To the Court of Vienna, especially to the Hungarian Majesty, this
wonderful reconquest of Bohemia, without battle fought,--or any cause
assignable but Traun's excellent manoeuvring and Friedrich's imprudences
and trust in the French,--was a thing of heavenly miracle; blessed omen
that Providence had vouchsafed to her prayers the recovery of Silesia
itself. All the world was crowing over Friedrich: but her Majesty of
Hungary's views had risen to a clearly higher pitch of exultation
and triumphant hope, terrestrial and celestial, than any other living
person's. "Silesia back again," that was now the hope and resolution of
her Majesty's high heart: "My wicked neighbor shall be driven out, and
smart dear for the ill he has done; Heaven so wills it!" "Very little
uplifts the Austrians," says Valori; which is true, under such a Queen;
"and yet there is nothing that can crush them altogether down," adds he.
No sooner is Bohemia cleared of Friedrich, than Maria, winter as it is,
orders that there be, through the Giant-Mountains, vigorous assault upon
Silesia. Highland snows and ices, what are these to Pandour people,
who, at their first entrance on the scene of History, "crossed the
Palus-Maeotis itself [Father of Quagmires, so to speak] in a frozen
state," and were sufficiently accommodated each in his own dirty
sheepskin? "Prosecute the King of Prussia," ordered she; "take your
winter-quarters in Silesia!"--and Traun, in spite of the advanced
season, and prior labors and hardships, had to try, from the
southwestern Bohemian side, what he could do; while a new Insurrection,
coming through the Jablunka, spread itself over the southeast and east.
Seriously invasive multitudes; which were an unpleasant surprise to
Friedrich; and did, as we shall see, require to be smitten back again,
and re-smitten; making a very troublesome winter to the Prussians and
themselves; but by no means getting winter-quarters, as they once hoped.
In a like sense, Maria Theresa had already (December 2d) sent forth
her Manifesto or Patent, solemnly apprising her ever-faithful Silesian
Populations, "That the Treaty of Breslau, not by her fault, is broken;
palpably a Treaty no longer. That they, accordingly, are absolved
from all oaths and allegiance to the King of Prussia; and shall hold
themselves in readiness to swear anew to her Majesty, which will be
a great comfort to such faithful creatures; suffering, as her Majesty
explains to them that they have done, under Prussian tyranny for these
two years past. Immediate dead-lift effort there shall be; that is
certain: and 'the Almighty God assisting, who does not leave such
injustices unpunished, We have the fixed Christian hope, Omnipotence
blessing our arms, of almost immediately (EHESTENS) delivering you from
this temporary Bondage (BISHERIGEN JOCH).' You can pray, in the mean
while, for the success of her Majesty's arms; good fighting, aided by
prayer, in a Cause clearly Heaven's, will now, to appearance, bring
matters swiftly round again, to the astonishment and confusion of
bad men." [In _Helden-Geschichte,_ ii. 1194-1198; Ib. 1201-1206, is
Friedrich's Answer, "19th December, 1744."]
These are her Majesty's views; intensely true, I doubt not, to her
devout heart. Robinson and the English seem not to be enthusiastic in
that direction; as indeed how can they? They would fain be tender of
Silesia, which they have guaranteed; fain, now and afterwards, restrain
her Majesty from driving at such a pace down hill: but the declivity is
so encouraging, her Majesty is not to be restrained, and goes faster
and faster for the time being. And indeed, under less devout forms, the
general impression, among Pragmatic people, Saxon, Austrian, British
even, was, That Friedrich had pretty much ruined himself, and deserved
to do so; that this of his being mere "Auxiliary" to a Kaiser in
distress was an untenable pretext, now justly fallen bankrupt upon him.
The evident fact, That he had by his "Frankfurt Union," and struggles
about "union," reopened the door for French tribulations and
rough-ridings in the Reich, was universally distasteful; all chance of
a "general union of German Princes, in aid of their Kaiser," was extinct
for the present.
Friedrich's rapidity had served him ill with the Public, in this as
in some other instances! Friedrich, contemplating his situation, not
self-delusively, but with the candor of real remorse, was by no means
yet aware how very bad it was. For six months coming, partly as existing
facts better disclosed themselves, as France, Saxony and others showed
what spirit they were of; partly as new sinister events and facts
arrived one after the other,--his outlook continued to darken and
darken, till it had become very dark indeed. There is perennially the
great comfort, immense if you can manage it, of making front against
misfortune; of looking it frankly in the face, and doing with a
resolution, hour by hour, your own utmost against it. Friedrich never
lacked that comfort; and was not heard complaining. But from December
13th, 1744, when he hastened home to Berlin, under such aspects, till
June 4th, 1745, when aspects suddenly changed, are probably the worst
six months Friedrich had yet had in the world. During which, his affairs
all threatening to break down about him, he himself, behooving to stand
firm if the worst was not to realize itself, had to draw largely on
what silent courage, or private inexpugnability of mind, was in him,--a
larger instalment of that royal quality (as I compute) than the Fates
had ever hitherto demanded of him. Ever hitherto; though perhaps nothing
like the largest of all, which they had upon their Books for him, at a
farther stage! As will be seen. For he was greatly drawn upon in that
way, in his time. And he paid always; no man in his Century so well; few
men, in any Century, better. As perhaps readers may be led to guess or
acknowledge, on surveying and considering. To see, and sympathetically
recognize, cannot be expected of modern readers, in the present great
distance, and changed conditions of men and things.
Friedrich, after despatching Nassau to cut out Einsiedel, had delivered
the Silesian Army to the Old Dessauer, who is to command in chief during
Winter; and had then hastened to Berlin,--many things there urgently
requiring his presence; preparations, reparations, not to speak of
diplomacies, and what was the heaviest item of all, new finance for the
coming exertions. In Schweidnitz, on Leopold's appearance, there had
been an interview, due consultings, orderings; which done, Friedrich at
once took the road; and was at Berlin, Monday, December 14th,--precisely
in the time while Nassau and Einsiedel were marching with torchlights in
Rubezahl's Country, and near ending their difficult enterprise better or
worse.
