After this strenuous and victorious Campaign, which has astonished all
public men, especially all Pragmatic Gazetteers, and with which all
Europe is disharmoniously ringing, Friedrich is hopeful there will be
Peace, through England;--cannot doubt, at least, but the Austrians have
had enough for one year;--and looks forward to certain months, if not
of rest, yet of another kind of activity. Negotiation, Peace through
England, if possible; that is the high prize: and in the other case,
or in any case, readiness for next Campaign;--which with the treasury
exhausted, and no honorable subsidy from France, is a difficult problem.
That was Friedrich's, and everybody's, program of affairs for the months
coming: but in that Friedrich and everybody found themselves greatly
mistaken. Bruhl and the Austrians had decided otherwise. "Open
mouse-trap," at Striegau; claws of the sleeping cat, at Sohr: these were
sad experiences; ill to bear, with the Sea-Powers grumbling on you, and
the world sniffing its pity on you;--but are not conclusive, are only
provoking and even maddening, to the sanguine mind. Two sad failures;
but let us try another time. "A tricky man; cunning enough, your King of
Prussia!" thinks Bruhl, with a fellness of humor against Friedrich which
is little conceivable to us now: "Cunning enough. But it is possible
cunning may be surpassed by deeper cunning!"--and decides, Bartenstein
and an indignant Empress-Queen assenting eagerly, That there shall, in
the profoundest secrecy till it break out, be a third, and much fiercer
trial, this Winter yet. The Bruhl-Bartenstein plan (owing mainly to the
Russian Bugbear which hung over it, protective, but with whims of its
own) underwent changes, successive redactions or editions; which the
reader would grudge to hear explained to him. [Account of them in
Orlich, ii. 273-278 (from various RUTOWSKI Papers; and from the
contemporary satirical Pamphlet, "MONDSCHEINWURFE, Mirror-castings of
Moonshine, by ZEBEDAUS Cuckoo,) beaten Captain of a beaten Army."] Of the
final or acted edition, some loose notion, sufficient for our purpose,
may be collected from the following fractions of Notes:--
NOVEMBER 17th (INTERIOR OF GERMANY).... "Feldmarschall-Lieutenant von
Grune, a General of mark, detached by Traun not long since, from the
Rhine Country, with a force of 10,000 men, why is he marching about:
first to Baireuth Country, 'at Hof, November 9th,' as if for Bohemia;
then north, to Gera ('lies at Gera till the 17th'), as if for
Saxony Proper? Prince Karl, you would certainly say, has gone into
winter-quarters; about Konigsgratz, and farther on? Gone or going,
sure enough, is Prince Karl, into the convenient Bohemian
districts,--uncertain which particular districts; at least the Young
Dessauer, watching him from the Silesian side, is uncertain which.
Better be vigilant, Prince Leopold!--Grune, lying at Gera yonder, is not
intending for Prince Karl, then? No, not thither. Then perhaps
towards Saxony, to reinforce the Saxons? Or some-whither to find fat
winter-quarters: who knows? Indeed, who cares particularly, for such
inconsiderable Grune and his 10,000!--
"The Saxons quitted their inexpugnable Camp towards Halle, some time
ago; went into cantonments farther inland;--the Old Dessauer (middle
of October) having done the like, and gone home: his force lies rather
scattered, for convenience of food and forage. From the Silesian
side, again, Prince Leopold, whose head-quarters are about Striegau,
intimates, That he cannot yet say, with certainty, what districts Prince
Karl will occupy for winter-quarters in Bohemia. Prince Karl is vaguely
roving about; detaching Pandours to the Silesian Mountains, as if for
checking our victorious Nassau there;--always rather creeping northward;
skirting Western Silesia with his main force; 30,000 or better, with
Lobkowitz and Nadasti ahead. Meaning what? Be vigilant, my young friend.
"The private fact is, Prince Karl does not mean to go into
winter-quarters at all. In private fact, Prince Karl is one of Three
mysterious Elements or Currents, sent on a far errand: Grune is another:
Rutowski's Saxon Camp (now become Cantonment) is a third. Three Currents
instinct with fire and destruction, but as yet quite opaque; which have
been launched,--whitherward thinks the reader? On Berlin itself, and
the Mark of Brandenburg; there to collide, and ignite in a marvellous
manner. There is their meeting-point: there shall they, on a sudden,
smite one another into flame; and the destruction blaze, fiery enough,
round Friedrich and his own Brandenburg homesteads there!--
"It is a grand scheme; scheme at least on a grand scale. For the LEGS of
it, Grune's march and Prince Karl's, are about 600 miles long! Plan due
chiefly, they say, to the yellow rage of Bruhl; aided by the contrivance
of Rutowski, and the counsel of Austrian military men. For there is much
consulting about it, and redacting of it; Polish Majesty himself
very busy. To Bruhl's yellow rage it is highly solacing and hopeful.
