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PROPERTY OF TIIK f. ^O ' 

CARNEGIE INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY 

LIBRARY i 



PROPERTY OF THE 

CARNEGIE INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY 



Department of TW, \fl, C- S, 

O 
Date No. A - 



CENTENARY EDITION 



THE WORKS OF 
THOMAS CARLYLE 

IN THIRTY VOLUMES 



VOL. XVII 

HISTORY OF 
FREDERICK THE GREAT 

VI 




FRIEDRICH II KONIGiNpREFSSKN. 



THOMAS CARLYLE 



HISTORY 

OF 

FRIEDRICH II. OF PRUSSIA 

CALLED 



IN EIGHT VOLUMES 
VOLUME VI 



L O N 13 O N 

CHAPMAN AND HALL 

LIMITED 



CONTENTS OF VOLUME VI 
BOOK XVU 

THE SEVEN- YEARS WAR : FIRST CAMPAIGN. 1756-1757 

CHAP. PAGOC 

I. WHAT FRIEDRICH HAD READ IN THE MENZEL DOCU- 
MENTS 1 

How Friedrich discovered the Mystery. Concerning 
Menzel and Weingarten, p. 3. 

II. ENGLISH DIPLOMACIES ABROAD, IN PROSPECT OF A 

FRENCH WAR ....... 15 

The triumphant Hanbury Treaty becomes, itself, Nothing 
or less ; but produces a Friedrich Treaty, followed by 
Kesults which surprise Everybody, p. 18. 

There has been a Counter-Treaty going on at Versailles, 
in the Interim ; which hereupon starts out, and tumbles 
the wholly astonished European Diplomacies heels-over- 
head, 23. 

III. FRENCH-ENGLISH WAR BREAKS OUT .... 27 

King Friedrich's Enigma gets more and more stringent, 
p. 31. 

IV. FRIEDRICH PUTS A QUESTION AT VIENNA, TWICE OVER . 56 

The King to Duke Ferdinand of Brunswick, p. 41. 

Same to Same (Confidential, this one), 42. 

1. Friedrich to the Prince of Prussia and the Princess 

Amelia (at Berlin), 43. 
2. Friedrich to the Prince of Prussia, 43. 
The March into Saxony, in Three Columns, 44. 

V. FRIEDRICH BLOCKADES THE SAXONS IN PIRNA COUNTRY 51 



vi HISTORY OF FREDERICK THE GREAT 

CHAP. * AGJB 

VI. BATTLE OF LOBOSITZ , * .65 

1. Friedrich to Wilhelmina (at Baireuth), p. 75. 
2. Prince of Prussia to Valori, 75. 

VIL THE SAXONS GET OUT OF PIRNA ON DISMAL TERMS . 76 

VIII. WINTER IN DRESDEN 92 

Secret Instruction for the Graf von Finck, p. 99. 
Instruction Secrete pour le Conte de fine, 100. 



BOOK XVIII 

SEVEN-YEARS WAR BISES TO A HEIGHT. 1757-1759 

I. THE CAMPAIGN OPENS . . , , , . .103 

Reich's Thunder, slight Survey of it; with Question, 

Whitherward, if anywhither? p. 108. 
Friedrich suddenly marches on Prag, 113, 

II. BATTLE OF PRAG 120 

III. PRAG CANNOT RE GOT AT ONCE 146 

Colonel Mayer with his * Free-Corps ' Party makes a Visit, 

of didactic Nature, to the Reich, p. 160. 
Of the singular quasi-hewitched Condition of England; 

and what is to be hoped from it, for the Common Cause, 

if Prag goes amiss, 154, 
Phenomena of Prag Siege : Prag Siege is interrupted, 164. 

IV. BATTLE OF KOLIN 168 

The Maria-Theresa Order, "new Knighthood for Austria, 
p. 185. 

V. FRIEDRICH AT LEITMERITZ, HIS WORLD OF ENEMIES 

COMING ON 187 

Prince August "Wilhelm finds a bad Problem at Jung- 
Bunzlau; and does it badly: Friedrich thereupon has 
to rise from Leitmeritz, and take the Field elsewhere, in 
bitter Haste and Impatience, with Outlooks worse than 
ever, p. 203. 



CONTENTS vii 



CHAP. 

VI. DEATH OP WINTERFELD , . , . , 218 

VII. FRIEDRICH IN THURINGEN, HIS WORLD OF ENEMIES 

ALL COME ........ 223 

I. Friedrich's March to Erfurt from Dresden (31st August 

13th September 1757), p. 226. 

II. The Soubise-Hildburghausen People take into the Hills ; 
Friedrich in Erfurt Neighbourhood, hanging on, Week 
after "Week, in an Agony of Inaction (13th September 
10th October), 231. 

Lamentation-Psalms of Friedrich, 239. 

III. Rumour of an Inroad on Berlin suddenly sets Friedrich 
on March thither : Inroad takes Effect, with important 
Kesults, chiefly in a left-hand Form, 253. 
Scene at Begensburg in the Interim, 259. 

VIII. BATTLE OF ROSSBACH . 263 

Catastrophe of Dauphiness (Saturday 5th November 1757), 

p. 268. 
"Ulterior Fate of Dauphiness ; flies over the Rhine in bad 

Fashion ; Dauphiness's Ways with the Saxon Populations 

in her Deliverance- Work, 283. 

IX. FRIEDRICH MARCHES FOR SILESIA .... 294* 

Friedrich's Speech to his Generals (Parchwitz, 3d December 
1757), p. 301. 

X. BATTLE OF LEUTHEN * 309 

XL WINTER IN BRESLAU : THIRD CAMPAIGN OPENS . . 332 

Of the English Subsidy, p. 341. 

Friedrich, as indeed Pitt's People and Others have done, 
takes the Field uncommonly early : Friedrich goes upon 
Schweidnitz, as the Preface to whatever his Campaign 
may be, 347. 

XII. SIEGE OF OLMUTZ ...... 350 

XIII. BATTLE OF ZORNDORF *,*. 373 

Theseus and the Minotaur over again, that is to say, 
Friedrich at Handgrips with Fermor and his Russians 
(25th August 1758), p. 383. 



viii HISTORY OF FREDERICK THE GREAT 



CHAP. 

XIV BATTLE OF HOCHKIRCH . ..... 397 

Daun and the Beichs Army invade Saxony in Friedrich'g 

Absence, p. 398. 
Friedrich intervening, Daun draws back ; intrenches himself 

in Neighbourhood to Dresden and Pirna; Friedrich 

following him. Four Armies standing there, in dead- 

lock, for a Month ; with Issue, a Flank-march on the part 

of Friedrich's Army, which halts at Hochkiroh (Sep- 

tember I2th-0ctober 10th, 1758), 400. 
What actually befell at Hochkirch (Saturday 14th October 

1768), 409. 
Sequel of Hochkirch; the Campaign ends in a way sur- 

prising to an attentive Public (22d October-20th November 

1758), 424. 
Friedrich marches, enigmatically, not on Glogau, but on 

Beichenbach and GSrlitz : to Daun's Astonishment, 425. 
Feldmarschall Daun and the Beichs Army try some Siege 

of Dresden (9th-16th November), 427. 



MAPS 

BATTLE OF LOBOSITZ ...... to face page 86 

CAMP OF PIRNA ib. 

BATTLE OF PRAG ...... 

KOLIN 

SIEGE OF OLMUTZ -,, 
BATTLE OF ZORNDORF ib. 

HOCHKIRCH 4>l6 

ROSSBACH . at end of volume 

n ,, LEUTHEN ...... w 

SECOND AND THIRD SILESIAN WARS 



LIST OF PLATES 

FRIEDRICH II. KONIG IN PREUSSEN . , frontupuce 
SIR ANDREW MITCHELL .... 



BOOK XVII 

THE SEVEN- YEARS WAR: FIRST CAMPAIGN 

17561757 



CHAPTER I 

WHAT FRJEDRICH HAD READ IN THE 
MENZEL DOCUMENTS 

THE ill-informed world, entirely unaware of what Friedrich 
had been studying and ascertaining, to his bitter sorrow, for 
four years past, was extremely astonished at the part he took 
in those French-English troubles ; extremely provoked at his 
breaking-out again into a Third Silesian War, greater than 
all the others, and kindling all Europe in such a way. The 
ill-informed world rang violently, then and long after, with a 
Controversy, * Was it of his beginning, or Not of his begin- 
ning ? ' Controversy, which may in our day be considered as 
settled by unanimous mankind ; finished forever ; and can now 
have no interest for any creature. 

Omitting that, our problem is (were it possible in brief 
compass), To set forth, by what authentic traits there are, 
not the * ambitious, 1 * audacious, 1 voracious and highly 
condemnable Friedrich of the Gazetteers, but the thrice- 
intricately situated Friedrich of Fact. What the Facts 
privately known to Friedrich were, in what manner known ; 
and how, in a more complex crisis than had yet been, 
Friedrich demeaned himself: upon which latter point, and 
those cognate to it, readers ought not to be ignorant, if now 

VOL. VI. A 



2 SEVEN- YEARS WAR BEGINS [BOOK xvn. 

11755-175^ 

fallen indifferent on so many other points of the Affair. 
What a loud-roaring, loose and empty matter is this tornado 
of vociferation, which men call 4 Public Opinion'! Tragically 
howling round a man ; who has to stand silent the while ; 
and scan, wisely under pain of death, the altogether inar- 
ticulate, dumb and inexorable matter which the gods call 
Fact ! Friedrich did read his terrible Sphinx-riddle ; the 
Gazetteer tornado did pipe and blow. King Friedrich, in 
contrast with his environment at that time, will most likely 
never be portrayed to modern men in his real proportions, 
real aspect and attitude then and there, which are silently 
not a little heroic and even pathetic, when well seen into ; 
and, for certain, he is not portrayable at present, on our side 
of the Sea. But what hints and fractions of feature we 
authentically have, ought to be given with exactitude, 
especially with brevity, and left to the ingenuous imagination 
of readers. 

The secret sources of the Third Silesian War, since called 

* Seven- Years War, go back to 1745 ; nay, we may say, to 
the First Invasion of Silesia in 1740. For it was in Maria 
Theresa"^ incurable sorrow at loss of Silesia, and her inex- 
tinguishable hope to reconquer it, that this and all Friedrich^s 
other Wars had their origin. Twice she had signed Peace 
with Friedrich, and solemnly ceded Silesia to him : but that . 
too, with the Imperial Lady, was by no means a finis to the 
business. Not that she meant to break her Treaties ; far 
from her such a thought, in the conscious form. Though, 
alas, in the unconscious, again, it was always rather near ! 
Practically, she reckoned to herself, these Treaties would 
come to be broken, as Treaties do not endure forever ; and 
then, at the good moment, she did purpose to be ready. 

* Silesia back to us; Pragmatic Sanction complete in every 
point ! Was not that our dear Father's will, monition of all 
our Fathers and their Patriotisms and Traditionary Heroism?*; 
and in fact, the behest of gods and men t ' Ten years ago, 



CHAP. L] THE MENZEL DOCUMENTS 3 

1755-17563 

this notion had been cut-down to apparent death, in a 

disastrous manner, for the second time. But it did not die 
in the least : it never thinks of dying ; starts always anew* 
passionate to produce itself again as action valid at last; 
and lives in the Imperial Heart with a tenacity that is strange 
to observe. Still stranger, in the envious Valet-Heart, in 
that of Briihl, who had far less cause ! 

The Peace of Dresden, Christmas 1745, seemed to be an 
act of considerable magnanimity on Friedrich's part. It was, 
at the first blush of it, ' incredible ' to Harrach, the Austrian 
Plenipotentiary ; whose embarrassed, astonished bow we re- 
member on that occasion, with English Villiers shedding pious 
tears. But what is very remarkable withal is a thing since 
discovered: 1 That Harrach, magnanimous signature hardly 
yet dry, did then straightway, by order of his Court, very 
privately inquire of Briihl, * There is Peace, you see ; what 
they call Peace : but our Treaty of Warsaw^ for Partition 
of this magnanimous man, stands all the same ; doesn't it ? ' 
To which, according to the Documents, Briihl, hardly escaped 
from the pangs of death, and still in a very pale-yellow con- 
dition, had answered in effect, *Hah, say you so? One's 
hatred is eternal ; but that man's iron heel ! Wait a little ; 
get Russia to join in the scheme ! ' and hung back ; the 
willing mind, but the too terrified ! And in this way, like 
a famishing dog in sight of a too dangerous leg of mutton, 
Briihl has ever since rather held back ; would not reengage 
at all, for almost two years, even on the Czarina's engaging ; 
and then only in a cautious, conditional and hypothetic 
manner, though with famine increasing day by day in sight 
of the desired viands. His hatred is fell ; but he would fain 
escape with back unbroken. 

How Friedrkh discovered the Mystery. Concernmg Menzel 
and Weingarten 

Friedrich has been aware* of this mystery, at least wide 
* fijht, mxt Note (p. 4)- 



4 SEVEN- YEARS WAR BEGINS [BOOKXVIL 

[1755-1756 

awake to it and becoming ever more instructed, for almost 
four years. Traitor Menzel the Saxon Kanzellist, we, who 
have prophetically read what he had to confess when laid 
hold of, are aware, though as yet, and on to 1757, it is a 
dead secret to all mortals but himself and c three others,' 
has been busy for Prussia ever since the end of 1752.' Got 
admittance to the Presses ; sent his first Excerpt * about the 
time of Easter-Fair 1753,' time of Voltaire's taking wing. 
And has been at work ever since. Copying Despatches 
from the most secret Saxon Repositories; ready always on 
Excellency Maltzahn's indicating the Piece wanted; and of 
late, I should think, is busier than ever, as the Saxon Mystery, 
which is also an Austrian and Russian one, gets more light 
thrown into it, and seems to be fast ripening towards action 
of a perilous nature. The first Excerpts furnished by Menzel, 
readers can judge how enigmatic they were. These Menzel 
Papers, copies mainly of Petersburg or Vienna Despatches to 
Bruhl, with BruhPs Answer^ the principal of which were 
subsequently printed in their best arrangement and liveliest 
point of vision, 1 are by no means a luminous set of Docu- 
ments to readers at this day. Think what a study they were 
at Potsdam in 1753, while still in the chaotic state; fished* 
out, more or less at random, as Menzel could lay hold of 
them, or be directed to them ; the enigma clearing itself only 
by intense inspection, and capability of seeing in the dark ! 
It appears, if you are curious on the anecdotic part, 

'Winterfeld was the first that got eye on this dangerous Saxon 
Mystery ; some Ex-Saxon ; about to settle in Berlin, giving hint of it to 
Winterfeld ; who needed only a hint. So soon as Wintorfeld convinced 
himself that there was weight in the affair, he imparted it to Fried rich : 

1 In Friedrich's Manifestos, chiefly in Memoirs JKaisonn^ sur la Conduits des 
Cours ds Vienm et de Sax& (Compiled from the Menul Originals t so soon as 
these were got hold of: Berlin, Autumn 1756). A solid and able Paper; 
rapidly done, by one Count Herzberg, who rose high in after-times. Reprinted 
with many other 'Pieces* and 'Passages,* in GesammelU Nachrukten und 
Urkunden, which is a 'Collection* of such (a volif iijNos. small 8vo, no 
Hace, 1757, my Copy of it). 



CHAP, i.] THE MENZEL DOCUMENTS 6 

I755-I7563 

" Scheme of partitioning, your Majesty, of picking quarrel, then over- 
whelming and partitioning ; most serious scheme, Austrian-Russian as 
well as Saxon ; going on steadily for years past, and very lively at this 
time ! " If true, Friedrich cannot but admit that this is serious enough : 
important, thrice over, to discover whether it is true ; and gives Winter- 
feld authority to prosecute it to the bottom, in Dresden or wherever the 
secret may lie. Who thereupon charged Maltzahn, the Prussian Minister 
at Dresden, to find some proper Menzel, and bestir himself. How Malt- 
zahn has found his Menzel, and has bestirred himself, we saw. Thief- 
keys were made to pattern in Berlin ; first set did not fit, second did ; 
and stealthy Menzel gains admittance to that Chamber of the Archives, 
can steal thither on shoes of felt when occasion serves, and copy what 
you wish, for a consideration. Intermittently, since about Easter-Pair 
1753. Three persons are cognisant of it, Winterfeld, Maltzahn, Fried- 
rich ; three, and no more. Probably the abstrusest study, and the most 
intense, going-oii in the world at that epoch. 1 

e At a very early stage of the Menzel Excerpts it became manifest 
that certain synchronous Austrian Ditto would prove highly elucidative ; 
that, in fact, it would be indispensable to get hold of these as well. 
Which also Winterfeld has managed to do. A deep-headed man, who 
has his eyes about him ; and is very apt to manage what he undertakes. 
One Weingarten Junior, a Secretary in the Austrian Embassy at Berlin 
(Excellency Peubla' s second Secretary), has his acquaintanceships in Berlin 
Society ; and for one thing, as Winterfeld discovers, is ee madly in love " 
with some Chambermaid or quasi-chambermaid (let us call her Chamber- 
maid), "Daughter of the Castellan at Charlottenburg." Winterfeld, 
through the due channels, applied to this Chambermaid, * f Get me a 
small secret Copy of such and such Despatches, out of your Weingarten ; 
it will be well for you and him ; otherwise perhaps not well !'* Chamber- 
maid, hope urging, or perhaps hope and fear, did her best ; Weingarten 
had to yield the required product and products, as required. By this 
Weingarten, from some date not long after Menzel's first mysterious 
Dresden Excerpts, the necessary Austrian glosses, so far as possible to 
Weingarten on the indications given him, have been regularly had, for 
the two or three years past. 

'Weingarten first came *< be seriously suspected June 1756 (Wein- 
garten Junior, let us still say, for there was a Senior of unstained 
fidelity) ; ec June 15th," Excellency Peubla pointedly demands him from 
Friedrich and the Berlin Police : " Weingarten Junior, my second 
Secretar, fugitive and traitor ; hidden somewhere !" 2 Excellency Peubla 



1 Retzow, Charakteristik de$ Subenj&krigen Krieges (Berlin, 1802), i. 23. 
a * Berlin^ zzdjunei Every research making for Mr. Weinga/ten, in vain 
hitherto ' (Gentleman 's Magazine , xxvL, i.e. for 1756, p. 363). 



6 SEVEN-YEARS WAR BEGINS [BOOKXVIL 

[1755-1756 

is answered, 24th June : f< We would so fain catch him, if we could ! 
We have tried at Stendal, not there : tried his Mother-in-law ; knows 
nothing: have forborne laying-up his poor Wife and Children; and 
hope her Imperial Majesty will have pity on that poor creature, who is 
fallen so miserable." l So that Excellency Peubla had nothing for it but 
to compose himself; to honour the unstainable fidelity of Weingarten 
Senior by a public piece of promotion, which soon ensued ; and let the 
Junior run. Weingarten Junior, on the first suspicion, had vanished 
with due promptitude, was not to be unearthed again. We perceive 
he has married his Charlottenburg Beauty, and there are helpless 
babies. It seems * ' he lived long years after, in the Altmark, as a Herr 
von Weiss," his reflections manifold, but unknown. 2 What is much 
notabler, Cogniazzo, the Austrian Veteran, heard Weingarten's Master, 
Graf von Peubla, talk of the "grand mystere" soon after, and how 
Friedrich had heard of it, not from Weingarten alone, but from Gros- 
Fiirst Peter, Russian Heir-Apparent ! 8 

f As to Menzel, he did not get away. Menzel, as we saw, lasted in 
free activity till 1757 ; and was then put under lock and key. Was not 
hanged ; sat prisoner for twenty-seven years after ; overgrown with hair, 
legs and arms chained together, heavy iron-bar uniting both ankles ; diet 
bread-and- water ; for the rest, healthy ; and died, not very miserable it 
is said, in 1784. Shocking traitors, Weingarten and he/ 

Yes, a diabolical pair, they, sure enough : and the thing 
they betrayed against their Masters, was that a celestial 
thing? Servants of the Devil do fall out; and Servants 
not of the Devil are fain, sometimes, to raise a quarrel of 
that kind ! 

The then world, as we said, was one loud uproar of logic 
on the right reading and the wrong of those Sibylline Docu- 
ments : * Did your King of Prussia interpret them aright, or 
even try it ? Did not he use them as a cloak for highway 
robbery, and swallowing of a peaceable Saxony, bad man that 
he surely is? 1 For Friedriclfs demeanour, this time again, 
when it came to the acting point, was of eminent rapidity ; 
almost a swifter lion-spring than ever; and it brought on 
him, in the aerial or vocal way, its usual result : huge clamour 
of rage and logic from uninformed mankind. Clamorous rage 



U* Hi. 713. 
f Retzow, i. 37. * Cogmazzo, i. 325. 



CHAP. I.] THE MENZEL DOCUMENTS 



and logic, which has now sunk irresuscitably dead ; nothing 
of it much worth mentioning to modern readers, scarcely even 
its Hie Jacet (in Footnotes, for the benefit of the curious !) 
and it is, at last, a thing not doubtful to anybody that 
Friedrich, in that matter, did read aright. So that now 
the loud uproar is reduced to one small question with us, 
What did he read in those Menzel Documents ? What fact 
lying in them was it that Friedrich had to read? Here, 
smelted-down by repeated roastings, is succinct answer ; for 
the ultimate fragment of incombustible, here as elsewhere, 
will go into a nutshell, once the continents of Diplomatist- 
Gazetteer logic and disorderly stable-litter, threatening to heap 
themselves over the very stars, have been faithfully burnt 
away. 

Readers heard of a Union of Warsaw,* early in 1745, concluded by 
the Sea- Powers and the Saxon-Polish and Hungarian Majesties : very 
harmless Union of Warsaw, public to all the world, but with a certain 
thrice-secret ' Treaty of Warsaw' (between Polish and Hungarian Majesty 
themselves two, the Sea-Powers being horror-struck by mention of it) 
which had followed thereupon, in an eager and wonderful manner. 
Thrice-secret Treaty,, for Partitioning Friedrich, and settling the respec- 
tive shares of his skin. Treaty which, to denote its origin, we called of 
Warsaw ; though it was not finished there (shares of skin so difficult to 
settle), and * Treaty of Leipzig, 18th May 1745,' is its alias in Books: 
of which Treaty, as the Sea-Powers had recoiled horror-struck, there 
was no whisper farther, to them or to the rest of exoteric mankind ; 
though it has been one of the busiest Entities ever since. From the 
Menzel Documents, I know not after what circuitous gropings and 
searchings, Friedrich first got notice of that Treaty : l figure his look on 
discovering it ! 