Friedrich, fastening eagerly on Home business, is astonished and
provoked to learn that the Austrians, not content with pushing him
out of Bohmen, are themselves pushing into Schlesien,--so Old Leopold
reports, with increasing emphasis day by day; to whom Friedrich sends
impatient order: Hurl them out again; gather what force you need, ten
thousand, or were it twenty or thirty thousand, and be immediate about
it; "I will as soon be pitched (HERAUSGESCHMISSEN) out of the Mark of
Brandenburg as out of Schlesien:" no delay, I tell you! And as the Old
Dessauer still explains that the ten or fifteen thousand he needs are
actually assembling, and cannot be got on march quite in a moment,
Friedrich dashes away his incipient Berlin Operations; will go himself
and do it. Haggle no more, you tedious Old Dessauer:--
BERLIN, "19th DECEMBER," 1744. "On the 21st [Monday, one week after
my arriving], I leave Berlin, and mean to be at Neisse on the 24th at
latest. Your Serenity will in the interim make out the Order-of-Battle
[which is also Order-of-March] for what regiments are come in. For I
will, on the 25th, without delay, cross the Neisse, and attack those
people, cost what it may,--to chase them out of Schlesien and Glatz, and
follow them so far as possible. Your Serenity will therefore take your
measures, and provide everything, so far as in this short time you can,
that the project may be executable the moment I arrive." [Friedrich to
the Old Dessauer (_Orlich,_ ii. 356).]
And rushed off accordingly, in a somewhat flamy humor; but at
Schweidnitz, where the Old Dessauer met him again, became convinced that
the matter was weightier than he thought; not one of Tolpatchery alone,
but had Traun himself in it. Upon which Friedrich candidly drew bridle;
hastened back, and, with a loss of four days, was at his Potsdam Affairs
again. To which he stuck henceforth, ardently, and I think rather with
increase of gloom, though without spurt of impatience farther, for three
months to come. Before his return,--nay, had he known, it was the
night before he went away,--a strange little thing had happened in the
opposite or Western parts: surprising accident to Marechal de Belleisle;
which now lies waiting his immediate consideration. But let us finish
Silesia first.
OLD DESSAUER REPELS THE SILESIAN INVASION (Winter, 1744-45).
"This Silesian Affair includes due inroad of Pandours; or indeed
two inroads, southwest and southeast; and in the southwest, or Traun
quarter, regulars are the main element of it. Traun, 20,000 strong, PLUS
stormy-enough Pandour ACCOMPANIMENT, is by this time through into Glatz;
in three columns;--is master of all Glatz, except the Rock-Fortress
itself; and has spread himself, right and left, along the Neisse River,
and from the southwest northwards, in a skilful and dangerous manner. In
concert with whom, far to the east, are Pandour whirlwinds on their own
footing (brand-new 'Insurrection' of them, got thus far) starting from
Olmutz and Brunn; scouring that eastern country, as far as Namslau
northward [a place we were at the taking of, in old Brieg times]; much
more, infesting the Mountains of the South. A rather serious thing; with
Traun for general manager of it."
With Traun, we say: poor Prince Karl is off, weeks ago; on the saddest
of errands. His beautiful young Wife,--Hungarian Majesty's one Sister,
Vice-Regents of the Netherlands he and she, conspicuous among the bright
couples of the world,--she had a bad lying-in (child still-born), while
those grand Moldau Operations went on; has been ill, poor lady, ever
since; and, at Brussels, on December 16th, she herself lies dead, Prince
Karl weeping over her and the days that will not return. Prince Karl's
felicities, private and public, had been at their zenith lately, which
was very high indeed; but go on declining from this day. Never more the
Happiest of Husbands (did not wed again at all); still less the Greatest
of Captains, equal or superior to Caesar in the Gazetteer judgment, with
distracted EULOGIES, BIOGRAPHIES and such like filling the air: before
long, a War-Captain of quite moderate renown; which we shall see
sink gradually into no renown at all, and even (unjustly) into MINUS
quantities, before all end. A mad world, my masters!
"Between Traun on the southwest hand, and his Pandours on the southeast,
the small Prussian posts have all been driven in upon Troppau-Jagerndorf
region; more and more narrowed there;--and, in fine (two days before
this new Interview of Leopold and the impatient King at Schweidnitz),
have had to quit the Troppau-Jagerndorf position; to quit the Hills
altogether, and are now in full march towards Brieg. Of which march I
should say nothing, were it not that Marwitz, Father of Wilhelmina's
giggling Marmitzes, commanded;--and came by his death in the course of
it; though our Wilhelmina is not now there, pen in hand, to tell us
what the effects at Baireuth were. Marwitz had been left for dead on
the Field of Mollwitz; lay so all night, but was nursed to some kind
of strength again by those giggling young women; and came back to
Schlesien, to posts of chief trust, for the last year or two,--was
guarding the Mountains, and even invading Mahren, during the late
Campaign;--but saw himself reduced latterly to Jagerndorf and Troppau;
and had even to retreat out of these. And in the whirlpool of hurries
thereupon,--how is not very clear; by apoplexy, say some; by accidental
pistol from a servant of his own; in actual skirmish with Pandours,--too
certainly, one way or the other, on December 23d (just during that
second Interview at Schweidnitz), brave old Marwitz did suddenly sink
dead, and is ended. [_Helden-Geschichte,_ ii. 1201.] Even so, ye poor
giggling creatures, and your loud weeping will not mend it at all!
"Friedrich, looking candidly into these phenomena, could not but see
that: what with Tolpatcheries, what with Traun's 20,000 regulars, and
the whole Army at their back, his Silesian Border is girt in by a very
considerable inroad of Austrians,--huge Chain of them, in horse-shoe
form, 300 miles long, pressing in; from beyond Glatz and Landshut, round
by the southern Mountains, and up eastward again as far as Namslau,
nothing but war whirlwinds in regular or irregular form, in the centre
of them Traun;--and that the Old Dessauer really must have time to gird
himself for dealing with Traun and them.
