UNEXPECTEDLY COMES UPON PRINCE KARL, WITH NO FRENCH ATTENDING HIM.
This electrically sudden operation on Prag was considered by astonished
mankind, whatever else they might think about it, a decidedly brilliant
feat of War: falling like a bolt out of the blue,--like three bolts,
suddenly coalescing over Prag, and striking it down. Friedrich himself,
though there is nothing of boast audible here or anywhere, was evidently
very well satisfied; and thought the aspects good. There is Prince Karl
whirling instantly back from his Strasburg Prospects; the general St.
Vitus Dance of Austrian things rising higher and higher in these home
parts:--reasonable hope that "in the course of one Campaign," proud
obstinate Austria might feel itself so wrung and screwed as to be glad
of Peace with neighbors not wishing War. That was the young
King's calculation at this time. And, had France done at all as it
promised,--or had the young King himself been considerably wiser than he
was,--he had not been disappointed in the way we shall see!
Friedrich admits he did not understand War at this period. His own
scheme now was: To move towards the southwest, there to abolish Bathyani
and his Tolpatches, who are busy gathering Magazines for Prince Karl's
advent; to seize the said Magazines, which will be very useful to us;
then advance straight towards the Passes of the Bohemian Mountains.
Towns of Furth, Waldmunchen, unfortunate Town of Cham (burnt by Trenck,
where masons are now busy); these stand successive in the grand Pass,
through which the highway runs; some hundred miles or so from where
we are: march, at one's swiftest, thitherward, Bathyani's Magazines to
help; and there await Prince Karl? It was Friedrich's own notion; not a
bad one, though not the best. The best, he admits, would have been:
To stay pretty much where he was; abolish Bathyani's Tolpatch people,
seizing their Magazines, and collecting others; in general, well rooting
and fencing himself in Prag, and in the Circles that lie thereabouts
upon the Elbe,--bounded to southward by the Sazawa (branch of the
Moldau), which runs parallel to the Elbe;--but well refusing to stir
much farther at such an advanced season of the year.
That second plan would have been the wisest:--then why not, follow it?
Too tame a plan for the youthful mind. Besides, we perceive, as indeed
is intimated by himself, he dreaded the force of public opinion in
France. "Aha, look at your King of Prussia again. Gone to conquer
Bohemia; and, except the Three Circles he himself is to have of it,
lets Bohemia go to the winds!" This sort of thing, Friedrich admits, he
dreaded too much, at that young period; so loud had the criticisms
been on him, in the time of the Breslau Treaty: "Out upon your King of
Prussia; call you that an honorable Ally!" Undoubtedly a weakness in the
young King; inasmuch, says he, as "every General [and every man, add we]
should look to the fact, not to the rumor of the fact." Well; but, at
least, he will adopt his own other notion; that of making for the Passes
of the Bohemian Mountains; to abolish Bathyani at least, and lock the
door upon Prince Karl's advent? That was his own plan; and, though
second-best, that also would have done well, had there been no third.
But there was, as we hinted, a third plan, ardently favored by
Belleisle, whose war-talent Friedrich much respected at this time: plan
built on Belleisle's reminiscences of the old Tabor-Budweis businesses,
and totally inapplicable now. Belleisle said, "Go southeast, not
southwest; right towards the Austrian Frontier itself; that will
frighten Austria into a fine tremor. Shut up the roads from Austria:
Budweis, Neuhaus; seize those two Highroad Towns, and keep them, if you
would hold Bohemia; the want of them was our ruin there." Your ruin,
yes: but your enemy was not coming from Alsace and the southwest then.
He was coming from Austria; and your own home lay on the southwest: it
is all different now! Friedrich might well think himself bewitched not
to have gone for Cham and Furth, and the Passes of the Bohmer-Wald,
according to his own notion. But so it was; he yielded to the big
reputation of Belleisle, and to fear of what the world would say of him
in France; a weakness which he will perhaps be taught not to repeat. In
fact, he is now about to be taught several things;--and will have to pay
his school-wages as he goes.
FRIEDRICH, LEAVING SMALL GARRISON IN PRAG, RUSHES SWIFTLY UP THE MOLDAU
VALLEY, UPON THE TABOR-BUDWEIS COUNTRY; TO PLEASE HIS FRENCH FRIENDS.