We said it was the remarkablest bit of sheepskin in its Century. 
Readers have heard too., That it was proposed to Brfihl, by a grateful 
Austria, directly on signing the Peace of Dresden : ' Our Partition- 
Treaty stands all the same, does it not?' and in what humour Briihl 
answered: 'Hah? Get Russia to join!' Both these facts, That there 
is a Treaty of Warsaw, and that this is the Austrian-Saxon temper and 
intention towards him and it, Friedrich learned from the Menzel Docu- 
ments. And if the reader will possess himself of these two facts, and 



1 Now printed in OSuvres de Frjdjric, iv. 40-42. 



8 SEVEN-YEAES WAR BEGINS (BOOK xvit 

[X755-X75& 

understand that they are of a germinative, most vital quality, inde- 
structible by the times and the chances; and have been growing and 
developing themselves, day and night ever since, in a truly wonderful 
manner 3 the reader knows in substance what Menzel had to reveal. 

Russia was got to join ; there are methods of operating on Russia, 
and kindling a poor fat Czarina into strange suspicions and indignations. 
In May 1746, within six months of the Peace of Dresden, a Treaty of 
Petersburg, new version of the Warsaw one, was brought to parchment ; 
Czarina and Empress-Queen signing, Bruhl dying to sign, but not 
daring. How Russia has been got to join, and more and more vigorously 
bear a hand ; how Bruhl's rabidities of appetite, and terrors of heart, 
have continued ever since ; how Austria and Russia, Bruhl aiding with 
hysterical alacrity, haunted by terror (and at last mercifully excused 
from signing), have, year after year, especially in this last year 1755, 
brought the matter nearer and nearer perfection ; and the Two Imperial 
Majesties, with Bruhl to rear, wait only till they are fully ready, and 
the world gives opportunity, to pick a quarrel with Friedrich, and over- 
whelm, and partition him, according to covenant : This, wandering 
through endless mazes of detail, is in sum what the Menzel Documents 
disclose to Friedrich and us. How, in a space of ten years, the small 
seedgrain of a Treaty of Warsaw, or Treaty of Petersburg, planted and 
nourished in that manner, in the Satan's Invisible World, has grown 
into a mighty Tree there, prophetic of Facts near at hand ; which were 
extremely sanguinary to the Human Race for the next Seven Years. 

This is the sum-total : but for Friedrich 1 s sake, and to 
illustrate the situation, let us take a few glances more, into 
the then Satan's Invisible World, which had become so 
ominously busy round Friedrich and others. The Czarina, 
we say, was got to engage; 22d May 1746, there came a 
Treaty of Petersburg duly valid, which is that of Warsaw 
under a new name : and still Bruhl durst not, for above a 
year coming, not till August 15th, 1747 ;* and then, only 
in a hypothetic half-and-half way, with fear and trembling, 
though with hunger unspeakable, in sight of the viands, A 
very wretched Bruhl, as seen in these Menzel Documents. 
On poor Polish Majesty Bruhl has played the sorcerer, this 
long while, and ridden him, as he would an enchanted 
quadruped, in a shameful manner : but how, in turn (as we 

1 Mlmoire Raisonnt (in GssammeUe Nackrithttn}) i 459, 



CHAP.Lj THE MENZEL DOCUMENTS 9 

1755-1756] 

study Menzel), is Bruhl himself hag-ridden, hunted by his 

own devils, and leads such a ghastly phantasmal existence 
yonder, in the Valley of the Shadow of Clothes, mere Clothes, 
metaphorical and literal ! 1 Wretched Bruhl, agitated with 
hatreds of a rather infernal nature, and with terrors of a not 
celestial, comes-out on our sympathies, as a dog almost 
pitiable, were that possible, with twelve tailors sewing for 
him, and a Saxony getting shoved over the precipices by him. 
A famishing dog in the most singular situation. What he 
dare do, he does, and with such a will. But there is almost 
only one thing safe to him : that of egging-on the Czarina 
against Friedrich ; of coining lies to kindle Czarish Majesty ; 
of wafting on every wind rumours to that end, and continually 
besieging with them the empty Czarish mind. Bruhl has 
many Conduits, *the Sieur de Funds,' 'the Sieur Gross, 1 
plenty of Legationary Sieurs and Conduits ; which issue 
from all quarters on Petersburg, and which find there a 
Reservoir, and due Russian service-pipes, prepared for them ; 
and Bruhl is busy. * Commerce of Dantzig to be ruined,' 
suggests he, * that is plain : look at his Asiatic Companies, 
his Port of Embden. Poland is to be stirred-up ; has not 
your Czarish Majesty heard of his intrigues there ? Courland, 
which is almost become your Majesty's, cunningly snatched 
by your Majesty's address, like a valuable moribund whale 
adrift among the shallows, this bad man will have it out 
to sea again, with the harpoons in it ; fairly afloat amid the 
Polish Anarchies again ! ' These are but specimens of Bruhl. 
Or we can give such in BruhPs own words, if the reader had 
rather. Here are Two, which have the advantage of brevity : 

1. * * The Sieur de Funck, Saxon Minister at Petersburg, wrote 
to Count Bruhl, 9th July 1755 (says an inexorable Record), 

*That the Sieur Gross* (now Minister of Russia at Dresden, who 

i * Montrez-moi des wrtus, pas des culottes (Have you no virtues, then, to 
show me ; nothing but pairs of breeches) ! * exclaimed an impatient French 
Traveller, led about in Bruhl's Palace one day : Archenholtz, GeschichU de& 
Siebenj&hrig&n KriegcS) i. 63. 



10 SEVEN-YEARS WAR BEGINS [BOOKXVII 

t*755-*75 6 
Crushed out of Berlin like an angry sky-rocket some years ago) ' would 

do a good service to the Common Cause, if he wrote to his Court, " That 
the King of Prussia had found a channel in Courland, by which he 
learned all the secrets of the Russian Court ; " ' and Sieur Fuuck added, 
e that it was expected good use could be made of such a story with her 
Czarish Majesty.' To which Count Briihl replies, 23d July, 'That he 
has instructed the Sieur GrosSj who will not fail to act in consequence/ 

2, Sieur Prasse, same Funck's Secretary of Legation, at Petersburg, 
writes to Count Bruhl, 12th April 1756 : 

c I am bidden signify to your Excellency that it is greatly wished, in 
order to favour certain views, you would have the goodness to cause 
arrive in Petersburg, by different channels, the following intelligence : 
e< That the King of Prussia, on pretext of Commerce, is sending officers 
and engineers into the Ukraine, to reconnoitre the Country and excite a 
rebellion there." And this advice, be pleased to observe, is not to come 
direct from the Saxon Court, nor by the Envoy Gross, but by some third 
party, to the end there may be no concert noticed ; as they ' (Fon, the 
' service-pipes,' and managing Excellencies, Russian and Austrian) ' have 
given the same commission to other Ministers, so that the news shall 
come from more places than one. 

'They' (the said managing Excellencies) 'have also required me to 
write to the Baron de Sack,' our Saxon Minister in Sweden, ' upon it, 
which I will not fail to do ; and they assured me that our Court's advan- 
tage was not less concerned in it than that of their own ; adding these 
words* (comfortable to one's soul), '"The King of Prussia" (in 1745) 
" gave Saxony a blow which it will feel for fifty years ; but we will give 
him one which he will feel for a hundred/' * 

To which beautiful suggestion Excellency Bruhl answers, 2d June 1750 : 
' As to the Secret Commission of conveying to Petersburg, by concealed 
channels, Intelligence of Prussian machinations in the Ukraine, we are 
still busy finding-out a right channel; and they' (Am, the managing 
Excellencies) ' shall very soon, one way or the other, see the effect of my 
personal inclination to second what is so good an intention, though a 
little artful (un peu, artificiewe,* un peu, nothing to speak of) ! 1 

Fancy a poor fat Czarina, of many appetites, of little judg- 
ment, continually beaten-upon in this manner by these Saxon- 
Austrian artists and their Russian service-pipes. Bombarded 
with cunningly-devised fabrications, every wind freighted for 
her with phantasmal rumours, no ray of direct daylight visit- 
ing the poor Sovereign Woman ; who is lazy, not malignant 

1 Mtmoirt Raisonnt (in Gesammctie NQchrichten\ I 424-5 ; and & 472. 



JHAP.L] THE MENZEL DOCUMENTS 11 

1755-1756] 

if she could avoid it : mainly a mass of esurient oil, with 
alkali on the back of alkali poured-in, at this rate, for ten 
years past ; till, by pouring and by stirring, they get her to 
the state of soap and froth ! Is it so wonderful that she 
does, by degrees, rise into eminent suspicion, anger, fear, 
violence and vehemence against her bad neighbour ? One at 
last begins to conceive those insane whirls, continual mad 
suspicions, mad procedures, which have given Friedrich such 
vexation, surprise and provocation in the years past. 

Friedrich is always specially eager to avoid ill-will from 
Russia ; but it has come, in spite of all he could do and try. 
And these procedures of the Czarish Majesty have been so 
capricious, unintelligible, perverse, and his feeling is often 
enough irritation, temporary indignation, which we know 
makes Verses withal ! I can nowhere learn from those 
Prussian imbroglios of Books, what the Friedrich Sayings or 
Satirical Verses properly were : Retzow speaks of a Produkt* 
one at least, known in interior Circles. 1 Produkt which 
decidedly requires publication, beyond anything Friedrich 
ever wrote ; though one can do without it too, and invoke 
Fancy in defect of Print. The sharpness of Friedrich^s 
tongue we know ; and the diligence of birds of the air. To 
all her other griefs against the bad man, this has given the 
finish in the tender Czarish bosom ; and like an envenomed 
drop has set the saponaceous oils (already dosed with alkali, 
and well in solution) foaming deliriously over the brim, in 
never-imagined deluges of a hatred that is unappeasable; 
very costly to Friedrich and mankind. Rising ever higher, 
year by year ; and now risen, to what height judge by the 
following : 

At Petersburg, l&h-l&th May 1753, ' There was Meeting of*tbe Russian 
Senate, with deliberation held for these two day*; and for issue this 
conclusion come to : 

{ e6 That it should be, and hereby is, settled as a fundamental maxim of 

1 Retzow, i. 34. 



12 SEVEN- YEABS WAR BEGINS [BOOKXVIL 



tlie Russian Empire, Not only to oppose any farther aggrandisement of 
the King of Prussia, but to seize the first convenient opportunity for 
overwhelming (ecraser), by superior force, the House of Brandenburg" 
(Hear^ hear .% " and reducing it to its former state of mediocrity/' n Leg 
of mutton to be actually gone into. With what an enthusiasm of f Hear, 
hear 1 ' from Brtihl and kindred parties ; especially from Briihl, who, 
however, dare not yet bite, except hypothetical!)^ such his terrors and 
tremors. Or, look again (same Senate, 

At Petersburg, October 1755) : * To which Fundamental Maxim, articu- 
lately fixed ever since those Maydays of 1753,, the august Russian San- 
hedrim, deliberating farther in October 1755, adds this remarkable 
extension, 

( <e That it is our resolution to attack the King of Prussia without farther 
discussion, whensoever the said King shall attack any Ally of Russia's, 
or shall himself be attacked by any of them." Hailed by Bruhl, as 
natural, with his liveliest approval. "A. glorious Deliberation, that, 
indeed !" writes he : "It clears the way of action for Russia's Allies in 
this matter ; and for us too ; though nobody can blame us, if we proceed 
with the extremest caution/' ' and rather wait till the Bear is nearly 
killed. 2 

Many marvels Friedrich had deciphered out of this Wein- 
garten-Menzel Apocalypse of Satan's Invisible World ; and 
one often fancies Friedrich's tone of mind, in his intense in- 
specting of that fateful continent of darkness, and his laby- 
rinthic stepping by degrees to the oracular points, which have 
a light in them when flung open. But in respect of practical 
interest, this of October 1755 (which would get to Potsdam 
probably in few weeks after) must have surpassed all the 
others. Marvels many, one after the other : 8 no doubt left, 
long since, of the constant disposition, preparation and fixed 
intention to partition him. But here, in this last indication 
by the Russian Senate, which kindles into dismal evidence 
so many other enigmatic tokens, there has an ulterior 

1 Memoire Raisonnt (in Gesammelte Nachrichteri}, i. 421. * Ibid, i, 422* 

8 For example, or n recapitulation : a Treaty of Warsaw or Leipzig, to 
partition him (iSth May 1745) ; Treaty of Petersburg (22d May 1746, new form 
of Warsaw Treaty, with Czarina superadded); tremulous Quasi-Accession 
thereto of his Polish Majesty (most tremulous, hypothetic Quasi-Accession, 
' Yes-awflf-No,' I5th August 1747, and often afterwards); first Deliberation of 
the Russian Senate, I5th May 1753 \ etc., etc. 



CHAP. I.] THE MENZEL DOCUMENTS 13 
1755-1756] 

oracular point disclosed itself to Friedrich; in vaguer con- 
dition, but not less indubitable, and much more perilous : 
namely. That now, at last (end of 1755), the Two Imperial 
Majesties, very eager both, consider that the time is come. 
And are, as Friedrich looks abroad on the Austrian-Russian 
marchings of troops, campings, and unusual military symptoms 
and combinations, visibly preparing to that end. 

6 They have* agreed to attack me next Year (1756), if they 
can; and next again (1757), without i/V so Friedrich, 
putting written word and public occurrence together, gradually 
reads; and so, all readers will see, the fact was, though 
Imperial Majesty at Schonbrunn, as we shall find, strove to 
deny it when applied to; and scouted, as mere fiction and 
imagination, the notion of such an * Agreement.' Which I 
infer, therefore, not to have existed in parchment; not in 
parchment, but only in reality, and as a mutual Bond registered 
in shall we say * in Heaven," as some are wont ? registered, 
perhaps, in Two Places, very separate indeed! No truer 
6 Agreement' ever did exist; though a devout Imperial 
Majesty denies it, who would shudder at the lie direct. 

Poor Imperial Majesty: who can tell her troubles and 
straits in this abstruse time ! Heaven itself ordering her to 
get back the Silesia of her Fathers, if she could ; yet Heaven 
always looking dubious, surely, upon this method of doing it. 
By solemn Public Treaties signed in sight of all mankind ; and 
contrariwise, in the very same moments, by Secret Treaties, of 
a fell nature, concocted underground, to destroy the life of 
these ! Imperial Majesty flatters herself it may be fair : 
6 Treaty of Dresden, Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle ; Treaties 
wrung from me by force, the Tyrannic Sea-Powers screwing 
us ; Kaunitz can tell 1 A consummate Kaunitz ; who has 
provided remedies. Treaties do get broken. Besides, I will 
not go to War, unless he the Bad One of Prussia do ! * Alas, 
your noble Majesty, plain it at least is, your love of Silesia is 
very strong. And consummate Kaunitz and it have led you 
into strange predicaments. The Pompadour, for instance? 



14 SEVEN- YEARS WAR BEGINS [BOOKXVII. 



who was it that answered, ' Je ne la connais pas ; I don't 
know her, I ' ? How gladly would the Imperial Maria Theresa, 
soul of Propriety, have made that answer ! But she did not ; 
she had to answer differently. For Kaunitz was imperative : 
* A kind little Note to the Pompadour ; one, and then another 
and another; it is indispensable, your Imperial Majesty!" 
And Imperial Majesty always had to do it. And there exist 
in writing, at this hour, various flattering little Notes from 
Imperial Majesty to that Address ; which begin, * Ma CoutineJ 
'Prwicesse et Cousine? say many witnesses; nay, 4 Madame ma 
ires chere Sceur^ says one good witness : l Notes which ought 
to have been printed, before this, or given at least to the 
Museums. *My Cousin,' c Princess and Cousin,' < Madame 
my dearest Sister': Oh, high Imperial Soul, with what 
strange bedfellows does Misery of various kinds bring us 
acquainted ! 

Friedrich was blamably imprudent in regard to Pompadour, thinks 
Valori: 'A little complaisance might have' What might it not have 
done ! * But his Prussian. Majesty would not. And while the Ministers 
of all the other Powers' allied with France 'went assiduously to pay their 
court to Madame, the Baron von Knyphausen alone,, by his Master's 
order, never once went ' (* Don't ! Je ne la connais pas ') 9 * while the 
Empress-Queen was writing her the most flattering letters. The Prince 
of Prussia, Kimr's eldest Brother, wished ardently to obtain her Portrait, 
and had applied to me for it; as had Prince Henri to my Predecessor. 
The King, who has such gallant and seductive ways when he likes, could 
certainly have reconciled this celebrated Lady,' a highly important 
Improper Female to him and others. 5 

Yes ; but he quite declined, not counting the costs. Costs 
may be immediate; profits are remote, remote, but sure, 
Costs did indeed prove considerable, perhaps far beyond his 
expectation ; though, I flatter myself, they never awoke much 
remorse in him, on that score ! 

Friedrich's Enigma, towards the end of 1755 and onwards, 

1 Hormayr (cited in Preuss, i 433 n., as are Ducloi; Montgailkrd jj 
Mtmoires dt Richelieu, etc.). 
a Yalori, i. 320, 



CHAP. IL] DIPLOMACIES IN PKOSPECT OF WAR 15 

i?55- I 756] 

is becoming frightfully stringent ; and the solution, * What 
practically will be the wise course for me ? * does not lessen 
in abstruse intricacy, but the reverse, as it grows more press- 
ing. A very stormy and dubious Future, truly ! Two cir- 
cumstances in it will be highly determinative : one of them 
evident to Friedrich ; the other unknown to him, and to all 
mortals, except two or three. First, 

That there will be an English-French War straightway ; 
and that, as usual, the French, weaker at sea, will probably 
attack Hanover; that is to say, bring the War home to 
one's own door, and ripen into fulfilment those Austrian- 
Russian Plots. This is the evident circumstance ; fast coming 
on; visible to Friedrich and to everybody. But that, in 
such event, Austria will join, not with England, but with 
France : this is a second circumstance, guessable by nobody ; 
known only to Kaunitz and a select one or two ; but which 
also will greatly complicate Friedrich's position, and render 
his Enigma indeed astonishingly intricate, as well as stringent 
for solution ! 



CHAPTER II 

ENGLISH DIPLOMACIES ABROAD, IN PROSPECT OF 
A FRENCH WAR 

BRITANNIC Majesty, I know not at what date, but before 
the launching of that poor Braddock thunderbolt, much more 
after the tragic explosion it made, had felt that French War 
was nearly inevitable, and also that the French method would 
be, as heretofore, to attack Hanover, and wound him in that 
tender part. There goes on, accordingly, a lively Foreign 
Diplomatising, on his Majesty's part, at present, in defect, 
almost total, of Domestic Preparation, military and other ; 
Majesty and Ministers expecting salvation from abroad, as 
usual. Military preparation does lag at a shameful rate : but, 
on the other hand, there is a great deal of pondering, really 



16 SEVEN- YEARS WAR BEGINS [BOOKXVXI. 

[1755-1756 

industrious considering and contriving, about Foreign Allies, 
and their subsidies and engagements. That step, for example, 
the questionable Seizure of the French Ships without Declara- 
tion of War, was a contrivance by diplomatic Heads (of bad 
quality) : * Seize their ships,' said some bad Head, after 
meditating ; ( put their ships in sequestration^ till they do us 
justice. If they won't, and go to War, then they are the 
Aggressors, not we ; and our Allies have to send their 
auxiliary quotas, as per contract ! ' So the Ships were seized ; 
held in sequestration, till many of the cargoes (being perish- 
able goods, some even fish) rotted. 1 1 And in return, as will 
be seen, not one auxiliary came to hand : so that the diplo- 
matic Head had his rotted cargoes, and much public obloquy, 
for his pains. Not a fortunate stroke of business, that ! 

Britannic Majesty, on applying at Vienna (through Keith, 
Sir or Mr. Robert Keith, the Jirst Excellency of that name, 
for there are two, a father and a son, both Vienna Excel- 
lencies), was astonished to learn That, in such event of an 
Aggression, even on Hanover, there was no cooperation to 
be looked for here. Altogether cold on that subject, her 
Imperial Majesty seems; regardless of Excellency Keith's 
remonstrances and urgencies ; and, in the end, is flatly 
negatory : ( Cannot do it, your Excellency ; times so perilous, 
bad King of Prussia so minatory,"* not to mention, sotto wee, 
that we have turned on our axis, and the wind (thanks to 
Kaunitz) no longer hits us on the same cheek as formerly ! 

* Cannot? Will not?' Britannic Majesty may well stare, 
wide - eyed ; remembering such gigantic Subsidising and 
Alcides Labours, Dettingens, Fontenoys, on the per-contra 
side. But so stands the fact : * No help from an ungrateful 
Vienna ; quick, then, seek elsewhere ! ' And Hanbury and 
the Continental British Excellencies have to bestir themselves 
as they never did. Especially Hanbury; who is directed 
upon Russia,- whom alone of these Excellencies it la worth 

1 Smollet's History of England '; etc. etc. 



CHAP. IL] DIPLOMACIES IN PROSPECT OP WAR 17 

30th Sept. i755-i6th Jan. 1756] 

while to follow for a moment. Russia, on fair subsidy, 
yielded us a 35,000 last War (willingly granted, most useful, 
though we had no fighting out of them, mere terror of them 
being enough) : beyond all things, let Hanbury do his best in 
Russia ! 

Hanbury, cheerfully confident, provides himself with the 
requisites, store of bribe-money as the chief; at Warsaw 
withal, he picks-up one Poniatowski (airy sentimental cox- 
comb, rather of dissolute habits, handsomest and windiest of 
young Polacks) : 4 Good for a Lover to the Grand-Duchess, 
this one ! ' thinks Hanbury. Which proved true, and had 
its uses for Hanbury; Grand-Duchess and Grand- Duke 
(Catherine and Peter, whom we saw wedded twelve years ago, 
Heirs- Apparent of this Russian Chaos) being an abstrusely 
situated pair of Spouses ; well capable of something political, 
in private ways, in such a scene of affairs ; and Catherine, 
who is an extremely clever creature, being out of a lover just 
now. A fine scene for the Diplomatist, this Russia at present. 
Nowhere in the world can you do so much with bribery ; 
quite a standing item, and financial necessary-of-life to Officials 
of the highest rank there, as Hanbury well knows. 1 That 
of Poniatowski proved, otherwise too, a notable stroke of 
Hanbury's ; and shot the poor Polish Coxcomb aloft into 
tragic altitudes, on the sudden, as we all know ! 

