Battle being once seen to be inevitable, it was Friedrich's plan not to
wait for it, but to give it. Thanks to Friedrich Wilhelm and himself,
there is no Army, nor ever was any, in such continual preparation.
Military people say, "Some Countries take six months, some twelve, to
get in motion for war: but in three weeks Prussia can be across
the marches, and upon the throat of its enemy." Which is an immense
advantage to little Prussia among its big neighbors. "Some Countries
have a longer sword than Prussia; but none can unsheathe it so
soon:"--we hope, too, it is moderately sharp, when wielded by a deft
hand.
The French, as was intimated, are in great vigor, this Year; thoroughly
provoked; and especially since Friedrich sent his Rothenburg among
them, have been doing their very utmost. Their main effort is in the
Netherlands, at present;--and indeed, as happened, continues all
through this War to be. They by no means intend, or ever did, to neglect
Teutschland; yet it turns out, they have pretty much done with their
fighting there. And next Year, driven or led by accidents of various
kinds, they quit it altogether; and turning their whole strength upon
the Netherlands and Italy, chiefly on the Netherlands, leave Friedrich,
much to his astonishment, with the German War hanging wholly round
HIS neck, and take no charge of it farther! In which, to Friedrich's
Biographers, there is this inestimable benefit, if far the reverse to
Friedrich's self: That we shall soon have done with the French, then;
with them and with so much else; and may, in time coming, for most part,
leave their huge Sorcerer's Sabbath of a European War to dance
itself out, well in the distance, not encumbering us farther, like a
circumambient Bedlam, as it has hitherto done. Courage, reader! Let us
give, in a glance or two, some notion of the course things took, and
what moment it was when Friedrich struck in;--whom alone, or almost
alone, we hope to follow thenceforth; "Dismal Swamp" (so gracious was
Heaven to us) lying now mostly to rearward, little as we hoped it!
It was mere accident, a series of bad accidents, that led King Louis and
his Ministers into gradually forsaking Friedrich. They were the
farthest in the world from intending such a thing. Contrariwise, what
brain-beating, diplomatic spider-weaving, practical contriving, now
and afterwards, for that object; especially now! Rothenburg, Noailles,
Belleisle, Cardinal Tencin, have been busy; not less the mistress
Chateauroux, who admires Friedrich, being indeed a high-minded
unfortunate female, as they say; and has thrown out Amelot, not
for stammering alone. They are able, almost high people, this new
Chateauroux Ministry, compared with some; and already show results.
Nay, what is most important of all, France has (unconsciously, or by
mere help of Noailles and luck) got a real General to her Armies: Comte
de Saxe, now Marechal de Saxe; who will shine very splendent in these
Netherland operations,--counter-shone by mere Wades, D'Ahrembergs,
Cumberlands,--in this and the Four following Years. Noailles had
always recognized Comte de Saxe; had long striven for him, in Official
quarters; and here gets the light of him unveiled at last, and set on a
high place: loyal Noailles.
This was the Year, this 1744, when Louis XV., urged by his Chateauroux,
the high-souled unfortunate female, appeared in person at the head
of his troops: "Go, Sire, go, MON CHOU (and I will accompany); show
yourself where a King should be, at the head of your troops; be a second
Louis-le-Grand!" Which he did, his Chateauroux and he; actually went to
the Netherlands, with baggage-train immeasurable, including not cooks
only, but play-actors with their thunder-barrels (off from Paris, May
3d), to the admiration of the Universe. [Adelung, iv. 113; Barbier,
ii. 391, 394; Dulaure, _Hist. de Paris;_ &c.] Took the command,
nominal-command, first days of June; and captured in no-time Menin,
Ipres, Furnes, and the Fort of Knock, and as much of the Austrian
Netherlands as he liked,--that is to say, saw Noailles and Saxe do
it;--walking rapidly forward from Siege to Siege, with a most thundering
artillery; old Marshal Wade and consorts dismally eating their victuals,
and looking on from the distance, unable to attempt the least stroke in
opposition. So that the Dutch Barrier, if anybody now cared for it,
did go all flat; and the Balance of Power gets kicked out of its sacred
pivot: to such purpose have the Dutch been hoisted! Terrible to think
of;--had not there, from the opposite quarter, risen a surprising
counterpoise; had not there been a Prince Karl, with his 70,000,
pressing victoriously over the Rhine; which stayed the French in these
sacrilegious procedures.