Friedrich made no delay in Prag; in haste at this late time of year.
September 17th, on the very morrow of the Siege, the Prussians get in
motion southward; on the 19th, Friedrich, from his post to north of the
City, defiles through Prag, on march to Kunraditz,--first stage on that
questionable Expedition up the Moldau Valley, right bank; towards Tabor,
Budweis, Neuhaus; to threaten Austria, and please Belleisle and the
French.
Prag is left under General Einsiedel with a small garrison of
5,000;--Einsiedel, a steady elderly gentleman, favorite of Friedrich
Wilhelm's, has brief order, or outline of order to be filled up by his
own good sense. Posadowsky follows the march, with as many meal-wagons
as possible,--draught-cattle in very ineffectual condition. Our main
Magazine is at Leitmeritz (should have been brought on to Prag, thinks
Friedrich); Commissariat very ill-managed in comparison to what it ought
to be,--to what it shall be, if we ever live to make another Campaign.
Heavy artillery is left in Prag (another fault); and from each regiment,
one of its baggage-wagons. [ _Helden-Geschichte,_ i. 1083; Orlich, ii.
41 et seqq.; _Frederic,_ iii. 59; &c.] "We rest a day here at Kunraditz:
21st September, get to the Sazawa River;--22d, to Bistritz (rest a
day);--26th, to Miltschin; and 27th, to Tabor:"--But the Diary would be
tedious.
Friedrich goes in two Columns; one along the great road towards Tabor,
under Schwerin this, and Friedrich mainly with him; the other to the
right, along the River's bank, under Leopold, Young Dessauer, which has
to go by wild country roads, or now and then roads of its own making;
and much needs the pioneer (a difficult march in the shortening days).
Posadowsky follows with the proviant, drawn by cattle of the horse and
ox species, daily falling down starved: great swearing there too,
I doubt not! General Nassau is vanguard, and stretches forward
successfully at a much lighter pace.
There are two Rivers, considerable branches of the Moldau, coming from
eastward; which, and first of them the Sazawa, concern us here. After
mounting the southern Uplands from Prag for a day or two, you then begin
to drop again, into the hollow of a River called Sazawa, important in
Bohemian Wars. It is of winding course, the first considerable branch
of the Moldau, rising in Teutschbrod Country, seventy or eighty miles
to east of us: in regard to Sazawa, there is, at present, no difficulty
about crossing; the Country being all ours. After the Sazawa, mount
again, long miles, day after day, through intricate stony desolation,
rocks, bogs, untrimmed woods, you will get to Miltschin, thence to
Tabor: Miltschin is the crown of that rough moor country; from Prag to
Tabor is some sixty miles. After Miltschin the course of those brown
mountain-brooks is all towards the Luschnitz, the next considerable
branch of the Moldau; branch still longer and more winding than the
Sazawa; Tabor towers up near this branch; Budweis, on the Moldau itself,
is forty miles farther; and there at last you are out of the stony
moors, and in a rich champaign comfortable to man and horse, were you
but once there, after plodding through the desolations. But from that
Sazawa by the Luschnitz on to Budweis, mounting and falling in such
fashion, there must be ninety miles or thereby. Plod along; and keep
a sharp eye on the whirling clouds of Pandours, for those too have got
across upon us,--added to the other tempests of Autumn.
On the ninth day of their march, the Prussians begin to descry on
the horizon ahead the steeples and chimney-tops of Tabor, on its high
scarped rock, or "Hill of Zisca,"--for it was Zisca and his Hussites
that built themselves this Bit of Inexpugnability, and named it Tabor
from their Bibles,--in those waste mountain regions. On the tenth day
(27th September), the Prussians without difficulty took Tabor; walls
being ruined, garrison small. We lie at Tabor till the 30th, last day
of September. Thence, 2d October, part of us to Moldau-Tein rightwards;
where cross the Moldau by a Bridge,--"Bridge" one has heard of, in old
Broglio times;--cross there, with intent (easily successful) to snatch
that "Castle of Frauenberg," darling of Broglio, for which he fought his
Pharsalia of a Sahay to no purpose!
