The Kaiser--with Kehl snatched from him, the Rhine open, and Louis XV.
singing TE DEUM in the Christmas time for what Villars in Italy had
done--applied, in passionate haste, to the Reich. The Reich, though
Fleury tried to cajole it, and apologize for taking Kehl from it,
declares for the Kaiser's quarrel; War against France on his behalf;
[13th March, 1734 (Buchholz, i. 131).]--it was in this way that
Friedrich Wilhelm and our Crown-Prince came to be concerned in the Rhine
Campaign. The Kaiser will have a Reich's-Army (were it good for much,
as is not likely) to join to his own Austrian one. And if Prince Eugene,
who is Reich's-Feldmarschall, one of the TWO Feldmarschalls, get the
Generalship as men hope, it is not doubted but there will be great work
on the Rhine, this Summer of 1734.
Unhappily the Reich's-Army, raised from--multifarious contingents, and
guided and provided for by many heads, is usually good for little.
Not to say that old Kur-Pfalz, with an eye to French help in the
Berg-and-Julich matter; old Kur-Pfalz, and the Bavarian set (KUR-BAIERN
and KUR-KOLN, Bavaria and Cologne, who are Brothers, and of old
cousinship to Kur-Pfalz),--quite refuse their contingents; protest in
the Diet, and openly have French leanings. These are bad omens for the
Reich's-Army. And in regard to the Reich's-Feldmarschall Office,
there also is a difficulty. The Reich, as we hinted, keeps two supreme
Feldmarschalls; one Catholic, one Protestant, for equilibrium's sake;
illustrious Prince Eugenio von Savoye is the Catholic;--but as to the
Protestant, it is a difficulty worth observing for a moment.
Old Duke Eberhard Ludwig of Wurtemberg, the unfortunate old gentleman
bewitched by the Gravenitz "Deliver us from evil," used to be the
Reich's-Feldmarschall of Protestant persuasion;--Commander-in-Chief for
the Reich, when it tried fighting. Old Eberhard had been at Blenheim,
and had marched up and down: I never heard he was much of a General;
perhaps good enough for the Reich, whose troops were always bad. But now
that poor Duke, as we intimated once or more, is dead; there must be,
of Protestant type, a new Reich's-Feldmasschall had. One Catholic,
unequalled among Captains, we already have; but where is the Protestant,
Duke Eberhard being dead?
Duke Eberhard's successor in Wurtemberg, Karl Alexander by name, whom
we once dined with at Prag on the Kladrup journey, he, a General of some
worth, would be a natural person. Unluckily Duke Karl Alexander
had, while an Austrian Officer and without outlooks upon Protestant
Wurtemberg, gone over to Papacy, and is now Catholic. "Two Catholic
Feldmarschalls!" cries the CORPUS EVANGELICORUM; "that will never do!"
Well, on the other or Protestant side there appear two Candidates; one
of them not much expected by the reader: no other than Ferdinand Duke of
Brunswick-Bevern, our Crown-Prince's Father-in-law; whom we knew to be
a worthy man, but did not know to be much of a soldier, or capable of
these ambitious views. He is Candidate First. Then there is a Second,
much more entitled: our gunpowder friend the Old Dessauer; who, to say
nothing of his soldier qualities, has promises from the Kaiser,--he
surely were the man, if it did not hurt other people's feelings. But
it surely does and will. There is Ferdinand of Bevern applying upon
the score of old promises too. How can people's feelings be saved?
Protestants these two last: but they cannot both have it; and what will
Wurtemberg say to either of them? The Reich was in very great affliction
about this preliminary matter. But Friedrich Wilhelm steps in with
a healing recipe: "Let there be four Reich's-Feldmarschalls," said
Friedrich Wilhelm; "two Protestant and two Catholic: won't that
do?"--Excellent! answers the Reich: and there are four Feldmarschalls
for the time being; no lack of commanders to the Reich's-Army.
Brunswick-Bevern tried it first; but only till Prince Eugene were ready,
and indeed he had of himself come to nothing before that date. Prince
Eugene next; then Karl Alexander next; and in fact they all might have
had a stroke at commanding, and at coming to nothing or little,--only
the Old Dessauer sulked at the office in this its fourfold state, and
never would fairly have it, till, by decease of occupants, it came to be
twofold again. This glimpse into the distracted effete interior of the
poor old Reich and its Politics, with friends of ours concerned there,
let it be welcome to the reader. [_Leopoldi von Anhalt-Dessau Leben_ (by
Ranfft), p. 127; Buchholz, i. 131.]
Friedrich Wilhelm was without concern in this War, or in what had led
to it. Practical share in the Polish Election (after that preliminary
theoretic program of the Kaiser's and Czarina's went to smoke) Friedrich
Wilhelm steadily refused to take: though considerable offers were made
him on both sides,--offer of West Preussen (Polish part of Prussia,
which once was known to us) on the French side. [By De la Chetardie,
French Ambassador at Berlin (Buchholz, i. 130).] But his primary fixed
resolution was to stand out of the quarrel; and he abides by
that; suppresses any wishes of his own in regard to the Polish
Election;--keeps ward on his own frontiers, with good military besom in
hand, to sweep it out again if it intruded there. "What King you like,
in God's name; only don't come over my threshold with his brabbles and
him!"
But seeing the Kaiser got into actual French War, with the Reich
consenting, he is bound, by Treaty of old date (date older than
WUSTERHAUSEN, though it was confirmed on that famous occasion), "To
assist the Kaiser with ten thousand men;" and this engagement he intends
amply to fulfil. No sooner, therefore, had the Reich given sure signs of
assenting ("Reich's assent" is the condition of the ten thousand),
than Friedrich Wilhelm's orders were out, "Be in readiness!" Friedrich
Wilhelm, by the time of the Reich's actual assent, or Declaration of
War on the Kaiser's behalf, has but to lift his finger: squadrons and
battalions, out of Pommern, out of Magdeburg, out of Preussen, to the
due amount, will get on march whitherward you bid, and be with you
there at the day you indicate, almost at the hour. Captains, not of an
imaginary nature, these are always busy; and the King himself is
busy over them. From big guns and wagon-horses down to gun-flints and
gaiter-straps, all is marked in registers; nothing is wanting, nothing
out of its place at any time, in Friedrich Wilhelm's Army.
From an early period, the French intentions upon Philipsburg might be
foreseen or guessed: and in the end of March, Marechal Berwick, "in
three divisions," fairly appears in that quarter; his purpose evident.
So that the Reich's-Army, were it in the least ready, ought to
rendezvous, and reinforce the handful of Austrians there. Friedrich
Wilhelm's part of the Reich's-Army does accordingly straightway get on
march; leaves Berlin, after the due reviewing, "8th April:" [Fassmann,
p. 495.] eight regiments of it, three of Horse and five of Foot, Goltz
Foot-regiment one of them;--a General Roder, unexceptionable General, to
command in chief;--and will arrive, though the farthest off, "first of
all the Reich's-Contingents;" 7th of June, namely. The march, straight
south, must be some four hundred miles.
Besides the Official Generals, certain high military dignitaries,
Schulenburg, Bredow, Majesty himself at their head, propose to go as
volunteers;--especially the Crown-Prince, whose eagerness is very great,
has got liberty to go. "As volunteer" he too: as Colonel of Goltz, it
might have had its unsuitabilities, in etiquette and otherwise. Few
volunteers are more interested than the Crown-Prince. Watching the
great War-theatre uncurtain itself in this manner, from Dantzig down to
Naples; and what his own share in it shall be: this, much more than his
Marriage, I suppose, has occupied his thoughts since that event. Here
out of Ruppin, dating six or seven weeks before the march of the Ten
Thousand, is a small sign, one among many, of his outlooks in this
matter. Small Note to his Cousin, Margraf Heinrich, the ill-behaved
Margraf, much his comrade, who is always falling into scrapes; and whom
he has just, not without difficulty, got delivered out of something of
the kind. [_OEuvres de Frederic,_ xxvii. part 2d, pp. 8, 9.] He writes
in German and in the intimate style of THOU:--
"RUPPIN. 23d FEBRUARY, 1734. MY DEAR BROTHER,--I can with pleasure
answer that the King hath spoken of thee altogether favorably to me
[scrape now abolished, for the time]:--and I think it would not have
an ill effect, wert thou to apply for leave to go with the ten thousand
whom he is sending to the Rhine, and do the Campaign with them as
volunteer. I am myself going with that corps; so I doubt not the King
would allow thee.
"I take the freedom to send herewith a few bottles of Champagne; and
wish" all manner of good things.
"FRIEDRICH."
[Ib. xxvii. part 2d, p. 10.]