Hanbury's immense dexterities, and incessant labours at 
Petersburg, shall lie hidden in the slop-pails : it is enough to 
say, his guineas, his dexterities and auxiliary Poniatowskis did 
prevail ; and he triumphantly signed his Treaty (Petersburg, 
30th September), 'Subsidy-Treaty for 55,000 men, 15,000 
of them cavalry,' not to speak of *40 to 50 galleys' and the 
like ; * to attack whomsoever Britannic Majesty bids : annual 
cost a mere 500,OOOZ. while on service; 100,OOOZ. while 
waiting.' 2 And, what is more, and what our readers are to 
mark, the 55,000 begin on the instant to assemble, along 
the Livonian Frontier or Lithuanian, looking direct into 

1 His Letters (in Raumer), passim. 2 In Adelung, vii. 609. 

VOL. VI. B 



18 SEVEN- YEARS WAR BEGINS 

[30th Sept. X755-i6th Jan. 1756 

Preussen. Diligently rendezvousing there; 55,000 of them, 
nay, gradually 70,000; no stinginess in the Czarina to her 
Ally of England. A most triumphant thing, thinks Hanbury: 
Could another of you have done it? Signed, ready for 
ratifying, 30th September 1755 (bad Braddock news not 
hindering); and before it is ratified (this also let readers 
mark), the actual Troops getting on march. 

Hanbury's masterpiece, surely; a glorious triumph in the 
circumstances, and a difficult, thinks Hanbury. Had Hanbury 
seen the inside of the cards, as readers have, he would not 
have thought it so triumphant. For years past, especially 
since that ' Fundamental maxim, May 14th -15th, 1753,"* 
which we heard of, the Czarina's longings had been fixed. 
A.nd here now, scattering money from both hands of it, 
and wooing us with diplomatic finessings, is the Fulfilment 
come 1 * Opportunity ' upon Preussen ; behold it here. 

The Russian Senate again holds deliberation ; declares 
(on the heel of this Hanbury Treaty), c in October 1755,' 
what we read above, That its Anti-Prussian intentions are 
truculent indeed. And it is the common talk in Petersburg 
society, through Winter, what a dose the ambitious King of 
Prussia has got brewed for him, 1 out of Russian indignation 
and resources, miraculously set afloat by English guineas. A 
triumphant Hanbury, for the time being, though a tragical 
enough by and by 1 

The triumphant Hanbury Treaty becomes, itself, Nothing or 
less but produces a Friedrich Treaty, followed by Remits 
which surprise Everybody 

King Friedrich's outlooks, on this consummation, may well 
seem to him critical. The sore longing of an infuriated 
Czarina is now let loose, and in a condition to fulfil itself! 
To Friedrich these Petersburg news are no secret ; nor to 
him are the Petersburg private intentions a thing that can 

1 Mtmtirt Rais&nnt (in Gesammelte N<uhrichten\ I 429, etc. 



CHAP, ii.] DIPLOMACIES IN PROSPECT OF WAR 19 

30th Sept. 1755-16111 Jan. 1756] 

be doubted. Apart from the Menzel-Weingarten revelations, 
as we noticed once, it appears the Grand-Duke Peter (a great 
admirer of Friedrich, poor confused soul) had himself thrice- 
secretly warned Friedrich, That the mysterious Combination, 
Russia in the van, would attack him next Spring ; * not 
Weingarten that betrayed our Grand Mysttre ; from first 
hand, that was done ! ' said Excellency Peubla, on quitting 
Berlin not long after. 1 The Grand Mystery is not uncertain 
to Friedrich ; and it may well be very formidable, coupled 
with those Braddock explosions, Seizures of French ships, and 
English-French War imminent, and likely to become a general 
European one; which are the closing prospects of 1755. 
The French King he reckons not to be well disposed to him ; 
their old Treaty of * twelve years" 5 (since 1744) is just about 
running out. Not friendly, the French King, owing to little 
rubs that have been ; still less the Pompadour ; though who 
could guess how implacable she was at * not being known (ne 
la connate pas) ' I At Vienna, he is well aware, the humour 
towards him is mere cannibalism in refined forms. But most 
perilous of all, most immediately perilous, is the implacable 
Czarina, set afloat upon English guineas ! 

With a hope, as is credibly surmised, that the English 
might soothe or muzzle this implacable Czarina, Friedrich, 
directly after Hanbury's feat in Petersburg, applied at 
London, with an Offer which was very tempting there : 
6 Suppose your^ Britannic Majesty would make, with me, an 
express c Neutrality Convention "* ; mutual Covenant to keep 
the German lleich entirely free of this War now threatening 
to break out ? To attack jointly, and sweep home again 
with vigour, any and every Armed Non-German setting foot 
on the German soil 1 ' An offer most welcome to the Heads 
of Opposition, the Pitts and others of that Country; who 

1 Cognlazzo, Gestandnisse &iw$ CEsterreicMscJim Veterans (as cited above), i, 
225. 'September i6th, 1756,' Peubla left Berlin (RSdenbeck, L 298), three 
months after Weingarten's disappearance. 



20 SEVEN- YEARS WAR BEGINS [BOOKXVII. 

[i6th Jan. 1756 

wish dear Hanover safe enough (safe in Davy- Jones's locker, if 
that would do) ; but are tired of subsidising, and fighting and 
tumulting, all the world over, for that high end. So that 
Friedrich's Proposal is grasped at ; and after a little manipula- 
tion, the thing is actually concluded. 

By no means much manipulation, both parties being will- 
ing. There was uncommonly rapid surgery of any little 
difficulties and discrepancies; rapid closure, instant salutary 
stitching-together of that long unhealable Privateer Contro- 
versy, as the main item : c 20,0002. allowed to Prussia for 
Prussian damages ; and to England, from the other side, the 
remainder of Silesian Debt, painfully outstanding for two or 
three years back, is to be paid-off at once ; ' and in this way 
such * Neutrality Convention of Prussia with England ' comes 
forth as a Practical Fact upon mankind. Done at West- 
minster 16th January 1756. The stepping-stone, as it 
proved, to a closer Treaty of the same date next Year ; of 
which we shall hear a great deal. The stepping-stone, in 
fact, to many large things ; and to the ruin of our late 
c Russian-Subsidy Treaty' (Hanbury's masterpiece), for one 
small thing. * That is a Treaty signed, sure enough, 1 answer 
they of St. James's ; c and we will be handsome about it to 
her Cxarish Majesty ; but as to ratifying it, in its present 
form, of course, never ! ' 

What a clap of thunder to Excellency Hanbury ; his 
masterpiece found suddenly a superfluity, an incommodity ! 
The orthodox English course now is, ' No foreign soldiers at 
all to be allowed in Germany ; ' and there are the 55,000 
tramping on with such alacrity. c We cannot ratify that 
Treaty, Excellency Hanbury, 7 writes the Majesty's Ministry, 
in a tone not of gratitude : * you must turn it some other 
way ! ' A terrible blow to Hanbury, who had been expecting 
gratitude without end. And now, try how he might, there 
was no turning it another way ; this, privately, and this only, 
being the Gzarina^s own way. A Czarina obstinate to a 
degree; would not consent, even when they made her the 



CHAP. II.] DIPLOMACIES IN PROSPECT OF WAR 1 

1755-17563 

liberal offer, * Keep your 55,000 at home ; don't attack the 

King of Prussia with them ; you shall have your Subsidy all 
the same 1 ' * No, I won't ! ' answered she, to Hanbury 1 s 
amazement. Hanbury had not read the Weingarten-Menzel 
Documents ; what double double of toil and trouble might 
Hanbury have saved himself and others, could he have read 
them I 

Hanbury could not, still less could the Majesty's Ministry, 
surmise the Czarina's secret at all, now or for a good while 
coming. And in fact, poor Hanbury, busy as a Diplomatic 
bee, never did more good in Russia, or out of it. By direction 
of the Majesty's Ministry, Hanbury still tried industriously, 
cash in both hands ; tried various things : ' Assuage the 
Czarina's mind ; reconcile her to King Friedrich ; ' all in 
vain. * Unite Austria, Russia and England, can't you, then ? 
in a Treaty against the Designs of France : ' how very vain ! 
Then, at a later stage, 'Get us the Czarina to mediate 
between Prussia and Austria' (so very possible to sleek them 
down into peace, thought Majesty's Ministry) : and un- 
wearied Hanbury, cunning eloquence on his lips, and money 
in both hands, tries again, and ever again, for many months. 
And in the way of making ropes from sand, it must be owned 
there never was such twisting and untwisting, as that ap- 
pointed Hanbury. Who in fact broke his heart by it ; and 
died mad, by his own hand, before long. 1 Poor soul, after 
all ! Here are some Russian Notices from him (and he has 
many curious, not pertinent here), which are still worth 
gleaning. 

Petersburg, 2d October 1755. * * "The health of the Empress* 
(Czarina Elizabeth, Catin du Nord, age now forty-five) is had. She is 
affected with spitting- of blood, shortness of breath, constant coughing, 
swelled legs and water on the chest ; yet she danced a minuet with me/ 
lucky Hanbury. * There is great fermentation at Court. Peter ' (Grand- 
Duke Peter) ( does not conceal his enmity to the Schuwalofs ' (paramours 
of Oatin, old and new) ; ' Catherine * (Grand-Duchess, who at length has 

1 Jf Anbury's * kife' (iji Works^ vol. iii.) gives sad account. 



22 SEVEN- YEARS WAR BEGINS [BOOKXVII. 

[1755-1756 

an Heir, unbeautiful Czar Paul that will be, and * miscarriages' not a few) 
f is on good terms with Bestuchef * (corruptiblest brute of a Chancellor 
ever known, friend to England by England's giving him 10,000/., and 
the like trifles, pretty frequently ; Friedrich's enemy, chiefly from defect 
of that operation) she is e on good terms with Bestuchef. I think it my 
duty to inform the King * (great George, who will draw his prognostics 
from it) c of my observations upon her ; which I can the better do, as I 
often have conversations with her for hours together, as at supper my 
rank places me always next to her/ twice-lucky Hanbury. 

c Since her coming to this Country, she has, by every method in her 
power, endeavoured to gain the affections of the Nation : she applied her- 
self with diligence to study their language ; and speaks it at present, as 
the Russians tell me, in the greatest perfection. She has also succeeded 
in her other aim ; for she is esteemed and beloved here in a high degree. 
Her person is very advantageous, and her manners very captivating, 
She has great knowledge of this Empire ; and makes it her only study. 
She has parts ; and Great-Chancellor (brute Bestuchef) e tells me that 
nobody has more steadiness and resolution. She has, of late, openly 
declared herself to me in respect of the King of Prussia ' ; hates him a 
good deal, ' natural and formidable enemy of Russia ; * f heart certainly 
the worst in the world* (and so on ; but will see better by and by, having 
eyes of her own) : ' she never mentions the King of England but with 
the utmost respect and highest regard; is thoroughly sensible of the 
utility of the union between England and Russia; always calls his 
Majesty the Empress's best and greatest Ally* (so much of nourishment 
in him withal, as in a certain web-footed Chief of Birds, reckoned chief 
by some) ; e and hopes he will also give his friendship and protection to 
the Grand-Duke and herself. As for the Grand-Duke, he is weak and 
violent ; but his confidence in the Grand-Duchess is so great, that some- 
times he tells people, that though he does not understand things himself, 
his Wife understands everything. Should the Empress, as I fear, soon 
die, the Government will quietly devolve on them.' l 

Catherine^ age is twenty-six gone; her Peter's twenty- 
seven : one of the cleverest young Ladies in the world, and of 
the stoutest-hearted, clearest-eyed ; yoked to a young Gentle- 
man much the reverse. Thank Hanbury for this glimpse of 
them, most intricately-situated Pair ; who may concern us a 
little in the sequel And, in justice to poor Hanover, the 
sad subject-matter of Excellency Hanbury's Problems and 

1 Hanbury's Despatch, 'October 2d, 1755 ' (Raumer, PP- 223-225); Subsidy 
Treaty still at its floweriest. 



CHAP. II.] DIPLOMACIES IN PROSPECT OF WAR 23 

aad Sept. -ist May 1756] 

Futilities in Russia and elsewhere, let us save this other 
Fraction by a very different hand ; and close that Hanbury 
scene : 

e Friedrich himself was so dangerous,' says the Constitutional Historian 
once : * Friedrich, in alliance with France, how easy for him to catch 
Hanover by the throat at a week's notice, throw a death-noose round the 
throat of poor Hanover, and hand the same to France for tightening at 
discretion ! Poor Hanover indeed ; she reaps little profit from her 
English honours : what has she had to do with these Transatlantic 
Colonies of England? An unfortunate Country, if the English would 
but think ; liable to be strangled at any time, for England's quarrels : 
the Achilles'-heel to invulnerable England ; a sad function for Hanover, 
if it be a proud one, and amazingly lucrative to some Hanoverians. The 
Country is very dear to his Britannic Majesty in one sense, very dear to 
Britain in another ! Nay, Germany itself, through Hanover, is to be 
torn-up by War for Transatlantic interests, out of which she does not 
even get good Virginia tobacco, but grows bad of her own. No more 
concern than the Ring of Saturn with these over-sea quarrels ; and can, 
through Hanover, be torn to pieces by War about them. Such honour 
to give a King to the British Nation, in a strait for one ; and such profit 
coming of it : we hope all sides are grateful for the blessings received ! * 

There has been a Counter-Treaty going on at Versailles in 
the Interim; which hereupon starts out, and tumbles the 
wholly astonished European Diplomacies heels-over-head 

To expectant mankind, especially to Vienna and Versailles, 
this Britannic-Prussian Treaty was a great surprise. And 
indeed it proved the signal of a general System of New 
Treaties all round. The first signal, in fact, though by no 
means the first cause, of a total circumgyration, suirmterset, 
or tumble heels-over-head in the Political relations of Europe 
altogether, which ensued thereupon ; miraculous, almost as 
the Earthquake at Lisbon, to the Gazetteer and Diplomatic 
mind, and incomprehensible for long years after. First 
signal we say, by no means that it was the first cause, or 
indeed that it was a cause at all, the thing being determined 
elsewhere long before; ever since 1753, when Kaunitss left it 
ready, waiting only its time. 



24 SEVEN-YEARS WAR BEGINS [BOOK xvn. 

[aad Sept.-ist May 1756 

Kaiser Franz, they say, when (probably during those Keith 
urgencies) the joining with France and turning against poor 
Britannic Majesty was proposed in Council at Vienna, opened 
his usually silent lips ; and opined with emphasis against such 
a course, no Kaunitz or creature able to persuade Kaiser Franz 
that good would come of it ; though, finding Sovereign Lady 
and everybody against him, he held his peace again. And 
returned to his private banking operations, which were more 
extensive than ever, from the new troubles rising. * Lent the 
Empress-Queen, always on solid securities,' says Friedrich, 'large 
sums, from time to time, in those Wars ; dealt in Com- 
missariat stores to right and left ; we ourselves had most of 
our meal from him this year." * Kaiser Franz was, and con- 
tinued, of the old way of thinking ; but consummate Kaunitz, 
and the High Lady's fixed passion for her Schlesien, had 
changed everybody else. The ulterior facts are as follows, 
abbreviated to the utmost. 

September 22d, 1755, a few days before Hanbury's 
Subsidy-feat at Petersburg, which took such a whirl for 
Hanbury, there had met for the first time at Versailles, more 
especially at Babiole, Pleasure-House of the Pompadour, 
a most select Committee of Three Persons : Graf van Stahr- 
emberg, Austrian Ambassador; Pompadour herself; and a 
certain infinitely elegant Count and Reverence de Bernis 
(beautiful Clerico-Mundane Gentleman, without right Benefice 
hitherto, but much in esteem with the Pompadour) ; for 
deepest practical consideration in regard to closure of a French- 
Austrian Alliance. Reverend Count (subsequently Cardinal) 
de Bernis has sense in Diplomacy ; has his experiences in 
Secular Diplomatic matters ; a soft-going "tious man, not 
yet official, but tending that way : whom the Pompadour has 
brought with her as henchman, or wwghostly counsellor, in 
this intricate Adventure. 

Stahremberg, instructed from home, has no hesitation ; nor 
has Pompadour herself, remembering that insolent * Je we la 



CHAP, n.] DIPLOMACIES IN PROSPECT OF WAR 25 

July 1755-March 1756] 

connais pas? and the per-contra Ma Coifsine^ * Prlncesse et 
Sceur ' : but Bernis, I suppose, looks into the practical 
difficulties ; which are probably very considerable, to the 
Official French eye, in the present state of Europe and of the 
public mind. From September &d, or autumnal equinox, 
1755, onward to this Britannic-Prussian phenomenon of 
January 1756, the Pompadour Conclave has been sitting, 
difficulties, no doubt, considerable. I will give only the dates, 
having myself no interest in such a Committee at Babiole ; 
but the dates sufficiently betoken that there were intricacies, 
conflicts between the new and the old. Hitherto the axiom 
always was, * Prussia the Adjunct and Satellite of France" 1 : 
.now to be entirely reversed, you say ? 

July 1?55, that is two months before this Babiole Committee met, a 
Due de Nivernois, respectable intelligent dilettante French Nobleman, 
had been named as Ambassador to Friedrich, f Go, you respectable wise 
Nivernois, Nobleman of Letters so-called ; try and retain Friedrich for 
us, as usual ! ' And now, on meeting of the Babiole Committee, Niver* 
nois does not go ; lingers, saddled and bridled, till the very end of the 
Year; arrives in Berlin January 12th, 1756. Has his First Audience 
January 14th : a man highly amiable to Friedrich ; but with proposals, 
wonderful indeed. 

The French, this good while back, are in no doubt about War with 
England, a right hearty War ; and have always expected to retain Prussia 
as formerly, though rather on singular terms. Some time ago, for 
instance, M. de Rouille, War-Minister, requested Knyphausen, Prussian 
Envoy at Paris : e Suggest to your King's Majesty what plunder there is 
at Hanover. Perfectly at liberty to keep it all, if he will plunder 
Hanover for us !* 1 Pleasant message to the proud King ; who answered 
with the due brevity, to the purport, f Silence, Sir!* with didactic 
effects on the surprised Rouille. Who now mends his proposal ; though 
again in a remarkable way. Instructs Nivernois, namely, 'To offer 
King Friedrich the Island of Tobago, if he will renew Treaty, and take 
arms for us. Island of Tobago (a deserted, litigated, but pretty Island, 
were it ever ours), will not that entice this King, intent on Commerce ? * 
Friedrich, who likes Nivernois and his polite ways, answers quizzingly : 
* Island of Tobago ? Island of Barataria your Lordship must be meaning ; 
Island of which I cannot be the Sancho Panza !* 2 And Nivernois found 
he must not mention Tobago again. 

1 (Euvres de Frtdtric, iv, 29, * Ibid. 31. 



26 SEVEN- YEARS WAE BEGINS [BOOK xvn, 

[ist May 1756 

For the rest, Friedrich made BO secret of his English Treaty ; showed 
it with all frankness to Nivernois, in all points : ' Is there, can the most 
captious allege that there is, anything against France in it? My one 
wish and aim, that of Peace for myself: judge!' Nivernois stayed till 
March ; but seems to have had, of definite, only Tobago and good words ; 
so that nothing farther came of him, and there was no Renewal of Treaty 
then or affcer. Thus, in his third month (March 1756), practical Niver- 
nois was recalled, without result ; instead of whom fat Valori was sent ; 
privately intending 'to do nothing but observe, in Berlin/ From all 
which, we infer that the Babiole Committee now saw land ; and that 
Bernis himself had decided in the affirmative : * Austria, not Prussia ; 
yes, Madame!' To the joy of Madame and everybody. For, it is 
incredible, say all witnesses, what indignation broke-out in Paris when 
Friedrich made this new e defection/ so they termed it ; revolt from his 
Liege Lord (who had been so exemplary to him on former occasions !), 
and would not bite at Tobago when offered. So that the "Babiole Com" 
mittee went on, henceforth, with flowing sea ; and by May -day (1st May 
1756) brought out its French-Austrian Treaty in a completed state. ' To 
stand by one another/ like Castor and Pollux, in a manner; * 24, 000, 
reciprocally, to be ready on demand ' ; nay, I think something of f sub* 
sidies ' withal, to Austria, of course. But the particulars are not worth 
giving ; the Performance, thanks to a zealous Pompadour, having quite 
outrun the Stipulation, and left it practically out of sight, when the push 
came. Our Constitutional Historian may shadow the rest : 

* France and England going to War in these sad circumstances, and 
France and Austria being privately prepared ' (by Kaunitz and others) 
* to swear everlasting friendship on the occasion, instead of everlasting 
enmity as heretofore ; unexpected changes, miraculous to the Gazetteers, 
became inevitable; nothing less, in short, than explosion or topsy- 
turvying of the old Diplomatic-Political Scheme of Europe. Old Dance 
of the Constellations flung heels-over-head on the sudden; and much 
pirouetting, jigging, setting, before they could change partners, and 
continue their august dance again, whether in War or Peace. No end 
to the industrious wonder of the Gazetteer mind, to the dark difficulties 
of the Diplomatic. What bafflings, agonistic shufflings, impotent gaziugs 
into the dark ; what seductive fiddling, and being fiddled to ! A most 
sad function of Humanity, if sometimes an inevitable one ; which ought 
surely at all times to be got over as briefly as possible. To be written 
of, especially, with a maximum of brevity ; human nature being justly 
impatient of talk about it, beyond the strictly needful. 1 

Most true it is, and was most miraculous, though now 
quite forgotten again. Political Europe had to make a 



CH. in.] FRENCH-ENGLISH WAR BREAKS OUT 27 

April-June 1756] 

complete whirl-round on that occasion. And not in a day, 
and merely saying to itself, * Let me do summerset ! * as idle 
readers suppose, but with long months of agonistic shuffle 
and struggle in all places, and such Diplomatic fiddling 
and being fiddled to, as seldom was before. Of which, these 
two instances, the Bernis and the Hanbury, are to serve as 
specimen ; two and no more : a universe of extinct fiddling 
compressed into two nutshells, if readers have an ear. 



CHAPTER III 

FRENCH-ENGLISH WAR BREAKS OUT 

THE French, in reality a good deal astonished at the 
Prussian-Britannic Treaty, affected to take it easy : * Treaty 
for Neutrality of Germany ? ' said they : * Very good indeed* 
Perhaps there are places nearer us, where our troops can be 
employed to more advantage 1 "* 1 hinting vocally, as hence- 
forth their silent procedures, their diligence in the dockyards, 
moving of troops coastward and the like, still more clearly 
did, That an Invasion of England itself was the thing next 
to be expected. 

England and France are, by this time, alike fiercely deter- 
mined on War ; but their states of preparation are very dif- 
ferent. The French have War-ships again, not to mention 
Armies which they always have; some skilful Admirals withal, 
La Gallisonniere, our old Canada friend, is one, very busy 
at present ; and mean to try seriously the Question of Sea- 
Supremacy once more. If an Invasion did chance to land, 
the state of England would be found handy beyond hope ! 
How many fighting regiments England has, I need not 
inquire, nor with what strategic virtue they would go to 
work ; enough to mention the singular fact (recently true, 
and still, I perceive, too like the truth). That of all their 
1 Their * Declaration ' on it (Adelung, vii. 613). 