Both Columns got united at Tabor; and paused for a day or two, to rest,
and gather up their draggled skirts there. The Expedition does not
improve in promise, as we advance in it; the march one of the
most untowardly; and Posadowsky comes up with only half of his
provision-carts,--half of his cattle having fallen down of bad weather,
hill-roads and starvation; what could he do? That is an ominous
circumstance, not the less.
Three things are against the Prussians on this march; two of them
accidental things. FIRST, there is, at this late season too, the
intrinsic nature of the Country; which Friedrich with emphasis describes
as boggy, stony, precipitous; a waste, hungry and altogether barren
Country,--too emphatically so described. But then SECONDLY, what might
have been otherwise, the Population, worked upon by Austrian officials,
all fly from the sight of us; nothing but fireless deserted hamlets; and
the corn, if they ever had any, all thrashed and hidden. No amount
of money can purchase any service from them. Poor dark creatures; not
loving Austria much, but loving some others even less, it would appear.
Of Bigoted Papist Creed, for one thing; that is a great point. We do not
meddle with their worship more or less; but we are Heretics, and they
hate us as the Night. Which is a dreadful difficulty you always have
in Bohemia: nowhere but in the Circle of Konigsgraz, where there
are Hussites (far to the rear of us at this time), will you find it
otherwise. This is difficulty second.
Then, THIRDLY, what much aggravates it,--we neglected to abolish
Bathyani! And here are Bathyani's Pandours come across the Moldau on
us. Plenty of Pandours;--to whom "10,000 fresh Hungarians," of a new
Insurrection which has been got up there, are daily speeding forward to
add themselves:--such a swarm of hornets, as darkens the very daylight
for you. Vain to scourge them down, to burn them off by blaze of
gunpowder: they fly fast; but are straightway back again. They lurk in
these bushy wildernesses, scraggy woods: no foraging possible, unless
whole regiments are sent out to do it; you cannot get a letter safely
carried for them. They are an unspeakable contemptible grief to the
earnest leader of men.--Let us proceed, however; it will serve nothing
to complain. Let us hope the French sit well on the skirts of Prince
Karl: these sorrowful labors may all turn to good, in that case.
Friedrich pushes on from Tabor; shoots partly (as we have seen) across
the Moldau, to the left bank as well; captures romantic Frauenberg on
its high rock, where Broglio got into such a fluster once. We could
push to Pisek, too, and make a "Bivouac of Pisek," if we lost our wits!
Nassau is in Budweis, in Neuhaus; and proper garrisons are gone thither:
nothing wanting on our side of the business. But these Pandours, these
10,000 Insurrection Hungarians, with their Trencks spurring them! A
continual unblessed swarm of hornets, these; which shut out the very
light of day from us. Too literally the light of day: we can get no
free messaging from part to part of our own Army even. "As many as six
Orderlies have been despatched to an outlying General; and not one of
them could get through to him. They have snapt up three Letter-bags
destined for the King himself. For four weeks he is absolutely shut out
from the rest of Europe;" knows not in the least what the Kaiser, or the
Most Christian or any other King, is doing; or whether the French are
sitting well on Prince Karl's skirts, or not attempting that at all.
This also is a thing to be amended, a thing you had to learn, your
Majesty? An Army absolutely shut out from news, from letters, messages
to or fro, and groping its way in darkness, owing to these circumambient
thunder-clouds of Tolpatches, is not a well-situated Army! And alas,
when at last the Letter-bag did get through, and--But let us not
anticipate!