PRINCE KARL GETS ACROSS THE RHINE (20 JUNE-2 JULY, 1744).
Prince Karl, some weeks ago, at Heilbronn, joined his Rhine Army, which
had gathered thither from the Austrian side, through Baiern, and from
the Hither-Austrian or Swabian Winter-quarters; with full intent to be
across the Rhine, and home upon Elsass and the Compensation Countries,
this Summer, under what difficulties soever. Karl, or, as some whisper,
old Marshal Traun, who is nominally second in command, do make a
glorious campaign of it, this Year;--and lift the Cause of Liberty, at
one time, to the highest pitch it ever reached. Here, in brief terms, is
Prince Karl's Operation on the Rhine, much admired by military men:--
"STOCKSTADT, JUNE 20th, 1744. Some thirty and odd miles north of
Mannheim, the Rhine, before turning westward at Mainz, makes one other
of its many Islands (of which there are hundreds since the leap at
Schaffhausen): one other, and I think the biggest of them all; perhaps
two miles by five; which the Germans call KUHKOPF (Cowhead), from the
shape it has,--a narrow semi-ellipse; River there splitting in two, one
split (the western) going straight, the other bending luxuriantly round:
so that the HIND-head or straight end of the Island lies towards France,
and the round end, or cow-LIPS (so to speak) towards native Teutschland,
and the woody Hills of the Berg-Strasse thereabouts. Stockstadt, chief
little Town looking over into this Cowhead Island, lies under the
CHIN: understand only farther that the German branch carries more than
two-thirds of the River; that on the Island itself there is no town,
or post of defence; and that Stockstadt is the place for getting over.
Coigny and the French, some 40,000, are guarding the River hereabouts,
with lines, with batteries, cordons, the best they can; Seckendorf, with
20,000 more ('Imperial' Old Bavarian Troops, revivified, recruited
by French pay), is in his garrison of Philipsburg, ready to help when
needed:"--not moulting now, at Wembdingen, in that dismal manner;
new-feathered now into "Kaiser's Army;" waiting in his Philipsburg to
guard the River there. "Coigny's French have ramparts, ditches, not
quite unfurnished, on their own shore, opposite this Cowhead Island
(ISLE DE HERON, as they call it); looking over to the hind-head, namely:
but they have nothing considerable there; and in the Island itself,
nothing whatever. 'If now Stockstadt were suddenly snatched by us,'
thinks Karl;--'if a few pontoons were nimbly swung in?'
"JUNE 20th,--Coigny's people all shooting FEU-DE-JOIE, for that never
enough to be celebrated Capture of Menin and the Dutch Barrier
a fortnight ago,--this is managed to be done. The active General
Barenklau, active Brigadier Daun under him, pushes rapidly across into
Kuhkopf; rapidly throws up intrenchments, ramparts, mounts cannon, digs
himself in,--greatly to Coigny's astonishment; whose people hereabouts,
and in all their lines and posts, are busy shooting FEU-DE-JOIE for
those immortal Dutch victories, at the moment, and never dreaming of
such a thing. Fresh force floods in, Prince Karl himself arrives next
day, in support of Barenklau; Coigny (head-quarters at Speyer, forty
miles south) need not attempt dislodging him; but must stand upon his
guard, and prepare for worse. Which he does with diligence; shifting
northward into those Stockstadt-Mainz parts; calling Seckendorf across
the River, and otherwise doing his best,--for about ten days more, when
worse, and almost worst, did verily befall him.
"No attempt was made on Barenklau; nor, beyond the alarming of the
Coigny-Seckendorf people, did anything occur in Cowhead Island,--unless
it were the finis of an ugly bully and ruffian, who has more than once
afflicted us: which may be worth one word. Colonel Mentzel [copper-faced
Colonel, originally Play-actor, "Spy in Persia," and I know not what]
had been at the seizure of Kuhkopf; a prominent man. Whom, on the fifth
day after ('June 25th'), Prince Karl overwhelmed with joy, by handing
him a Patent of Generalcy: 'Just received from Court, my Friend,
on account of your merits old and late.'--'Aha,' said Barenklau,
congratulating warmly: 'Dine with me, then, Herr General Mentzel,
this very day. The Prince himself is to be there, Highness of
Hessen-Darmstadt, and who not; all are impatient to drink your health!'