This Margraf Heinrich goes; also his elder Brother, Margraf Friedrich
Wilhelm,--who long persecuted Wilhelmina with his hopes; and who is now
about getting Sophie Dorothee, a junior Princess, much better than he
merits: Betrothal is the week after these ten thousand march; [16th
April, 1734 (Ib. part 1st, p. 14 n).] he thirty, she fifteen. He too
will go; as will the other pair of Cousin Margraves,--Karl, who was once
our neighbor in Custrin; and the Younger Friedrich Wilhelm, whose fate
lies at Prag if he knew it. Majesty himself will go as volunteer. Are
not great things to be done, with Eugene for General?--To understand
the insignificant Siege of Philipsburg, sum-total of the Rhine Campaign,
which filled the Crown-Prince's and so many other minds brimful; that
Summer, and is now wholly out of every mind, the following Excerpt may
be admissible:--
"The unlucky little Town of Philipsburg, key of the Rhine in that
quarter, fortified under difficulties by old Bishops of Speyer who
sometimes resided there, [Kohler, _Munzbelustigungen,_ vi. 169.] has
been dismantled and refortified, has had its Rhine-bridge torn down and
set up again; been garrisoned now by this party, now by that, who had
'right of garrison there;' nay France has sometimes had 'the right of
garrison;'--and the poor little Town has suffered much, and been tumbled
sadly about in the Succession-wars and perpetual controversies between
France and Germany in that quarter. In the time we are speaking of, it
has a 'flying-bridge' (of I know not what structure), with fortified
'bridge-head (TETE-DE-PONT,)' on the western or France-ward side of the
River. Town's bulwarks, and complex engineering defences, are of good
strength, all put in repair for this occasion: Reich and Kaiser have an
effective garrison there, and a commandant determined on defence to the
uttermost: what the unfortunate Inhabitants, perhaps a thousand or so in
number, thought or did under such a visitation of ruin and bombshells,
History gives not the least hint anywhere. 'Quite used to it!' thinks
History, and attends to other points.
"The Rhine Valley here is not of great breadth: eastward the heights
rise to be mountainous in not many miles. By way of defence to this
Valley, in the Eugene-Marlborough Wars, there was, about forty miles
southward, or higher up the River than Philipsburg, a military line or
chain of posts; going from Stollhofen, a boggy hamlet on the Rhine, with
cunning indentations, and learned concatenation of bog and bluff, up
into the inaccessibilities,--LINES OF STOLLHOFEN, the name of it,--which
well-devised barrier did good service for certain years. It was not
till, I think, the fourth year of their existence, year 1707, that
Villars, the same Villars who is now in Italy, 'stormed the Lines of
Stollhofen;' which made him famous that year.
"The Lines of Stollhofen have now, in 1734, fallen flat again; but
Eugene remembers them, and, I could guess, it was he who suggests a
similar expedient. At all events, there is a similar expedient fallen
upon: LINES OF ETTLINGEN this time; one-half nearer Philipsburg; running
from Muhlburg on the Rhine-brink up to Ettlingen in the Hills. [See map]
Nearer, by twenty miles; and, I guess, much more slightly done. We shall
see these Lines of Ettlingen, one point of them, for a moment:--and they
would not be worth mentioning at all, except that in careless Books
they too are called 'Lines of STOLLHOFEN,' [Wilhelmina (ii. 206), for
instance; who, or whose Printer, call them "Lines of STOKOFF" even.] and
the ingenuous reader is sent wandering on his map to no purpose."
"Lines of ETTLINGEN" they are; related, as now said, to the Stollhofen
set. Duke Ferdinand of Brunswick-Bevern, one of the four Feldmarschalls,
has some ineffectual handful of Imperial troops dotted about, within
these Lines and on the skirts of Philipsburg;--eagerly waiting till the
Reich's-Army gather to him; otherwise he must come to nothing. Will at
any rate, I should think, be happy to resign in favor of Prince Eugene,
were that little hero once on the ground.
On Mayday, Marechal Berwick, who has been awake in this quarter, "in
three divisions," for a month past,--very impatient till Belleisle with
the first division should have taken Trarbach, and made the Western
interior parts secure,--did actually cross the Rhine, with his second
division, "at Fort Louis," well up the River, well south of Philipsburg;
intending to attack the Lines of Ettlingen, and so get in upon the Town.
There is a third division, about to lay pontoons for itself a good
way farther down, which will attack the Lines simultaneously from
within,--that is to say, shall come upon the back of poor Bevern and
his defensive handful of troops, and astonish him there. All prospers to
Berwick in this matter: Noailles his lieutenant (not yet gone to Italy
till next year), with whom is Maurice Comte de Saxe (afterwards Marechal
de Saxe), an excellent observant Officer, marches up to Ettlingen,
May 3d; bivouacs "at the base of the mountain" (no great things of a
mountain); ascends the same in two columns, horse and foot, by the
first sunlight next morning; forms on a little plain on the top;
issues through a thin wood,--and actually beholds those same LINES OF
ETTLINGEN, the outmost eastern end of them: a somewhat inconsiderable
matter, after all! Here is Noailles's own account:--
"These retrenchments, made in Turk fashion, consisted of big trees set
zigzag (EN ECHIQUIER), twisted together by the branches; the whole about
five fathoms thick. Inside of it were a small forlorn of Austrians:
these steadily await our grenadiers, and do not give their volley
till we are close. Our grenadiers receive their volley; clear the
intertwisted trees, after receiving a second volley (total loss
seventy-five killed and wounded); and--the enemy quits his post; and
the Lines of Ettlingen ARE stormed!" [Noailles, _Memoires_ (in
Petitot's Collection), iii. 207.] This is not like storming the Lines
of Stollhofen; a thing to make Noailles famous in the Newspapers for a
year. But it was a useful small feat, and well enough performed on his
part. The truth is, Berwick was about attacking the Lines simultaneously
on the other or Muhlburg end of them (had not Noailles, now victorious,
galloped to forbid); and what was far more considerable, those other
French, to the northward, "upon pontoons," are fairly across; like to
be upon the BACK of Duke Ferdinand and his handful of defenders. Duke
Ferdinand perceives that he is come to nothing; hastily collects his
people from their various posts; retreats with them that same night,
unpursued, to Heilbronn; and gives up the command to Prince Eugene, who
is just arrived there,--who took quietly two pinches of snuff on hearing
this news of Ettlingen, and said, "No matter, after all!"
Berwick now forms the Siege, at his discretion; invests Philipsburg,
13th May; [Berwick, ii. 312; 23d, says Noailles's Editor (iii. 210).]
begins firing, night of the 3d-4th June;--Eugene waiting at Heilbronn
till the Reich's-Army come up. The Prussian ten thousand do come, all in
order, on the 7th: the rest by degrees, all later, and all NOT quite
in order. Eugene, the Prussians having joined him, moves down towards
Philipsburg and its cannonading; encamps close to rearward of the
besieging French. "Camp of Wiesenthal" they call it; Village of
Wiesenthal with bogs, on the left, being his head-quarters; Village of
Waghausel, down near the River, a five miles distance, being his limit
on the right. Berwick, in front, industriously battering Philipsburg
into the River, has thrown up strong lines behind him, strongly manned,
to defend himself from Eugene; across the River, Berwick has one Bridge,
and at the farther end one battery with which he plays upon the rear
of Philipsburg. He is much criticised by unoccupied people, "Eugene's
attack will ruin us on those terms!"--and much incommoded by
overflowings of the Rhine; Rhine swoln by melting of the mountain-snows,
as is usual there. Which inundations Berwick had well foreseen, though
the War-minister at Paris would not: "Haste!" answered the War-minister
always: "We shall be in right time. I tell you there have fallen no
snows this winter: how can inundation be?"--"Depends on the heat," said
Berwick; "there are snows enough always in stock up there!"
And so it proves, though the War-minister would not believe; and Berwick
has to take the inundations, and to take the circumstances;--and to try
if, by his own continual best exertions, he can but get Philipsburg into
the bargain. On the 12th of June, visiting his posts, as he daily does,
the first thing, Berwick stept out of the trenches, anxious for clear
view of something; stept upon "the crest of the sap," a place exposed to
both French and Austrian batteries, and which had been forbidden to the
soldiers,--and there, as he anxiously scanned matters through his glass,
a cannon-ball, unknown whether French or Austrian, shivered away the
head of Berwick; left others to deal with the criticisms, and the
inundations, and the operations big or little, at Philipsburg and
elsewhere! Siege went on, better or worse, under the next in command;
"Paris in great anxiety," say the Books.