28 SEVEN-YEARS WAR BEGINS [BOOK xvn. 

[April-June 1756 

regiments, only Three are in this Country, 1 or have Colonels 
even nominated. Incredible; but certain. And the interest- 
ing point is, his Grace of Newcastle dare not have Colonels, 
still less higher Officers nominated ; because Royal Highness 
of Cumberland would have the naming of them, and they 
would be enemies to his Grace. 1 In such posture stands the 
Envy of surrounding Nations at this moment. 

'Hire Hessians, 1 cry they; 'hire Hanoverians; if France 
land on us, we are undone! 1 and continue their Parliamentary 
Eloquences in a most distressful manner. c Apply to the 
Dutch, at any rate, for their 6,000 as per Treaty, 1 cries 
everybody. Which is done. But the Dutch piteously wring 
their hands: * Dare not, your Majesty; how dare we, for 
France and our neglected Barrier ! Oh, generous Majesty, 
excuse us! 1 and the generous Majesty has to do it; and 
leave the Dutch in peace, this time. Hessians, Hanoverians, 
after eloquence enough, are at last got sent for, to guard us 
against this terrible Invasion: about 10,000 of each kind; 
and do land, the native populations very sulky on them (*We 
wont billet you, not we ; build huts, and be 1 1 ), with much 
Parliamentary and Newspaper Commentary going on, of a 
distressful nature. * Saturday 15th May 1756, Hessians dis- 
embark at Southampton ; obliged to pitch Camp in the neigh- 
bourhood : Friday Slst May, the Hanoverians, at Chatham, 
who hut themselves Canterbury way ; 1 and have (what is the 
sum-total of their achievements in this Country) a case of shop- 
lifting, < pocket-handkerchief, across the counter, in open day 1 ; 
one case (or what seemed to be one, but was not) ; 2 ' and the 
fellow not to be tried by m for it ! ' which enrages the con- 
stitutional heart. Alas, my heavy-laden constitutional heart; 

1 Walpole, George the Second, ii. 19 (date, 'March 25th 1755'; an< * bow 
long after, is not said : but see Pitt's Speeches, #., all through 1756, and 
farther). 

2 'At Maidstone, I3th Septemher 1756;' Hanoverian soldier, purchasing a 
handkerchief, imagines he has purchased two (not yet dipt asunder), haberdasher 
and he having no language in common: Gentleman 9 s MagOMtne for 1756, pp. 
259, 448, etc. ; Walpole, 



CH. in.] FRENCH-ENGLISH WAR BREAKS OUT 29 

April-June 1756] 

but what can we do ? These drilled louts will guard us, 
should this terrible Invasion land. And indeed, about three 
weeks before these louts arrived, the terrible Invasion had 
declared itself to have been altogether a feint ; and had lifted 
anchor, quite in the opposite direction, on an errand we shall 
hear of soon ! 

About the same date, I observe < the first regiment of Foot- 
guards practising the Prussian drill-exercise in Hyde-Park ' ; 
and hope his Grace of Newcastle and the Hero of Culloden 
(immortal Hero, and aiming high in Politics at this time) 
will, at least, have fallen upon some method of getting Colonels 
nominated. But the wide- weltering chaos of platitudes, 
agitated by hysterical imbecilities, regulating England in this 
great crisis, fills the constitutional mind with sorrow ; and 
indeed is definable, once more, as amazing! England is a 
stubborn ^Country; but it was not by procedures of the 
Cumberland-Newcastle kind that England and her Colonies, 
and Sea- and- Land Kingdoms, was built together; nor by 
these, except miracle intervene, that she can stand long 
against stress ! Looking at the dismal matter from this 
distance, there is visible to me in the foggy heart of it one 
lucent element, and pretty much one only; the individual 
named William Pitt, as I have read him : if by miracle that 
royal soul could, even for a time, get to something of Kingship 
there ? Courage ; miracles do happen, let us hope ! This is 
whitherward the grand Invasion had gone : 

Toulon, IQth April 1756. La Gallisonniere, our old Canadian friend, 
a crooked little man of great faculty, who has been busy in the dock- 
yards lately, weighs anchor from Toulon ; * 12 sail of the line, 5 frigates 
and above 100 transport-ships'; with the grand Invasion-of-England 
Armament on board ; 16,000 picked troops, complete in all points, 
Marechal Due de Richelieu commanding. 1 Weighs anchor ; and, 
singular to see, steers, not for England, and the Hessian -Hanover 
Defenders (who would have been in such excellent time); but direct 
for Minorca, as the surer thing ! Will seize Minorca ; a so-called inex- 
pugnable Possession of the English, Key of their Mediterranean Supre- 

1 Adelung, viii, 70. 



SO SEVEN-YEARS WAR BEGINS [BOOK xvn. 

[April-June 1756 

macies ; really inexpugnable enough ; but which lies in the usual 
dilapidated state, though by chance with a courageous old Governor in 
it, who will not surrender quite at once. 

April 18th, La Gallisonniere disembarks his Richelieu with a Sixteen 
Thousand, unopposed at Port-Mahon, or Fort St. Philip, in Minorca; 
who instantly commences Siege there. To the astonishment of England 
and his Grace of Newcastle, who, except old Governor Blakeney, much 
in dilapidation (' wooden platforms rotten/ e batteries out of repair/ and 
so on), have nothing ready for Richelieu in that quarter. The story 
of Minorca ; and the furious humours and tragic consummations that 
arose on it, being still well known, we will give the dates only. 

Fort St. Philip, April 18th May 20tfi. For a month, Richelieu, skilful 
in tickling the French troops, has been besieging, in a high and grandiose 
way ; La Gallisonniere vigilantly cruising ; old Blakeney, in spite of the 
rotten platforms, vigorously holding out ; when, May 19th, La Galli- 
sonniere descries an English fleet in the distance; indisputably an 
English fleet; and clears his decks for a serious Affair just coming. 
Thursday 20th May, Admiral Byng accordingly (for it is he, son of that 
old seaworthy Byng, who once e blew out ' a minatory Spanish Fleet and 
'an absurd Flame of War* in the Straits of Messina, and was made 
Lord Torrington in consequence, happily now dead) Admiral Byng 
loes come on ; and gains himself a name badly memorable ever since. 
Attacks La Gallisonniere, in a wide-lying, languid, hovering, uncertain 
manner : Far too weak,* he says ; ' much disprovided, destitute, by 
blame of Ministry and of everybody * (though about the strength of La 
Gallisonniere, after all) ; is almost rather beaten by La Gallisonniere ; 
does not, in the least, beat him to the right degree : and sheers off, in 
the night-time, straight for Gibraltar again. To La Gallisonniere's 
surprise, it is said ; no doubt to old Blakeney and his poor Garrison's, 
left so, to their rotten platforms and their own shifts. 

Blakeney and Garrison stood to their guns in a manful manner, foi 
above a month longer; day after day, week after week, looking over 
the horizon for some Byng or some relief appearing, to no purpose ! 
June I&th, there are three available breaches ; the walls, however, are 
very sheer (a Fortress hewn in the rock): Richelieu scanning them 
dubiously, and battering his best, for about a fortnight more, is in- 
effectual on Blakeney. 

June 2frA, Richelieu, taking his measures well, tickling French honour 
well, has determined on storm. Richelieu, giving order of the day, 
'Whosoever of you is found drunk shall not be of the storm-party* 
(which produced such a teetotalism as nothing else had done), storms, 
that night, with extreme audacity. The Place has to capitulate : glorious 
victory; honourable defence : and Minorca gone. 



CH. III.] FRENCH-ENGLISH WAR BREAKS OUT 31 

June-Aug. 1756] 

And England is risen to a mere smoky whirlwind., of rage, sorrow and 
darkness, against Byng and others. Smoky darkness, getting streaked 
with dangerous fire. f Tried ? ' said his Grace of Newcastle to the City 
Deputation : e Oh indeed he shall be tried immediately ; he shall be 
hanged directly ! ' assure yourselves of that. 1 And Byng's effigy was 
burnt all over England. And mobs attempt to burn his Seat and Park ; 
and satires and caricatures and firebrands are coming out : and the poor 
Constitutional Country is bent on applying surgery, if it but knew how. 
Surgery to such indisputable abominations was certainly desirable. The 
new Relief Squadron, which had been despatched by Majesty's Ministry, 
was too late for Blakeney, but did bring home a superseded Byng. 

Spithead y Tuesday 27th July, The superseded Byng arrives ; is punctually 
arrested, on arriving : ' Him we will hang directly : is there anything 
else we can try ' (except, perhaps, it were hanging of ourselves, and our 
fine methods of procedure), e by way of remedying you ? * War against 
Prance, now a pretty plain thing, had been f declared/ 17th May (French 
counter-declaring, 9th June) : and, under a Duke of Newcastle and a 
Hero of Culloden, not even pulling one way, but two ways; and a 
Talking-Apparatus full of discords at this time, and pulling who shall 
say how many ways, the prospects of carrying-on said^War are none of 
the best. Lord Loudon, a General without skill, and commanding, as 
Pitt declares, e a scroll of Paper hitherto ' (a good few thousands marked 
on it, and perhaps their Colonels even named), is about going for 
America ; by no means yet gone, a long way from gone : and, if the 
Laws of Nature be suspended Enough of all that ! 

King Friedriclfs Enigma gets more and more stringent 

Friedrich^s situation, in those fatally questionable months, 
and for many past (especially from January 16th to July), 
readers must imagine it, for there is no description possible. 
In many intricacies Friedrich has been ; but never, I reckon, 
in any equal to this. Himself certain what the Two Imperial 
Women have vowed against him ; self and Winterfeld certain 
of that sad truth ; and all other mortals ready to deny it, 
and fly delirious on hint of it, should he venture to act in 
consequence ! Friedrich^s situation is not unimaginable, when 
(as can now be done by candid inquirers who will take trouble 
enough) the one or two internal facts of it are disengaged 

1 Wai pole, ii. 231 ; Details of the Siege, & 218-225 ; in Gentleman's 
nine, xxvi. 256, 312-313, 358? in Adelung, viii; etc. etc. 



32 SEVEN- YEARS WAR BEGINS [BOOKXVII. 

[June-Aug. 1756 

from the roaring ocean of clamorous delusions which then 
enveloped them to everybody, and are held steadily in view, 
said ocean heing well run-off to the home of it very deep 
underground. Lies do fall silent ; truth waits to be recog- 
nised, not always in vain. No reader ever will conceive the 
strangling perplexity of that situation, now so remote and 
extinct to us. All I can do is, to set-down what features of 
it have become indisputable; and leave them as detached 
traceries, as fractions of an outline, to coalesce into something 
of image where they can. 

Winterfeld's opinion was, for some time past, distinct : 
< Attack them ; since it is certain they only wait to attack 
us ! * But Friedrich would by no means listen to that. * We 
must not be the aggressor, my friend ; that would spoil all. 
Perhaps the English will pacify the Russian Catin for me ; 
tie her, with packthreads, bribes and intrigues, from stirring ? 
Wait, watch ! ; Fiery Winterfeld, who hates the French, 
who despises the Austrians, and thinks the Prussian Army a 
considerable Fact in Politics, has great schemes : far too great 
for a practical Friedrich. * Plunge into the Austrians with 
a will : Prussian Soldiery, can Austrians resist it ? Ruin 
them, since they are bent on ruining us. Stir-up the 
Hungarian Protestants; try all things. Home upon our 
implacable enemies, sword drawn, scabbard flung away ! And 
the French, what are the French? Our King should be 
Kaiser of Teutschland ; and he can, and he may : the 
French would then be quieter ! ' These things Winterfeld 
carried in his head ; and comrades have heard them from 
him over wine. 1 To all which Friedrich, if any whisper of 
them ever got to Friedrich, would answer one can guess how. 

It is evident, Friedrich had not given-up his hope (indeed, 
for above a year more, he never did) that England might, by 
profuse bribery, 'such the power of bribery in that mad 
Court ! * assuage, overnet with backstairs packthreads, or in 
some way compesce the Russian delirium for him. And 

1 Retzow, i. 43, etc. 



CH. in.] FRENCH-ENGLISH WAR BREAKS OUT 8S 

June-Aug. 1756] 

England, his sole Ally in the world, still tender of Austria, 
and unable to believe what the full intentions of Austria are ; 
England demands much wariness in his procedures towards 
Austria ; reiterating always, * Wait, your Majesty ! Oh, 
beware ! ' 

His own Army, we need not say, is in perfect preparation. 
The Army, let us guess, 150,000 regular, or near 00,000 
of all arms and kinds, 1 never was so perfect before or since. 
Old Captains in it, whom we used to know, are grayer and 
wiser ; young, whom we heard less of, are grown veterans of 
trust. Schwerin, much a Cincinnatus since we last saw him, 
has laid down his plough again, a fervid ' little Maryborough * 
of seventy- two ; and will never see that beautiful Schwerins- 
burg, and its thriving woods and farm-fields, any more. Ugly 
Walrave is not now chief Engineer; one Balbi, a much 
prettier man, is. Ugly Walrave (Winterfeld suspecting and 
watching him) was found out ; convicted of c falsified accounts,' 
of * sending plans to the Enemy, 1 of who knows all what ; 
and sits in Magdeburg (in a thrice-safe prison-cell of his own 
contriving), prisoner for life. 2 The Old Dessauer is away, 
long since ; and not the Old alone. Dietrich of Dessau is now 
* Guardian to his Nephew,' who is a Child left Heir there. 
Death has been busy with the Dessauers : but here is Prince 
Moritz, * the youngest, more like his Father than any of them.' 
Duke Ferdinand of Brunswick, Moritz of Dessau, Keith, Duke 
of Brunswick-Bevern : no one of these people has been idle, 
in the ten years past. Least of all, has the Chief Captain of 
them, whose diligence and vigilance in that sphere, latterly, 
were not likely to decline ! 

FriedricVs Army is in the perfection of order. Ready at 
the hour, for many months back ; but the least motion he 
makes with it is a subject of jealousy. Last year, on those 

1 Archenholtz (i. 8) counts vaguely ' 160,000' at this date. 

2 Arrested at Potsdam 1 2th February 1748, and after trial put into the Stern 
at 'Magdeburg; sat there till he died, i6th January 1773 ' (Militair Lexicon 
iv. 150-151). 

VOL. VI. C 



34 SEVEN-YEARS WAR BEGINS [BOOKXVII. 

[July 1756 

Russian advancings and alacrities, he had marched some 
Regiments into Pommern, within reach of Preussen, should 
the Russians actually try a stroke there : < See ! ' cried all the 
world ; e See ! ' cried the enlightened Russian Public. This 
year 1756, from June onwards and earlier, there are still 
more fatal symptoms, on the Austrian side : great and evident 
War-preparations; Magazines forming; Camps in Bohemia, 
Moravia ; Camp at Konigsgratz, Camp at Prag, handy for 
the Silesian Border. Friedrich knows they have deliberated 
on their Pretext for a War, and have fixed on what will do, 
some new small Prussian-Mecklenburg brabble, which there 
has lately been ; paltry enough recruiting-quarrel, such as 
often are (and has been settled mutually some time ago, this 
one, but is capable of being ripped-up again) ; and that, on 
this cobweb of a Pretext, they mean to draw sword when they 
like. Russia too has its Pretext ready. And if Friedrich 
hint of stirring, England whispers hoarse, England and other 
friends, Wait, your Majesty 1 Oh, beware ! ' To keep one^s 
sword at its sharpest, and, with an easy patient air, one's 
eyes vigilantly open : this is nearly all that Friedrich can do, 
in neighbourhood of such portentous imminencies. He has 
many critics, near and far ; for instance : 

Berlin, 31st July 1756, Excellency Valori writes to Versailles : * * 
' to give you account of a Conversation I have had, a day or two ago, 
with the Prince of Prussia* (August Wilhelm, Heir-Apparent), ''who 
honours me with a particular confidence/ and who appeal's to be, 
privately, like some others, very strong in the Opposition view. 'He 
talked to me of the present condition of the King his Brother, of his 
Brother's apprehensions, of his military arrangements, of the little trust 
placed in him by neighbours, of their hostile humour towards him, and 
of many other things which this good Prince* (little understanding them, 
as would appear, or the dangerous secret that lay under them) * did not 
approve of. The Prince then said,' listen to what the Prince of 
Prussia said to Valori, one of the last days of July 1750, 

* There is an Anecdote which continually recurs to me, in the passes 
we are got to at present. Putting the case we might be attacked by 
Russia, and perhaps by Austria, the late Eothenburg was sent* (as 
readers know), f on the King's part, to Milord Tyrconnel, to know of 



CH. in.] FRENCH-ENGLISH WAR BREAKS OUT 85 

July 1756] 

Mm whatj in such case, were the helps he might reckon on from France. 
Milord enumerated the various helps ; and then added ' (being a bluster- 
ous Irishman, sent hither for his ill tongue): e <e Helps enough, you 
observe, Monsieur ; but^ morbleu, if you deceive ua^ you will be squelched 
(vous serex ecrases) \ " The King my Brother was angry enough at 
hearing such a speech : but, my dear Marquis/ and the Prince turned 
full upon me with a face of inquiry, e Can the thing actually come true ? 
And do you think it can be the interest of your Master* (and his Scarlet 
Woman) 'to abandon us to the fury of our enemies? Ah, that cursed 
Convention ' (Neutrality-Convention with England) ! I would give a 
finger from my hand that it had never been concluded. I never approved 
of it ; ask the Due de Nivernois, he knows what we said of it together. 
But how return on our steps ? Who would now trust us ? * This Prince 
appeared 'to be much affected by the King his Brother's situation' (of 
which he understood as good as nothing), ' and agreed that he/ the King 
his Brother, f had well deserved it' * 

This is not the first example, nor the last, of August Wilhelm's 
owning a heedless, goodnatured tongue ; considerably prone to take the 
Opposition side, on light grounds. For which if he found a kind of 
solacement and fame in some circles, it was surely at a dear rate ! To 
his Brother, that bad habit would, most likely, be known; and his 
Brother, I suppose, did not speak of it at all ; such his Brother's custom 
in cases of the kind. Judicious Valori, by way of answer, dilated on the 
peculiar esteem of his Majesty Louis xv, for the Prussian Majesty, * so 
as my Instructions direct me to do * ; and we hear no more of the Prince 
of Prussia's talk, at this time ; but shall in future ; and may conjecture 
a great deal about the atmosphere Friedrich had now to live in. A 
Friedrich undergoing, privately, a great deal of criticism : * Mad tendency 
to war ; lust of conquest ; contempt for his neighbours, for the opinion 
of the world ; no end of irrational tendencies ' : 2 from persons to whom 
the secret of his Problem is deeply unknown. 

One wise thing the English have done : sent an Excellency 
Mitchell, a man of loyalty, of sense and honesty, to be their 
Resident at Berlin. This is the noteworthy, not yet much 
noted, Sir Andrew Mitchell; by far the best Excellency 
England ever had in that Court. An Aberdeen Scotchman, 
creditable to his Country : hard-headed, sagacious ; sceptical 
of shows ; but capable of recognising substances withal, and 
of standing loyal to them, stubbornly if needful ; who grew 

1 Valori, ii 129-131. 

1 See Valori, ii. 124-151 ('July 27th August 2 1st 9 ). 



86 SEVEN- YEARS WAR BEGINS [BOOKXVII. 

[i8th July 1756 

to a great mutual regard with Friedrich, and well deserved to 
do so; constantly about him, during the next seven years; 
and whose Letters are among the perennially valuable Docu- 
ments on Priedricfrs History. 1 

Mitchell is in Berlin since June 10th. Mitchell, who is 
on the scene itself, and looking into Friedrich with his own 
eyes, finds the reiterating of that Beware, your Majesty!' 
which had been his chief task hitherto, a more and more 
questionable thing; and suggests to him at last: * Plainly 
ask her Hungarian Majesty, What is your meaning by those 
Bohemian Campings ? ' < Pshaw, 1 answers Friedrich : Nothing 
but some ambiguous answer, perhaps with insult in it ! n 
nevertheless thinks better ; and determines to do so. 2 



CHAPTER IV 

FRIEDRICH PUTS A QUESTION AT VIENNA, TWICE OVER 

JULY 18th 3 1756, Friedrich despatches an Express to Graf 
von Klinggraf, his Resident at Vienna (an experienced man, 
whom we have seen before in old Carteret, * Conference-of- 
Hanau ' times), To demand audience of the Empress ; and, 
in the fittest terms, friendly and courteous, brief and clear, 
to put that question of MitchelPs suggesting. * Those un- 
wonted Armaments, Camps in Bohmen, Camps in Mahren, 
and military movements and preparations, 1 Klinggraf is to 
say, < have caused anxiety in her Majesty's peaceable Neigh- 
bour of Prussia ; who desires always to continue in peace ; 
and who requests hereby a word of assurance from her 
Majesty, that these his anxieties are groundless. 1 Friedrich 

1 Happily secured In the British Museum ; and now in the most perfect order 
for consulting (thanks to Sir F. Madden 'and three-years labour' well invested) ; 
should certainly, and will one day, be read to the bottom, and cleared of their 
darknesses, extrinsic and intrinsic (which are considerable), by somebody 
competent. 

2 Mitchell Papers. 



CH. iv.] FRIEDRICH'S QUESTION AT VIENNA 87 

26th July 1756] 

himself hopes little or nothing from this ; but he has done it 
to satisfy people about him, and put an end to all scruples 
in himself and others. The Answer may be expected in ten 
or twelve days. 

And, about the same time, likely enough, directly after, 
though there is no date given, to a fact which is curious and 
authentic, Friedrich sent for two of his chief Generals, to 
Potsdam, for a secret Conference with Winterfeld and him. 
The Generals are, old Schwerin and General Retzow Senior, 
Major-General Retzow, whom we used to hear of in the 
Silesian Wars, and whose Son reports on this occasion. 
Conference is on this Imminency of War, and as to what 
shall be done in it. Friedrich explains in general terms his 
dangers from Austria and Russia, his certainty that Austria 
will attack him ; and asks. Were it, or were it not, better to 
attack Austria, as is our Prussian principle in such case? 
Schwerin and Retzow, Schwerin first, as the eldest; and 
after him Retzow, * who privately has charge from the Prussian 
Princes to do it, 1 opine strongly : That indications are un- 
certain, that much seems inevitable which does not come; 
that in a time of such tumultuous whirlings and unexpected 
changes, the true rule is, Watch well, and wait. 