Mentzel had a glorious dinner; still more glorious drink,--Prince
Karl and the others, it is said, egging him into much wild bluster and
gasconade, to season their much wine. Eminent swill of drinking, with
the loud coarse talk supposable, on the part of Mentzel and consorts did
go on, in this manner, all afternoon: in the evening, drunk Mentzel came
out for air; went strutting and staggering about; emerging finally on
the platform of some rampart, face of him huge and red as that of
the foggiest rising Moon;--and stood, looking over into the Lorraine
Country; belching out a storm of oaths, as to his taking it, as to
his doing this and that; and was even flourishing his sword by way of
accompaniment; when, lo, whistling slightly through the summer air, a
rifle-ball from some sentry on the French side (writers say, it was a
French drummer, grown impatient, and snatching a sentry's piece) took
the brain of him, or the belly of him; and he rushed down at once, a
totally collapsed monster, and mere heap of dead ruin, never to trouble
mankind more." [_Guerre de Boheme,_ iii. 165.] For which my readers and
I are rather thankful. Voltaire, and perhaps other memorable persons,
sometimes mention this brute (miraculous to the Plebs and Gazetteers);
otherwise eternal oblivion were the best we could do with him. Trenck
also, readers will be glad to understand, ends in jail and bedlam by and
by.
"Prince Karl had not the least intention of crossing by this Cowhead
Island. Nevertheless he set about two other Bridges in the neighborhood,
nearer Mainz (few miles below that City); kept manoeuvring his Force,
in huge half-moon, round that quarter, and mysteriously up and down;
alarming Coigny wholly into the Mainz region. For the space of ten
days; and then, stealing off to Schrock, a little Rhine Village above
Philipsburg, many miles away from Coigny and his vigilantes, he--
"NIGHT OF 30th JUNE-1st JULY, Suddenly shot Pandour Trenck, followed
by Nadasti and 6,000, across at Schrock who scattered Seckendorf's poor
outposts thereabouts to the winds; 'built a bridge before morning, and
next day another.' Next day Prince Karl in person appeared; and on the
3d of July, had his whole Army with its luggages across; and had seized
the Lines of Lauterburg and Weissenburg (celebrated northern defence of
Elsass),--much to Coigny's amazement; and remained inexpugnable there,
with Elsass open to him, and to Coigny shut, for the present! [Adelung,
iv. 139-141.] Coigny made bitter wail, accusation, blame of Seckendorf,
blame of men and of things; even tried some fighting, Seckendorf too
doing feats, to recover those Lines of Weissenburg: but could not do it.
And, in fact, blazing to and fro in that excited rather than luminous
condition, could not do anything; except retire into the strong posts
of the background; and send express on express, swifter than the wind if
you can, to a victorious King overturning the Dutch Barrier: 'Help, your
Majesty, or we are lost; and France is--what shall I say!'"
"Admirable feat of Strategy! What a General, this Prince Karl!"
exclaimed mankind,--Cause-of-Liberty mankind with special enthusiasm;
and took to writing LIVES of Prince Karl, [For instance, _The Life of
his Highness Prince Charles of &c., with &c. &c._ (London, 1746); one
of the most distracted Blotches ever published under the name of
Book;--wakening thoughts of a public dimness very considerable indeed,
to which this could offer itself as lamp!] as well as tar-burning and
TE-DEUM-ing on an extensive scale. For it had sent the Cause of Liberty
bounding up again to the top of things, this of crossing the Rhine,
in such fashion. And, in effect, the Cause of Liberty, and Prince
Karl himself, had risen hereby to their acme or culminating point in
World-History; not to continue long at such height, little as they
dreamt of that, among their tar-burnings. The feat itself--contrived
by Nadasti, people say, and executed (what was the real difficulty) by
Traun--brought Prince Karl very great renown, this Year; and is praised
by Friedrich himself, now and afterwards, as masterly, as Julius
Caesar's method, and the proper way of crossing rivers (when executable)
in face of an enemy. And indeed Prince Karl, owing to Traun or not,
is highly respectable in the way of Generalship at present; and did in
these Five Months, from June onward, really considerable things. At his
very acme of Life, as well as of Generalship; which, alas, soon changed,
poor man; never to culminate again. He had got, at the beginning of the
Year, the high Maria Theresa's one Sister, Archduchess Maria Anna, to
Wife; [Age then twenty-five gone: "born 14th September, 1718; married to
Prince Karl 7th January, 1744; died, of childbirth, 16th December same
year" (Hormayr, _OEsterreichischer Plutarch,_ iv. erstes Baudchen, 54).]