It is a hot siege, a stiff defence; Prince Eugene looks on, but does
not attack in the way apprehended. Southward in Italy, we hear there
is marching, strategying in the Parma Country; Graf von Mercy likely to
come to an action before long. Northward, Dantzig by this time is all
wrapt in fire-whirlwinds; its sallyings and outer defences all driven
in; mere torrents of Russian bombs raining on it day and night; French
auxiliaries, snapt up at landing, are on board Russian ships; and poor
Stanislaus and "the Lady of Quality who shot the first gun" have a
bad outlook there. Towards the end of the month, the Berlin volunteer
Generals, our Crown-Prince and his Margraves among them, are getting
on the road for Philipsburg;--and that is properly the one point we are
concerned with. Which took effect in manner following.
Tuesday evening, 29th June, there is Ball at Monbijou; the Crown-Prince
and others busy dancing there, as if nothing special lay ahead.
Nevertheless, at three in the morning he has changed his ball-dress
for a better, he and certain more; and is rushing southward, with his
volunteer Generals and Margraves, full speed, saluted by the rising
sun, towards Philipsburg and the Seat of War. And the same night, King
Stanislaus, if any of us cared for him, is on flight from Dantzig,
"disguised as a cattle-dealer;" got out on the night of Sunday last,
Town under such a rain of bombshells being palpably too hot for him: got
out, but cannot get across the muddy intricacies of the Weichsel; lies
painfully squatted up and down, in obscure alehouses, in that Stygian
Mud-Delta,--a matter of life and death to get across, and not a boat
to be had, such the vigilance of the Russian. Dantzig is capitulating,
dreadful penalties exacted, all the heavier as no Stanislaus is to be
found in it; and search all the keener rises in the Delta after him.
Through perils and adventures of the sort usual on such occasions,
[Credible modest detail of them, in a LETTER from Stanislaus himself
(_History of Stanislaus,_ already cited, pp. 235-248).] Stanislaus
does get across; and in time does reach Preussen; where, by Friedrich
Wilhelm's order, safe opulent asylum is afforded him, till the Fates
(when this War ends) determine what is to become of the poor Imaginary
Majesty. We leave him, squatted in the intricacies of the Mud-Delta,
to follow our Crown-Prince, who in the same hour is rushing far
elsewhither.
Margraves, Generals and he, in their small string of carriages, go
on, by extra-post, day and night; no rest till they get to Hof, in the
Culmbach neighborhood, a good two hundred miles off,--near Wilhelmina,
and more than half-way to Philipsburg. Majesty Friedrich Wilhelm is
himself to follow in about a week: he has given strict order against
waste of time: "Not to part company; go together, and NOT by Anspach or
Baireuth,"--though they lie almost straight for you.
This latter was a sore clause to Friedrich, who had counted all along
on seeing his dear faithful Wilhelmina, as he passed: therefore, as
the Papa's Orders, dangerous penalty lying in them, cannot be literally
disobeyed, the question rises, How see Wilhelmina and not Baireuth?
Wilhelmina, weak as she is and unfit for travelling, will have to meet
him in some neutral place, suitablest for both. After various shiftings,
it has been settled between them that Berneck, a little town twelve
miles from Baireuth on the Hof road, will do; and that Friday, probably
early, will be the day. Wilhelmina, accordingly, is on the road that
morning, early enough; Husband with her, and ceremonial attendants, in
honor of such a Brother; morning is of sultry windless sort; day hotter
and hotter;--at Berneck is no Crown-Prince, in the House appointed for
him; hour after hour, Wilhelmina waits there in vain. The truth is, one
of the smallest accidents has happened: the Generals "lost a wheel at
Gera yesterday;" were left behind there with their smiths, have not yet
appeared; and the insoluble question among Friedrich and the Margraves
is, "We dare not go on without them, then? We dare;--dare we?" Question
like to drive Friedrich mad, while the hours, at any rate, are slipping
on! Here are three Letters of Friedrich, legible at last; which, with
Wilhelmina's account from the other side, represent a small entirely
human scene in this French-Austrian War,--nearly all of human we have
found in the beggarly affair:--
1. TO PRINCESS WILHELMINA, AT BAIREUTH, OR ON THE ROAD TO BERNECK.
"HOF, 2d July [not long after 4 a.m.], 1794.
"MY DEAR SISTER,--Here am I within six leagues [say eight or more,
twenty-five miles English] of a Sister whom I love; and I have to decide
that it will be impossible to see her, after all!"--Does decide so,
accordingly, for reasons known to us.
"I have never so lamented the misfortune of not depending on myself as
at this moment! The King being but very sour-sweet on my score, I dare
not risk the least thing; Monday come a week, when he arrives himself,
I should have a pretty scene (SERAIS JOLIMENT TRAITE) in the Camp, if I
were found to have disobeyed orders.
"... The Queen commands me to give you a thousand regards from her. She
appeared much affected at your illness; but for the rest, I could not
warrant you how sincere it was; for she is totally changed, and I have
quite lost reckoning of her (N'Y CONNAIS RIEN). That goes so far that
she has done me hurt with the King, all she could: however, that is over
now. As to Sophie [young Sister just betrothed to the eldest Margraf
whom you know], she also is no longer the same; for she approves all
that the Queen says or does; and she is charmed with her big clown (GROS
NIGAUD) of a Bridegroom.
"The King is more difficult than ever; he is content with nothing, so as
to have lost whatsoever could be called gratitude for all pleasures
one can do him,"--marrying against one's will, and the like. "As to
his health, it is one day better, another worse; but the legs, they
are always swelled, Judge what my joy must be to get out of that
turpitude,--for the King will only stay a fortnight, at most, in the
Camp.
"Adieu, my adorable Sister: I am so tired, I cannot stir; having left on
Tuesday night, or rather Wednesday morning at three o'clock, from a Ball
at Monbijou, and arrived here this Friday morning at four. I recommend
myself to your gracious remembrance; and am, for my own part, till
death, dearest Sister,"--
Your--"FRIEDRICH"
[_OEuvres de Frederic,_ xxvii. part 1st, p. 13.]
This is Letter First; written Friday morning, on the edge of getting
into bed, after such fatigue; and it has, as natural in that mood, given
up the matter in despair. It did not meet Wilhelmina on the road; and
she had left Baireuth;--where it met her, I do not know; probably at
home, on her return, when all was over. Let Wilhelmina now speak her own
lively experiences of that same Friday:--
"I got to Berneck at ten. The heat was excessive; I found myself quite
worn out with the little journey I had done. I alighted at the House
which had been got ready for my Brother. We waited for him, and in vain
waited, till three in the afternoon. At three we lost patience; had
dinner served without him. Whilst we were at table, there came on a
frightful thunder-storm. I have witnessed nothing so terrible: the
thunder roared and reverberated among the rocky cliffs which begirdle
Berneck; and it seemed as if the world was going to perish: a deluge of
rain succeeded the thunder.
"It was four o'clock; and I could not understand what had become of my
Brother. I had sent out several persons on horseback to get tidings of
him, and none of them came back. At length, in spite of all my prayers,
the Hereditary Prince [my excellent Husband] himself would go in search.
I remained waiting till nine at night, and nobody returned. I was in
cruel agitations: these cataracts of rain are very dangerous in the
mountain countries; the roads get suddenly overflowed, and there often
happen misfortunes. I thought for certain, there had one happened to
my Brother or to the Hereditary Prince." Such a 2d of July, to poor
Wilhelmina!
"At last, about nine, somebody brought word that my Brother had changed
his route, and was gone to Culmbach [a House of ours, lying westward,
known to readers]; there to stay overnight. I was for setting out
thither,--Culmbach is twenty miles from Berneck; but the roads are
frightful," White Mayn, still a young River, dashing through the
rock-labyrinths there, "and full of precipices:--everybody rose in
opposition, and, whether I would or not, they put me into the carriage
for Himmelkron [partly on the road thither], which is only about ten
miles off. We had like to have got drowned on the road; the waters were
so swoln [White Mayn and its angry brooks], the horses could not cross
but by swimming.
"I arrived at last, about one in the morning. I instantly threw myself
on a bed. I was like to die with weariness; and in mortal terrors that
something had happened to my Brother or the Hereditary Prince. This
latter relieved me on his own score; he arrived at last, about four
o'clock,--had still no news farther of my Brother. I was beginning to
doze a little, when they came to warn me that 'M. von Knobelsdorf wished
to speak with me from the Prince-Royal.' I darted out of bed, and ran to
him. He," handing me a Letter, "brought word that"--
But let us now give Letter Second, which has turned up lately, and which
curiously completes the picture here. Friedrich, on rising refreshed
with sleep at Hof, had taken a cheerfuler view; and the Generals still
lagging rearward, he thinks it possible to see Wilhelmina after all.