"It was not till January 9th that Old Leopold, 25,000 strong, equipped
to his mind, which was a difficult matter, crossed the Neisse River;
and marched direct upon Traun, with Ziethen charging ahead. Actually
marched; after which the main wrestle was done in a week. January 16th,
Old Leopold got to Jagerndorf; found the actual Traun concentrated at
Jagerndorf; and drew up, to be ready for assault to-morrow morning,--had
not Traun, candidly computing, judged it better to glide wholly away in
the night-time, diligently towards Mahren, breaking the bridges behind
him. And so, in effect, to give up the Silesian Invasion for this time.
After which, though there remained a good deal of rough tussling with
Pandour details, and some rugged exploits of fight, there is--except
that of Lehwald in clearing of Glatz--nothing farther that we can afford
to speak of. Lehwald's exploit, Lehwald VERSUS Wallis (same Wallis who
defended Glogau long since), which came to be talked of, and got name
and date, 'Action of Habelschwert, February 14th,' something almost like
a pitched fight on the small scale, is to the following effect:--
"PLOMNITZ, NEAR HABELSCHWERT, 14th FEBRUARY, 1745. Old General Lehwald,
marching in the hollow ground near Habelschwert (hollow of the young
Neisse River, twenty miles south of Glatz), with intent to cut that
Country free; the Enemy, whom he is in search of, appears in great
force,--posted on the uphill ground ahead, half-frozen difficult stream
in front of them, cannon on flank, Pandour multitude in woods; all
things betokening inexpugnability on the part of the Enemy. So that
Lehwald has to take his measures; study well where the vital point is,
the root of that extensive Austrian junglery, and cut in upon the same.
By considerable fire of effort, the uphill ground, half-frozen stream,
sylvan Pandours, cannon-batteries, and what inexpugnabilities there may
be, are subdued; Austrian wide junglery, the root of it slit asunder
rolls homeward simultaneously, not too fast: nay it halted, and
re-ranked itself twice over, finding woods and quaggy runlets to its
mind; but was always slit out again, disrooted, and finally tumbled
home, having had enough. 'Wenzel Wallis,' Friedrich asserts with due
scorn, 'was all this while in a Chapel; praying ardently,' to St.
Vitus, or one knows not whom; 'without effect; till they shouted to him,
"Beaten, Sir! Off, or you are lost!" upon which he sprang to saddle, and
spurred with both heels (PIQUA DES DEUX).' [ _OEuvres de Frederic,_ iii.
79. 80.] That was the feat of Lehwald, clearing the Glatz Country with
one good cut: a skilful Captain; now getting decidedly oldish, close on
sixty; whom we shall meet again a dozen years hence, still in harness.
"The old Serene Highness himself, face the color of gun-powder, and
bluer in the winter frost, went rushing far and wide in an open vehicle,
which he called his 'cart;' pushing out detachments, supervising
everything; wheeling hither and thither as needful; sweeping out the
Pandour world, and keeping it out: not much of fighting needed, but 'a
great deal of marching [murmurs Friedrich], which in winter is as bad,
and wears down the force of the battalions.' Of all which we give no
detail: sufficient to fancy, in this manner, the Old Dessauer flapping
his wide military wings in the faces of the Pandour hordes, with here
and there a hard twitch from beak or claws; tolerably keeping down the
Pandour interest all Winter. His sons, Leopold and Dietrich, were under
him, occasionally beside him; the Junior Leopold so worn down with
feverish gout he could hardly sit on horseback at all, while old
Papa went tearing about in his cart at that rate." [_Unternehmung in
Ober-Schlesien, unter dem Fursten Leopold von Anhalt-Dessau, im Januar
und Februar,_ 1745 (Seyfarth, _Beylage,_ i. 141-152); Stenzel, iv. 232;
&c.]
There was, on the 21st of February, TE-DEUM sung in the churches of
Berlin "for the Deliverance of Silesia from Invasion." Not that even
yet the Pandours would be quite quiet, or allow Old Leopold to quit his
cart; far from it. And they returned in such increased and
tempestuous state, as will again require mention, with the earliest
Spring:--precursors to a second, far more serious and deadly "Invasion
of Silesia;" for which it hangs yet on the balance whether there will be
a TE-DEUM or a MISERERE to sing!
Hungarian Majesty, disappointed of Silesia,--which, it seems, is not to
be had "all at once (EHESTENS)," in the form of miracle,--makes amends
by a rush upon Seckendorf and Bavaria; attacks Seckendorf furiously
("Bathyani pressing up the Donau Valley, with Browne on one hand, and
Barenklau on the other") in midwinter; and makes a terrible hand of him;
reducing his "Reconquest of Bavaria" to nothing again, nay to less. Of
which in due time.
THE FRENCH FULLY INTEND TO BEHAVE BETTER NEXT SEASON TO FRIEDRICH AND
THEIR GERMAN ALLIES;--BUT ARE PREVENTED BY VARIOUS ACCIDENTS (November,
1744-April, 1745; April-August, 1745).
It is not divine miracle, Friedrich knows well, that has lost him his
late Bohemian Conquests without battle fought: it was rash choosing of
a plan inexecutable without French co-operation,--culpable blindness to
the chance that France would break its promises, and not co-operate. Had
your Majesty forgotten the Joint-Stock Principle, then? His Majesty has
sorrowful cause to remember it, from this time, on a still larger scale!