After enough of this, with Winterfeld looking dissent but 
saying almost nothing, Friedrich gives sign to Winterfeld ; 
who spreads out, in their lucidest prearranged order, the 
principal Menzel-Weingarten Documents; and bids the two 
Military Gentlemen read. They read; with astonishment, 
are forced to believe ; stand gazing at one another ; and do 
now take a changed tone. Schwerin, e after a silence of 
everybody for some minutes, 1 * bursts-out like one inspired : 
' If War is to be and must be, let us start tomorrow ; seize 
Saxony at once; and in that rich corny Country form 
Magazines for our Operations on Bohemia ! ' l 

That is "privately Friedrich^ own full intention, Saxony, 
with its Elbe River as Highway, in his indispensable pre- 

1 Retzow, i. 39. 



38 SEVEN- YEARS WAR BEGINS [BOOKXVIL 

[a6th July 1756 

liminary for Bohemia : and he will not, a second time, as he 
did in 1744 with such results, leave it in an unsecured con- 
dition. Adieu then, Messieurs ; silent : au revoir, which 
may be soon ! Retzow Junior, a rational, sincere, but rather 
pipeclayed man, who is wholly to be trusted on this Con- 
ference, with his Father for authority, has some touches of 
commentary on it, which indicate (date being 1802) that till 
the end of his life, or of Prince Henri his Patron's, there 
remained always in some heads a doubt as to Friedrich's 
wisdom in regard to starting the Seven- Years War, and to 
Schwerin's entire sincerity in that inspired speech. And 
still more curious, that there was always, at Potsdam as else- 
where, a Majesty's Opposition Party; privately intent to 
look at the wrong side; and doing it diligently, though 
with lips strictly closed for most part ; without words, except 
well-weighed and to the wise : which is an excellent arrange- 
ment, for a Majesty and Majesty's Opposition, where feasible 
in the world ! 

From Retzow I learn farther, that Winterfeld, directly on 
the back of this Conference, took a Tour to the Bohemian 
Baths, *To Karlsbad, or Toplitz, for one's health'; and 
wandered about a good deal in those Frontier Mountains of 
Bohemia, taking notes, taking sketches (not with a pictur- 
esque view); and returned by the Saxon Pirna Country, a 
strange stony labyrinth, which he guessed might possibly be 
interesting soon. The Saxon Commandant of the Konigstein, 
lofty Fortress of those parts, strongest in Saxony, was of 
Winterfeld's acquaintance : Wiriterfeld called on this Com- 
mandant; found his Konigstein too high for cannonading 
those neighbourhoods, but that there was at the base of it a 
new Work going on; and that the Saxons were, though 
languidly, endeavouring to bestir themselves in matters 
military. Their entire Army at present is under 20,000 ; 
but, in the course of next Winter, they expect to have it 
40,000. Shall be of that force, against Season 1757. No 
doubt Winterfeld's gatherings and communications had their 



CH. IV.] FRIEDRICH'S QUESTION AT VIENNA 39 

26th July 1756] 

uses at Potsdam, on his getting home from this Tour to 
Toplitz. 

Meanwhile Klinggraf has had his Audience at Vienna ; and 
has sped as ill as could have been expected. The Answer 
given was of supercilious brevity ; evasive, in effect null, and 
as good as answering, That there is no answer. Two 
Accounts we have, as Friedrich successively had them, of this 
famed passage : first, Klinggraf s own, which is clear, rapid, 
and stands by the essential; second, an account from the 
other side of the scenes, furnished by Menzel of Dresden, for 
Friedrich's behoof and ours; which curiously illustrates the 
foregoing, and confirms the interpretation Friedrich at once 
made of it. This is MenzePs account ; in other words, the 
Saxon Envoy at Vienna's, stolen by Menzel. 

July 26th, it appears, Klinggraf, having applied to 
Kaunitz the day before, who noticed a certain flurry in him, 
and had answered carelessly, * Audience? Yes, of course; 
nay, I am this moment going to the Empress : only you 
must tell me about what ? 7 was admitted to the Imperial 
Presence, he first of many that were waiting. Imperial 
Presence held in its hand a snip of Paper, carefully composed 
by Kaunitz from the data, and read these words : * Die 
bedenJclichen Umstdnde, The questionable circumstances of the 
Time have moved me to consider as indispensably necessary 
those measures which, for my own security and for defence of 
my Allies, I am taking, and which otherwise do not tend the 
least towards injury of anybody whatsoever;'' and adding 
no syllable more, gave a sign with her hand, intimating to 
Klinggraf that the Interview was done. Klinggraf strode 
through the Antechamber," 1 * visibly astonished,** say onlookers, 
at such an Answer had. Answer, in fact, That there is 
no answer,' and the door flung in your face ! * 

1 Helden-Geschickte^ iii. 772. In Valori, ii. 128, Friedrich's little Paper of 
Instructions to Klinggraf $ this Vienna Answer to it, ib, 138 : see ib* 138, 1625 
and Gesammelte Nachrichten, ii. 214-221. 



40 SEVEN- YEARS WAR BEGINS [BOOKXVIL 

[ad Aug. 1756 

Friedrich, on arrival of report from Klinggraf, and with- 
out waiting for the Menzel side of the scenes, sees that 
the thing is settled. Writes again, however (August 2d, 
prohably the day after, or the same day, Klinggraf s Despatch 
reached him); instructing Klinggraf To request <a less 
oracular response ' ; and specially, < If her Imperial Majesty 
(Austria and Russia being, as is understood, in active League 
against him) will say, That Austria will not attack him this 
year or the next?** Draw-up memorial of that, Monsieur 
Klinggraf; and send us the supercilious No- Answer : till which 
arrive we do not cross the Frontier, but are already every- 
where on march to it, in an industrious, cunningly devised, 
evident and yet impenetrably mysterious manner. 

Excellency Valori never saw such activity of military pre- 
paration: such Artillery, < 2,000 big pieces in the Park 
here'; Regiments, Wagon-trains, getting under way every- 
where, no man can guess whitherward; c drawn-up in the 
Square here, they know not by what Gate they are to march,' 
By three different Gates, I should think ; mysteriously, in 
Three Directions, known only to King Friedrich and his 
Adjutant-General, all these Regiments in Berlin and else- 
where are on march. Towards Halle (Leipzig way) ; towards 
Brietzen (Wittenberg and Torgau way); towards Bautzen 
neighbourhood, towards Three settled Points of the Saxon 
Frontier ; will step across the instant the supercilious No- 
Answer comes to hand. Are to converge about Dresden and 
the Saxon Switzerland; about 65,000 strong, equipped as 
no Army before or since has been; and take what luck 
there may be. 

Briihl and Polish Majesty's Army, still only about 18,000, 
have their apprehensions of such visit : but what can they do ? 
The Saxon Army draws-out into Camp, at sight of this 
mysterious marching ; strong Camp f in the angle of Elbe and 
Mulde Rivers'; then draws-in again; being too weak for 
use. And is thinking, Menzel informs us, to take post in 
the stony labyrinthic Pirna Country : such the advice an 



CH. iv.j FRIEDRICH'S QUESTION AT VIENNA 41 

I5th-a6th Aug. 1756] 

Excellency Broglio has given; French Excellency, now in 
Dresden ; Marechal de Broglio's Son, and of little less 
explosive nature than his Father was. Briihl and Polish 
Majesty, guessing that the hour is come, are infinitely inter- 
ested. Interested, not flurried. * Austrian-Russian Anti- 
Prussian Covenant ! ' say Briihl and Majesty, rather comfort- 
ably to themselves : 6 We never signed it. We never would 
sign anything; what have we to do with it? Courage; 
steady ; To Pirna, if they come ! Are not Excellency Broglio, 
and France, and Austria, and the whole world at our back ? ' 

It was full three weeks before Klinggrafs Message of 
Answer could arrive at Berlin. Of Friedrich in the interim, 
launching such a world-adventure, himself silent, in the midst 
of a buzzing Berlin, take these indications, which are luminous 
enough. Duke Ferdinand of Brunswick is to head one of the 
Three < Columns. 1 Duke Ferdinand, Governor of Magdeburg, 
is now collecting his Column in that neighbourhood, chiefly 
at Halle; whitherward, or on what errand, is profoundly 
unknown. Unknown even to Ferdinand, except that it is for 
actual Service in the Field. Here are two Friedrich Letters 
(ruggedly Official, the first of them, and not quite peculiar to 
Ferdinand), which are worth reading : 



The King to Duke Ferdinand of Brunswick 

'Potsdam, 15th August 1756. 

f For time of Field-Service 1 have made the arrangement, That for the 
Subaltern Officers of your regiment, over and above their ordinary 
Equipage-moneys, there shall, to each Subaltern Officer, and once for 
all, be Eight Thalers* (twenty-four shillings sterling) * advanced. That 
sum ' (eight thalers per subaltern) c shall be paid to the Captain of every 
Company ; and besides this there shall, monthly, Two Thalers be 
deducted from the Subaltern's Pay, and be likewise paid-over to the 
Captain : in return for which, He is to furnish Free Table for the 
Subalterns througlkout the Campaign, and so long as the regiment is in 
the field. 



42 SEVEN- YEARS WAR BEGINS [BOOKXVII. 

[26th Aug. 1756 

Of the Two Bag-gage-carts per Company, the regiment shall take only 
One, and leave the other at home. No Officer, let him be who or of 
what title he will, Generals not excepted, shall take with him the least 
of Silver Plate, not even a silver spoon. Whoever wants, therefore, to 
keep table, great or small (Tafel oder Tiscti), must manage the same with 
tin utensils ; without exception, be he who he will. 

'Each Captain shall take with him a little Cask of Vinegar ; of which, 
as soon as the regiments get to Camp, he must give me reckoning, and I 
will then have him repaid. This Vinegar shall solely and exclusively be 
employed for this purpose, That in places where the water is bad, there 
be poured into it, for the soldiers, a few drops of the vinegar, to correct 
the water, and thereby preserve them from illnesses. 

' So soon as the regiment gets on inarch, the Women who have per- 
mission to follow are put under command of the Profoss ; that thereby 
all plunderings and disorders may the more be guarded against. If the 
Captains and Officers take Grooms (J'dger) or the like Domestics, there 
can muskets be given to these, that use may be had of them, in case of 
an attack in quarters, or on march, when a Wageriburg (wagon-fortress) 
is to be formed. * * FRIEDBICH/ 1 



Same to Same (Confidential, this one) 

* Potsdam, 24th August. 

* * Make as if you were meaning to go into Camp at Halle. The 
reason why I stop you is, that the Courier from Vienna has not yet 
come. We must therefore reassure the Saxon neighbourhood. * * I 
have been expecting answer from hour to hour ; cannot suitably begin a 
War-Expedition till it come ; do therefore apprise Your Dilection, 
though under the deepest secrecy. 

f And it is necessary, and my Will is, That, till farther order, you 
keep all the regiments and corps belonging to your Column in the places 
where they are when this arrives. And shall, meanwhile, with your 
best skill mask all this, both from the Town of Halle, and from the 
regiments themselves ; making, in conformity with what I said yesterday^ 
as if you were a Corps of Observation come to encamp here, and were 
waiting the last orders to go into camp. FRIBDRIGH.' a 

And in regard to the Vienna Courier, and Friedrich^ 
attitude towards that Phenomenon, read only these Two 
Notes : 

1 Preuss, ii. 6, 7, lb> 7, 8, 



CH. IV.] FRIEDRICH'S QUESTION AT VIENNA 

a6th Aug. 1756] 



1. Friedrich to the Prince of Prussia and the Princess 
Amelia (at Berlin) 

Potsdam, '25th August* 1756. 

r MY DEAR BROTHER^ MY DEAR SISTER, I write to you both at once, 
for want of time. I will follow tlie advice you are so good as give me ; 
and will take leave of the Queen J (our dear Mamma) e by Letter. And 
that the reading of my Letter may not frighten her, I will send it by my 
Sister, to be presented in a favourable moment. 

e I have yet got no Answer from Vienna ; by Klinggraf s account, I 
shall not receive it till tomorrow* (came this night). *But I count 
myself surer of War than ever ; as the Austrians have named Generals, 
and their Army is ordered to march, from Kolin to Konigsgratz' 
Schlesien way. * So that, expecting nothing but a haughty Answer, or 
a very uncertain one, on which there will be no reliance possible, I have 
arranged everything for setting-out on Saturday next. Tomorrow, so 
soon as the news comes, I will not feil to let you know. Assuring you 
that I am, with a perfect affection, my dear Brother and my dear 
Sister, Yours, F/ l 

Answer comes from Klinggraf that same night. Once 
more, an Answer almost worse than could have been expected, 
6 The " League with Russia against you " is non-extant, a thing 
of your imagination . Have not we already answered ? ' % 
Whereupon, 

2. Friecfaich to the Prince qf Prussia 

Potsdam, '26th. August' 1756. 

* MY DEAR BROTHER, I have already written to the Queen ; softening 
things as much as I could* (Letter lost). c My Sister, to whom, J 
addressed the Letter, will deliver it. 

'You have seen the Paper I sent to Klinggraf, Their Answer is, 
"That they have not made an Offensive Alliance with Russia against 
me/* The Answer is impertinent, high and contemptuous ; and of the 
Assurance that I required ' (as to This Year and Next), ' not one word. 
So that the sword alone can cut this Gordian Knot I am innocent of 

1 C&uvres de Frtddric, xxvi. 155. 

3 In Gesammelte Urkwiden> i. 217 : Klinggraf 's second question (done by 
Letter this time), ' i8th August* ; Maria Theresa's Answer, *2ist August,* 



44 SEVEN-YEARS WAR BEGINS [BOOKXVIL 

[a6th Aug. 17^6 

this War ; I have done what I could to avoid it ; but whatever be one's 
love of peace^ one cannot and must not sacrifice to that, one's safety and 
one's honour. Such, I believe, will be your opinion too, from the senti- 
ments I know in you. At present, our one thought must be, To do 
War in such a way as may cure our Enemies of their wish to break Peace 
again to* soon. I embrace you with all my heart. I have had no end 
of business (terribkment cifaire).' F. 1 

The March into Saxony > in Three Columns 

Ahead of that last Note, from an earlier hour of the same 
day, Thursday 26th August, there is speeding forth, to all 
Three Generals of Division, this Order (take Duke Ferdinand's 
copy): 

c I hereby order that Your Dilection (Ew. lAebden), with all the regi- 
ments and corps in the Column standing under your command, Shall 
now, without more delay, get on march, on the 29th inst. ; and proceed, 
according to the March-Tables and Instructions already given, to execute 
what Your Dilection has got in charge.' F. 

The same Thursday 26th, Excellency Mitchell, informed 
by Podewils of the King^s wish to see him at Potsdam, gets 
under way from Berlin; arrives 'just time enough to speak 
with the King before he sat down to supper. ' Very many 
things to be consulted of, and deliberatively touched upon, 
with Mitchell and England ; no end of things and considera- 
tions, for England and King Friedrich, in this that is now 
about to burst-forth on an astonished world ! Over in 
London, we observe, just in the hours when Mitchell was 
harnessing for Potsdam, and so many Orders and Letters 
were speeding their swiftest in that quarter, there is going 
forward, on Tower-Hill yonder, the following Operation : 

f London, Thursday ZGth August 1756. About five in the afternoon, 
a noted Admiral' (only in Effigy as yet; but who has been held in 
miserable durance, and too-actual question of death or life, ever since 
his return : e 0, yes indeed ! Hang him at once/ if that can be a 
remedy 1) c was, after having been privately shown to many ladies and 

1 CEuvresde Fr$dric> xxvu 116, 



CH. iv.] FRIEDRICH'S QUESTION AT VIENNA 45 

26th Aug. 1756] 

gentlemen, brought, in an open sedan, guarded by a number of young 
gentlemen under arms, with drums beating, colours flying, to Tower- 
Hill, where a Gallows had been erected for him at six the same morning. 
He was richly dressed, in a blue and gold coat, buff waistcoat, trimmed, 
etc. in full uniform. When brought under the Gallows, he stayed a 
small space, till his clergyman (a chimney-sweeper) had given him. some 
admonitions : that done, he was drawn, by pulleys, to the top of the 
Gallows, which was twenty feet high ; every person expressing as much 
satisfaction as if it had been the real man. 

'He remained there, guarded by the above volunteers, without any 
molestation, two hours ; when, upon a supposition of being obstructed 
by the Governor of the Tower, some sailors appeared, who wanted to 
pull him down, in order to drag him along the streets. But a fire being 
kindled, which consisted of tar-barrels, fagots, tables, tubs, etc., he was 
consumed in about half an hour.' 1 

That is their employment on Tower-Hill, over yonder, while 
Mitchell is getting under way to see Friedrich. 

Mitchell continued at Potsdam over Friday ; and was still 
in eager consultation that night, when the King said to him, 
with a certain expressiveness of glance : ' Bon soir, then ; 
Tomorrow morning about four 1 ' And on the morrow, 
Saturday 28th, Mitchell reports hurriedly : 

* * f Am just returned to Berlin, in time to write to your Lordship. 
This morning, between four and five, I took leave of the King of Prussia. 
He went immediately upon the Parade; mounted on horseback; and, 
after a very short exercise of his Troops, put himself at their head ; and 
marched directly for Belitz' (half way to Brietzen, Treitenbrietzen as 
they call it) ; * where, Tomorrow, he will enter the Saxon Territory,' 
as, at their respective points, his two other Columns will ; and begin, 
who shall say what terrible game ; incalculable to your Lordship and me, 
with such Operations afoot on Tower-Hill ! 3 

Seven Hussar Regiments of Duke Ferdinand's Column got 
the length of Leipzig that Sunday Evening 29th ; and took 
possession of the place. 8 Duke Ferdinand to right of the 
King, Duke of Brunswick-Bevern to left, the Three Columns 

1 Old Newspapers {Gentlemarfs Magazine, xxvi. 409). 

2 Mitchell Papers, vi, 804 ('To Lord Holderness, 28th August 1756' ) 

8 In Helden-Gcschiclte, iu. 731, his * Proclamation ' there, * 2gth Angust 1756.* 



46 SEVEN- YEARS WAR BEGINS [BOOKXVII. 

[28th Aug.-gth Sept. 1756 

cross the Border, at points, say 80 miles from one another; 
occasionally, on the march, bending to rightwards and left- 
wards, to take-in the principal Towns, and make settlements 
there, the two might be above 100 miles from Friedrich on 
each hand. The length of march for each Column, 
Ferdinand * from Leipzig, by Chemnitz, Freyberg, Dippoldis- 
walde, to the Village of Cotta ' (Pirna neighbourhood, south of 
Elbe) ; Severn, * through the Lausitz, by Bautzen, to Lohmen' 
(same neighbourhood, north of Elbe); King Friedrich, to 
Dresden, by the course of the Elbe itself, was not far from 
equal, and may be called about 150 miles. They marched 
with diligence, not with hurry ; had their pauses, rest-days, 
when business required. They got to their ground, with 
the simultaneousness appointed, on the eleventh or twelfth 
day. 

The middle Column, under the King, where Marshal Keith 
is second in command, goes by Torgau (detaching Moritz of 
Dessau to pick-up Wittenberg, and ruin the slight works 
there) ; crosses the Elbe at Torgau, September d ; marches, 
cantoning itself day after day, along the southern bank of 
the River; leaves Meissen to the left, I perceive, does not 
pass through Meissen; comes first at Wilsdruf on ground 
where we have been, and portions of it, I doubt not, were 
billeted in Kesselsdorf ; and would take a glance at the old 
Field, if they had time. There is strict discipline in all the 
Columns ; the authorities complying on summons, and arrang- 
ing what is needful. Nobody resists; townguards at once 
ground arms, and there is no soldier visible ; soldiers all 
ebbing away, whitherward we guess. 1 

At Wilsdruf, Friedrich first learns for certain, that the 
Saxon Army, with King, with Bruhl and other chief person- 
ages, are withdrawn to Pirna, to the inexpugnable Konigstein 
and Rock-Country. The Saxon Army had begun assembling 
there, September 1st, directly on the news that Friedrich was 

1 HeldenGschichte> in. 732-3 ; (Euvres de Frldtric> iv, 8l, 



CH. IV.] FRIEDRICETS QUESTION AT VIENNA 47 

28th Aug.-gth Sept. 1756] 

across the Border ; September 9th, on Friedrich's approach, 
the King and Dignitaries move off thither, from Dresden, out 
of his way. Excellency Broglio has put them on that plan. 
Which may have its complexities for Friedrich, hopes Broglio, 

though perhaps its still greater for some other parties con- 
cerned ! For Brlihl and Polish Majesty, as will appear by 
and by, nothing could have turned out worse. 

Meanwhile Friedrich pushes on : ( Forward all the same. 1 
Polish Majesty, dating from Struppen, in the Pirna Country, 
has begun a Correspondence with Friedrich, very polite on 
both hands ; and his Adjutant-General, the Chevalier Meagher 
(* Chevalier de MarreJ as Valori calls him, Mcfar, as he 
calls himself in Irish) has just had, at Wilsdruf, an Interview 
with Friedrich ; but is far from having got settlement on the 
terms he wished. Polish Majesty magnanimously assenting 
to e a Road through his Country for military purposes'*; 
offers * the strictest Neutrality, strictest friendship even ; has 
done, and will do, no injury whatever to his Prussian Majesty 1 

( c Did we ever sign anything ? ' whisper comfortably Briihl 
and he to one another); c expects, therefore, that his Prussian 
Majesty will march on, whither he is bound ; and leave him 
unmolested here. 1 1 

That was Meagher's message; that is the purport of all 
his Polish Majesty's Eleven Letters to Friedrich, which precede 
or follow, reiterating with a certain ovine obstinacy, in- 
sensible to time or change, That such is Polish Majesty's 
fixed notion : * Strict neutrality, friendship even ; and leave me 
unmolested here.' 2 4 Strict neutrality, yes : but disperse your 
Army, then,' answers Friedrich ; * send your Army back to 
its cantonments : I must myself have the keeping of my 
Highway, lest I lose it, as in 1744.' This is Friedrich's 
answer ; this at first, and for some time coming ; though, as 
the aspects change, and the dangerous elements heap them- 



i iii. 774. 

3 (Euijres de Frtdtric, iv. 235-260 ('29th August loth September 1 8th 
September,' 1756), are collected now, the Eleven Letters, with their Answers. 



48 SEVEN- YEARS WAR BEGINS [BOOKXVIL 

[gth Sept. 1756 

selves higher, Friedrich's answer will rise with them, and his 
terms, like the Sibyl's, become worse and worse. This is the 
utmost that Meagher, at Wilsdruf, can make of it ; and this, 
in conceivable circumstances, will grow less and less. 