Possible; and yet so very dangerous,--perhaps not possible? Here is a
second Letter written from Munchberg, some fifteen miles farther on, at
an after period of the same Friday: purport still of a perplexed nature,
"I will, and I dare not;"--practical outcome, of itself uncertain, is
scattered now by torrents and thunderstorms. This is the Letter, which
Knobelsdorf now hands to Wilhelmina at that untimely hour of Saturday:--
2. TO PRINCESS WILHELMINA (by Knobelsdorf).
"MUNCHBERG, 2d July, 1754.
"MY DEAREST SISTER,--I am in despair that I cannot satisfy my impatience
and my duty,--to throw myself at your feet this day. But alas, dear
Sister, it does not depend on me: we poor Princes, "the Margraves and
I," are obliged to wait here till our Generals [Bredow, Schulenburg and
Company] come up; we dare not go along without them. They broke a wheel
in Gera [fifty miles behind us]; hearing nothing of them since, we are
absolutely forced to wait here. Judge in what a mood I am, and
what sorrow must be mine! Express order not to go by Baireuth or
Anspach:--forbear, dear sister, to torment me on things not depending on
myself at all.
"I waver between hope and fear of paying my court to you. I hope it
might still be at Berneck," this evening,--"if you could contrive a road
into the Nurnberg Highway again; avoiding Baireuth: otherwise I dare not
go. The Bearer, who is Captain Knobelsdorf [excellent judicious man, old
acquaintance from the Custrin time, who attends upon us, actual Captain
once, but now titular merely, given to architecture and the fine arts
(Seyfarth (Anonymous), _Lebens-und Regierungs-Geschichte Friedrichs
des Andern_ (Leipzig, 1786), ii. 200. _OEuvres de Frederic,_ vii. 33.
Preuss, _Friedrich mit seinen Verwandten_ (Berlin. 1838), pp. 8, 17.)],
will apprise you of every particular: let Knobelsdorf settle something
that may be possible. This is how I stand at present; and instead of
having to expect some favor from the King [after what I have done by his
order], I get nothing but chagrin. But what is crueler upon me than
all, is that you are ill. God, in his grace, be pleased to help you, and
restore the precious health which I so much wish you!... FRIEDRICH."
[_OEuvres de Frederic,_ xxvii. part lst, p. 15.]
Judicious Knobelsdorf settles that the meeting is to be this very
morning at eight; Wilhelmina (whose memory a little fails her in the
insignificant points) does not tell us where: but, by faint indications,
I perceive it was in the Lake-House, pleasant Pavilion in the ancient
artificial Lake, or big ornamental Fishpond, called BRANDENBURGER
WEIHER, a couple of miles to the north of Baireuth: there Friedrich is
to stop,--keeping the Paternal Order from the teeth outwards in this
manner. Eight o'clock: so that Wilhelmina is obliged at once to get
upon the road again,--poor Princess, after such a day and night. Her
description of the Interview is very good:--
"My Brother overwhelmed me with caresses; but found me in so pitiable
a state, he could not restrain his tears. I was not able to stand on my
limbs; and felt like to faint every moment, so weak was I. He told me
the King was much angered at the Margraf [my Father-in-Law] for not
letting his Son make the Campaign,"--concerning which point, said Son,
my Husband, being Heir-Apparent, there had been much arguing in Court
and Country, here at Baireuth, and endless anxiety on my poor part, lest
he should get killed in the Wars. "I told him all the Margraf's reasons;
and added, that surely they were good, in respect of my dear Husband.
'Well,' said he, 'let him quit soldiering, then, and give back his
regiment to the King. But for the rest, quiet yourself as to the fears
you may have about him if he do go; for I know, by certain information,
that there will be no blood spilt.'--'They are at the Siege of
Philipsburg, however.'--'Yes,' said my Brother, 'but there will not be a
battle risked to hinder it.'
"The Hereditary Prince," my Husband, "came in while we were talking so;
and earnestly entreated my Brother to get him away from Baireuth.
They went to a window, and talked a long time together. In the end, my
Brother told me he would write a very obliging Letter to the Margraf,
and give him such reasons in favor of the Campaign, that he doubted not
it would turn the scale. 'We will stay together,' said he, addressing
the Hereditary Prince; 'and I shall be charmed to have my dear
Brother always beside me.' He wrote the Letter; gave it to Baron Stein
[Chamberlain or Goldstick of ours], to deliver to the Margraf. He
promised to obtain the King's express leave to stop at Baireuth on his
return;--after which he went away. It was the last time I saw him on
the old footing with me: he has much changed since then!--We returned to
Baireuth; where I was so ill that, for three days, they did not think I
should get over it." [Wilhelmina, ii. 200-202.]
Crown-Prince dashes off, southwestward, through cross country, into
the Nurnberg Road again; gets to Nurnberg that same Saturday night; and
there, among other Letters, writes the following; which will wind up
this little Incident for us, still in a human manner:--
3. TO PRINCESS WILHELMINA AT BAIREUTH.
"NURNBERG, 3d July, 1734.
"MY DEAREST (TRES-CHERE) SISTER,--It would be impossible to quit this
place without signifying, dearest Sister, my lively gratitude for all
the marks of favor you showed me in the WEIHERHAUS [House on the Lake,
to-day]. The highest of all that it was possible to do, was that of
procuring me the satisfaction of paying my court to you. I beg millions
of pardons for so putting you about, dearest Sister; but I could not
help it; for you know my sad circumstances well enough. In my great joy,
I forgot to give you the Enclosed. I entreat you, write me often news of
your health! Question the Doctors; and"--and in certain contingencies,
the Crown-Prince "would recommend goat's-milk" for his poor Sister. Had
already, what was noted of him in after life, a tendency to give medical
advice, in cases interesting to him?--
"Adieu, my incomparable and dear Sister. I am always the same to you,
and will remain so till my death.
"FRIEDRICH."
[_OEuvres de Frederic,_ xxvii. part lst, p. 57.]
Generals with their wheel mended, Margraves, Prince and now the Camp
Equipage too, are all at Nurnberg; and start on the morrow; hardly
a hundred miles now to be done,--but on slower terms, owing to the
Equipage. Heilbronn, place of arms or central stronghold of the
Reich's-Army, they reach on Monday: about Eppingen, next night, if the
wind is westerly, one may hear the cannon,--not without interest. It was
Wednesday forenoon, 7th July, 1734, on some hill-top coming down from
Eppingen side, that the Prince first saw Philipsburg Siege, blotting
the Rhine Valley yonder with its fire and counter-fire; and the Tents
of Eugene stretching on this side: first view he ever had of the
actualities of war. His account to Papa is so distinct and good, we look
through it almost as at first-hand for a moment:--
"CAMP AT WIESENTHAL, Wednesday, 7th July, 1734.
"MOST ALL-GRACIOUS FATHER,--... We left Nurnberg [nothing said of our
Baireuth affair], 4th early, and did not stop till Heilbronn; where,
along with the Equipage, I arrived on the 5th. Yesterday I came with the
Equipage to Eppingen [twenty miles, a slow march, giving the fourgons
time]; and this morning we came to the Camp at Wiesenthal. I have dined
with General Roder [our Prussian Commander]; and, after dinner, rode
with Prince Eugene while giving the parole. I handed him my All-gracious
Father's Letter, which much rejoiced him. After the parole, I went to
see the relieving of our outposts [change of sentries there], and view
the French retrenchment.
"We," your Majesty's Contingent, "are throwing up three redoubts: at one
of them today, three musketeers have been miserably shot [GESCHOSSEN,
wounded, not quite killed]; two are of Roder's, and one is of
Finkenstein's regiment.
"To-morrow I will ride to a village which is on our right wing;
Waghausel is the name of it [Busching, v. 1152.] [some five miles off,
north of us, near by the Rhine]; there is a steeple there, from which
one can see the French Camp; from this point I will ride down, between
the two Lines," French and ours, "to see what they are like.
"There are quantities of hurdles and fascines being made; which, as I
hear, are to be employed in one of two different plans. The first plan
is, To attack the French retrenchment generally; the ditch which is
before it, and the morass which lies on our left wing, to be made
passable with these fascines. The other plan is, To amuse the Enemy by a
false attack, and throw succor into the Town.--One thing is certain,
in a few days we shall have a stroke of work here. Happen what may,
my All-gracious Father may be assured that" &c., "and that I will do
nothing unworthy of him.
"FRIEDRICH."
[_OEuvres,_ xxvii. part 3d, p. 79.]