Reflections, indignant or exculpatory, on the conduct of the French in
this Business are useless to Friedrich, and to us. The performance, on
their part, has been nearly the worst;--though their intentions,
while the Austrian Dragon had them by the throat, were doubtless
enthusiastically good! But, the big Austrian Dragon being jerked away
from Elsass, by Friedrich's treading on his tail, 500 miles off, they
were charmed, quite into new enthusiasm, to be rid of said Dragon: and,
instead of chasing HIM according to bargain, took to destroying his DEN,
that he might be harmless thenceforth. Freyburg is a captured Town, to
the joy and glory of admiring France; and Friedrich's Campaign has gone
the road we see! The Freyburg Illuminations having burnt out,
there might rise, in the triumphant mind, some thought of Friedrich
again,--perhaps almost of a remorseful nature? Certain it is, the French
intentions are now again magnanimous, more so than ever; coupled now
with some attempts at fulfilment, too; which obliges us to mention them
here. They were still a matter of important hope to Friedrich; hope
which did not quite go out till August coming. Though, alas, it did then
go out, in gusts of indignation on Friedrich's part! And as the whole of
these magnanimous French intentions, latter like former, again came to
zero, we are interested only in rendering them conceivable to readers
for Friedrich's sake,--with the more brevity, the better for everybody.
Two grand French Attempts there were; listen, on the threshold, a
little:--
... "It is certain the French intend gloriously; regardless of expense.
They are dismantling Freyburg, to render it harmless henceforth. But,
withal, in answer to the poor Kaiser's shrieks, they have sent Segur
[our old Linz friend], with 12,000, to assist Seckendorf; 'the
bravest troops in the world,'"--who did bravely take one beating (at
Pfaffenhofen, as will be seen), and go home again. ("They have Coigny
guarding those fine Brisgau Conquests. And are furthermore diplomatizing
diligently, not to say truculently, in the Rhine Countries; bullying
poor little fat Kur-Trier, lean Kur-Koln and others, 'To join the
Frankfurt Union' not one of whom would, under menace),--though 'it
is the clear duty of all Reich's-Princes with a Kaiser under
oppression:'--and have marched Maillebois, directly after Freyburg, into
the Middle-Rhine Countries, to Koln Country, to Mainz Country, and to
and fro, in support of said compulsory diplomacies;--but without the
least effect."
To the "Middle-Rhine Countries," observe, and under Maillebois, then
under Conti, little matter under whom: only let readers recollect the
name of it;--for it is the FIRST of the French Attempts to do something
of a joint-stock nature; something for self AND Allies, instead of for
self only. It caused great alarm in those months, to Britannic George
and others; and brought out poor Duc d'Ahremberg with portions (no
English included) of the poor Pragmatic Army, to go marching about in
the winter slushes, instead of resting in bed, [Adelung, iv. 276, 420
("December, 1744-June, 1745").]--and is indeed a very loud business in
the old Gazettes and books, till August coming. Business which almost
broke poor D'Ahremberg's heart, he says, "till once I got out of
it" (was TURNED out, in fact): Business of Pragmatic Army, under
D'Ahremberg, VERSUS Middle-Rhine Army under Maillebois, under Conti;
Business now wholly of Zero VERSUS Zero to us,--except for a few dates
and reflex glimmerings upon King Friedrich. Result otherwise--We shall
see the Result!
"Attempt SECOND was still more important to Friedrich; being directed
upon the Kaiser and Bavaria. Belleisle is to go thither and take survey;
Belleisle thither first: you may judge if the intention is sincere!
Valori is quite eloquent upon it. Directly after Freyburg, says he,
Sechelles, that first of Commissaries, was sent to Munchen. Sechelles
cleared up the chaos of Accounts; which King Louis then instantly
paid. 'Your Imperial Majesty shall have Magazines also,' said Louis,
regardless of expense; 'and your Army, with auxiliaries (Segur and
25,000 of them French), shall be raised to 60,000.' Belleisle then came:
'We will have Ingolstadt, the first thing, in Spring.' Alas, Belleisle
had his Accident in the Harz; and all went aback, from that time."
[Valori, i. 322-329.] Aback, too indisputably, all!--"And Belleisle's
Accident?" Patience, readers.
"The truth is, Attempt SECOND, and chief, broke down at once [Bathyani
beating it to pieces, as will be seen],--the ruins of it painfully
reacting on Attempt FIRST; which had the like fate some months
later;--and there was no THIRD made. And, in fact, from the date of that
latter down-break, August, or end of July, 1745 [and quite especially
from "September 13th," by which time several irrevocable things had
happened, which we shall hear of], the French withdrew altogether out of
German entanglements; and concentrated themselves upon the Netherlands,
there to demolish his Britannic Majesty, as the likelier enterprise.
This was a course to which, ever since the Exit of Broglio and the
Oriflamme, they had been more and more tending and inclining, 'Nothing
for us but loss on loss, to be had in Germany!' and so they at last
frankly gave up that bad Country. They fought well in the Netherlands,
with great splendor of success, under Saxe VERSUS Cumberland and
Company. They did also some successful work in Italy;--and left
Friedrich to bear the brunt in Germany; too glad if he or another
were there to take Germany off their hand! Friedrich's feelings on his
arriving at this consummation, and during his gradual advance towards
it, which was pretty steady all along from those first 'drenched-hen
(POULES MOUILLEES)' procedures, were amply known to Excellency Valori,
and may be conceived by readers,"--who are slightly interested in the
dates of them at farthest. And now for the Belleisle Accident, with
these faint preliminary lights.
STRANGE ACCIDENT TO MARECHAL DE BELLEISLE IN THE HARZ MOUNTAINS (20th
December, 1744).
Siege of Freyburg being completed, and the River and most other things
(except always the bastions, which we blow up) being let into their old
channels there, Marechal de Belleisle, who is to have a chief management
henceforth,--the Most Christian King recognizing him again as his ablest
man in war or peace,--sets forth on a long tour of supervision, of
diplomacy and general arrangement, to prepare matters for the next
Campaign. Need enough of a Belleisle: what a business we have made of
it, since Friedrich trod on the serpent's tail for us.! Nothing but
our own Freyburg to show for ourselves; elsewhere, mere down-rush of
everything whitherward it liked;--and King Friedrich got into such a
humor! Friedrich must be put in tune again; something real and good to
be agreed on at Berlin: let that be the last thing, crown of the whole.