the crown of long mutual attachment; she safe now at Brussels,
diligent Co-Regent, and in a promising family-way; he here walking on
victorious:--need any man be happier? No man can be supremely happy
long; and this General's strategic felicity and his domestic were
fatally cut down almost together. The Cause of Liberty, too, now at the
top of its orbit, was--But let us stick by our Excerpting:
"DUNKIRK, 19th JULY, 1744 [Princess Ulrique's Wedding, just two days
ago]. King Louis, on hearing of the Job's-news from Elsass, instantly
suspended his Conquests in Flanders; detached Noailles, detached this
one and that, double-quick, Division after Division (leaving Saxe, with
45,000, to his own resources, and the fatuities of Marshal Wade);
and, 19th July, himself hastens off from Dunkirk (leaving much of the
luggage, but not the Chateauroux behind him), to save his Country, poor
soul. But could not, in the least, save it; the reverse rather. August
4th, he got to Metz, Belleisle's strong town, about 100 miles from the
actual scene; his detached reinforcements, say 50,000 men or so, hanging
out ahead like flame-clouds, but uncertain how to act;--Noailles being
always cunctatious in time of crisis, and poor Louis himself nothing of
a Cloud-Compeller;--and then,
"METZ, AUGUST 8th, The Most Christian King fell ill; dangerously,
dreadfully, just like to die. Which entirely paralyzed Noailles and
Company, or reduced them to mere hysterics, and excitement of the
unluminous kind. And filled France in general, Paris in particular,
with terror, lamentation, prayers of forty hours; and such a paroxysm
of hero-worship as was never seen for such an object before." [Espagnac,
ii. 12; Adelung, iv. 180; _Fastes de Louis XV.,_ ii. 423; &c. &c.]
For the Cause of Liberty here, we consider, was the culminating moment;
Elsass, Lorraine and the Three Bishoprics lying in their quasi-moribund
condition; Austrian claims of Compensation ceasing to be visions of the
heated brain, and gaining some footing on the Earth as facts. Prince
Karl is here actually in Elsass, master of the strong passes; elate in
heart, he and his; France, again, as if fallen paralytic, into temporary
distraction; offering for resistance nothing hitherto but that universal
wailing of mankind, Hero-worship of a thrice-lamentable nature, and the
Prayers of Forty-Hours! Most Christian Majesty, now IN EXTREMIS, centre
of the basest hubbub that ever was, is dismissing Chateauroux. Noailles,
Coigny and Company hang well back upon the Hill regions, and strong
posts which are not yet menaced; or fly vaguely, more or less
distractedly, hither and thither; not in the least like fighting Karl,
much less like beating him. Karl has Germany free at his back (nay it is
a German population round him here); neither haversack nor cartridge-box
like to fail: before him are only a Noailles and consorts, flying
vaguely about;--and there is in Karl, or under the same cloak with him
at present, a talent of manoeuvring men, which even Friedrich finds
masterly. If old Marshal Wade, at the other end of the line, should
chance to awaken and press home on Saxe, and his remnant of French, with
right vigor? In fact, there was not, that I can see, for centuries past,
not even at the Siege of Lille in Marlborough's time, a more imminent
peril for France.
FRIEDRICH DECIDES TO INTERVENE.
King Friedrich, on hearing of these Rhenish emergencies and of King
Louis's heroic advance to the rescue, perceived that for himself too the
moment was come; and hastened to inform heroic Louis, That though the
terms of their Bargain were not yet completed, Sweden, Russia and other
points being still in a pendent condition, he, Friedrich,--with an eye
to success of their Joint Adventure, and to the indispensability of
joint action, energy, and the top of one's speed now or never,--would,
by the middle of this same August, be on the field with 100,000 men. "An
invasion of Bohemia, will not that astonish Prince Karl; and bring him
to his Rhine-Bridges again? Over which, if your Most Christian Majesty
be active, he will not get, except in a half, or wholly ruined state.
Follow him close; send the rest of your force to threaten Hanover; sit
well on the skirts of Prince Karl. Him as he hurries homeward, ruined or
half-ruined, him, or whatever Austrian will fight, I do my best to beat.
We may have Bohemia, and a beaten Austria, this very Autumn: see,--and,
in one Campaign, there is Peace ready for us!" This is Friedrich's
scheme of action; success certain, thinks he, if only there be energy,
activity, on your side, as there shall be on mine;--and has sent Count
Schmettau, filled with fiery speed and determination, to keep the French
full of the like, and concert mutual operations.