Neither of those fine plans took effect; nor did anything take effect,
as we shall see. But in regard to that "survey from the steeple of
Waghausel, and ride home again between the Lines,"--in regard to that,
here is an authentic fraction of anecdote, curiously fitting in, which
should not be omitted. A certain Herr van Suhm, Saxon Minister at
Berlin, occasionally mentioned here, stood in much Correspondence with
the Crown-Prince in the years now following: Correspondence which was
all published at the due distance of time; Suhm having, at his decease,
left the Prince's Letters carefully assorted with that view, and
furnished with a Prefatory "Character of the Prince-Royal _(Portrait
du Prince-Royal, par M. de Suhm)."_ Of which Preface this is a small
paragraph, relating to the Siege of Philipsburg; offering us a momentary
glance into one fibre of the futile War now going on there. Of Suhm,
and how exact he was, we shall know a little by and by. Of "Prince
von Lichtenstein," an Austrian man and soldier of much distinction
afterwards, we have only to say that he came to Berlin next year on
Diplomatic business, and that probably enough he had been eye-witness to
the little fact,--fact credible perhaps without much proving. One rather
regretted there was no date to it, no detail to give it whereabout
and fixity in our conception; that the poor little Anecdote, though
indubitable, had to hang vaguely in the air. Now, however, the above
dated LETTER does, by accident, date Suhm's Anecdote too; date "July 8"
as good as certain for it; the Siege itself having ended (July 18) in
ten days more. Herr von Suhm writes (not for publication till after
Friedrich's death and his own):--
"It was remarked in the Rhine Campaign of 1734, that this Prince has a
great deal of intrepidity (BEAUCOUP DE VALEUR). On one occasion, among
others [to all appearance, this very day, "July 8," riding home from
Waghausel between the lines], when he had gone to reconnoitre the Lines
of Philipsburg, with a good many people about him,--passing, on his
return, along a strip of very thin wood, the cannon-shot from the Lines
accompanied him incessantly, and crashed down several trees at his side;
during all which he walked his horse along at the old pace, precisely as
if nothing were happening, nor in his hand upon the bridle was there
the least trace of motion perceptible. Those who gave attention to the
matter remarked, on the contrary, that he did not discontinue speaking
very tranquilly to some Generals who accompanied him; and who admired
his bearing, in a kind of danger with which he had not yet had occasion
to familiarize himself. It is from the Prince von Lichtenstein that I
have this anecdote." [_Correspondance de Frederic II. avec M. de Suhm _
(Berlin, 1787); Avant-propos, p. xviii. (written 28th April, 1740). The
CORRESPONDANCE is all in _OEuvres de Frederic_ (xvi, 247-408); but the
Suhm Preface not.]
On the 15th arrived his Majesty in person, with the Old Dessauer,
Buddenbrock, Derschau and a select suite; in hopes of witnessing
remarkable feats of war, now that the crisis of Philipsburg was coming
on. Many Princes were assembled there, in the like hope: Prince of
Orange (honeymoon well ended [Had wedded Princess Anne, George II.'s
eldest, 25th (14th) March, 1734; to the joy of self and mankind, in
England here.]), a vivacious light gentleman, slightly crooked in the
back; Princes of Baden, Darmstadt, Waldeck: all manner of Princes and
distinguished personages, fourscore Princes of them by tale, the eyes of
Europe being turned on this matter, and on old Eugene's guidance of it.
Prince Fred of England, even he had a notion of coming to learn war.
It was about this time, not many weeks ago, that Fred, now falling into
much discrepancy with his Father, and at a loss for a career to himself,
appeared on a sudden in the Antechamber at St. James's one day; and
solemnly demanded an interview with his Majesty. Which his indignant
Majesty, after some conference with Walpole, decided to grant. Prince
Fred, when admitted, made three demands: 1. To be allowed to go upon
the Rhine Campaign, by way of a temporary career for himself; 2. That
he might have something definite to live upon, a fixed revenue being
suitable in his circumstances; 3. That, after those sad Prussian
disappointments, some suitable Consort might be chosen for him,--heart
and household lying in such waste condition. Poor Fred, who of us knows
what of sense might be in these demands? Few creatures more absurdly
situated are to be found in this world. To go where his equals were,
and learn soldiering a little, might really have been useful. Paternal
Majesty received Fred and his Three Demands with fulminating look;
answered, to the first two, nothing; to the third, about a Consort,
"Yes, you shall; but be respectful to the Queen;--and now off with you;
away!" [Coxe's _Walpole,_ i. 322.]
Poor Fred, he has a circle of hungry Parliamenteers about him; young
Pitt, a Cornet of Horse, young Lyttelton of Hagley, our old Soissons
friend, not to mention others of worse type; to whom this royal Young
Gentleman, with his vanities, ambitions, inexperiences, plentiful
inflammabilities, is important for exploding Walpole. He may have, and
with great justice I should think, the dim consciousness of talents for
doing something better than "write madrigals" in this world; infinitude
of wishes and appetites he clearly has;--he is full of inflammable
materials, poor youth. And he is the Fireship those older hands make use
of for blowing Walpole and Company out of their anchorage. What a school
of virtue for a young gentleman;--and for the elder ones concerned with
him! He did not get to the Rhine Campaign; nor indeed ever to anything,
except to writing madrigals, and being very futile, dissolute and
miserable with what of talent Nature had given him. Let us pity the poor
constitutional Prince. Our Fritz was only in danger of losing his life;
but what is that, to losing your sanity, personal identity almost, and
becoming Parliamentary Fireship to his Majesty's Opposition?
Friedrich Wilhelm stayed a month campaigning here; graciously declined
Prince Eugene's invitation to lodge in Headquarters, under a roof and
within built walls; preferred a tent among his own people, and took the
common hardships,--with great hurt to his weak health, as was afterwards
found.
In these weeks, the big Czarina, who has set a price (100,000 rubles,
say 15,000 pounds) upon the head of poor Stanislaus, hears that his
Prussian Majesty protects him; and thereupon signifies, in high terms,
That she, by her Feld-marschall Munnich, will come across the frontiers
and seize the said Stanislaus. To which his Prussian Majesty answers
positively, though in proper Diplomatic tone, "Madam, I will in no wise
permit it!" Perhaps his Majesty's remarkablest transaction, here on
the Rhine, was this concerning Stanislaus. For Seckendorf the
Feldzeugmeister was here also, on military function, not forgetful of
the Diplomacies; who busily assailed his Majesty, on the Kaiser's part,
in the same direction: "Give up Stanislaus, your Majesty! How ridiculous
(LACHERLICH) to be perhaps ruined for Stanislaus!" But without the least
effect, now or afterwards.
Poor Stanislaus, in the beginning of July, got across into Preussen, as
we intimated; and there he continued, safe against any amount of
rubles and Feldmarschalls, entreaties and menaces. At Angerburg, on the
Prussian frontier, he found a steadfast veteran, Lieutenant-General von
Katte, Commandant in those parts (Father of a certain poor Lieutenant,
whom we tragically knew of long ago!)--which veteran gentleman received
the Fugitive Majesty, [_Militair-Lexikon,_ ii. 254.] with welcome in the
King's name, and assurances of an honorable asylum till the times and
roads should clear again for his Fugitive Majesty. Fugitive Majesty,
for whom the roads and times were very dark at present, went to
Marienwerder; talked of going "to Pillau, for a sea-passage," of
going to various places; went finally to Konigsberg, and there--with
a considerable Polish Suite of Fugitives, very moneyless, and very
expensive, most of them, who had accumulated about him--set up his
abode. There for almost two years, in fact till this War ended,
the Fugitive Polish Majesty continued; Friedrich Wilhelm punctually
protecting him, and even paying him a small Pension (50 pounds a
month),--France, the least it could do for the Grandfather of France,
allowing a much larger one; larger, though still inadequate. France has
left its Grandfather strangely in the lurch here; with "100,000 rubles
on his head." But Friedrich Wilhelm knows the sacred rites, and will
do them; continues deaf as a door-post alike to the menaces and the
entreaties of Kaiser and Czarina; strictly intimating to Munnich, what
the Laws of Neutrality are, and that they must be observed. Which, by
his Majesty's good arrangements, Munnich, willing enough to the contrary
had it been feasible, found himself obliged to comply with. Prussian
Majesty, like a King and a gentleman, would listen to no terms about
dismissing or delivering up, or otherwise, failing in the sacred rites
to Stanislaus; but honorably kept him there till the times and routes
cleared themselves again. [Forster, ii. 132, 134-136.] A plain piece
of duty; punctually done: the beginning of it falls here in the Camp at
Philipsburg, July-August 1734; in May, 1736, we shall see some glimpse
of the end!--
His Prussian Majesty in Camp at Philipsburg--so distinguished a
volunteer, doing us the honor to encamp here--"was asked to all the
Councils-of-war that were held," say the Books. And he did attend, the
Crown-Prince and he, on important occasions: but, alas, there was, so to
speak, nothing to be consulted of. Fascines and hurdles lay useless;
no attempt was made to relieve Philipsburg. On the third day after his
Majesty's arrival, July 18th, Philipsburg, after a stiff defence of
six weeks, growing hopeless of relief, had to surrender;--French then
proceeded to repair Philipsburg, no attempt on Eugene's part to molest
them there. If they try ulterior operations on this side the River, he
counter-tries; and that is all.