'Rutowski, lying close in his Cantonments, and then suddenly springing
out, will overwhelm the Old Dessauer, who lies wide;--can do it, surely;
and Grune is there to help if necessary. Dessauer blown to pieces,
Grune, with Rutowski combined, push in upon Brandenburg,--Grune himself
upon Berlin,--from the west and south, nobody expecting him. Prince
Karl, not taking into winter-quarters in Bohemia, as they idly think;
but falling down the Valley of the Bober, or Bober and Queiss, into the
Lausitz (to Gorlitz, Guben, where we have Magazines for him), comes upon
it from the southeast,--nobody expecting any of them. Three simultaneous
Armies hurled on the head of your Friedrich; combustible deluges flowing
towards him, as from the ends of Germany; so opaque, silent, yet of fire
wholly: will not that surprise him!' thinks Bruhl. These are the schemes
of the little man."
Bruhl, having constituted himself rival to Friedrich, and fallen into
pale or yellow rage by the course things took, this Plan is naturally
his chief joy, or crown of joys; a bubbling well of solace to him in
his parched condition. He should, obviously, have kept it secret;
thrice-secret, the little fool;--but a poor parched man is not always
master of his private bubbling wells in that kind! Wolfstierna is
Swedish Envoy at Dresden; Rudenskjold, Swedish Envoy at Berlin, has
run over to see him in the dim November days. Swedes, since Ulrique's
marriage, are friendly to Prussia. Bruhl has these two men to dinner;
talks with them, over his wine, about Friedrich's insulting usage
of him, among other topics. "Insulting; how, your Excellency?" asks
Rudenskjold, privately a friend of Friedrich. Bruhl explains, with voice
quivering, those cuts in the Friedrich manifesto of August last, and
other griefs suffered; the two Swedes soothing him with what oil they
have ready. "No matter!" hints Bruhl; and proceeds from hint to hint,
till the two Swedes are fully aware of the grand scheme: Grune, Prince
Karl; and how Destruction, with legs 500 miles long, is steadily
advancing to assuage one with just revenge. "Right, your
Excellency!"--only that Rudenskjold proceeds to Berlin; and there
straightway ("8th November") punctually makes Friedrich also aware.
[Stenzel, iv. 262; Ranke, iii. 317-323; Friedrich's own narrative of
it, _OEuvres,_ iii. 148.] Foolish Bruhl: a man that has a secret should
not only hide it, but hide that he has it to hide.
FRIEDRICH GOES OUT TO MEET HIS THREE-LEGGED MONSTER; CUTS ONE LEG OF IT
IN TWO (Fight of Hennersdorf, 23d November, 1745).
Friedrich, having heard the secret, gazes into it with horror and
astonishment: "What a time I have! This is not living; this is being
killed a thousand times a day!" [Ranke (iii. 321 n.): TO whom said, we
are not told.]--with horror and astonishment; but also with what most
luminous flash of eyesight is in him; compares it with Prince Karl's
enigmatic motions, Grune's open ones and the other phenomena;--perceives
that it is an indisputable fact, and a thrice-formidable; requiring to
be instantly dealt with by the party interested! Whereupon, after hearty
thanks to Rudenskjold, there occur these rapidly successive phases of
activity, which we study to take up in a curt form.
FIRST (probably 9th or 10th November), there is Council held with
Minister Podewils and the Old Dessauer; Council from which comes little
benefit, or none. Podewils and Old Leopold stare incredulous; cannot
be made to believe such a thing. "Impossible any Saxon minister or man
would voluntarily bring the theatre of war into his own Country, in
this manner!" thinks the Old Dessauer, and persists to think,--on what
obstinate ground Friedrich never knew. To which Podewils, "who
has properties in the Lausitz, and would so fain think them safe,"
obstinately, though more covertly, adheres. "Impossible!" urge both
these Councillors; and Friedrich cannot even make them believe it.
Believe it; and, alas, believing it is not the whole problem!