The first thing is, look into Bavaria a little; and how the Kaiser,
poor gentleman, in want of all requisites but good-will, can be put into
something of fighting posture.
"In the end of November, Marechal Duc de Belleisle, with his Brother the
Chevalier (now properly the Count, there having been promotions), and
a great retinue more, alights at Munchen; holds counsel with the poor
Kaiser for certain days:--Money wanted; many things wanted; and all
things, we need not doubt, much fallen out of square. 'Those Seckendorf
troops in their winter-quarters,' say our French Inspectors and Segur
people, as usual, 'do but look on it, your Excellency! Scattered, along
the valleys, into the very edge of Austria; Austria will swallow them,
the first thing, next year; they will never rendezvous again except in
the Austrian prisons. Surely, Monseigneur, only a man ignorant of war,
or with treasonous intention [or ill-off for victuals],--could post
troops in that way? Seckendorf is not ignorant of war!' say they.
[Valori, i. 206.] For, in fact, suspicion runs high; and there is no end
to the accusations just and unjust; and Seckendorf is as ill treated as
any of us could wish. Poor old soul. Probably nobody in all the Earth,
but his old Wife in the Schloss of Altenburg, has any pity for him,--if
even she, which I hope. He has fought and diplomatized and intrigued
in many countries, very much; and in his old days is hard bested.
Monseigueur, whose part is rather that of Jove the Cloud-compeller,
is studious to be himself noiseless amid this noise; and makes no
alteration in the Seckendorf troops; but it is certain he meant to do
it, thinks Valori."
And indeed Seckendorf, tired of the Bavarian bed-of-roses, had privately
fixed with himself to quit the same;--and does so, inexorable to the
very Kaiser, on New-Year arriving. [_Seckendorfs Leben,_ p. 365.]
Succeeded by Thorring (our old friend DRUM Thorring), if that be an
improvement. Marechal de Belleisle has still a long journey ahead,
and infinitely harder problems than these,--assuagement of the King of
Prussia, for example. Let us follow his remarkable steps.
"WEDNESDAY, 9th DECEMBER, 1744, the Marechal leaves Munchen,
northwards through OEttingen and the Bamberg-Anspach regions towards
Cassel;--journey of some three hundred and fifty miles: with a great
retinue of his own; with an escort of two hundred horse from the Kaiser;
these latter to prevent any outfall or insult in the Ingolstadt quarter,
where the Austrians have a garrison, not at all very tightly blocked by
the Seckendorf people thereabouts. No insult or outfall occurring, the
Marechal dismisses his escort at OEttingen; fares forward in his twenty
coaches and fourgons, some score or so of vehicles:--mere neutral
Imperial Countries henceforth, where the Kaiser's Agent, as Marechal
de Belleisle can style himself, and Titular Prince of the German Empire
withal, has only to pay his way. By Donauworth, by OEttingen; over
the Donau acclivities, then down the pleasant Valley of the Mayn. [See
REVIEW OF THE CASE OF MARSHAL BELLEISLE (or Abstract of it, _Gentleman's
Magazine,_ 1745, pp. 366-373); &c. &c.]
"SUNDAY, 13th DECEMBER, Marechal de Belleisle arrives at Hanau [where
we have seen Conferences held before now, and Carteret, Prince Karl and
great George our King very busy], there to confer with Marshals Coigny,
Maillebois and other high men, Commanders in those Rhine parts. Who
all come accordingly, except Marechal Maillebois, who is sorry that he
absolutely cannot; but will surely do himself the honor as Monseigneur
returns." As Monseigneur returns! "And so, on Monday, 14th, Monseigneur
starts for Cassel; say a hundred miles right north; where we shall meet
Prince Wilhelm of Hessen-Cassel, a zealous Ally; inform him how his
Troops, under Seckendorf, are posted [at Vilshofen yonder; hiding how
perilous their post is, or promising alterations]; perhaps rest a day or
two, consulting as to the common weal: How the King of Prussia takes
our treatment of him? How to smooth the King of Prussia, and turn him
to harmony again? We are approaching the true nodus of our business,
difficulty of difficulties; and Wilhelm, the wise Landgraf, may afford
a hint or two. Thus travels magnanimous Belleisle in twenty vehicles, a
man loaded with weighty matters, in these deep Winter months; suffering
dreadfully from rheumatic neuralgic ailments, a Doctor one of his
needfulest equipments; and has the hardest problem yet ahead of him.
"Prince Wilhelm's consultations are happily lost altogether; buried from
sight forever, to the last hint,--all except as to what road to Berlin
would be the best from Cassel. By Leipzig, through low-lying country, is
the great Highway, advisable in winter; but it runs a hundred and thirty
miles to right, before ever starting northward; such a roundabout. Not
to say that the Saxons are allies of Austria,--if there be anything in
that. Enemies, they, to the Most Christian King: though surely, again,
we are on Kaiser's business, nay we are titular 'Prince of the Reich,'
for that matter, such the Kaiser's grace to us? Well; it is better
perhaps to AVOID the Saxon Territory. And, of course, the Hanoverian
much more; through which lies the other Great Road! 'Go by the Harz,'
advises Landgraf Wilhelm: 'a rugged Hill Country; but it is your
hypotenuse towards Berlin; passes at once, or nearly so, from Cassel
Territory into Prussian: a rugged road, but a shorter and safer.' That
is the road Belleisle resolves upon. Twenty carriages; his Brother the
Chevalier and himself occupy one; and always the courier rides before,
ordering forty post-horses to be ready harnessed.