Our Crown-Prince, somewhat of a judge in after years, is maturely of
opinion, That the French Lines were by no means inexpugnable; that the
French Army might have been ruined under an attack of the proper kind.
[_OEuvres de Frederic,_ i. 167.] Their position was bad; no room to
unfold themselves for fight, except with the Town's cannon playing on
them all the while; only one Bridge to get across by, in case of coming
to the worse: defeat of them probable, and ruin to them inevitable
in case of defeat. But Prince Eugene, with an Army little to his mind
(Reich's-Contingents not to be depended on, thought Eugene), durst not
venture: "Seventeen victorious Battles, and if we should be defeated in
the eighteenth and last?"
It is probable the Old Dessauer, had he been Generalissimo, with this
same Army,--in which, even in the Reich's part of it, we know ten
thousand of an effective character,--would have done some stroke upon
the French; but Prince Eugene would not try. Much dimmed from his former
self this old hero; age now 73;--a good deal wearied with the long march
through Time. And this very Summer, his Brother's Son, the last male
of his House, had suddenly died of inflammatory fever; left the old man
very mournful: "Alone, alone, at the end of one's long march; laurels
have no fruit, then?" He stood cautious, on the defensive; and in this
capacity is admitted to have shown skilful management.
But Philipsburg being taken, there is no longer the least event to be
spoken of; the Campaign passed into a series of advancings, retreatings,
facing, and then right-about facings,--painful manoeuvrings, on both
sides of the Rhine and of the Neckar,--without result farther to the
French, without memorability to either side. About the middle of August,
Friedrich Wilhelm went away;--health much hurt by his month under
canvas, amid Rhine inundations, and mere distressing phenomena.
Crown-Prince Friedrich and a select party escorted his Majesty to Mainz,
where was a Dinner of unusual sublimity by the Kurfurst there; [15th
August (Fassmann, p. 511.)]--Dinner done, his Majesty stept on board
"the Electoral Yacht;" and in this fine hospitable vehicle went
sweeping through the Binger Loch, rapidly down towards Wesel; and the
Crown-Prince and party returned to their Camp, which is upon the Neckar
at this time.
Camp shifts about, and Crown-Prince in it: to Heidelberg, to Waiblingen,
Weinheim; close to Mainz at one time: but it is not worth following: nor
in Friedrich's own Letters, or in other documents, is there, on the
best examination, anything considerable to be gleaned respecting his
procedures there. He hears of the ill-success in Italy, Battle of Parma
at the due date, with the natural feelings; speaks with a sorrowful
gayety, of the muddy fatigues, futilities here on the Rhine;--has the
sense, however, not to blame his superiors unreasonably. Here, from
one of his Letters to Colonel Camas, is a passage worth quoting for the
credit of the writer. With Camas, a distinguished Prussian Frenchman,
whom we mentioned elsewhere, still more with Madame Camas in time
coming, he corresponded much, often in a fine filial manner:--
"The present Campaign is a school, where profit may be reaped from
observing the confusion and disorder which reigns in this Army: it has
been a field very barren in laurels; and those who have been used, all
their life, to gather such, and on Seventeen distinguished occasions
have done so, can get none this time." Next year, we all hope to be on
the Moselle, and to find that a fruitfuler field... "I am afraid, dear
Camas, you think I am going to put on the cothurnus; to set up for a
small Eugene, and, pronouncing with a doctoral tone what each should
have done and not have done, condemn and blame to right and left. No, my
dear Camas; far from carrying my arrogance to that point, I admire
the conduct of our Chief, and do not disapprove that of his worthy
Adversary; and far from forgetting the esteem and consideration due to
persons who, scarred with wounds, have by years and long service gained
a consummate experience, I shall hear them more willingly than ever as
my teachers, and try to learn from them how to arrive at honor, and
what is the shortest road into the secret of this Profession." ["Camp at
Heidelberg, 11th September, 1734" (_OEuvres,_ xvi. 131).]
This other, to Lieutenant Groben, three weeks earlier in date, shows
us a different aspect; which is at least equally authentic; and may
be worth taking with us. Groben is Lieutenant,--I suppose still of the
Regiment Goltz, though he is left there behind;--at any rate, he is much
a familiar with the Prince at Ruppin; was ringleader, it is thought,
in those midnight pranks upon parsons, and the other escapades there;
[Busching, v. 20.] a merry man, eight years older than the Prince,--with
whom it is clear enough he stands on a very free footing. Philipsburg
was lost a month ago; French are busy repairing it; and manoeuvring,
with no effect, to get into the interior of Germany a little. Weinheim
is a little Town on the north side of the Neckar, a dozen miles or so
from Mannheim;--out of which, and into which, the Prussian Corps goes
shifting from time to time, as Prince Eugene and the French manoeuvre to
no purpose in that Rhine-Neckar Country. "HERDEK TEREMTETEM" it appears,
is a bit of Hungarian swearing; should be ORDEK TEREMTETE; and means
"The Devil made you!"
[MAP GOES HERE------missing]
"WEINHEIM, 17th August, 1734.
"HERDEK TEREMTETE! 'Went with them, got hanged with them,'
[_"Mitgegangen mitgehangen:"_ Letter is in German.] said the Bielefeld
Innkeeper! So will it be with me, poor devil; for I go dawdling about
with this Army here; and the French will have the better of us. We want
to be over the Neckar again [to the South or Philipsburg side], and the
rogues won't let us. What most provokes me in the matter is, that
while we are here in such a wilderness of trouble, doing our utmost, by
military labors and endurances, to make ourselves heroic, thou sittest,
thou devil, at home!
"Duc de Bouillon has lost his equipage; our Hussars took it at Landau
[other side the Rhine, a while ago]. Here we stand in mud to the ears;
fifteen of the Regiment Alt-Baden have sunk altogether in the mud. Mud
comes of a water-spout, or sudden cataract of rain, there was in these
Heidelberg Countries; two villages, Fuhrenheim and Sandhausen, it swam
away, every stick of them (GANZ UND GAR).
"Captain van Stojentin, of Regiment Flans," one of our eight Regiments
here, "has got wounded in the head, in an affair of honor; he is still
alive, and it is hoped he will get through it.
"The Drill-Demon has now got into the Kaiser's people too: Prince Eugene
is grown heavier with his drills than we ourselves. He is often three
hours at it;--and the Kaiser's people curse us for the same, at a
frightful rate. Adieu. If the Devil don't get thee, he ought. Therefore
VALE. [_OEuvres de Frederic,_ xxvii. part 3d, p. 181.]
"FRIEDRICH."
No laurels to be gained here; but plenty of mud, and laborious
hardship,--met, as we perceive, with youthful stoicism, of the derisive,
and perhaps of better forms. Friedrich is twenty-two and some months,
when he makes his first Campaign. The general physiognomy of his
behavior in it we have to guess from these few indications. No doubt
he profited by it, on the military side; and would study with quite new
light and vivacity after such contact with the fact studied of. Very
didactic to witness even "the confusions of this Army," and what comes
of them to Armies! For the rest, the society of Eugene, Lichtenstein,
and so many Princes of the Reich, and Chiefs of existing mankind, could
not but be entertaining to the young man; and silently, if he wished
to read the actual Time, as sure enough he, with human and with royal
eagerness, did wish,--they were here as the ALPHABET of it to him:
important for years coming. Nay it is not doubted, the insight he here
got into the condition of the Austrian Army and its management--"Army
left seven days without bread," for one instance--gave him afterwards
the highly important notion, that such Army could be beaten if
necessary!--
Wilhelmina says, his chief comrade was Margraf Heinrich;--the ILL
Margraf; who was cut by Friedrich, in after years, for some unknown bad
behavior. Margraf Heinrich "led him into all manner of excesses," says
Wilhelmina,--probably in the language of exaggeration. He himself tells
her, in one of his LETTERS, a day or two before Papa's departure: "The
Camp is soon to be close on Mainz, nothing but the Rhine between Mainz
and our right wing, where my place is; and so soon as Serenissimus goes
[LE SERENISSIME, so he irreverently names Papa], I mean to be across
for some sport," [_OEuvres de Frederic,_ xxvii. part 1st, p. 17 (10th
August).]--no doubt the Ill Margraf with me! With the Elder Margraf,
little Sophie's Betrothed, whom he called "big clown" in a Letter we
read, he is at this date in open quarrel,--"BROUILLE A TOUTE OUTRANCE
with the mad Son-in-law, who is the wildest wild-beast of all this
Camp." [Ibid.]