At Tabor there arose two opinions; which, in spite of the King's
presence, was a new difficulty. South from Tabor a day's march, the
Highway splits; direct way for Vienna; left-hand goes to Neuhaus,
right-hand, or straightforward rather, goes to Budweis, bearing upon
Linz: which of these two? Nassau has already seized Budweis; and it is
a habitable champaign country in comparison. Neuhaus, farther from the
Moldau and its uses, but more imminent on Austria, would be easy to
seize; and would frighten the Enemy more. Leopold the Young Dessauer is
for Budweis; rapid Schwerin, a hardy outspoken man, is emphatic for the
other place as Head-quarter. So emphatic are both, that the two Generals
quarrel there; and Friedrich needs his authority to keep them from
outbreaks, from open incompatibility henceforth, which would be
destructive to the service. For the rest, Friedrich seizes both places;
sends a detachment to Neuhaus as well; but holds by Budweis and the
Moldau region with his main Army; which was not quite gratifying to the
hardy Schwerin. On the opposite or left bank, holding Frauenberg, the
renowned Hill-fortress there, we make inroads at discretion: but the
country is woody, favorable to Pandours; and the right bank is our chief
scene of action. How we are to maintain ourselves in this country? To
winter in these towns between the Sazawa and the Luschnitz? Unless the
French sit well on Prince Karl's skirts, it will not be possible.
THE FRENCH ARE LITTLE GRATEFUL FOR THE PLEASURE DONE THEM AT SUCH
RUINOUS EXPENSE.
French sitting well on Prince Karl's skirts? They are not molesting
Prince Karl in the smallest; never tried such a thing;--are turned away
to the Brisgan, to the Upper Rhine Country; gone to besiege Freyburg
there, and seize Towns; about the Lake of Constance, as if there were no
Friedrich in the game! It must be owned the French do liberally pay off
old scores against Friedrich,--if, except in their own imagination,
they had old scores against him. No man ever delivered them from a more
imminent peril; and they, the rope once cut that was strangling
them, magnificently forget who cut it; and celebrate only their own
distinguished conduct during and after the operation. To a degree truly
wonderful.
It was moonlight, clear as day that night, 23d August, when Prince Karl
had to recross the Rhine, close in their neighborhood; [_Guerre de
Boheme,_ iii. 196.]--and instead of harassing Prince Karl "to half or to
whole ruin," as the bargain was, their distinguished conduct consisted
in going quietly to their beds (old Marechal de Noailles even calling
back some of his too forward subalterns), and joyfully leaving Prince
Karl, then and afterwards, to cross the Rhine, and march for Bohmen, at
his own perfect convenience.
"Seckendorf will sit on Karl's skirts," they said: "too late for US,
this season; next season, you shall see!" Such was their theory,
after Louis got that cathartic, and rose from bed. Schmettau, with his
importunities, which at last irritated everybody, could make nothing
more of it. "Let the King of France crown his glories by the Siege of
Freyburg, the conquest of Brisgau:--for behoof of the poor Kaiser, don't
you observe? Hither Austria is the Kaiser's;--and furthermore, were
Freyburg gone, there will be no invading of Elsass again" (which is
another privately very interesting point)!
And there, at Freyburg, the Most Christian King now is, and his Army up
to the knees in mud, conquering Hither Austria; besieging Freyburg, with
much difficulty owing to the wet,--besieging there with what energy;
a spectacle to the world! And has, for the present, but one wife, no
mistress either! With rapturous eyes France looks on; with admiration
too big for words. Voltaire, I have heard, made pilgrimage to Freyburg,
with rhymed Panegyric in his pocket; saw those miraculous operations
of a Most Christian King miraculously awakened; and had the honor to
present said Panegyric; and be seen, for the first time, by the royal
eyes,--which did not seem to relish him much. [The Panegyric (EPITRE AU
ROI DEVANT FRIBOURG) is in _OEuvres de Voltaire,_ xvii. 184.] Since the
first days of October, Freyburg had been under constant assault; "amid
rains, amid frosts; a siege long and murderous" (to the besieging
party);--and was not got till November 5th; not quite entirely, the
Citadels of it, till November 25th; Majesty gone home to Paris, to
illuminations and triumphal arches, in the interim. [Adelung, iv. 266;
Barbier, ii. 414 (13th November, &c.), for the illuminations, grand in
the extreme, in spite of wild rains and winds.] It had been a difficult
and bloody conquest to him, this of Freyburg and the Brisgau Country;
and I never heard that either the Kaiser or he got sensible advantage by
it,--though Prince Karl, on the present occasion, might be said to get a
great deal.