"SUNDAY, 20th DECEMBER, 1744. In this way they have climbed the eastern
shin of the Harz Range, where the Harz is capable of wheel-carriages;
and hope now to descend, this night, to Halberstadt; and thence rapidly
by level roads to Berlin. It is sinking towards dark; the courier is
forward to Elbingerode, ordering forty horses to be out. Roughish
uphill road; winter in the sky and earth, winter vapors and tumbling
wind-gusts: westward, in torn storm-cloak, the Bracken, with its
witch-dances; highland Goslar, and ghost of Henry the Fowler, on the
other side of it. A multifarious wizard Country, much overhung by goblin
reminiscences, witch-dances, sorcerers'-sabbaths and the like,--if a
rheumatic gentleman cared to look on it, in the cold twilight. Brrh!
Waste chasmy uplands, snow-choked torrents; wild people, gloomy firs!
Here at last, by one's watch 5 P.M., is Elbingerode, uncomfortable
little Town; and it is to be hoped the forty post-horses are ready.
"Behold, while the forty post-horses are getting ready, a thing takes
place, most unexpected;--which made the name of Elbingerode famous for
eight months to come. Of which let us hastily give the bare facts,
Fancy making of them what she can. Was Monseigneur aware that this
Elbingerode, with a patch of territory round it, is Hanoverian ground;
one of those distracted patches or ragged outskirts frequent in the
German map? Prussia is not yet, and Hessen-Cassel has ceased to be.
Undoubtedly Hanoverian! Apparently the Landgraf and Monseigneur had not
thought of that. But Munchhausen of Hanover, spies informing him,
had. The Bailiff (Vogt, AdVOCATus) has gathered twenty JAGER [official
Game-keepers] with their guns, and a select idle Sunday population of
the place with or without guns: the Vogt steps forward, and inquires for
Monseigneur's passport. 'No passport, no need of any!'--'Pardon!' and
signifies to Monseigneur, on the part of George Elector of Hanover, King
of Great Britain, France and Ireland, that Monseigneur is arrested!
"Monseigneur, with compressed or incompressible feelings, indignantly
complies,--what could he else, unfortunate rheumatic gentleman?--and is
plucked away in such sudden manner, he for one, out of that big German
game of his raising. The twenty vehicles are dragged different roads;
towards Scharzfels, Osterode, or I know not where,--handiest roads to
Hanover;--and Monseigneur himself has travelling treatment which might
be complained of, did not one disdain complaint: 'my Brother parted from
me, nay my Doctor, and my Interpreter;'"--not even speech possible to
me. [Letter of Belleisle next morning, "Neuhof, 21st December, 9 A.M."
(in _Valori,_ i. 204), to Munchhausen at Hanover,--by no possibility
"to Valori," as the distracted French Editor has given it!] That was the
Belleisle Accident in the Harz, Sunday Evening, 20th December, 1744.
"Afflicted indignant Valori, soon enough apprised, runs to Friedrich
with the news,--greets Friedrich with it just alighting from that
Silesian run of his own. Friedrich, not without several other things to
think of, is naturally sorry at such news; sorry for his own sake even;
but not overmuch. Friedrich refuses 'to despatch a party of horse,' and
cut out Marechal de Belleisle. "That will never do, MON CHER!'--and even
gets into FROIDES PLAISANTERIES: 'Perhaps the Marechal did it
himself? Tallard, prisoner after Blenheim, made PEACE, you know, in
England?'--and the like; which grieved the soul of Valori, and convinced
him of Friedrich's inhumanity, in a crying case.
"Belleisle is lugged on to Hanover; his case not doubtful to
Munchhausen, or the English Ministry,--though it raised great argument,
(was the capture fair, was it unfair? Is he entitled to exchange by
cartel, or not entitled?' and produced, in the next eight months, much
angry animated pamphleteering and negotiation. For we hear by and by,
he is to be forwarded to Stade, on the Hamburg sea-coast, where English
Seventy-fours are waiting for him; his case still undecided;--and,
in effect, it was not till after eight months that he got dismissal.
'Lodged handsomely in Windsor Palace,' in the interim; free on his
parole, people of rank very civil to him, though the Gazetteers were
sometimes ill-tongued,--had he understood their PATOIS, or concerned
himself about such things
["TUESDAY, 18th FEBRUARY [1st March, 1745], Marshal Belleisle landed at
Harwich; lay at Greenwich Palace, having crossed Thames at the Isle of
Dogs: next morning, about 10, set out, in a coach-and-six, Colonel
Douglas and two troops of horse escorting; arrived 3 P.M.,--by
Camberwell, Clapham, Wandsworth, over Kingston and Staines Bridges,--at
Windsor Castle, and the apartments ready for him." (_Gentleman's
Magazine,_ 1745, p 107.) Was let go 13th (24th) August, again with great
pomp and civilities (ib. p. 442). See Adelung, iv. 299, 346; v. 83, 84.]
"It was a current notion among contemporary mankind, this of Friedrich,
that Belleisle's capture might be a mere collusion, meant to bring about
a Peace in that Tallard fashion,--wide of the truth as such a notion
is, far as any Peace was from following. To Britannic George and his
Hanoverians it had merely seemed, Here was a chief War-Captain and
Diplomatist among the French; the pivot of all these world-wide
movements, as Valori defines him; which pivot, a chance offering, it
were well to twitch from its socket, and see what would follow. Perhaps
nothing will follow; next to nothing? A world, all waltzing in mad war,
is not to be stopped by acting on any pivot; your waltzing world will
find new pivots, or do without any, and perhaps only waltz the more
madly for wanting the principal one."
This withdrawal of Belleisle, the one Frenchman respected by Friedrich,
or much interested for his own sake in things German, is reckoned a main
cause why the French Alliance turned out so ill for Friedrich; and why
French effort took more and more a Netherlands direction thenceforth,
and these new French magnanimities on Friedrich's behalf issued in
futility again. Probably they never could have issued in very much: but
it is certain that, from this point, they also do become zero; and that
Friedrich, from his French alliance, reaped from first to last nothing
at all, except a great deal of obloquy from German neighbors, and from
the French side endless trouble, anger and disappointment in every
particular. Which 'might be a joy (though not unmixed) to Britannic
Majesty and the subtle followers who had ginned this fine Belleisle bird
in its flight over the Harz Range? Though again, had they passively let
him wing his way, and he had GOT "to be Commander and Manager," as was
in agitation,--he, Belleisle and in Germany, instead of Marechal de Saxe
with the Netherlands as chief scene,--what an advantage might that have
been to them!
