creature in an
unfortunate world, why is not there a Friedrich Wilhelm to 'elect' you,
as he did Gundling, to his TOBACCO Parliament, and there set Fassmann
upon you with the pans of burning peat? It were better even for
yourself; wholesomely didactic to your poor self, I cannot doubt; and
for the poor multitudes to whom you are now to be sacred VATES, speaking
and singing YOUR dismal GUNDLINGIANA as if inspired by Heaven, how
infinitely better!--Courage, courage! I discern, across these hideous
jargons, the reign of greater silence approaching upon repentant men;
reign of greater silence, I say; or else that of annihilation, which
will be the most silent of all....
"Voltaire, if not a great man, is a remarkably peculiar one; and did
such a work in these Ages as will render him long memorable, more or
less. He kindled the infinite dry dung-heap of things; set it blazing
heaven-high;--and we all thought, in the French Revolution time, it
would burn out rapidly into ashes, and then there would a clear Upper
Firmament, if over a blackened Earth, be once more vouchsafed us. The
flame is now done, as I once said; and only the dull dung-heap, smokily
burning, but not now blazing, remains,--for it was very damp, EXCEPT on
the surface, and is by nature slow of combustion:--who knows but it may
have to burn for centuries yet, poisoning by its villanous mal-odors
the life-atmosphere of all men? Eternal Author of this Universe, whose
throne is Truth, to whom all the True are Sons, wilt thou not look down
upon us, then!--Till this sad process is complete? Voltaire is like to
be very memorable."...
To Friedrich the Winter was in general tranquil; a Friedrich busy
preparing all things for his grand Mahren Enterprise, and for "real work
next year." By and by there came to be real Peace-prospects instead.
Meanwhile, the Austrians do try a little, in the small Pandour way,
to dislodge him from the Upper-Silesian or Teschen regions, where the
Erbprinz of Brunswick is in command; a man not to be pricked into gratis
by Pandours. Erbprinz, accordingly, provoked by their Pandourings, broke
out at last; and about Zuckmantel instantly scourged them home, and
had peace after. Foiled here, they next tried upon Glatz; "Get into his
Glatz Country, then;--a snatch of that will balance the account" (which
was one of Newspaper glory only): and a certain Wurmser of theirs,
expert in such things, did burn the Town of Habelschwert one morning;
["18th January, 1779" (Rodenbeck, iii. 195; Schmettau, &c.).] and tried
farther, not wisely this time, a surprisal of Glatz Fortress itself; but
got smitten home by our old friend General Wunsch, without profit there.
This was the same Wurmser who came to bad issues in the Napoleon time
afterwards; a rising man then; not a dim Old-Newspaper ghost as now.
Most shameful this burning of Habelschwert by way of mere bravura,
thinks Friedrich, in a time of actual Treaty for Peace, when our
Congress of Teschen was just struggling to get together! It was the
chief stroke done by the Austrians in this War; glorious or shameful, we
will not think of inquiring. Nor in fact of adding one word more on such
a War,--except, what everybody longs for, That, NOVEMBER 27th, 1778,
Czarina Catharine, by her Prince Galitzin at Vienna, intervened in the
matter, in a lofty way; and ended it. Czarina Catharine,--small thanks
to her, it seems, for it was Friedrich that by his industries and
world-diplomacies, French and other, had got her Turks, who had been
giving trouble again, compesced into peace for her; and indeed, to
Friedrich or his interests, though bound by Treaty, she had small regard
in taking this step, but wished merely to appear in German Politics as
a She-Jove,--Czarina Catharine signified, in high and peremptory though
polite Diplomatic terms, at Vienna, "Imperial Madam, how long is such a
War to last? Be at Peace, both of you; or--! I shall, however, mediate,
if you like, being the hearty friend of both." [Copy of Galitzin's
"Declaration," in FISCHER, ii. 406-411.]