Next day, September 9th, Friedrich, with some Battalions, 
entered Dresden, most of his Column taking Camp near by ; 
General Wylich had entered yesterday, and is already Com- 
mandant there. Friedrich sends, by Feldmarschall Keith, 
highest Officer of his Column, his homages to her Polish 
Majesty : nothing given us of Keith's Interview ; except, by 
a side-wind, 'That Majesty complained of those Prussian 
Sentries walking about in certain of her corridors ' (with an 
eye to Something, it may be feared !) of which, doubtless, 
Keith undertook to make report. Friedrich himself waits 
upon the Junior Princes, who are left here': is polite and 
gracious as ever, though strict, and with business enough; 
lodges, for his own part, * in the Garden-House of Princess 
Moczinska ' ; and next morning leads off his Column, a 
short march eastward, to the Pima Country ; where, on the 
right and on the left, Ferdinand at Cotta, Severn at Lohmen 
(if readers will look on their Map" 56 "), he finds the other Two 
in their due positions. Headquarter is Gross-Sedlitz (western- 
most skirt of the Rock-region) ; and will have to continue so, 
much longer than had been expected. 

The Diplomatic world in Dresden is in great emotion ; 
more especially just at present. This morning, before leaving, 
Friedrich had to do an exceedingly strict thing : secure the 
Originals of those Menzel Documents. Originals indispensable 
to him, for justifying his new procedures upon Saxony. So 
that there has been, at the Palace, a Scene this morning of 
a very high and dissonant nature, * Marshal Keith ' in it, 
c Marshal Keith making a second visit * (say some loose and 
false Accounts) ; the facts being strictly as follows. 

Far from removing those Prussian sentries complained of 
* Map, p. 86. 



CH. iv.J FBIEDRICITS QUESTION AT VIENNA 49 

roth Sept. 1756] 

last night, here seems to be a double strength of them this 
morning. And her Polish Majesty, a severe, hard-featured 
old Lady, has been filled with indignant amazement by a 
Prussian Officer, Major von Wangenheim, I believe it is, 
requiring, in the King of Prussia's name, the Keys of that 
Archive-room ; Prussian Majesty absolutely needing sight, for 
a little while, of certain Papers there. * Enter that room ? 
Archives of a crowned Head ? Let me see the living mortal 
that will dare to do it ! "* one fancies the indignant Polish 
Majesty's answer ; and how, calling for materials, she ' openly 
sealed the door in question,' in Wangenheim's presence. As 
this is a celebrated Passage, which has been reported in 
several loose ways, let us take it from the primary source, 
Chancery style and all. Graf von Sternberg, Austrian Excel- 
lency, writing from the spot and afc the hour, informs his 
own Court, and through that all Courts, in these solemnly 
Official terms : 

'Dresden, IQth September 1756. The Queen's Majesty, this forenoon* 
has called to her all the Foreign Ministers now at Dresden ; and in 
Highest Own Person has signified to us, How, the Prussian intrusions 
and hostilities being already known, Highest said Queen's Majesty would 
now simply state what had farther taken place this morning : 

cc Highest said Queen's Majesty, to wit, had, in her own name, requested 
the King of Prussia, in conformity with his assurances" (by Keith, yester- 
night) fc of paying every regard for Her and the Royal Family, To remove 
the Prussian Sentries pacing about in those Corridors," Corridors which 
lead to the Secret Archives, important to some of us ! cf Instead of 
which, the said King had not only doubled his Sentries there ; but also, 
by an Officer, demanded the Keys of the Archive-apartment" (just 
alluded to) ! cc And as the Queen's Majesty, for security of all writings 
there, offered to seal the door of it herself, and did so, there and then, 
the said Officer had so little respect, that he clapped his own. seal 
thereon too. 

6 ef Nor was he content therewith," not by any means ! " but the same 
Officer" (having been with Wylich, Commandant here), "came back, a 
short time after, and made for opening of the door himself. Which 
being announced to the Queen's Majesty, she in her own person (Hochst- 
dieselbe, Highest-the-Same) went out again; and standing before the 
Door, informed him, c How Highest-the-Same had too much regard to 
VOL, VI, D 



50 SEVEN- YEARS WAR BEGINS [BOOKXVII. 

[ioth Sept. 1756 

Ms Prussian Majesty's given assurance, to believe that such order could 
proceed from the King/ As the Officer, however, replied, 'That he 
was sorry to have such an order to execute; hut that the order was 
serious and precise ; and that he, by not executing it, would expose 
himself to the greatest responsibility/ Her Majesty continued standing 
before the Door; and said to the Officer, e l he meant to use force, 
he might upon Her make his beginning/" There is for you, Herr 
Wangenheim ! 

" ' Upon which said Officer had gone away, to report anew to the King" 
(I think, only to Wylich the Commandant ; King now a dozen miles off, 
not so easily reported to, and his mind known) ; ee and in the mean while 
Her Majesty had called to her the Prussian and English Ambassadors" 
(Mahlzahn and Stormont ; sorry both of them, but how entirely resource- 
less, especially Mahlzahn !), " and had represented and repeated to them 
the above ; beseeching that by their remonstrances and persuasions they 
would induce the King of Prussia, conformably with his given assurance, 
to forbear. Instead, however, of any fruit from such remonstrances and 
urgencies, final Order came, 'That, Queen's Majesty's own Highest 
Person notwithstanding, force must be used/ 

f ee Whereupon her Majesty, to avoid actual mistreatment, had been 
obliged to " to become passive, and, no Keys being procurable from her, 
see a smith with his picklocks give these Prussians admission. Legation- 
Secretary Plessmann was there (Menzel one fancies sitting, rather pale, 
in an adjacent room) ; 1 and they knew what to do. Their smith opens 
the required box for them (one of several * all lying packed for Warsaw,' 
says Friedrich) ; from which soon taking what they needed, Wangenheim 
and Wylich withdrew with their booty, and readers have the fruit of it 
to this day, fe Which unheard-of procedure, be pleased, Your Excel- 
lencies, to report to your respective Courts/" 2 

Poor old Lady, what a situation ! And I believe she 
never saw her poor old Husband again. The day he went 
to Pirna (morning of yesterday, September 9th, Friedrich 
entering in the evening), these poor Spouses had, little dream- 
ing of it, taken leave of one another forevermore. Such profit 
lies in your Briihl. Kings and Queens that will be governed 
by a Jesuit Guarina, and a Bruhl of the Twelve Tailors, some- 
times pay dear for it. They, or their representatives, are 

1 Supra, vol. v. 404. 

2 Gesammelte Nachrichten^ i. 222 (or * No 26 * of that Collection) ; (Euvres 
de Frtdtric, iv. 83. 



CHAP, v.] THE SAXONS BLOCKADED IN PIENA 51 

loth Sept.-ist Oct. 1756] 

sure to do so. Kings and Queens, yes, and if that were all : 
but their poor Countries too ? Their Countries ; well, their 
Countries did not hate Beelzebub, in his various shapes, 
enough. Their Countries should have been in watch against 
Beelzebub in the shape of Briihls ; watching, and also c pray- 
ing "* in a heroic manner, now fallen obsolete in these impious 
times ' 



CHAPTER V 

FRIEDRICH BLOCKADES THE SAXONS IN PIRNA 
COUNTRY 

FRIEDBICH reckons himself to have 65,000 men in Saxony. 
Schwerin is issuing from Silesia, through the Glatz Mountains, 
for Bohemia, at the head of 40,000. The Austrian force is 
inferior in quantity, and far from ready : Two * Camps ' in 
Bohemia they have ; the chief one under Browne (looking, or 
intending, this Saxon way), and a smaller under Piccolomini, 
in the Konigshof-Kolin region : if well run into from front 
and rear, both Browne and Piccolomini might be beautifully 
handled ; and a gash be cut in Austria, which might incline 
her to be at peace again ! Nothing hinders but this paltry 
Camp of the Saxons; itself only 18,000 strong, but in a 
Country of such strength. And this does hinder, effectually 
while it continues : ' How march to Bohemia, and leave the 
road blocked in our rear ? ** 

The Saxon Camp did continue, unmanageable by any 
method, for five weeks to come; the season of war-opera- 
tions gone, by that time : and Friedrich's First Campaign, 
rendered mostly fruitless in this manner, will by no means 
check the Austrian truculencies, as by his velocity he hoped 
to do. No ; but, on the contrary, will rouse the Austrians, 
French and all Enemies, to a tenfold pitch of temper. And 
bring upon himself, from an astonished and misunderstanding 



52 SEVEN- YEARS WAR BEGINS [BOOKXVII. 

[loth Sept.-ist Oct. 1756 

Public, such tempests and world-tornados of loud-roaring 
obloquy, as even he, Friedrich, had never endured before. 

To readers of a touring habit this Saxon Country is perhaps 
well known. For the last half-century it has been growing 
more and more famous, under the name of 6 Saxon Switzer- 
land (Sdchsische Schweitz)? instead of 'Misnian Highlands 
(Meismische Hochland)? which it used to be called. A 
beautiful enough and extremely rugged Country ; interesting 
to the picturesque mind. Begins rising, in soft Hills, on 
both sides of the Elbe, a few miles east of Dresden, as you 
ascend the River ; till it rises into Hills of wild character, 
getting ever wilder, and riven into wondrous chasms and 
precipices. Extends, say almost twenty miles up the River, 
to Tetschen and beyond, in this eastern direction ; and with 
perhaps ten miles of breadth on each side of the River : area 
of the Rock-region, therefore, is perhaps some four hundred 
square miles. The Falkenberg (what we should call Hawks- 
crag)) north-eastward in the Lausitz, the Schneeberg (Snow 
Mountain), south-eastward on the Bohemian border, are about 
thirty-five miles apart : these two are both reckoned to be in 
it, its last out-posts on that eastern side. But the limits 
of it are fixed by custom only, and depend on no natural 
condition. 

We might define it as the Sandstone neck of the Metal 
Mountains : a rather lower block, of Sandstone, intercalated 
into the Metal-Mountain range, which otherwise, on both 
hands, is higher, and of harder rocks. Southward (as shoulder 
to this sandstone neck) lies, continuous, broad and high, the 
' Metal-Mountain range ' specially so-called : northward and 
north-eastward there rise, beyond that Falkenberg, many 
mountains, solitary or in groups, c the Metal Mountains'* 
fading-out here into <the Lausitz Hills,* still in fine pictur- 
esque fashion, which are Northern Border to the great 
Bohemian c Basin of the Elbe,* after you emerge from this 
Sandstone Country. 



CHAP. V.] THE SAXONS BLOCKADED IN PIRNA 58 

loth Sept.-xst Oct. 1756] 

Saxon Switzerland is not very high anywhere; ,000 feet 
is a notable degree of height : but it is torn and tumbled into 
stone labyrinths, chasms and winding rock- walls, as few regions 
are. Grows pinewood, to the topmost height ; pine-trees far 
aloft look quietly down upon you, over sheer precipices, on 
your intricate path. On the slopes of the Hills is grass 
enough ; in the intervals are Villages and husbandries, are 
corn and milk for the laborious natives, who depend mainly 
on quarrying and pine-forest work : pines and freestone, 
rafts of long slim pines, and big stone barges, are what one 
sees upon the River there. A Note, not very geological, 
says of it : 

'Elbe sweeps freely through this Country, for ages and aeons past; 
curling himself a little into snake-figure., and with increased velocity, 
but silent mostly, and trim to the edge, a fine flint-coloured river; 
though in aeons long anterior, it must have been a very different matter 
for torrents and water-power. The Country is one huge Block of Sand- 
stone, so many square miles of that material ; ribbed^ channelled., torn 
and quarried, in this manner, by the ever-busy elements, for a million 
of Ages past ! Chiefly by the Elbe himself, since he got to be a River, 
and became cosmic and personal ; ceasing to be a mere watery chaos 
of Lakes and Deluges hereabouts. For the Sandstone was of various 
degrees of hardness ; tenacious as marble some parts of it, soft almost as 
sand other parts. And the primordial diluviums and world-old torrents, 
great and small, rushing down from the Bohemian Highlands, from the 
Saxon Metal Mountains, with such storming, gurgling and swashing, 
have swept away the soft parts, and left the hard standing in this chaotic 
manner, and bequeathed it all to the Elbe, and the common frosts and 
rains of these human ages. 

'Elbe has now a trim course; but Elbe too is busy quarrying and 
mining, where not artificially held-in ; and you notice at every outlet 
of a Brook from the interior, north side and south side, how busy the 
Brook has been. Boring, grinding, undermining ; much helped by the 
frosts, by the rains. jSEons ago, the Brook was a lake, in the interior ; 
but was every moment labouring to get out; till it has cut for itself 
that mountain gullet, or sheerdown chasm, and brougktout with it an 
Alluvium or Delta, on which, since Adam's time, human creatures have 
built a Hamlet. That is the origin, or unwritten history, of most 
hamlets and cultivated spots you fall-in with here : they are the waste 
shavings of the Brook, working millions of years, for its own object of 



54 SEVEN- YEARS WAR BEGINS [BOOKXVII. 

[loth Sept.-ist Oct. 1756 

getting into the Elbe in level circumstances. Ploughed fields, not with- 
out fertility, are in the interior, if you ascend that Brook ; the Hamlet, 
at the delta or mouth of it, is as if huilt upon its tongue and into its 
gullet : think how picturesque, in the November rains, for example ! 

c The road/ one road, 'from Dresden to Aussig, to Lobositz, Budin, 
Prag, runs up the river brink (south brink) ; or, in our day, as Prag- 
Dresden Railway, thunders through those solitudes ; strangely awaken- 
ing their echoes ; and inviting even the bewildered Tourist to reflect, if 
he could. The bewildered Tourist sees rock-walls heaven-high on both 
hands of him ; River and he rushing-on between, by law of gravitation, 
law of ennui (which are laws of Nature both), with a narrow strip of sky 
in full gallop overhead ; and has little encouragement to reflect, except 
upon his own sorrows, and delirious circumstances, physical and moral. 
' ' How much happier, were I lying in my bed 1 " thinks the bewildered 
Tourist ; does strive withal to admire the Picturesque, but with little 
success ; notices the f ' Bastei (Bastion)/' and other rigorously-prescribed 
points of the Sublime and Beautiful, which are to be " done." That you 
will have to do, my friend : step-out, you will have to go on that Pinnacle, 
with indifferent Hotel attached ; on that iron balcony, aloft among the 
clouds yonder; and shudder to project over Elbe-flood from such altitudes, 
admiring the Picturesque in prescribed manner. 

1 This Country has for its permanent uses, timber, freestone, modicum 
of milk and haver, serviceable to the generality; and to his Polish 
Majesty, at present, it is as the very Ark of Noah : priceless at this 
juncture ; being the strongest military country in the world. Excellent 
strength in it; express Fortresses,- especially one Fortress called the 
Konigstein, not far from Schandau, of a towering precipitous nature, 
with a " well 900 feet deep " in it, and pleasant Village outside at the 
base ; Fortress which is still, in our day, reckoned a safe place for the 
Saxon Archives and preciosities. Impregnable to gunpowder artillery ; 
not to be had except by hunger. And then, farther down the River, 
close by Pirna, presiding over Pirna, as that Konigstein in some sort 
does over Schandau, is the Sonnenstein : Sonnenstein too was a Fortress 
in those days of Friedrich, but not impregnable, if judged worth taking. 
The Austrians took it, a year or two hence; Friedrich retook it, dis- 
mantled it: C the Sonnenstein is now a Madhouse/* say the Guide-Books. 

( Sonnenstein stands close east or up-stream of Pirna, which is a town 
of 5,000 souls, by much the largest in those parts ; Konigntein a little 
down-stream of Schandau, which latter is on the opposite or north side 
of the River. These are the two chief Towns, which do all the trade of 
this region; picturesque places both : the Tourist remembers Pirna? 
Standing on its sleek table or stair-step, by the River's edge ; well above 
floodmark ; green, shaggy or fringy mountains looking-down on it to 



CHAP, v.] THE SAXONS BLOCKADED IN PIRNA 55 

ioth Sept.-ist Oct. 1756] 

rearward ; in frontj beyond the River^ nothing visible but mile-long 
cream-coloured rock-wall, with bushes at bottom and top^ wall quarried 
by Elbe, as you can see. Pirna is near the beginning * (properly end, 
but we start from Dresden) e or western extremity of Saxon Schweitz : 
Schandau, almost at the opposite or eastern extremity, is still more 
picturesque ; standing on the delta of a little Brook, with high rock- 
cliffs, with garden-shrubberies, sanded walks, tuffcs of forest-umbrage ; a 
bright-painted, almost operatic-looking plac^ with spa-waters, if I 
recollect ' : yes truly, and the f Bath Season ' making its packages in 
great haste, breaking-up prematurely, this Year (1756) 1 

Directly on arriving at Gross-Sedlitz, Friedrich takes ocular 
survey of this Country, which is already not unknown to him. 
He finds that the Saxons have secured themselves within the 
Mountains ; a rocky streamlet, Brook of Gottleube, which 
issues into Elbe just between Gross-Sedlitz and them, "through 
a dell of eighty or a hundred feet deep,' serving as their first 
defence ; * well in front of the mere rocky Heights and 
precipices behind it, which stretch continuously along to 
southward, six miles or more, from Pirna and the south brink 
of Elbe. At Langen-Hennersdorf, which is the southernmost 
part, these Heights make an elbow inwards, by Leopoldshayn, 
towards the Konigstein, which is but four miles off; here too 
the Saxons are defended by a Brook (running straight towards 
Konigstein, this one) in front of their Heights ; and stand 
defensive, in this way, along a rock-bulwark of ten miles long: 
the passes all secured by batteries, by abatis, palisades, mile 
after mile, as Friedrich rides observant leftward: behind 
them, Elbe rushing swifter through his rock-walls yonder, 
with chasms and intricate gorges ; defending them inex- 
pugnably to rear. Six miles long of natural bulwark (six to 
Hennersdorf), where the gross of the Saxons lie; then to 
Konigstein four other miles, sufficiently, if more sparsely, 
beset by them. * No stronger position in the world, 1 Fried- 
rich thinks ; l and that it is impossible to force this place, 

* See Map, p. 86. 

1 CEnvres de Frdric> iv. 83, 84 (not a very distinct Account ; and far from 
accurate in the details, which are left without effectual correction even in the 
best Editions). 



56 SEVEN- YEARS WAR BEGINS [BOOKXVII. 

[ioth Sept. -is t Oct. 1756 

without a loss of life disproportionate even to its importance 
at present. Not to say that the Saxons will make terms all 
the easier, before bloodshed rise between us; and further- 
more that Hunger (for we hear they have provision only for 
two weeks) may itself soon do it. * Wedge them in, there- 
fore ; block every outgate, every entrance ; nothing to get in, 
except gradually Hunger. Hunger, and on our part rational 
Offers, will suffice.' That is Friedrich's plan ; good in itself, 
though the ovine obstinacy, and other circumstances, re- 
tarded the execution of it to an unexpected extent, lamentable 
to Friedrich and to some others. 

The Prussian-Saxon military operations for the next five 
weeks need not detain us. Their respective positions on the 
Heights behind that Brook Gottleube, and on the plainer 
Country in front of it, How the Prussians lie, first Division 
of them, from Gross-Sedlitz to Zehist, under the King ; then 
second Division from Zehist to Cotta, and onward by 'the 
Rothschenke ' (Red-Home Tavern), by Markersbach, and 
sparsely as far as Hellendorf on the Prag Highway ; in brief, 
where all the Divisions of them lie, and under whom ; and 
where the Prussians, watching Elbe itself, have Batteries and 
Posts on the north side of it : all this is marked on the Map;"* 
to satisfy ingenuous curiosity, should it make tour in those 
parts. To which add only these straggles of Note, as farther 
elucidative : 

c The Saxons., between 'Elbe and their Lines^ possess about thirty square 
miles of country. From Pirna or Sonnenstein to Konigstein, as the 
crow flies, may be five miles east to west ; but by Langen-Hennersdorf, 
and the elbow there, it will be ten : at Konigstein, moreover, Elbe makes 
an abrupt turn northward for a couple of miles, instead of westward as 
heretofore, turning abruptly westward again after that : so that the Saxon 
fc Camp/' or occupancy here, is an irregular Trapezium, with Pirna and 
Konigstein for vertices, and with area estimable as above, ploughable, a 
fair portion of it, and not without corn of its own. So that the ft two- 
weeks provision " spun themselves out (short allowance aiding) to two- 
months, before actual famine came. 

* Copied, p. 86. ' 



CHAP, v.] THE SAXONS BLOCKADED IN PIRNA 57 

aoth Sept.-ist Oct. 1756] 

* * 'The High-road from the Lausitz parts crosses Elbe at Pirna; 
falls into the Dresden-Frag High-road there ; and from Pirna towards 
Toplitz, for the first few miles, this latter runs through the Prussian 
Posts ; hut we may guess it is not much travelled at present. North of 
Elbe, too, the Prussians have batteries on the fit points ; detachments of 
due force,, from Gross-Sedlitz Bridge-of-Pontoons all round to Schandau, 
or beyond ; could fire upon the Konigstein, across the River : they have 
plugged-up the Saxon position everywhere. They have a Battery 
especially, and strong post, to cannonade the Bridge at Pirna, should the 
Saxons think of trying there. It is now the one Saxon or even Half- 
Saxon Bridge ; Sonnenstein and Pirna command the Saxon end of it, a 
strong battery the Prussian end : a Bridge lying mainly idle, like the 
general Highway to Toplitz at this time. Beyond the Konigstein, again, 
at a place called Wendisch-Fahre ( Wends' Ferry), the Prussians have, by 
means of boats swinging wide at anchor on the swift current, what is 
called a Flying-bridge, with which the north side can communicate with 
the south. They have a post at Nieder-Raden (Ober Raden, railway 
station in our time, is on the south side) : Nether-Raden is an interesting 
little Hamlet, mostly invisible to mankind (built in the throat of the 
stone chasms there), from which you begin mounting to the Bastei far 
aloft. A Raden to be noted, by the Tourist and us. * 

Little, or even nothing, of fighting there is : why should 
there be ? The military operations are a dead-lock, and 
require no word. Thirty thousand, half of the Prussian 
Force, lie, vigilant as lynxes, blockading here; other half, 
32,000, under Marshal Keith, have marched forward to 
Aussig, to Nollendorf on the Bohemian frontier, to clear the 
ways, and look into any Austrian motion thereabouts, with 
whom, with some Pandour detachment of whom, Duke 
Ferdinand, leading the vanguard, has had a little brush 
among the Hills; smiting them home again, in his usual 
creditable way (September 13th) ; and taking Camp at 
Peterswalde, he and others of the Force, that night. 1 It is 
with this Keith Army, with this if with any, that adventures 
&re to be looked for at present. 