Wilhelmina's Husband had come, in the beginning of August; but was not
so happy as he expected. Considerably cut out by the Ill Heinrich. Here
is a small adventure they had; mentioned by Friedrich, and copiously
recorded by Wilhelmina: adventure on some River,--which we could guess,
if it were worth guessing, to have been the Neckar, not the Rhine.
French had a fortified post on the farther side of this River;
Crown-Prince, Ill Margraf, and Wilhelmina's Husband were quietly looking
about them, riding up the other side: Wilhelmina's Husband decided to
take a pencil-drawing of the French post, and paused for that object.
Drawing was proceeding unmolested, when his foolish Baireuth Hussar,
having an excellent rifle (ARQUEBUSE RAYEE) with him, took it into his
head to have a shot at the French sentries at long range. His shot
hit nothing; but it awakened the French animosity, as was natural; the
French began diligently firing; and might easily have done mischief.
My Husband, volleying out some rebuke upon the blockhead of a Hussar,
finished his drawing, in spite of the French bullets; then rode up to
the Crown-Prince and Ill Margraf, who had got their share of what was
going, and were in no good-humor with him. Ill Margraf rounded things
into the Crown-Prince's ear, in an unmannerly way, with glances at
my Husband;--who understood it well enough; and promptly coerced such
ill-bred procedures, intimating, in a polite impressive way, that they
would be dangerous if persisted in. Which reduced the Ill Margraf to a
spiteful but silent condition. No other harm was done at that time; the
French bullets all went awry, or "even fell short, being sucked in by
the river," thinks Wilhelmina. [Wilhelmina, ii. 208, 209; _OEuvres de
Frederic,_ xxvii. part 1st, p. 19.]
A more important feature of the Crown-Prince's life in these latter
weeks is the news he gets of his father. Friedrich Wilhelm, after
quitting the Electoral Yacht, did his reviewing at Wesel, at Bielefeld,
all his reviewing in those Rhine and Weser Countries; then turned aside
to pay a promised visit to Ginkel the Berlin Dutch Ambassador, who has
a fine House in those parts; and there his Majesty has fallen seriously
ill. Obliged to pause at Ginkel's, and then at his own Schloss of
Moyland, for some time; does not reach Potsdam till the 14th September,
and then in a weak, worsening, and altogether dangerous condition,
which lasts for months to come. [Fassmann, pp. 512-533: September,
1734-January, 1735.] Wrecks of gout, they say, and of all manner of
nosological mischief; falling to dropsy. Case desperate, think all the
Newspapers, in a cautious form; which is Friedrich Wilhelm's own opinion
pretty much, and that of those better informed. Here are thoughts for a
Crown-Prince; well affected to his Father, yet suffering much from him
which is grievous. To by-standers, one now makes a different figure:
"A Crown-Prince, who may be King one of these days,--whom a little
adulation were well spent upon!" From within and from without come
agitating influences; thoughts which must be rigorously repressed, and
which are not wholly repressible. The soldiering Crown-Prince, from
about the end of September, for the last week or two of this Campaign,
is secretly no longer quite the same to himself or to others.
GLIMPSE OF LIEUTENANT CHASOT, AND OF OTHER ACQUISITIONS.
We have still two little points to specify, or to bring up from the
rearward whither they are fallen, in regard to this Campaign. After
which the wearisome Campaign shall terminate; Crown-Prince leading his
Ten Thousand to Frankfurt, towards their winter-quarters in Westphalia;
and then himself running across from Frankfurt (October 5th), to see
Wilhelmina for a day or two on the way homewards:--with much pleasure to
all parties, my readers and me included!
FIRST point is, That, some time in this Campaign, probably towards the
end of it, the Crown-Prince, Old Dessauer and some others with them,
"procured passports," went across, and "saw the French Camp," and
what new phenomena were in it for them. Where, when, how, or with what
impression left on either side, we do not learn. It was not much of
a Camp for military admiration, this of the French. [_Memoires de
Noailles_ (passim).] There were old soldiers of distinction in it here
and there; a few young soldiers diligently studious of their art; and a
great many young fops of high birth and high ways, strutting about "in
red-heeled shoes," with "Commissions got from Court" for this War,
and nothing of the soldier but the epaulettes and plumages,--apt to be
"insolent" among their poorer comrades. From all parties, young and old,
even from that insolent red-heel party, nothing but the highest finish
of politeness could be visible on this particular occasion. Doubtless
all passed in the usual satisfactory manner; and the Crown-Prince got
his pleasant excursion, and materials, more or less, for after thought
and comparison. But as there is nothing whatever of it on record for us
but the bare fact, we leave it to the reader's imagination,--fact being
indubitable, and details not inconceivable to lively readers. Among the
French dignitaries doing the honors of their Camp on this occasion, he
was struck by the General's Adjutant, a "Count de Rottembourg" (properly
VON ROTHENBURG, of German birth, kinsman to the Rothenburg whom we
have seen as French Ambassador at Berlin long since); a promising young
soldier; whom he did not lose sight of again, but acquired in due time
to his own service, and found to be of eminent worth there. A Count von
Schmettau, two Brothers von Schmettau, here in the Austrian service;
superior men, Prussian by birth, and very fit to be acquired by and
by; these the Crown-Prince had already noticed in this Rhine
Campaign,--having always his eyes open to phenomena of that kind.
The SECOND little point is of date perhaps two months anterior to that
of the French Camp; and is marked sufficiently in this Excerpt from our
confused manuscripts.
Before quitting Philipsburg, there befell one slight adventure, which,
though it seemed to be nothing, is worth recording here. One day, date
not given, a young French Officer, of ingenuous prepossessing look,
though much flurried at the moment, came across as involuntary deserter;
flying from a great peril in his own camp. The name of him is Chasot,
Lieutenant of such and such a Regiment: "Take me to Prince Eugene!" he
entreats, which is done. Peril was this: A high young gentleman, one of
those fops in red heels, ignorant, and capable of insolence to a poorer
comrade of studious turn, had fixed a duel upon Chasot. Chasot ran him
through, in fair duel; dead, and is thought to have deserved it. "But
Duc de Boufflers is his kinsman: run, or you are lost!" cried everybody.
The Officers of his Regiment hastily redacted some certificate for
Chasot, hastily signed it; and Chasot ran, scarcely waiting to pack his
baggage.
"Will not your Serene Highness protect me?"--"Certainly!" said
Eugene;--gave Chasot a lodging among his own people; and appointed one
of them, Herr Brender by name, to show him about, and teach him the
nature of his new quarters. Chasot, a brisk, ingenuous young fellow,
soon became a favorite; eager to be useful where possible; and very
pleasant in discourse, said everybody.
By and by,--still at Philipsburg, as would seem, though it is not
said,--the Crown-Prince heard of Chasot; asked Brender to bring him
over. Here is Chasot's own account: through which, as through a small
eyelet-hole, we peep once more, and for the last time, direct into the
Crown-Prince's Campaign-life on this occasion:--
"Next morning, at ten o'clock the appointed hour, Brender having ordered
out one of his horses for me, I accompanied him to the Prince; who
received us in his Tent,--behind which he had, hollowed out to the depth
of three or four feet, a large Dining-room, with windows, and a roof," I
hope of good height, "thatched with straw. His Royal Highness, after two
hours' conversation, in which he had put a hundred questions to me [a
Prince desirous of knowing the facts], dismissed us; and at parting,
bade me return often to him in the evenings.
"It was in this Dining-room, at the end of a great dinner, the day
after next, that the Prussian guard introduced a Trumpet from Monsieur
d'Asfeld [French Commander-in-Chief since Berwick's death], with my
three horses, sent over from the French Army. Prince Eugene, who was
present, and in good humor, said, 'We must sell those horses, they don't
speak German; Brender will take care to mount you some way or other.'
Prinoe Lichtenstein immediately put a price on my horses; and they were
sold on the spot at three times their worth. The Prince of Orange,
who was of this Dinner [slightly crook-backed witty gentleman, English
honeymoon well over], said to me in a half-whisper, 'Monsieur, there is
nothing like selling horses to people who have dined well.'
"After this sale, I found myself richer than I had ever been in my life.