Happily Friedrich has the privilege of ordering, with or without their
belief. "You, Podewils, announce the matter to foreign Courts. You,
Serene Highness of Anhalt, at your swiftest, collect yonder, and encamp
again. Your eye well on Grune and Rutowski; and the instant I give you
signal--! I am for Silesia, to look after Prince Karl, the other long
leg of this Business." Old Leopold, according to Friedrich's account, is
visibly glad of such opportunity to fight again before he die: and yet,
for no reason except some senile jealousy, is not content with these
arrangements; perversely objects to this and that. At length the
King says,--think of this hard word, and of the eyes that accompany
it!--"When your Highness gets Armies of your own, you will order them
according to your mind; at present, it must be according to mine." On,
then; and not a moment lost: for of all things we must be swift!
Old Leopold goes accordingly. Friedrich himself goes in a week hence.
Orders, correspondences from Podewils and the rest, are flying right and
left;--to Young Leopold in Silesia, first of all. Young Leopold draws
out his forces towards the Silesian-Lausitz border, where Prince Karl's
intentions are now becoming visible. And,--here is the second phase
notable,--
"On Monday, 15th, ["18th," _Feldzuge,_ i. 402 (see Rodenbeck, i. 122).]
at 7 A.M.," Friedrich rushes off, by Crossen, full speed for Liegnitz;
"with Rothenburg, with the Prince of Prussia and Ferdinand of Brunswick
accompanying." With what thoughts,--though, in his face, you can read
nothing; all Berlin being already in such tremor! Friedrich is in
Liegnitz next day; and after needful preliminaries there, does, on the
Thursday following, "at Nieder-Adelsdorf," not far off, take actual
command of Prince Leopold's Army, which had lain encamped for some days,
waiting him. And now with such force in hand,--35,000, soldiers every
man of them, and freshened by a month's rest,--one will endeavor to do
some good upon Prince Karl. Probably sooner than Prince Karl supposes.
For there is great velocity in this young King; a panther-like
suddenness of spring in him: cunning, too, as any Felis of them; and
with claws like the Felis Leo on occasion. Here follows the brief
Campaign that ensued, which I strive greatly to abridge.
Prince Karl's intentions towards Frankfurt-on-Oder Country, through the
Lausitz, are now becoming practically manifest. There is a Magazine for
him at Guben, within thirty miles of Frankfurt; arrangements getting
ready all the way. A winter march of 150 miles;--but what, say the
spies, is to hinder? Prince Karl dreams not that Friedrich is on the
ground, or that anybody is aware. Which notion Friedrich finds that it
will be extremely suitable to maintain in Prince Karl. Friedrich is now
at Adelsdorf, some thirty miles eastward of the Lausitz Border, perhaps
forty or more from the route Prince Karl will follow through that
Province.
"It is a high-lying irregularly hilly Country; hilly, not mountainous.
Various streams rise out of it that have a long course,--among others,
the Spree, which washes Berlin;--especially three Valleys cross it,
three Rivers with their Valleys: Bober, Queiss, Neisse (the THIRD Neisse
we have come upon); all running northward, pretty much parallel, though
all are branches of the Oder. This is Neisse THIRD, we say; not the
Neisse of Neisse City, which we used to know at the north base of
the Giant Mountains, nor the Roaring Neisse, which we have seen at
Hohenfriedberg; but a third [and the FOURTH and last, "Black Neisse,"
thank Heaven, is an upper branch of this, and we have, and shall have,
nothing to do with it!]--third Neisse, which we may call the Lausitz
Neisse. On which, near the head of it, there is a fine old spinning,
linen-weaving Town called Zittau,--where, to make it memorable, one
Tourist has read, on the Town-house, an Inscription worth repeating:
'BENE FACERE ET MALE AUDIRE REGIUM EST, To do good and have evil said
of you, is a kingly thing.' Other Towns, as Gorlitz, and seventy miles
farther the above-said Guben, lie on this same Neisse,--shall we
add that Herrnhuth stands near the head of it? The wondrous Town of
Herrnhuth (LORD'S-KEEPING), founded by Count Zinzendorf, twenty
years before those dates; ["In 1722, the first tree felled" (LIVES of
Zinzendorf).] where are a kind of German Methodist-Quakers to this day,
who have become very celebrated in the interim. An opulent enough, most
silent, strictly regular, strange little Town. The women are in uniform;
wives, maids, widows, each their form of dress. Missionaries, speaking
flabby English, who have been in the West Indies or are going thither,
seem to abound in the place; male population otherwise, I should think,
must be mainly doing trade elsewhere; nothing but prayers, preachings,
charitable boarding-schooling and the like, appeared to be going on.