Polish Majesty's Headquarters are at Struppen, well in the 
centre of the Saxon lines ; goes always to the Konigstein to 
sleep.** Polish Majesty's own table is, by Friedrich's permis- 
1 CEuvres de Frtdtric> iv. 85 ; Anonymous of Hamburg^ \, 19. 



58 SEVEN-YEARS WAR BEGINS [BOOKXVII. 

[loth Sept.-ist Oct. 1756 

sion for that special object, supplied ad libitum: but the 
common men were at once put on short allowance, which 
grows always the shorter. Polish Majesty corresponds with 
Friedrich, as we saw ; and above all, sends burning Messages 
to Austria, to France, to every European Court, charged with 
mere shrieks : ' Help me ; a robber has me ! ' In which sense, 
Excellencies of all kinds, especially one Lord Stormont, the 
English Excellency, daily running out from Dresden to Gross- 
Sedlitz, are passionately industrious with Friedrich; who is 
eager enough to comply, were there any safe means possible. 
But there are none. Unfortunately, too, it appears the 
Austrians are astir ; Feldmarschall Browne actually furbishing 
himself at Prag yonder with an eye hitherward, and extra- 
ordinary haste and spirit shown : which obliges Friedrich to 
rise in his demands ; ovine obstinacy, on the other side, 
naturally increasing from the same cause. 

* Polish Majesty, we say, lias liberty to bring in proviant for self and 
suite, rigorously for no mortal more ; and he lives well, in the culinary 
sense, surely for most part rf in his dressing-gown," too, poor loose 
collapsed soul 1 Briihl and he have plenty of formal business : but their 
one real business is that of crying, by estafettes and every conceivable 
method, to Austria, <f Get us out of this ! " To which Austria has answered, 
"Yes; only patience, and be steady !" Friedrich's headquarters are at 
Sedlitz; and the negotiating and responding which he has, transcends 
imagination. His first hope was. Polish Majesty might be persuaded to 
join with him ; on the back of that, certainty, gradually coming, that 
Polish Majesty never would ; and that the Austrians would endeavour a 
rescue, were they once ready. Starvation, or the Austrians, which will 
be first here ? is the question ; and Friedrich studies to think it will be 
the former. At all events, having settled on the starvation method, and 
seen that all his posts are right, we perceive he does not stick close by 
Sedlitz; but runs now hither now thither; is at Torgau, where au 
important establishment, kind of New Government for Saxony, on the 
Finance side, is organising itself. What his work with Ambassadors 
was, and how delicate the handling needed, think ! ' Here is another 
Clipping ; 

* * e Polish Majesty passes the day at Struppen, amid many vain 
noises of Soldiering, of Diplomatising ; the night always at Koniptein, 
and finally both day and night, quite luxuriously accommodated, Briihl 



CHAP, v.j THE SAXONS BLOCKADED IN PIRNA 5 

loth Sept.-ist Oct. 1756] 

and he, to the very end of this affair. Towards Struppen * (this is weeks 
farther on, but we give it here), 'Comte de Broglio* (Old Broglio's 
elder Son, younger is in the Military line), tf who is Ambassador to his 
Saxon-Polish Majesty, sets-out from Dresden for an interview with said 
Majesty. At the Prussian lines, he is informed, ff Yes, you can go ; but, 
without our King's Order, you cannot return." "What? The Most 
Christian Majesty's Ambassador, and treated in this way? I will go to 
where the Polish King is, and I will return to my own King, so often as 
I find business : stop me at your peril ! " and threatened and argued, and 
made a deal of blusterous noise ; far too much, thinks Valori ; think 
the Prussian Officers, who are sorry, but inflexible. Margraf Karl, 
Commandant of the place, in absence of King Friedrich (who is gone 
lately, on a Business we shall hear of), earnestly dissuaded Excellency 
Broglio ; but it was to no purpose. Next day Broglio appeared in his 
state-carriage, formally demanding entrance, free thoroughfare : e ' Do 
you dare refuse me ? " e ' Yes," answered Margraf Karl ; "we do and must. " 
Indignant Broglio reappeared, next day, on foot; Lieutenant-General 
Prince Friedrich Eugen of Wurtemberg the chief man in charge : "Do 
you dare?" ff Indubitably, Yes"; and Broglio still pushing-on in- 
credulous, Eugen actually raised his arm, elbow and fore-arm across 
the breast of Most Christian Majesty's Ambassador, who recoiled, to- 
Dresden, in mere whirlwinds of fire ; and made the most of it ' (unwisely, 
thinks Valori) c in writing to Court. 1 Court, in high dudgeon, com- 
manded Valori to quit Berlin without taking leave. Valori, in his 
private capacity, wrote an Adieu ; 2 and in his public, as the fact stood, 
That he was gone without Adieu. * 

And the Dauphiness, daughter of those injured Polish 
Majesties, fell on her knees (Pompadour permitting and en- 
couraging) at the feet of Most Christian Majesty; on her 
knees, all in passion of tears ; craved help and protection to 
her loved old Mother, in the name of Nature and of all Kings : 
could any King resist ? And his Pompadour was busy : 
6 Think of that noble Empress, who calls me Cousin and dear 
Princess ; think of that insolent Prussian Robber : Ah, your 
Majesty 1 : and King Louis, though not a hating man, did 
privately dislike Friedrich ; and evil speeches of Friedrich's had 
been reported to him. And, in short, the upshot was : King 

1 Valori, ii. 349, 209, 353 (* Wednesday 6th October/ the day of it, seemingly) > 
ib. i. 312, etc. 
a Friedrich's kind Letter in answer to it, * 2 November 1756,' in Valori, i. 313, 



60 SEVEN- YEARS WAR BEGINS [BOOKXVII. 

[ioth Sept.-ist Oct. 1756 

Louis, bound only to 24,000 for help of Austria, determined 
to send, and did send, above 100,000 across the Rhine, next 
Year, for that object ; as will be seen. And all Frenchmen, 
all except Belleisle, who is old, are charmed with these new 
energetic measures, and beautiful new Austrian connexions. ^ 

Certain it is, the Austrians are coming, her Imperial 
Majesty bent with all her might on relief of those Saxon 
martyrs ; which indeed is relief of herself, as she well perceives: 
< Courage, my friends; endure yet a little!' Messengers 
smuggle themselves through the Mountain paths, and go and 
return, though with difficulty. 

Since September 19th, the Correspondence with Polish 
Majesty has ceased: no persuading of the Polish Majesty. 
Winterfeld went twice to him ; conferred at large, Briihl 
forbidden to be there, on the actual stringencies and urgencies 
of Fact between the Two Countries ; but it was with no result 
at all. Polish Majesty has not the least intention that Saxony 
shall be even a Highway for Friedrich, if at any time Polish 
Majesty can hinder it: * Neutrality,' therefore, will not do 
for Friedrich ; he demands Alliance, practical Partnership ; 
and to that his Polish Majesty is completely abhorrent. 
Diplomatising may cease; nothing but wrestle of fight will 
settle this matter. 

Friedrich, able to get nothing from the Sovereign of Saxony, 
is reduced to grasp Saxony itself: and we can observe him 
doing it ; always the closer, always the more carefully, as the 
complicacy deepens, and the obstinacy becomes more danger- 
ous and provoking. What alternative is there ? On first 
entering Saxony, Friedrich had made no secret that he was 
not a mere bird of passage there. At Torgau, there was at 
once a < Field-Commissariat' established, with Prussian Officials 
of eminence to administer, the Military Chest to be deposited 
there, and Torgau to be put in a state of defence. Torgau, 
our Saxon Metropolis of War-Finance, is becoming more and 
more the Metropolis of Saxon Finance in general Saxon 
Officials were liable, from the first, to be suspended, on 



CHAP, v.] THE SAXONS BLOCKADED IN PIRNA 61 

loth Sept.-ist Oct. 1756] 

Friedrich's order. Saxon Finance-Officials, of all kinds, were 
from the first instructed, that till farther notice there must 
be no disbursements without King FriedricFs sanction. And, 
in fact, King Friedrich fully intends that Saxony is to help 
him all it can ; and that it either will or else shall, in this 
dire pressure of perplexity, which is due in such a degree ta 
the conduct of the Saxon Government for twelve years past. 
Would Saxony go with him in any form of consent, how much 
more convenient to Friedrich ! But Saxony will not ; Polish 
Majesty, not himself suffering hunger, is obstinate as the 
decrees of Fate (or as sheep, when too much put upon) y 
regardless of considerations ; and, in fine, here is Browne 
actually afoot ; coming to relieve Polish Majesty ! The 
Austrians had uncommonly bestirred themselves : 

The activity, the zeal of all ranks, ever since this expedition into 
Saxony, and clutching of Saxony by the throat, contemporary witnesses 
declare to have been extraordinary. c Horses for Piccolominfs Cavalry, 
they had scarcely got their horses, not to speak of training tlienr, not 
to speak of cannon and the heavier requisites, when Schwerin began. 
marching out of Glatz on PiccolominL As to the cannon for Browne 
and him, draught-cattle seem absolutely unprocurable. Whereupon 
Maria Theresa flings open her own Imperial Studs : " There, yoke these 
to our cannon; let them go their swiftest"; which awoke such an 
enthusiasm, that noblemen and peasants crowded forward with their 
coach -horses, and their cart-horses, to relay Browne, all through 
Bohemia, at different stages ; and the cannon and equipments move to 
their places at the gallop, in a manner/ 1 and even Browne at the base 
of the Metal Mountains, has got most of his equipments. And is astir 
towards Pirna (Army of 60,000, rumour says), for relief of the Saxon 
martyrs. Friedrich's complexities are getting day by day more- 
stringent. 



From the middle of September, Marshal Keith, as 
observed, with Half of the Prussians, Duke Ferdinand of 
Brunswick under him, has been on the Bohemian slope of the 
Metal Mountains ; securing the roads, towns and passes there- 
abouts, and looking-out for the advance of Marshal Browne. 
from the interior parts. Town of Aussig, and the River-road 
1 Archenholtz, i. 24. 



62 SEVEN- YEARS WAR BEGINS [BOOKXVII. 

[loth Sept.-ist Oct. 1756 

(Castle of Tetschen, on its high rock known to Tourists, 
which always needs to be taken on such occasions), these 
Keith has secured. Lies encamped from Peterswalde to 
Aussig, the middle or main strength of him being in the 
Hamlet of Johnsdorf (discoverable, if readers like) : there lies 
Keith, fifteen miles in length ; like a strap, or bar, thrown 
across the back of that Metal-Mountain Range, or part of 
its back; for the range is very broad, and there is much 
inequality, and many troughs, big and little, partial and 
general, in the crossing of it. A tract which my readers and 
I have crossed before now, by the 'Pascopol' or Post-road 
and otherwise ; and shall often have to cross ! 

Browne, vigorously astir in the interior (cannon and equip- 
ments coming by relays at such a pace), is daily advancing, 
with his best speed : in the last days of September, Browne 
is encamped at Budin ; may cross the Eger River any day, 
and will then be within two marches of Keith. His inten- 
tions towards Pirna Country are fixed and sure ; but the plan 
or route he will take is unknown to everybody, and indeed to 
Browne himself, till he see near at hand and consider. 
Browne's problem, he himself knows, is abundantly abstruse, 
bordering on the impossible ; but he will try his best. To 
get within reach of the Saxons is almost impossible to Browne, 
even were there no Keith there. As good as impossible al- 
together, by any line of march, while Keith, is afoot in those 
parts. By Aussig, down the River, straight for the interior 
of their Camp, it is flatly impossible : by the south or south- 
east corner of their Camp (Gottleube way), or by the north- 
east (by Schandau way, right bank of Elbe), it is virtually so, 
at least without beating Keith. Could one beat Keith, 
indeed ; but that will not be easy ! And that, unluckily, is 
the preliminary to everything. 

< By the Hellendorf-Hennersdorf side, in the wastes where Gottleube 
Brook gathers itself, Browne might have a chance. There, on that 
south-east corner of their Camp, were he once there to attack the 
Prussians from without, while the Saxons burst-up from within, there/ 



CHAP, v.] THE SAXONS BLOCKADED IN PIRNA 68 

loth Sept.-ist Oct. 1756] 

thinks a good judge, 'is mucli the favourablest place. But unless 
Browne's Army had wings, how is it ever to get there ? Across those 
Metal-Mountain ranges, barred by Keith: by Aussig, with the rocks 
overhanging Elbe River and him, he cannot go in any case. Were there 
no Keith, indeed (but there always is, standing ready on the spring), one 
might hold to leftward, and by stolen marches, swift, far round about ! 

' By Schandau region, north side of the Elbe, is Browne's easiest, and 
indeed one feasible, point of approach, no Prussians at present between 
him and that ; the road open, though a far circuit northward for Browne, 
were he to cross the Elbe in Leitmeritz circle, and march with velocity ? 
That too will be difficult, nearly impossible in sight of Keith. And 
were that even done, the egress for the Saxons, by Schandau side, is 
through strait mountain gorges, intricate steep passes, crossings of the 
Elbe : what force of Saxons or of Austrians will drive the Prussians from 
their redoubts and batteries there ?' l 

Browne's problem is none of the feasiblest : but his orders are strict, 
* Relieve the Saxons, at all risks/ And Browne, one of the ablest 
soldiers living ('Your Imperial Majesty's best general,* said the dying 
Khevenhiiller long since), will do his utmost upon it. Friedrich does 
not think the enterprise very dangerous, beating of Keith the indis- 
pensable preliminary to it ; but will naturally himself go and look into it, 

Tuesday September 8th, Friedrich quits Pirna Country by 
the Prag Highway ; making due inspection of his Posts as he 
goes along ; and, the outmost of these once past, drives 
rapidly up the Mountains ; gets, with small escort, through 
Peterswalde on to Johnsdorf that night. Does not think this 
Keith position good ; breaks-up this < Camp of Johnsdorf ' 
bodily next morning; and marches down the Mountains, 
direct towards Browne ; who, we hear, is about crossing the 
Eger (his Pontoons now come at last), and will himself be on 
the advance. From Tiirmitz, a poor mountain hamlet in the 
hollow of the Hills, which is headquarters that night, the 
march proceeds again ; Friedrich with the vanguard ; Army, 
I think, on various country-roads, on both hands ; till all get 
upon the Great Road again, Prag-Toplitz-Dresden Post- 
road ; which is called, specially in this part of it, and loosely 
in whole, 'The Pascopol,' and leads down direct to Budin 
and Browne. 

i (Euvres de Frtdlric, iv. 86, 93, 96. 



64 SEVEN- YEARS WAR BEGINS [BOOKXVII, 

[roth Sept.-ist Oct. 1756 

( A " Pascopol " famed in military annals/ says our Tourist. ' It is a 
road with many windings, many precipitous sweeps of tip and down ; road 
precipitous in structure ; offers views to the lover of wild Nature : huge 
lonesome Hills scattered in the distance ; waste expanses nearer hand, 
and futile attempts at moorish agriculture ; hut little else that is 
comfortable. In times of Peace., you will meet at long intervals, 
some post-vehicle struggling forward under melancholy circumstances ; 
some cart, or dilapidated mongrel between cart and basket, with a lean 
ox harnessed to it, and scarecrow driver, laden with pit-coal, 7 which 
you wish safe home, and that the scarecrow were getting warmed by it. 
But in War-time the steep road is livelier ; the common invasion road 
between Saxony and Bohemia ; whole Armies sweeping over it, and their 
thousand-fold wagons and noises making clangour enough.' * * e One 
of those Hollows on the Pascopol, is Joachimsthal, with its old Silver 
Mines; yielding coins which were in request with traders, the silver 
being fine. " Let my ducat be a Joachimsthal one, then ! " the old trader 
would say : * a Joachimsthal-er ; ' or, for brevity, a ce Thal-er " ; whence 
Thaler, and at last Dollar (almighty and otherwise), now going round 
the world ! ' Pascopol finishes in Welmina Township. From the last 
hamlet in Welmina, at the neck of the last Hill, step downward one 
mile, holding rather to the left, you will come on the innocent Village 
of Lobositz, its poor corn-mills and huckster-shops all peaceably unknown 
as yet, which is soon to become very famous/ 

The Country-roads where Friedrich^s Army is on march, I 
should think are mostly on the mounting hand. For here, 
from Turmite, is a trough again; though the last considerable 
one ; and on the crest of that, we shall look down upon the 
Bohemian Plains and the grand Basin of the Elbe, through 
various scrubby villages which are not nameworthy ; through 
one called Kletschen, which for a certain reason is. Crossing 
the shoulder of Kletschenberg (Hill of this Kletschen), which 
abuts upon the Pascopol, yonder in bright sunshine is your 
beautiful expansive Basin of the Elbe, and the green 
Bohemian Plains, revealed for a moment. Friedrich snatches 
his glass, not with picturesque object : * See, yonder is Feld- 
marschall Browne, then 1 In camp yonder, down by Lobositz* 
not ten miles from us,"* (it is most true ; Browne marched 
this morning, long before the Sun ; crossed Eger, and pitched 
1 Btisching, Erdbeschreibung t v. 178. 



CHAP. VL] BATTLE OF LOBOSITZ 65 

1st Oct. 1756] 

camp at noon) : ( Good ! ' thinks Friedrich* And pushes 
down into the Pascopol, into the hollows and minor troughs, 
which hide Browne henceforth, till we are quite near. 

Quite near, through Welmina and a certain final gap of 
the Hills, Friedrich with the vanguard does emerge, * an hour 
before sunset ' : overhanging Browne ; not above a mile from 
the Camp of Browne. A very large Camp, that of Browne's, 
flanked to right by the Elbe ; goes from Sulowitz, through 
Lobositz, to Welhoten close on Elbe; and has properties 
extremely well worth studying just now! 4 Friedrich,' the 
Books say, * bivouacks by a fire of sticks,' short way down on 
the southern slope of the Hill ; and till sunset and after, has 
eye-glass, brain, and faculties and activities sufficiently occupied 
for the rest of the night; his Divisions gradually taking 
post behind him, under arms; <not till midnight, the very 
rearmost of them.' 1 



CHAPTER VI 

BATTLE OF LOBOSITZ 

WELMINA, or Reschni-Aujest, last pertment of Welmina 
(but we will take Friedrich's name for it), offers to the 
scrutinising eye nothing, in our day, but some bewildered 
memory of *Alte Fritz' clinging obstinately even to the 
Peasant mind thereabouts. A sleepy .littery place; some 
biggish haggard untrimmed trees, some broken-backed sleepy- 
looking thatched houses, not in contact, and each as far as 
might be with its back turned on the other, and cloaked in 
its own litter and privacy. Probably no human creature will 

1 * Tuesday 28th September, left the Camp at Sedlitz, with 8 battalions 20 
squadrons, to Johnsdorf : 29th, to TUrmitz, - Browne is to pass the Eger to- 
morrow. From the tops of the Pascopol (3Oth), see an Austrian Camp in the 
Piain of Lobositz. Vanguard bivouacks in the " neck " of the two Hills or a little 
beyond.' Prussian Account of Campaign 1756 (in Gesammtltt Nachrichten, i 
844-45, 840-858) ; Anonymous of Hamburg ; etc. etc. 

VOL. VI. K 



66 SEVEN- YEARS WAR BEGINS [BOOKXVII. 

[ist Oct. 1756 

be visible, as you pass through. Much straw lying about, 
chiefly where the few gaunt ^*ees look down on it (cattle glad 
of any shelter) : in fact, it is mainly an extinct tumult of 
straw : nothing alive, as you pass, but a few poor oxen 
languidly sauntering up and down, finding much to trample, 
little to eat. The Czech Populations (were it not for that 
' Question of the Nationalities') are not very beautiful ! 

Close south of this poor Hamlet is a big Hill, conspicuous 
with three peaks ; quite at the other base of which, a good 
way down, lies Lobositz, the main Village in those parts ; a 
place now of assiduous corn-mill and fruit trade ; and one of 
the stations on the Dresden-Prag Railway. This Hill is 
what Lloyd calls the Lobosch ; l twin to which, only flatter, 
is Lloyd's 'Homolka Hill' (Hill of Radostitz in more 
modern Plans and Books). Conspicuous Heights, and impor- 
tant to us here, though I did not find the Peasants much 
know them under those names. By the southern shoulder 
of this Lobosch Hill runs the road from Welmina to 
Lobositz, with branches towards many other villages. To 
your right or southern hand, short way southward, rises the 
other Hill, which Lloyd calls Homolka Hill ; the gap or 
interval between Homolka and Lobosch, perhaps a furlong in 
extent, is essentially the pass through those uplands. This 
pass, Friedrich, at the first moment, made sure of; filling the 
same with battalions, there to bivouack. He likewise promptly 
laid hold of the two Hills, high Lobosch to his left, and 
lower Homolka to right ; which precautionary measure it is 
reckoned a fault in Browne to have neglected, that night ; 
fault for which he smarted on the morrow. 

From this upland pass, or neck between the two Mountains, 
Friedrich's battalions would have had a fine view, had the 
morning shone for them : Lobositz, Leitmeritz, Melnick ; a 
great fertile Valley, or expanse of fruitful country, many miles 

1 Major-General Lloyd, History of the late War in Germany -, 1756-1759 
(3 voll. 4to, London, 1781), i. 2-11. 



CHAP, vi.] BATTLE OF LOBOSITZ 67 

ist Oct. 17,, 1 

in breadth and length; Elbe, like a silver stripe, winding 
grandly through the finest of all his countries, befr\e ducking 
himself into the rock-tumults of that Pirna district. The 
mountain gorges of Prag and Moldau River, south of 
Melnick, lie hidden under the horizon, or visible only as 
peaks, thirty miles and more to south-eastward; a bright 
country intervening, sprinkled with steepled towns. To 
north-westward, far away, are the Lausitz Mountains, ranked 
in loose order, but massive, making a kind of range : and as 
outposts to them in their scattered state, Hills of good height 
and aspect are scattered all about, and break the uniformity 
of the Plain. Nowhere in North Germany could the Prussian 
battalions have a finer view, if the morning were fine, and 
if views were their object. 

The morning, first in October, was not fine ; and it was 
far other than scenery that the Prussian battalions had in 
hand! Friday 1st October 1756, Day should have broken: 
but where is Day ? At seven in the morning (and on till 
eleven), thick mist lay over the plain ; thin fog to the very 
hilltops ; so that you cannot see a hundred yards ahead. 
Lobositz is visible only as through a crape; farther on, 
nothing but gray sea ; under which, what the Austrians are 
doing, or whether there are any Austrians, who can say ? 
Leftward on the Lobosch-Hill side, as we reconnoitre, some 
Pandours are noticeable, nestled in the vineyards there : 
that sunward side of the Lobosch is all vineyards, belonging 
to the different Lobositzers; scrubby vineyards, all in a 
brown plucked state at this season. Vineyards parted by 
low stone walls, say three or four feet high (parted by 
hurdles, or by tiny trenches, in our day, and the stone walls 
mere stone facings) : there are the Pandours crouched, and 
give fire in a kneeling posture when you approach. Lower 
down, near Lobositz itself, Bickerings as of Horse squadrons, 
probably Hussar parties, twinkle dubious in the wavering 
mist. Problem wrapt in mist ; nothing to be seen ; and all 
depends on judging it with accuracy ! Seven by the clock : 



68 SEVEN- YEARS WAR BEGINS [BOOKXVII. 

[ist Oct. 1756 

Deploy, at any rate; let us cover our post; and be in 
readiness for events. 