The Prince-Royal sent me, almost daily, a groom and led horse, that I
might come to him, and sometimes follow him in his excursions. At last,
he had it proposed to me, by M. de Brender, and even by Prince Eugene,
to accompany him to Berlin." Which, of course, I did; taking Ruppin
first. "I arrived at Berlin from Ruppin, in 1734, two days after the
marriage of Friedrich Wilhelm Margraf of Schwedt [Ill Margraf's
elder Brother, wildest wild-beast of this camp] with the Princess
Sophie,"--that is to say, 12th of November; Marriage having been on the
10th, as the Books teach us. Chasot remembers that, on the 14th, "the
Crown-Prince gave, in his Berlin mansion, a dinner to all the Royal
Family," in honor of that auspicious wedding. [Kurd vou Schlozer, _
Chasot_ (Berlin, 1856), pp. 20-22. A pleasant little Book; tolerably
accurate, and of very readable quality.]
Thus is Chasot established with the Crown-Prince. He will turn up
fighting well in subsequent parts of this History; and again duelling
fatally, though nothing of a quarrelsome man, as he asserts.
CROWN-PRINCE'S VISIT TO BAIREUTH ON THE WAY HOME.
October 4th, the Crown-Prince has parted with Prince Eugene,--not to
meet again in this world; "an old hero gone to the shadow of himself,"
says the Crown-Prince; [_OEuvres (Memoires de Brandebourg),_ i.
167.]--and is giving his Prussian War-Captains a farewell dinner at
Frankfurt-on-Mayn; having himself led the Ten Thousand so far, towards
Winter-quarters, and handing them over now to their usual commanders.
They are to winter in Westphalia, these Ten Thousand, in the
Paderborn-Munster Country; where they are nothing like welcome to the
Ruling Powers; nor are intended to be so,--Kur-Koln (proprietor there)
and his Brother of Bavaria having openly French leanings. The Prussian
Ten Thousand will have to help themselves to the essential, therefore,
without welcome;--and things are not pleasant. And the Ruling Powers,
by protocolling, still more the Commonalty if it try at mobbing, ["28th
March, 1735" (Fassmann, p. 547); Buchholz, i. 136.] can only make them
worse. Indeed it is said the Ten Thousand, though their bearing was so
perfect otherwise, generally behaved rather ill in their marches
over Germany, during this War,--and always worst, it was remarked by
observant persons, in the countries (Bamberg and Wurzburg, for instance)
where their officers had in past years been in recruiting troubles.
Whereby observant persons explained the phenomenon to themselves. But
we omit all that; our concern lying elsewhere. "Directly after dinner at
Frankfurt," the Crown-Prince drives off, rapidly as his wont is,
towards Baireuth. He arrives there on the morrow; "October 5th," says
Wilhelmina,--who again illuminates him to us, though with oblique
lights, for an instant.
Wilhelmina was in low spirits:--weak health; add funeral of the Prince
of Culmbach (killed in the Battle of Parma), illness of Papa, and other
sombre events:--and was by no means content with the Crown-Prince, on
this occasion. Strangely altered since we met him in July last! It may
be, the Crown-Prince, looking, with an airy buoyancy of mind, towards a
certain Event probably near, has got his young head inflated a little,
and carries himself with a height new to this beloved Sister;--but
probably the sad humor of the Princess herself has a good deal to do
with it. Alas, the contrast between a heart knowing secretly its own
bitterness, and a friend's heart conscious of joy and triumph, is harsh
and shocking to the former of the two! Here is the Princess's account;
with the subtrahend, twenty-five or seventy-five per cent, not deducted
from it:--
"My Brother arrived, the 5th of October. He seemed to me put out
(DECONTENANCE); and to break off conversation with me, he said he had to
write to the King and Queen. I ordered him pen and paper. He wrote in my
room; and spent more than a good hour in writing a couple of Letters,
of a line or two each. He then had all the Court, one after the other,
introduced to him; said nothing to any of them, looked merely with a
mocking air at them; after which we went to dinner.
"Here his whole conversation consisted in quizzing (TURLUPINER) whatever
he saw; and repeating to me, above a hundred times over, the words
'little Prince,' 'little Court.' I was shocked; and could not understand
how he had changed so suddenly towards me. The etiquette of all Courts
in the Empire is, that nobody who has not at the least the rank of
Captain can sit at a Prince's table: my Brother put a Lieutenant there,
who was in his suite; saying to me, 'A King's Lieutenants are as good as
a Margraf's Ministers.' I swallowed this incivility, and showed no sign.
"After dinner, being alone with me, he said,"--turning up the flippant
side of his thoughts, truly, in a questionable way:--"'Our Sire is going
to end (TIRE A SA FIN); he will not live out this month. I know I have
made you great promises; but I am not in a condition to keep them.
I will give you up the Half of the sum which the late King [our
Grandfather] lent you; [Supra, pp. 161, 162.] I think you will have
every reason to be satisfied with that.' I answered, That my regard
for him had never been of an interested nature; that I would never ask
anything of him, but the continuance of his friendship; and did not wish
one sou, if it would in the least inconvenience him. 'No, no,' said
he, 'you shall have those 100,000 thalers; I have destined them for
you.--People will be much surprised,' continued he, 'to see me act quite
differently from what they had expected. They imagine I am going to
lavish all my treasures, and that money will become as common as pebbles
at Berlin: but they will find I know better. I mean to increase my Army,
and to leave all other things on the old footing. I will have every
consideration for the Queen my Mother, and will sate her (RASSASIERAI)
with honors; but I do not mean that she shall meddle in my affairs; and
if she try it, she will find so.'" What a speech; what an outbreak of
candor in the young man, preoccupied with his own great thoughts and
difficulties,--to the exclusion of any other person's!
"I fell from the clouds, on hearing all that; and knew not if I was
sleeping or waking. He then questioned me on the affairs of this
Country. I gave him the detail of them. He said to me: 'When your goose
(BENET) of a Father-in-law dies, I advise you to break up the whole
Court, and reduce yourselves to the footing of a private gentleman's
establishment, in order to pay your debts. In real truth, you have no
need of so many people; and you must try also to reduce the wages of
those whom you cannot help keeping. You have been accustomed to live
at Berlin with a table of four dishes; that is all you want here: and
I will invite you now and then to Berlin; which will spare table and
housekeeping.'
"For a long while my heart had been getting big; I could not restrain my
tears, at hearing all these indignities. 'Why do you cry?' said he: 'Ah,
ah, you are in low spirits, I see. We must dissipate that dark humor.
The music waits us; I will drive that fit out of you by an air or two on
the flute.' He gave me his hand, and led me into the other room. I sat
down to the harpsichord; which I inundated (INONDAI) with my tears.
Marwitz [my artful Demoiselle d'Atours, perhaps too artful in time
coming] placed herself opposite me, so as to hide from the others what
disorder I was in." [Wilhelmina, ii. 216-218.]
For the last two days of the visit, Wilhelmina admits, her Brother was a
little kinder. But on the fourth day there came, by estafette, a Letter
from the Queen, conjuring him to return without delay, the King growing
worse and worse. Wilhelmina, who loved her Father, and whose outlooks in
case of his decease appeared to be so little flattering, was overwhelmed
with sorrow. Of her Brother, however, she strove to forget that strange
outbreak of candor; and parted with him as if all were mended between
them again. Nay, the day after his departure, there goes a beautifully
affectionate Letter to him; which we could give, if there were room:
[_OEuvres,_ xxvii. part 1st, p. 23.] "the happiest time I ever in my
life had;" "my heart so full of gratitude and so sensibly touched;"
"every one repeating the words 'dear Brother' and 'charming
Prince-Royal:'"--a Letter in very lively contrast to what we have just
been reading. A Prince-Royal not without charm, in spite of the hard
practicalities he is meditating, obliged to meditate!--
As to the outbreak of candor, offensive to Wilhelmina and us, we suppose
her report of it to be in substance true, though of exaggerated,
perhaps perverted tone; and it is worth the reader's note, with these
deductions. The truth is, our charming Princess is always liable to
a certain subtrahend. In 1744, when she wrote those _Memoires,_ "in
a Summer-house at Baireuth," her Brother and she, owing mainly to
go-betweens acting on the susceptible female heart, were again in
temporary quarrel (the longest and worst they ever had), and hardly on
speaking terms; which of itself made her heart very heavy;--not to
say that Marwitz, the too artful Demoiselle, seemed to have stolen her
Husband's affections from the poor Princess, and made the world look
all a little grim to her. These circumstances have given their color to
parts of her Narrative, and are not to be forgotten by readers.
The Crown-Prince--who goes by Dessau, lodging for a night with the Old
Dessauer, and writes affectionately to his Sister from that place, their
Letters crossing on the road--gets home on the 12th to Potsdam. October
12th, 1734, he has ended his Rhine Campaign, in that manner;--and
sees his poor Father, with a great many other feelings besides those
expressed in the dialogue at Baireuth.