THE KAISER KARL VII. GETS SECURED FROM OPPRESSIONS, IN A TRAGIC WAY.
FRIEDRICH PROPOSES PEACE, BUT TO NO PURPOSE.
A still sadder cross for Friedrich, in the current of foreign Accidents
and Diplomacies, was the next that befell; exactly a month later,--at
Munchen, 20th January, 1745. Hardly was Belleisle's back turned, when
her Hungarian Majesty, by her Bathyani and Company, broke furiously in
upon the poor Kaiser and his Seckendorf-Segur defences. Belleisle had
not reached the Harz, when all was going topsy-turvy there again, and
the Donau-Valley fast falling back into Austrian hands. Nor is that the
worst, or nearly so.
"MUNCHEN, 20th JANUARY, 1745. This day poor Kaiser Karl laid down his
earthly burden here, and at length gave all his enemies the slip. He
had been ill of gout for some time; a man of much malady always, with no
want of vexations and apprehensions. Too likely the Austrians will drive
him out of Munchen again; then nothing but furnished lodgings, and the
French to depend upon. He had been much chagrined by some Election,
just done, in the Chapter of Salzburg. [Adelung, iv. 249, 276, 313.]
The Archbishop there--it was Firmian, he of the SALZBURG EMIGRATION,
memorable to readers--had died, some while ago. And now, in flat
contradiction to Imperial customs, prerogatives, these people had
admitted an Austrian Garrison; and then, in the teeth of our express
precept, had elected an Austrian to their benefice: what can one account
it but an insult as well as an injury? And the neuralgic maladies press
sore, and the gouty twinges; and Belleisle is seized, perhaps with
important papers of ours; and the Seckendorf-Segur detachments were ill
placed; nay here are the Austrians already on the throat of them, in
midwinter! It is said, a babbling valet, or lord-in-waiting, happened to
talk of some skirmish that had fallen out (called a battle, in the valet
rumor), and how ill the French and Bavarians had fared in it, owing to
their ill behavior. And this, add they, proved to be the ounce-weight
too much for the so heavy-laden back.
"The Kaiser took to bed, not much complaining; patient, mild, though
the saddest of all mortals; and, in a day or two, died. Adieu, adieu,
ye loved faithful ones; pity me, and pray for me! He gave his Wife, poor
little fat devout creature, and his poor Children (eldest lad, his Heir,
only seventeen), a tender blessing; solemnly exhorted them, To eschew
ambition, and be warned by his example;--to make their peace with
Austria; and never, like him, try COM' E DURO CALLE, and what the
charity of Christian Kings amounts to. This counsel, it is thought, the
Empress Dowager zealously accedes to, and will impress upon her Son.
That is the Austrian and Cause-of-Liberty account: King Friedrich, from
the other side, has heard a directly opposite one. How the Kaiser, at
the point of death, exhorted his son, 'Never forget the services which
the King of France and the King of Prussia have done us, and do not
repay them with ingratitude.' [ _OEuvres de Frederic,_ iii. 92;--and see
(PER CONTRA) in Adelung, iv. 314 A; in Coxe, &c.] The reader can choose
which he will, or reject both into the region of the uncertain. 'Karl
Albert's pious and affectionate demeanor drew tears from all eyes,' say
the by-standers: 'the manner in which he took leave of his Empress would
have melted a heart of stone.' He was in his forty-eighth year; he had
been, of all men in his generation, the most conspicuously unhappy."
What a down-rush of confusion there ensued on this event, not to Bavaria
alone, but to all the world, and to King Friedrich more than another,
no reader can now take the pains of conceiving. The "Frankfurt Union,"
then, has gone to air! Here is now no "Kaiser to be delivered from
oppression:" here is a new Kaiser to be elected,--"Grand-Duke Franz the
man," cry the Pragmatic Potentates with exultation, "no Belleisle to
disturb!"--and questions arise innumerable thereupon, Will France go
into electioneering again? The new Kur-Baiern, only seventeen, poor
child, cannot be set up as candidate. What will France do with HIM;
what he with France? Whom can the French try as Candidate against the
Grand-Duke? Kur-Sachsen, the Polish Majesty again? Belleisle himself
must have paused uncertain over such a welter,--and probably have done,
like the others, little or nothing in it, but left it to collapse by
natural gravitation.
Hungarian Majesty checked her Bavarian Armaments a little: "If perhaps
this young Kur-Baiern will detach himself from France, and on submissive
terms come over to us?" Whereupon, at Munchen, and in the cognate
quarters, such wriggling, dubitating and diplomatizing, as seldom
was,--French, Anti-French (Seckendorf busiest of all), straining every
nerve in that way, and for almost three months, nothing coming of
it,--till Hungarian Majesty sent her Barenklaus and Bathyanis upon them
again; and these rapidly solved the question, in what way we shall see!
Friedrich has still his hopes of Bavaria, so grandiloquent are the
French in regard to it; who but would hope? The French diplomatize to
all lengths in Munchen, promising seas and mountains; but they perform
little; in an effectual manner, nothing. Bavarian "Army raised to
60,000;" counts in fact little above half that number; with no General
to it but an imaginary one; Segur's actual French contingent, instead
of 25,000, is perhaps 12,000;--and so of other things. Add to all which,
Seckendorf is there, not now as War-General, but as extra-official
"Adviser;" busier than ever,--"scandalous old traitor!" say the
French;--and Friedrich may justly fear that Bavaria will go, by
collapse, a bad road for him.