"Magnanimous!" exclaim Noailles and the paralyzed French Gentlemen (King
Louis, I think, now past speech, for Schmettau only came August 9th):
"Most sublime behavior, on his Prussian Majesty's part!" own they. And
truly it is a fine manful indifference (by no means so common as it
should be) to all interests, to all considerations, but that of a Joint
Enterprise one has engaged in. And truly, furthermore, it was immediate
salvation to the paralyzed French Gentlemen, in that alarming crisis;
though they did not much recognize it afterwards as such: and indeed
were conspicuously forgetful of all parts of it, when their own danger
was over.
Maria Theresa's feelings may be conceived; George II's feelings; and
what the Cause of Liberty in general felt, and furiously said and
complained, when--suddenly as a DEUS EX MACHINA, or Supernal Genie
in the Minor Theatres--Friedrich stept in. Precisely in this supreme
crisis, 7th August, 1744, Friedrich's Minister, Graf von Dohna, at
Vienna, has given notice of the Frankfurt Union, and solemn Engagement
entered into: "Obliged in honor and conscience; will and must now step
forth to right an injured Kaiser; cannot stand these high procedures
against an Imperial Majesty chosen by all the Princes of the Reich, this
unheard-of protest that the Kaiser is no Kaiser, as if all Germany were
but Austria and the Queen of Hungary's. Prussian Majesty has not the
least quarrel of his own with the Queen of Hungary, stands true, and
will stand, by the Treaty of Berlin and Breslau;--only, with certain
other German Princes, has done what all German Princes and peoples not
Austrian are bound to do, on behalf of their down-trodden Kaiser,
formed a Union of Frankfurt; and will, with armed hand if indispensable,
endeavor to see right done in that matter." [In _Adelung,_ iv. 155, 156,
the Declaration itself (Audience, "7th August, 1744." Dohna off homeward
"on the second day after").]
This is the astonishing fact for the Cause of Liberty; and no clamor and
execration will avail anything. This man is prompt, too; does not
linger in getting out his Sword, when he has talked of it. Prince
Karl's Operation is likely to be marred amazingly. If this swift King
(comparable to the old Serpent for devices) were to burst forth from
his Silesian strengths; tread sharply on the TAIL of Prince Karl's
Operation, and bring back the formidably fanged head of IT out of
Alsace, five hundred miles all at once,--there would be a business!
We will now quit the Rhine Operations, which indeed are not now of
moment; Friedrich being suddenly the key of events again. I add only,
what readers are vaguely aware of, that King Louis did not die; that he
lay at death's door for precisely one week (8th-15th August), symptoms
mending on the 15th. In the interim,--Grand-Almoner Fitz-James (Uncle
of our Conte di Spinelli) insisting that a certain Cardinal, who had got
the Sacraments in hand, should insist; and endless ministerial intrigue
being busy,--moribund Louis had, when it came to the Sacramental
point, been obliged to dismiss his Chateauroux. Poor Chateauroux; an
unfortunate female; yet, one almost thinks, the best man among them:
dismissed at Metz here, and like to be mobbed! That was the one issue
of King Louis's death-sickness. Sublime sickness; during which all Paris
wept aloud, in terror and sorrow, like a child that has lost its mother
and sees a mastiff coming; wept sublimely, and did the Prayers
of Forty-Hours; and called King Louis Le BIEN-AIME (The
Well-beloved):--merely some obstruction in the royal bowels, it turned
out;--a good cathartic, and the Prayers of Forty-Hours, quite reinstated
matters. Nay reinstated even Chateauroux, some time after,--"the Devil
being well again," and, as the Proverb says, quitting his monastic view.
Reinstated Chateauroux: but this time, poor creature, she continued only
about a day:--"Sudden fever, from excitement," said the Doctors: "Fever?
Poison, you mean!" whispered others, and looked for changes in the
Ministry. Enough, oh, enough!--
Old Marshal Wade did not awaken, though bawled to by his Ligoniers and
others, and much shaken about, poor old gentleman. "No artillery to
speak of," murmured he; "want baggage-wagons, too!" and lay still. "Here
is artillery!" answered the Official people; "With my own money I will
buy you baggage-wagons!" answered the high Maria Anna, in her own name
and her Prince Karl's, who are Joint-Governors there. Possibly he would
have awakened, had they given him time. But time, in War especially, is
the thing that is never given. Once Friedrich HAD struck in, the moment
was gone by. Poor old Wade! Of him also enough.