Herrnhuth is 'a Sabbath Petrified; Calvinistic Sabbath done into Stone,'
as one of my companions called it." [Tourist's Note (Autumn, 1852).]
Herrnhuth, of which all Englishmen have heard, stands near the head of
this our third Neisse; as does Zittau, a few miles higher up. I can do
nothing more to give it mark for them. Bober Valley, then Queiss Valley,
which run parallel though they join at last, and become Bober wholly
before getting into the Oder,--these two Valleys and Rivers lie in
Friedrich's own Territory; and are between him and the Lausitz, Queiss
River being the boundary of Silesia and the Lausitz here. It is down
the Neisse that Prince Karl means to march. There are Saxons already
gathering about Zittau; and down as far as Guben they are making
Magazines and arrangements,--for it is all their own Country in those
years, though most of it is Prussia's now. Prince Karl's march will go
parallel to the Bober and the Queiss; separated from the Queiss in this
part by an undulating Hill-tract of twenty miles or more.
Friedrich has had somewhat to settle for the Southern Frontier of
Silesia withal, which new doggeries of Pandours are invading,--to lie
ready for Prince Karl on his return thither, whose grand meaning all
this while (as Friedrich well knows), is "Silesia in the lump" again,
had he once cut us off from Brandenburg and our supplies! General
Nassau, far eastward, who is doing exploits in Moravia itself,--him
Friedrich has ordered homeward, westward to his own side of the
Mountains, to attend these new Pandour gentlemen; Winterfeld he has
called home, out of those Southern mountains, as likely to be usefuler
here on this Western frontier. Winterfeld arrived in Camp the same day
with Friedrich; and is sent forward with a body of 3,000 light troops,
to keep watch about the Lausitz Frontier and the River Queiss; "careful
not to quit our own side of that stream,"--as we mean to hoodwink Prince
Karl, if we can!
Friedrich lies strictly within his own borders, for a day or two; till
Prince Karl march, till his own arrangements are complete. Friedrich
himself keeps the Bober, Winterfeld the Queiss; "all pass freely out of
the Lausitz; none are allowed to cross into it: thereby we hear notice
of Prince Karl, he none of us." Perfectly quiescent, we, poor creatures,
and aware of nothing! Thus, too, Friedrich--in spite of his warlike
Manifesto, which the Saxons are on the eve of answering with a formal
Declaration of War--affects great rigor in considering the Saxons as not
yet at war with him: respects their frontier, Winterfeld even punishes
hussars "for trespassing on Lausitz ground." Friedrich also affects to
have roads repaired, which he by no means intends to travel:--the whole
with a view of lulling Prince Karl; of keeping the mouse-trap open,
as he had done in the Striegau case. It succeeded again, quite as
conspicuously, and at less expense.
Prince Karl--whose Tolpatch doggery Winterfeld will not allow to pass
the Queiss, and to whom no traveller or tidings can come from beyond
that River--discerns only, on the farther shore of it, Winterfeld with
his 3,000 light troops. Behind these, he discerns either nothing, or
nothing immediately momentous; but contentedly supposes that this, the
superficies of things, is all the solid-content they have. Prince
Karl gets under way, therefore, nothing doubting; with his Saxons as
vanguard. Down the Neisse Valley, on the right or Queiss-ward side of
it: Saturday, 20th November, is his first march in Lusatian territory.
He lies that night spread out in three Villages, Schonberg, Schonbrunn,
Kieslingswalde; [_Feldzuge,_ i. 407 (Bericht von der Action bey
Katholisch-Hennersdorf, &c.).] some ten miles long; parallel to the
Neisse River, and about four miles from it, east or Queiss-ward of it.
Karl himself is rear, at Schonberg; fierce Lobkowitz is centre; the
Saxons are vanguard, 6,000 in all, posted in Villages, which again are
some ten or twelve miles ahead of Prince Karl's forces; the Queiss on
their right hand, and the Naumburg Bridge of Queiss, where Winterfeld
now is, about fifteen miles to east. Their Uhlans circulate through
the intervening space (were much patrolling needed, in such quiet
circumstances), and maintain the due communication. There lies Prince
Karl, on Saturday night, 20th November, 1745; an Army of perhaps 40,000,
dnngerously straggling out above twenty miles long; and appears to see
no difficulty ahead. The Saxons, I think, are to continue where they
are; guarding the flank, while the Prince and Lobkowitz push
forward, closer by Neisse River. In four marches more, they can be in
Brandenburg, with Guben and their Magazines at hand.