Friedrich, a week or two after the Kaiser's death, seeing Bavarian and
French things in such a hypothetic state, instructs his Ambassador
at London to declare his, Friedrich's, perfect readiness and wish for
Peace: "Old Treaty of Breslau and Berlin made indubitable to me; the
rest of the quarrel has, by decease of the Kaiser, gone to air."
To which the Britannic Majesty, rather elated at this time, as all
Pragmatic people are, answers somewhat in a careless way, "Well, if
the others like it!" and promises that he will propose it in the proper
quarter. So that henceforth there is always a hope of Peace through
England; as well as contrariwise, especially till Bavaria settle itself
(in April next), a hope of great assistance from the French. Here are
potentialities and counter-potentialities, which make the Bavarian
Intricacy very agitating to the young King, while it lasts. And indeed
his world is one huge imbroglio of Potentialities and Diplomatic
Intricacies, agitating to behold. Concerning which we have again to
remark how these huge Spectres of Diplomacy, now filling Friedrich's
world, came mostly in result to Nothing;--shaping themselves wholly,
for or against, in exact proportion, direct or inverse, to the actual
Quantity of Battle and effective Performance that happened to be found
in Friedrich himself. Diplomatic Spectralities, wide Fatamorganas of
hope, and hideous big Bugbears blotting out the sun: of these, few
men ever had more than Friedrich at this time. And he is careful, none
carefuler, not to neglect his Diplomacies at any time;--though he
knows, better than most, that good fighting of his own is what alone
can determine the value of these contingent and aerial quantities,--mere
Lapland witchcraft the greater part of them.
A second grand Intricacy and difficulty, still more enigmatic, and
pressing the tighter by its close neighborhood, was that with the
Saxons. "Are the Saxons enemies; are they friends? Neutrals at lowest;
bound by Treaty to lend Austria troops; but to lend for defence merely,
not for offence! Could not one, by good methods, make friends with his
Polish Majesty?" Friedrich was far from suspecting the rages that lurked
in the Polish Majesty, and least of all owing to what. Owing to that old
MORAVIAN-FORAY business; and to his, Friedrich's, behavior to the Saxons
in it; excellent Saxons, who had behaved so beautifully to Friedrich!
That is the sad fact, however. Stupid Polish Majesty has his natural
envies, jealousies, of a Brandenburg waxing over his head at this rate.
But it appears, the Moravian Foray entered for a great deal into the
account, and was the final overwhelming item. Bruhl, by much descanting
on that famous Expedition,--with such candid Eye-witnesses to appeal to,
such corroborative Staff-officers and appliances, powerful on the idle
heart and weak brain of a Polish Majesty,--has brought it so far. Fixed
indignation, for intolerable usage, especially in that Moravian-Foray
time: fixed; not very malignant, but altogether obstinate (as, I am
told, that of the pacific sheep species usually is); which carried Bruhl
and his Polish Majesty to extraordinary heights and depths in years
coming! But that will deserve a section to itself by and by.
A third difficulty, privately more stringent than any, is that of
Finance. The expenses of the late Bohemian Expedition, "Friedrich's
Army costing 75,000 pounds a month," have been excessive. For our
next Campaign, if it is to be done in the way essential, there are, by
rigorous arithmetic, "900,000 pounds" needed. A frugal Prussia raises
no new taxes; pays its Wars from "the Treasure," from the Fund saved
beforehand for emergencies of that kind; Fund which is running low,
threatening to be at the lees if such drain on it continue. To fight
with effect being the one sure hope, and salve for all sores, it is
not in the Army, in the Fortresses, the Fighting Equipments, that there
shall be any flaw left! Friedrich's budget is a sore problem upon him;
needing endless shift and ingenuity, now and onwards, through this
war:--already, during these months, in the Berlin Schloss, a great deal
of those massive Friedrich-Wilhelm plate Sumptuosities, especially
that unparalleled Music-Balcony up stairs, all silver, has been, under
Fredersdorf's management, quietly taken away; "carried over, in the
night-time, to the Mint." [Orlich, ii. 126-128.]
And, in fact, no modern reader, not deeper in that distressing story
of the Austrian-Succession War than readers are again like to be, can
imagine to himself the difficulties of Friedrich at this time, as they
already lay disclosed, and kept gradually disclosing themselves,
for months coming; nor will ever know what perspicacity, patience
of scanning, sharpness of discernment, dexterity of management, were
required at Friedrich's hands;--and under what imminency of peril, too;
victorious deliverance, or ruin and annihilation, wavering fearfully
in the balance for him, more than once, or rather all along. But it
is certain the deeper one goes into that hideous Medea's Caldron of
stupidities, once so flamy, now fallen extinct, the more is one
sensible of Friedrich's difficulties; and of the talent for all kinds
of Captaincy,--by no means in the Field only, or perhaps even
chiefly,--that was now required of him. Candid readers shall accept
these hints, and do their best:--Friedrich himself made not the least
complaint of men's then misunderstanding him; still less will he now!
We, keeping henceforth the Diplomacies, the vaporous Foreshadows, and
general Dance of Unclean Spirits with their intrigues and spectralities,
well underground, so far as possible, will stick to what comes up as
practical Performance on Friedrich's part, and try to give intelligible
account of that.
Valori says, he is greatly changed, and for the better, by these late
reverses of fortune. All the world notices it, says Valori. No longer
that brief infallibility of manner; that lofty light air, that politely
disdainful view of Valori and mankind: he has now need of men. Complains
of nothing, is cheerful, quizzical;--ardently busy to "grind out the
notches," as our proverb is; has a mild humane aspect, something of
modesty, almost of piety in him. Help me, thou Supreme Power, Maker of
men, if my purposes are manlike! Though one does not go upon the Prayers
of Forty-Hours, or apply through St. Vitus and such channels, there may
be something of authentic petition to Heaven in the thoughts of that
young man. He is grown very amiable; the handsomest young bit of Royalty
now going. He must fight well next Summer, or it will go hard with him!