"Seckendorf will do your Prince Karl," they had cried always:
"Seckendorf and his Prussian Majesty! Are not we conquering Hither
Austria here, for the Kaiser's behoof?" Seckendorf they did officially
appoint to pursue; appoint or allow;--and laid all the blame on
Seckendorf; who perhaps deserved his share of it. Very certain it is,
Seckendorf did little or nothing to Prince Karl; marched "leisurely
behind him through the Ober-Pfalz,"--skirting Baireuth Country, Karl and
he, to Wilhelmina's grief; [Her Letters ( _OEuvres de Frederic,_ xxvii.
i. 133, &c.).]--"leisurely behind him at a distance of four days," knew
better than meddle with Prince Karl. So that Prince Karl, "in twenty-one
marches," disturbed only by the elements and bad roads, reached
Waldmunchen 26th September, in the Furth-Cham Country; [Ranke, iii.
187.] and was heard to exclaim: "We are let off for the fright, then
(NOUS VOILA QUITTES POUR LA PEUR)!"--Seckendorf, finding nothing to live
upon in Ober-Pfalz, could not attend Prince Karl farther; but turned
leftwards home to Bavaria; made a kind of Second "Reconquest of Bavaria"
(on exactly the same terms as the First, Austrian occupants being all
called off to assist in Bohmen again);--concerning which, here is an
Excerpt:--
"Seckendorf, following at his leisure, and joined by the Hessians and
Pfalzers, so as now to exceed 30,000, leaves Prince Karl and the rest of
the enterprise to do as it can; and applies himself, for his own share,
as the needfulest thing, to getting hold of Bavaria again, that his poor
Kaiser may have where to lay his head, and pay old servants their wages.
Dreadfully exclaimed against, the old gentleman, especially by the
French co-managers: 'Why did not the old traitor stick in the rear of
Prince Karl, in the difficult passes, and drive him prone,--while we
went besieging Freyburg, and poaching about, trying for a bit of the
Brisgau while chance served!' A traitor beyond doubt; probably bought
with money down: thinks Valori. But, after all, what could Seckendorf
do? He is now of weight for Barenklau and Bavaria, not for much more. He
does sweep Barenklau and his Austrians from Bavaria, clear out (in the
course of this October), all but Ingolstadt and two or three strong
towns,--Passau especially, 'which can be blockaded, and afterwards
besieged if needful.' For the rest, he is dreadfully ill-off for
provisions, incapable of the least, attempt on Passau (as Friedrich
urged, on hearing of him again); and will have to canton himself in
home-quarters, and live by his shifts till Spring.
"The noise of French censure rises loud, against not themselves,
but against Seckendorf:--Friedrich, before that Tolpatch eclipse of
Correspondence [when three of his Letter-bags were seized, and he fell
quite dark], had too well foreboded, and contemptuously expressed his
astonishment at the blame BOTH were well earning: Passau, said he,
cannot you go at least upon Passau; which might alarm the Enemy a
little, and drag him homewards? 'Adieu, my dear Seckendorf, your Officer
will tell you how we did the Siege of Prag. You and your French are
wetted hens (POULES MOUILLEES),'--cowering about like drenched hens in a
day of set rain. 'As I hear nothing of either of you, I must try to get
out of this business without your help;'"--otherwise it will be ill for
me indeed! [Excerpted Fragment of a Letter from Friedrich,--(exact
date not given, date of EXCERPT is, Donanworth Country, 23d September,
1744),--which the French Agent in Seckendorf's Army had a reading of
(_Campagnes de Coigny,_ iv. 185-187; ib. 216-219: cited in Adelung, iv.
225).] "Which latter expression alarmed the French, and set them upon
writing and bustling, but not upon doing anything."
"Prince Karl had crossed the Rhine unmolested, in the clearest
moonlight, August 23d-24th; Seckendorf was not wholly got to Heilbronn,
September 8th: a pretty way behind Prince Karl! The 6,000 Hessians,
formerly in English pay, indignant Landgraf Wilhelm [who never could
forgive that Machiavellian conduct of Carteret at Hanau, never till he
found out what it really was] has, this year, put into French pay. And
they have now joined Seckendorf; [Espagnac, ii. 13; Buchholz, ii. 123.]