Seeing which state of matters, Winterfeld gives Friedrich notice of
it; and that he, Winterfeld, thinks the moment is come. "Pontoons to
Naumburg, then!" orders Friedrich. Winterfeld, at the proper moment, is
to form a Bridge there. One permanent Bridge there already is; and two
fords, one above it, one below: with a second Bridge, there will be
roadway for four columns, and a swift transit when needful. Sunday,
21st, Friedrich quits the Bober, diligently towards Naumburg; marches
Sunday, Monday; Tuesday, 23d, about eleven A.M., begins to arrive there;
Winterfeld and passages all ready. Forward, then, and let us drive in
upon Prince Karl; and either cut him in two, or force him to fight us;
he little thinks where or on what terms. Sure enough, in the worst place
we can choose for him! Friedrich begins crossing in four columns at
one P.M.; crosses continuously for four hours; unopposed, except some
skirmishing of Uhlans, while his Cavalry is riding the Fords to right
and left; Uhlans were driven back swiftly, so soon as the Cavalry got
over. At five in the evening, he has got entirely across, 35,000 horse
and foot: Ziethen is chasing the Uhlans at full speed; who at least will
show us the way,--for by this time a mist has begun falling, and the
brief daylight is done.
Friedrich himself, without waiting for the rear of his force, and some
while before this mist fell (as I judge), is pushing forward, "a miller
lad for his guide," across to Hennersdorf,--Katholisch-Hennersdorf, a
long straggling Village, eight or ten miles off, and itself two miles
long,--where he understands the Saxons are. Miller lad guides us, over
height and hollow, with his best skill, at a brisk pace;--through one
hollow, where he has known the cattle pasture in summer time; but which
proves impassable, and mere quagmire, at this season. No getting through
it, you unfortunate miller lad (GARCON DE MEUNIER). Nevertheless, we did
find passage through the skirts of it: nay this quagmire proved the
luck of us; for the enemy, trusting to it, had no outguard there, never
expecting us on that side. So that the vanguard, Ziethen and rapid
Hussars, made an excellent thing of it. Ziethen sends us word, That he
has got into the body of Hennersdorf,--"found the Saxon Quartermaster
quietly paying his men;"--that he, Ziethen, is tolerably master of
Hennersdorf, and will amuse the enemy till the other force come up.
Of course Friedrich now pushes on, double speed; detaches other force,
horse and foot: which was lucky, says my informant; for the Ziethen
Hussars, getting good plunder, had by no means demolished the Saxons;
but had left them time to draw up in firm order, with a hedge in front,
a little west of the Village;--from which post, unassailable by Ziethen,
they would have got safe off to the main body, with little but an
affront and some loss of goods. The new force--a rapid Katzler
with light horse in the van, cuirassiers and foot rapidly following
him--sweeps past the long Village, "through a thin wood and a defile;"
finds the enemy firmly ranked as above said; cavalry their left,
infantry on right, flanked by an impenetrable hedge; and at once strikes
in. At once, Katzler does, on order given; but is far too weak. Charges,
he; but is counter-charged, tumbled back; the Saxons, horse and foot,
showing excellent fight. At length, more Prussian force coming up,
cuirassiers charge them in front, dragoons in flank, hussars in rear;
all attacking at once, and with a will; and the poor Saxon Cavalry is
entirely cut to shreds.
And now there remains only the Infantry, perhaps about 1,000 men (if one
must guess); who form a square; ply vigorously their field-pieces and
their fire-arms; and cannot be broken by horse-charges. In fact, these
Saxons made a fierce resistance;--till, before long, Prussian Infantry
came up; and, with counter field-pieces and musketries, blasted gaps
in them; upon which the Cavalry got admittance, and reduced the gallant
fellows nearly wholly to annihilation either by death or capture. There
are 914 Prisoners in this Action, 4 big guns, and I know not how many
kettle-drums, standards and the like,--all that were there, I suppose.
The number of dead not given. [Orlich, ii. 291; _Feldzuge,_i. 400-413.]
But, in brief, this Saxon Force is utterly cut to pieces; and only
scattered twos and threes of it rush through the dark mist; scattering
terror to this hand and that. The Prussians take their post at and round
Hennersdorf that night;--bivouacking, though only in sack trousers, a
blanket each man:--"We work hard, my men, and suffer all things for a
day or two, that it may save much work afterwards," said the King to
them; and they cheerfully bivouacked.