"Do," answers Maria Theresa, whose finance is quite out, whose motherly
heart is almost broken, though a young Kaiser still prances violently,
and kicks against the pricks: "Do, your noble Czarish Majesty; France
too is interfering: France and you will decide what is just, and we will
end." "Congress of Teschen" met accordingly, MARCH 10th, 1779: Teschen,
in Austrian Silesia, where we have been;--Repnin as Russian, Breteuil
the Frenchman, Cobentzl and Hertzberg as Austrian and Prussian;--and,
MAY 13th (in two months' time, not in two weeks', as had been expected,
for there rose unexpected haggles), did close everything, firm as
Diplomacy could do it, into equitable, or approximately equitable
finis: "Go home, you Austria; quit your stolen Bavaria (all but a rim or
paring, Circle of Burghausen, since you must have something!): Saxony,
Mecklenburg, these must be satisfied to moderate length; and therewith
general AS-YOU-WERE."
Russia and France were agreed on the case; and Friedrich, bitterly
longing to have done with it, had said to himself, "In two weeks or so:"
but it proved far otherwise. Never were such hagglings, provocations and
unreasonable confusions as now rose. The burning of Habelschwert was but
a type of them. Haggles on the part of worthless Karl Theodor, kindled
by Joseph and his Kaunitz, kicking against the pricks. Haggles on
Saxony's part: "I claimed 7,000,000 pounds sterling, and you allow me
600,000 pounds." "Better that than nothing," answered Friedrich. Haggles
with Mecklenburg: "Instead of my Leuchtenberg, I get an improvement in
my Law-Courts, right of Judging without Appeal; what is that!"
Haggles with the once grateful Duke of Zweibruck: "Can't part with my
Burghausen." "Suppose you had had to part with your Bavaria altogether?"
In short, Friedrich, who had gained nothing for himself, but such
infinity of outlay in all kinds, never saw such a coil of human follies
and cupidities before; and had to exhaust his utmost patience, submit
to new losses of his own, and try all his dexterities in pig-driving:
overjoyed, at last, to get out of it on any terms. Outlay of Friedrich
is about Two Millions sterling, and above 10,000 men's lives (his own
narrowly not included), with censures, criticisms, provocations and
botherations without end. In return for which, he has, truly, put a
spoke in Austria's proud wheel for this time, and managed to see fair
play in the Reich; which had seemed to him, and seems, a considerable
thing. By way of codicil, Austria agrees not to chicane him in regard to
Anspach-Baireuth,--how generous of Austria, after this experience!--
In reality, the War was an Imaginary War; deserving on its own score
little record anywhere; to readers here requiring almost less than it
has got. Schmettau, Schoning and others have been abundantly minute
upon it; but even to soldiers there is little either of interest or
instruction; to us, all it yields is certain Anecdotes of Friedrich's
temper and ways in that difficult predicament; which, as coming at
first-hand, gathered for us by punctual authentic Schmettau, who was
constantly about him, with eyes open and note-book ready, have a kind of
worth in the Biographic point of view.
The Prussian Soldiery, of whom we see a type in Schmettau, were
disgusted with this War, and called it, in allusion to the foraging, A
scramble for potatoes, "DER KARTOFFEL-KRIEG, The Potato War;" which
is its common designation to this day. The Austrians, in a like humor,
called it "ZWETSCHKEN-RUMMEL" (say "THREE-BUTTON Loo"); a game not worth
playing; especially not at such cost. Combined cost counted to have been
in sum-total 4,350,000 pounds and 20,000 men. [Preuss, iv. 115.]
"The Prussian Army was full of ardor, never abler for fight" (insists
Schmettau), which indeed seems to have been the fact on every small
occasion;--"but fatally forbidden to try." Not so fatally perhaps, had
Schmettau looked beyond his epaulettes: was not the thing, by that slow
method, got done? By the swifter method, awakening a new Seven-Years
business, how infinitely costlier might it have been!
Schmettau's NARRATIVE, deducting the endless lamentings, especially the
extensive didactic digressions, is very clear, ocular, exact; and, in
contrast with Friedrich's own, is really amusing to read. A Schmettau
giving us, in his haggard light and oblique point of vision, the naked
truth, NAKED and all in a shiver; a Friedrich striving to drape it a
little, and make it comfortable to himself. Those bits of Anecdotes in
SCHMETTAU, clear, credible, as if we had seen them, are so many crevices
through which it is curiously worth while to look.