Prince Friedrich [Britannic Majesty's Son-in-law], not good fat Uncle
George, commanding them henceforth:--with extreme lack of profit to
Prince Friedrich, to the Hessians, and to the French, as will appear in
time. These 6,000, and certain thousands of Pfalzers likewise in French
pay, are now with Seckendorf, and have raised him to above 30,000;--it
is the one fruit King Friedrich has got by that 'Union of Frankfurt,'
and by all his long prospective haggling, and struggling for a 'Union
of German Princes in general.' Two pears, after that long shaking of
the tree; both pears rotten, or indeed falling into Seckendorf, who is
a basket of such quality! 'Seckendorf, increased in this munificent
manner, can he still do nothing?' cry the French: 'the old traitor!'--'I
have no magazines,' said Seckendorf, 'nothing to live upon, to shoot
with; no money!' And it is a mutual crescendo between the 'perfidious
Seckendorf' and them; without work done. In the Nurnberg Country, some
Hussars of his picked up Lord Holderness, an English Ambassador making
for Venice by that bad route. 'Prisoner, are not you?' But they did not
use him ill; on consideration, the Heads of Imperial Departments gave
him a Pass, and he continued his Venetian Journey (result of it zero)
without farther molestation that I heard of. [Adelung, iv. 222.]
"These French-Seckendorf cunctations, recriminations and drenched-hen
procedures are an endless sorrow to poor Kaiser Karl; who at length
can stand it no longer; but resolves, since at least Bavaria, though
moneyless and in ruins, is his, he will in person go thither; confident
that there will be victual and equipment discoverable for self and Army
were he there. Remonstrances avail not: 'Ask me to die with honor, ask
me not to lie rotting here;' [Ib. iv. 241.]--and quits Frankfurt, and
the Reich's-Diet and its babble, 17th October, 1744 (small sorrow, were
it for the last time),--and enters his Munchen in the course of a week.
[17th October, 1744, leaves Frankfurt; arrives in Munchen 23d (Adelung,
iv. 241-244).] Munchen is transported with joy to see the Legitimate
Sovereign again; and blazes into illuminations,--forgetful who caused
its past wretchednesses, hoping only all wretchedness is now ended.
Let ruined huts, and Cham and the burnt Towns, rebuild themselves; the
wasted hedges make up their gaps again: here is the King come home!
Here, sure enough, is an unfortunate Kaiser of the Holy Romish Reich,
who can once more hope to pay his milk-scores, being a loved Kurfurst of
Bavaria at least. Very dear to the hearts of these poor people;--and
to their purses, interests and skins, has not he in another sense been
dear? What a price the ambitions and cracked phantasms of that weak
brain have cost the seemingly innocent population! Population harried,
hungered down, dragged off to perish in Italian Wars; a Country burnt,
tribulated, torn to ruin, under the harrow of Fate and ruffian Trenck
and Company. Britannic George, rather a dear morsel too, has come
much cheaper hitherto. England is not yet burnt; nothing burning
there,--except the dull fire of deliriums; Natural Stupidities all set
flaming, which (whatever it may BE in the way of loss) is not felt as a
loss, but rather as a comfort for the time being;--and in fact there are
only, say, a forty or fifty thousand armed Englishmen rotted down, and
scarcely a Hundred Millions of money yet spent. Nothing to speak of,
in the cause of Human Liberty. Why Populations suffer for their guilty
Kings? My friend, it is the Populations too that are guilty in having
such Kings. Reverence, sacred Respect for Human Worth, sacred Abhorrence
of Human Unworth, have you considered what it means? These poor
Populations have it not, or for long generations have had it less and
less. Hence, by degrees, this sort of 'Kings' to them, and enormous
consequences following!"--
Karl VII. got back to Munchen 23d October, 1744; and the tar-barrels
being once burnt, and indispensable sortings effected, he went to the
field along with Seckendorf, to encourage his men under Seckendorf, and
urge the French by all considerations to come on. And really did what
he could, poor man. But the cordage of his life had been so strained and
torn, he was not now good for much; alas, it had been but little he was
ever good for. A couple of dear Kurfursts, his Father and he; have stood
these Bavarian Countries very high, since the Battle of Blenheim and
downwards!