This was the Action of Katholisch-Hennersdorf, fought on Tuesday,
23d November, 1745; and still celebrated in the Prussian Annals, and
reckoned a brilliant passage of war. KATHOLISCH-Hennersdorf, some
ten miles southwest of Naumburg ON THE QUEISS (for there are, to my
knowledge, Twenty-five other Villages called Hennersdorf, and Three
several Towns of Naumburg, and many Castles and Hamlets so named in dear
Germany of the Nomenclatures):--Katholisch-Hennersdorf is the place,
and Tuesday about dusk the time. A sharp brush of fighting; not great in
quantity, but laid in at the right moment, in the right place. Like
the prick of a needle, duly sharp, into the spinal marrow of a gigantic
object; totally ruinous to such object. Never, or rarely, in the Annals
of War, was as much good got of so little fighting. You may, with labor
and peril, plunge a hundred dirks into your boaconstrictor; hack him
with axes, bray him with sledge-hammers; that is not uncommon: but the
one true prick in the spinal marrow, and the Artist that can guide you
well to that, he and it are the notable and beneficent phenomena.
PRINCE KARL, CUT IN TWO, TUMBLES HOME AGAIN DOUBLE-QUICK.
Next morning, Wednesday, 24th, the Prussians are early astir again;
groping, on all manner of roads, to find what Prince Karl is doing, in
a world all covered in thick mist. They can find nothing of him, but
broken tumbrils, left baggage-wagons, rumor of universal marching hither
and marching thither;--evidences of an Army fallen into universal St.
Vitus's-Dance; distractedly hurrying to and fro, not knowing whitherward
for the moment, except that it must be homewards, homewards with
velocity.
Prince Karl's farther movements are not worth particularizing. Ordering
and cross-ordering; march this way; no, back again: such a scene in that
mist. Prince Karl is flowing homeward; confusedly deluging and gurgling
southward, the best he can. Next afternoon, near Gorlitz, and again one
other time, he appears drawn up, as if for fighting; but has himself no
such thought; flies again, without a shot; leaves Gorlitz to capitulate,
that afternoon; all places to capitulate, or be evacuated. We hear he is
for Zittau; Winterfeld with light horse hastens after him, gets sight of
him on the Heights at Zittau yonder, [ _OEuvres de Frederic,_ iii. 157;
Orlich, ii. 296.] "about two in the morning:" but the Prince has not
the least notion to fight. Prince leaves Zittau to capitulate,--quits
silently the Heights of Zittau at two A.M. (Winterfeld, very lively in
the rear of him, cutting off his baggage);--and so tumbles, pell-mell,
through the Passes of Gabel, home to Bohemia again. Let us save this
poor Note from the fire:
"On Saturday night, November 27th, the Prussians, pursuing Prince Karl,
were cantoned in the Herrnhuth neighborhood,--my informant's regiment
in the Town of Herrnhuth itself. [_Feldzuge,_ i. ubi supra.] Yes, there
lay the Prussians over Sunday; and might hear some weighty expounder,
if they liked. Considerably theological, many of these poor Prussian
soldiers; carrying a Bible in their knapsack, and devout Psalms in the
heart of them. Two-thirds of every regiment are LANDESKINDER, native
Prussians; each regiment from a special canton,--generally rather
religious men. The other third are recruits, gathered in the Free Towns
of the Reich, or where they can be got; not distinguished by devotion
these, we may fancy, only trained to the uttermost by Spartan drill."
Before the week is done, that "first leg" of the grand Enterprise (the
Prince-Karl leg) is such a leg as we see. "Silesia in the lump,"--fond
dream again, what a dream! Old Dessauer getting signal, where now, too
probably, is Saxony itself?--Ranking again at Aussig in Bohemia, Prince
Karl--5,000 of his men lost, and all impetus and fire gone--falls gently
down the Elbe, to join Rutowski at least; and will reappear within four
weeks, out of Saxon Switzerland, still rather in dismal humor.
The Prussian Troops, in four great Divisions, are cantoned in that
Lausitz Country, now so quiet; in and about Bautzen and three other
Towns of the neighborhood; to rest and be ready for the old Dessauer,
when we hear of him. The "Magazine at Guben in 138 wagons," the Gorlitz
and other Magazines of Prince Karl in the due number of wagons, supply
them with comfortable unexpected provender. Thus they lie cantoned;
and have with despatch effectually settled their part of the problem.
Question now is, How will it stand with the Old Dessauer and his part?
Or, better still, Would not perhaps the Saxons, in this humiliated
state, accept Peace, and finish the matter?