Friedrich's vanguard of itself nearly fills that neck, or space 
between the Lobosch and Homolka Hills,* He spreads his 
Infantry and < hundred fieldpieces,' in part, rightwards along 
the Homolka Hill ; but chiefly leftwards along the Lobosch, 
where their nearest duty is to drive-off those Pandours. 
Always as a new battalion, pushing farther leftward, conies 
upon its ground, the Pandours give fire on it ; and it on the 
Pandours; till the Left Wing is complete, and all the 
Lobosch is, in this manner, a crackling of Pandour musketry 
and anti-musketry. Right Wing, steady to its guns on the 
Homolka, has as yet nothing to do. Those wings of Infantry 
are two lines deep; the Cavalry, in three lines, is between them 
in the centre; no room for Cavalry elsewhere, except on the out- 
skirts some fringing of light horse, to be ready for emergencies. 

The Pandour firing, except for the noise of it, does not 
amount to much ; they can take no aim, says Lloyd, crouching 
behind their stone fences ; and the Prussian Battalions, steadily 
pushing downwards, trample-out their sputtering, and clear 
the Lobosch of them to a safe distance. But the ground is 
intricate, so wrapt in mist for the present. That crackling 
lasts for hours ; decisive of nothing ; and the mist also, and 
one's anxious guessings and scrutinisings, last in a wavering 
fitful manner. 

Once, for some time, in the wavering of the mist, there was 
seen, down in the plain opposite our centre, a body of Cavalry. 
Horse for certain: say ten squadrons of them, or 1,500 
Horse; continually manoeuvring, changing shape; now in 
more ranks, now in fewer ; sometimes * chequerwise, 1 formed 
like a draught-board ; shooting-out wings : they career about, 
one sees not whither, or vanish again into the mist behind. 
* Browne's rearguard this, that we are come upon," thinks 
Friedrich ; c these squatted Pandours, backed by Horse, must 
be his rear-guard, that are amusing us : Browne and the 
* Sketch of Plan, p. 86. 



CHAP, vi.j BATTLE OF LOBOSITZ 69 

ist Oct. 1756] 

Army are off; crossing the Elbe, hastening towards the 
Schandau, the Pirna quarter, while we stand bickering and idly 
sputtering here!' Weary of such idle business, Friedrich orders 
forward Twenty of his Squadrons from the centre station: 
6 Charge me those Austrian Horse, and let us finish this.' The 
Twenty Squadrons, preceded by a pair of field-pieces, move 
down hill ; storm-in upon the Austrian party, storm it furiously 
into the mist; are furiously chasing it, when unexpected 
cannon-batteries, destructive case-shot, awaken on their left 
flank (batteries from Lobositz, one may guess) ; and force them 
to draw back. To draw back, with some loss ; and rank again, 
in an indignantly blown condition, at the foot of their Hill. 
Indignant ; after brief breathing, they try it once more. 

* Don't try it ! ' Friedrich had sent out to tell them : for 
the mist was clearing ; and Friedrich, on the higher ground, 
saw new important phenomena : but it was too late. For 
the Twenty Squadrons are again dashing forward ; sweeping- 
down whatever is before them : in spite of cannon-volleys, 
they plunge deeper and deeper into the mist ; come upon c a 
ditch twelve feet broad ' (big swampy drain, such as are still 
found there, grass-green in summer-time) ; clear said ditch ; 
forward still deeper into the mist : and after three hundred 
yards, come upon a second far worse * ditch'; plainly im- 
passable this one, ' ditch ' they call it, though it is in fact a 
vile sedgy Brook, oozing along there (the Morell Bach, con- 
siderable Brook, lazily wandering towards Lobositz, where it 
disembogues in rather swifter fashion) ; and are saluted with 
cannon, from the farther side ; and see serried ranks under 
the gauze of mist : Browne's Army, in fact ! The Twenty 
Squadrons have to recoil out of shot-range, the faster the 
better ; with a loss of a good many men, in those two charges. 
Friedrich orders them up Hill again ; much regretful of this 
second charge, which he wished to hinder ; and posts them to 
rearward, where they stand silent, the unconscious stoic- 
philosophers in buff, and have little farther service through 
the rest of the day. 



70 SEVEN- YEARS WAR BEGINS [BOOKXVII. 

[ist Oct. 1756 

It is now 11 o'clock; the mist all clearing off; and 
Friedrich, before that second charge, had a growing view of 
the Plain and its condition. Beyond question, there is 
Browne; not in retreat, by any means; but in full array; 
numerous, and his position very strong. Ranked, unattack- 
able mostly, behind that oozy Brook, or Bach of Morell; 
which has only two narrow Bridges, cannon plenty on both : 
one Bridge from the south parts to Sulowitz (our road to 
Sulowitz and it would be by Radostitz and the Homolka) ; 
and then one other Bridge, connecting Sulowitz with 
Lobositz, which latter is Browne's own Bridge, uniting right 
wing and left of Browne, so to speak; and is still more 
unattackable, in the circumstances. What will Friedrich 
decide on attempting ? 

That oozy Morell Brook issues on Browne's side of 
Lobositz, cutting Browne in two; but is otherwise all in 
Browne's favour. Browne extends through Lobositz ; and 
beyond it, curves up to Welhoten on the River-brink ; at 
Lobositz are visible considerable redoubts, cannon-batteries 
and much regular infantry. Browne will be -difficult to force 
yonder, in the Lobositz part; but yonder alone can he be 
tried. He is pushing-up more Infantry that way ; conscious 
probably of that fact, and that the Lobosch Hill is not his, 
but another's. What would not Browne now give for the 
Lobosch Hill ! Yesternight he might have had it gratis, in a 
manner; and indeed did try slightly, with his Pandour 
people (durst not at greater expense), who have now ceased 
sputtering, and cower extinct in the lower vineyards there. 
Browne, at any rate, is rapidly strengthening his right wing, 
which has hold of Lobositz; pushing forward in that 
quarter, where the Brook withal is of firmer bottom and 
more wadeable. Thither too is Friedrich bent. So that 
Lobositz is now the key of the Battle ; there will the tug of 
war now be. 

Friedrich" J s cavalry is gone all to rearward. His right wing 
holds the Homolka Hill, that too would now be valuable to 



CHAP. VL] BATTLE OF LOBOSITZ 71 

xst Oct. 1756] 

Browne; and cannot be had gratis, as yesternight ! Friedrich's 
left wing is on the Lobosch; Pandours pretty well extinct 
before it, but now from Welhoten quarter new Regulars 
coming on thither, as if Browne would still take the 
Lobosch ? Which would be victory to him ; but is not now 
possible to Browne. Nor will long seem so ; Friedrich 
having other work in view for him ; meaning now to take 
Lobositz, instead of losing the Lobosch to him ! Friedrich 
pushes out his Left Wing still farther leftward, leftward and 
downward withal, to clear those vineyard-fences completely 
of their occupants, Pandour or Regular, old or new. This is 
done ; the vineyard-fences swept ; and the sweepings driven, 
in a more and more stormy fashion, towards Welhoten and 
Lobositz ; the Lobosch falling quite desperate for Browne. 

Henceforth Friedrich directs all his industry to taking 
Lobositz ; Browne, to the defending of it, which he does with 
great vigour and fire; his batteries, redoubts, doing their 
uttermost, and his battalions rushing on, mass of them after 
mass, at quick march, obstinate, fierce to a degree, in the 
height of temper ; and showing such fight as we never had of 
them before. Friedrich's Left Wing and Browne's Right now 
have it to decide between them ; any attempt Browne makes 
with his Left through Sulowitz (as he once did, and once 
only) is instantly repressed by cannon from the Homolka HilL 
And the rest of the Battle, or rather the Battle itself, for 
all hitherfb has been pickeering and groping in the mist, 
may be made conceivable in few words. 

Friedrich orders the second line of his Left Wing to march 
up and join with the first ; Right Wing, shoving its two lines 
into one, is now to cover the Lobosch as well. Left Wing, 
in condensed condition, shall fall down on Lobositz, and do 
its best. They are now clear of the vineyard-works; the 
ground is leveller, though still sloping, a three furlongs 
from the Village, and somewhat towards the Elbe, when 
Browne's battalions first came extensively to close grips ; fierce 
enough (as was said) ; the toughest wrestle yet had with those 



72 SEVEN- YEARS WAR BEGINS [BOOKXVIL 

[ist Oct. 1756 

Austrians, coming on with steady fury, under such force of 
cannon ; with iron ramrods too, and improved ways, like our 
own. But nothing could avail them ; the counter-fury being 
so great. They had to go at the Welhoten part, and even 
to run, plunging into Elbe, a good few of them, and drown- 
ing there, in the vain hope to swim. * Never have my troops,' 
says Friedrich, c done such miracles of valour, cavalry as well 
as infantry, since I had the honour to command them. By 
this dead-lift achievement (tour deforce) I have seen what 
they can do. 1 1 

In fine, after some three hours more of desperate tugging 
and struggling, cannon on both sides going at a great rate, 
and infinite musketry (* ninety cartridges a man on our 
Prussian side, and ammunition falling done'), not without 
bayonet-pushings, and smitings with the butt of your musket, 
the Au.strians are driven into Lobositz ; are furiously pushed 
there, and, in spite of new battalions coming to the rescue, 
are fairly pushed through. These Village streets are too 
narrow for new battalions from Browne ; * much of the Village 
should have been burnt beforehand,' say cool judges. And 
now, sure enough, it does get burnt ; Lobositz is now all on 
fire, by Prussian industry. So that the Austrians have to 
quit it instantly ; and rush off in great disorder ; key of the 
Battle, or Battle itself, quite lost to them. 

The Prussian infantry, led by the Duke of Brunswick- 

1 Letter to Schwerin, 'Lobositz, 2d August 1756' (Retzow, L 64); Relation 
de la Campagne 1756, that is, Prussian Account (in Gesammelte Nachrichten\ 
i. 848. Lloyd, ut supra, i. 2-11 (who has solid information at first hand, having 
been an actor in these Wars. A man of great natural sagacity and insight ; 
decidtdly luminous and original, though of somewhat crabbed temper now and 
then ; a man well worth hearing on this and on whatever else he handles), 
Tetnpelhof, G&schickte des siebenjakrigen Kriegts (which is at first a mere Trans- 
lation of Lloyd, nothing new in it but certain notes and criticisms on Lloyd ; 
when Lloyd ends, Tempelhof, Prussian Major and Professor, a learned, in- 
telligent, but diffuse man, of far inferior talent to Lloyd, continues and com- 
pletes on his own footing: six very thin 4tos, Berlin, 1794), i. 38 (Battle, with 
foot-notes] , and ibid. 51 (criticism of Lloyd). Prussian and Austrian Accounts 
in Xfelden-GeschuJite, iii. 800 et seq* Many Narrativei In Feldtigv t and the 
Bey tags tc Seyfarth : etc., et. 



CHAP. VI.] BATTLE OF LOBOSITZ 78 

ist Oct. 1756] 

Severn (' Governor of Stettin, 1 one of the Duke-Ferdinand 
cousinry, frugal and valiant), gave the highest satisfaction; 
seldom was such firing, such furious pushing ; they had spent 
ninety cartridges a man ; were at last quite out of cartridges ; 
so that Severn had to say, ' Strike-in with bayonets, meine 
Kinder ; butt-ends, or what we have ; heran ! ' Our Grenadiers 
were mainly they that burnt Lobositz. < How salutary now 
would it have been, 1 says Epimetheus Lloyd, 'had Browne 
had a small battery on the other side of the Elbe " ; whereby 
he might have taken them in flank, and shorn them into the 
wind ! Epimetheus marks this battery on his Plan ; and is 
wise behind-hand, at a cheap rate. 

Browne's Right Wing, and probably his Army with it, 
would have gone much to perdition, now that Lobositz was 
become Prussian had not Browne, in the nick of the 
moment, made a masterly movement : pushed forward his 
Centre and Left Wing, numerous battalions still fresh, to inter- 
pose between the chasing Prussians and those fugitives. The 
Prussians, infantry only, cannot chase on such terms ; the 
Prussian cavalry, we know, is far rearward on the high 
ground. Browne retires a mile or two, southward, Budin- 
ward, not chased ; and there halts, and re-arranges himself ; 
thinking what farther he will do. His aim in fighting had 
only been to defend himself ; and in that humble aim he has 
failed. Chase of the Prussians over that Homolka-Lobosch 
country, with the high grounds rearward and the Metal 
Mountains in their hands, he could in no event have 
attempted. 

The question now is : Will he go back to Budin ; or will 
he try farther towards Schandau? Nature points to the 
former course, in such circumstances; Friedrich, by way of 
assisting, does a thing much admired by Lloyd; detaches 
Bevern with a strong party southward, out of Lobositz, which 
is now his, to lay hold of Tschirskowitz, lying Budin- ward, 
but beyond the Budin Road. Which feat, when Browne 



74 SEVEN- YEARS WAR BEGINS [BOOKXVII. 

[1st Oct. 1758 

hears of it, means to him, ( Going to cut me off from Budin, 
then ? From my ammunition-stores, from my very bread- 
cupboard ! ' And he marches that same midnight, silently, 
in good order, back to Budin. He is not much ruined ; nay, 
the Prussian loss is numerically greater : * 3,308 killed and 
wounded, on the Prussian side; on the Austrian, 2,984, with 
three cannon taken and two standards.' Not ruined at all ; 
but foiled, frustrated; and has to devise earnestly, 'What 
next ? ' Once rearranged, he may still try. 

The Battle lasted seven hours ; the last four of it very hot, 
till Lobositz was won and lost. It was about 5 P.M. when 
Browne fired his retreat-cannon : cannon happened to be 
loaded (say the Anecdote-Books, mythically given now and 
then) ; Friedrich, wearied enough, had flung himself into his 
carriage for a moment's rest, or thankful reflection ; and of all 
places, the ball of the retreat-cannon lighted there. Between 
Friedrictfs feet, as he lay reclining, say the Aneedote-Books, 
whom nobody is bound to believe. 

On the strength of those two Prussian charges, which had 
retired from case-shot on their flank, and had not wings, for 
getting over sedge and ooze, Austria pretended to claim 
the victory. 'Two charges repelled by our gallant horse; 
Lobositz, indeed, was got on fire, and we had nothing for it 
but to withdraw ; but we took a new position, and only left 
that for want of water ' ; with the like excuses. * Essentially 
a clear victory, 1 said the Austrians ; and sang Te-deum about 
it ; but profited nothing by that piece of melody. The 
fact, considerable or not, was, from the first, too undeniable : 
Browne beaten from the field. And beaten from his attempt 
too (the Saxons not relievable by this method) ; and lies quiet 
in Budin again, with his water sure to him ; but what 
other advantages gained ? 

Here are two Letters, brief both, which we may as well 
reads 



CHAP. VL] BATTLE OF LOBOSITZ 75 

5th Oct. 1756] 



1. Friedrich to Wilhelmina (at Baireuth) 

'Lobositz, 4th October 1756. 

'Mr DEAR SISTER, Your will is accomplished. Tired out by these 
Saxon delays, I put myself at the head of my Army of Bohemia ' (Keith's 
hitherto) ; e and marched from Aussig to a Name which seemed to me 
of good augury, being yours, to the Village of Welmina' (Battle was 
called of Welmina, by the Prussians at first). 'I found the Austrians 
here, near Lobositz ; and, after a fight of seven hours, forced them to 
run. Nobody of your acquaintance is killed, except Generals Liideritz 
and (Erzen ' (who are not of ours). 

' I return you a thousand thanks for the tender part you take in my 
lot. Would to Heaven the Valour of my Army might procure us a stable 
Peace ! That ought to be the aim of War. Adieu, my dear Sister ; I 
embrace you tenderly, assuring you of the lively affection with which 
lam <R'i 



S. Prince of Prussia to Valori (who is still at Berlin, but 
soon going as it proves, Broglio's explosion at the 
Lines of Gross-Sedlitz being on hand, during the King's 
absence, in these very hours 2 ) 

' Camp of Lobositz, 6th October 1756. 

* You will know the news of the day ; and I am persuaded you take 
part in it. All you say to me betokens the conspiracy there is for the 
destruction of our Country. If that is determined in the Book of Fate, 
we cannot escape it. 

'Had my advice been asked, a year ago, I should have voted to 
preserve the Alliance' (with you) e which we had been used to for sixteen 
years' (strictly for twelve, though in substance ever since 1740), and 
which was by nature advantageous to us. But if my advice were asked 
just now, I should answer, That the said method being now impossible, 
we are in the case of a ship's captain who defends himself the best he can, 
and when all resources are exhausted, has, rather than surrender on 
shameful conditions, to fire the powder-magazine, and blow-up his ship. 
You remember that of your Fra^ois t.' Fors I'honneur ; ah yes, very 
we ll !~~> Perhaps it will be my poor Children who will be the victims of 
these past errors/ for such I still think them, I for my part. 

'The Gazettes enumerate the French troops that are to besiege Wesel, 

xxvii. i. 291. 3 * $th-6th October ' (Valori, ii. 353). 



76 SEVEN- YEARS WAR BEGINS [BOOKXVII. 

[isM4th Oct. 1756 

Geldern' (Wesel they will get gratis, poor Geldera will almost break 
their heart first), e and take possession of Ost~Friesland ; the Russian 
Declaration* (Manifesto not worth reading) ' tells us Russia's intentions 
for the next year' (most truculent intentions) : 'we will defend ourselves 
to the last drop of our blood, and perish with honour. If you have any 
counsel farther, I pray you give it me. 

'Remain always my friend; and believe that in all situations I will 
remain yours; and trying to do what my duty is, will not forfeit the 
sentiments on your part which have been so precious to me. Your 
servant, GuiLLAUME. 1 

c Pity this good Prince contemplating the downfall of his 
House,' suggests Valori : * He deserved a .better fate ! He 
would be in despair to think I had sent this Letter to your 
Excellency; but I thought perhaps you would show it to the 
King,' and that it might do good one day. 2 The Prussians 
lay in their * Camp of Lobositz,' posted up and down in that 
neighbourhood, for a couple of weeks more ; waiting whether 
Browne would attempt anything farther in the fighting way ; 
and, in fine, whether the solution of the crisis would fall-out 
hereabouts, or on the other side of the Hills. 



CHAPTER VII 
THE SAXONS GET OUT OF PIRN A ON DISMAL TERMS 

THE disaster of October 1st, for which they were trying 
to sing Te-deums at Vienna, fell heavier on the poor Saxons, 
in their cage at Pirna : ' Alas, where is our deliverance now ?' 
Friedrich's people, in their lines here, gave them such a ' joy- 
firing * for Lobositz as Retzow has seldom heard ; huge volley- 
ings, salvoings, running-fires, starting out, artistically timed 
and stationed, thunderous, high; and borne by the echoes, 
gloomily reverberative, into every dell and labyrinth of the 
Pirna Country; intended to strike a deeper damp into 

1 Valori, ii. 204-206. 

Valori (to the French Minister, * I2th October 1756')* iu 204, 



CH. vil.] HOW THE SAXONS GET OUT OF PIRNA 77 

ist-i4th Oct. 1756] 

them, thinks he. 1 But Imperial Majesty was mindful, too; 
and straightway sent Browne positive order, * Deliver me these 
poor Saxons at any price 2 * And in the course of not quite 
a week from Lobositz, there arrives a confidential Messenger 
from Browne : * Courage still, ye caged Saxons ; I will try 
it another way ! Only you must hold-out till the llth ; on 
the llth stand to your tools, and it shall be done. 1 * 

Browne is to take a succinct Detachment, 8,000 picked 
men, horse and foot ; to make a wider sweep with these, well 
eastward by the foot of Lausitz Hills, and far enough from 
all Prussian parties and scouts ; to march, with all speed and 
silence, * through Bohm-Leipa, Kamnitz, Rumburg, Schluck- 
enau;' * and come in upon the Schandau region, quite from the 
north-east side; say, at Lichtenhayn; an eligible Village, which 
is but seven miles or so from the Konigstein, with the chasmy 
country and the river intervening. Monday October llth, 
Browne will arrive at Lichtenhayn (sixty miles of circling 
march from Budin) ; privately post himself near Lichtenhayn; 
Prussian posts, of no great strength, lying ahead of him there. 
You, indignant extenuated Saxons, are to get yourselves across, 
near the Konigstein it will have to be, under cover of the 
Konigstein's cannon, on the front or riverward side of those 
same Prussian posts : crossing -place (Browne's Messenger 
settles) can be Thurmsdorf Hamlet, opposite the Lilienstein, 
opposite the Hamlets of Ebenheit and Halbstadt there. 
Konigstein fire will cover your bridge and your building 
of it. 

* Monday night next, I say, post yourselves there, with 
hearts resolute, with powder dry; there, about the eastern 
roots of the Lilienstein ' (beautiful Show Mountain, with 
stair-steps cut on it for Tourist people, by August the 
Strong), ' and avoid the Prussian battery and abatis which is 
on it just now ! You at Ebenheit, I at Lichtenhayn, trimmed 
and braced for action, through that Monday night. Tuesday 
morning, the Konigstein. at your beckoning, shall fire two 
1 Retzow, i. 67 * Map, p. 86. 



78 SEVEN- YEARS WAR BEGINS [BOOKXVII. 

[ist-i4th Oct. 1756 

cannon-shots; which shall mean, < All ready here!' Then 
forward, you, on those Prussian posts by the front ; I will 
attack them by the rear. With right fury, both of us ! 1 
am told, they are but weak in those posts ; surely, by double 
impetus, and dead-lift effort from us both, they can be forced ? 
Only force them, you are in the open field again ; and you 
march away with me, colours flying; your hunger-cage and 
all your tribulations left behind you 1 ' 

This is Browne's plan. The poor Saxons accept, what 
choice have they? though the question of crossing and 
bridge-building has its intricacies ; and that inevitable item 
of postponement till the llth 1 is a sore clause to them ; for 
not only are there short and ever shorter rations, but grim 
famine itself is advancing with large strides. The < daily 
twenty ounces of meal ' has sunk to half that quantity ; the 
< ounce or so of butchers-meat once a week, has vanished, or 
become Jiorse of extreme leanness. The cavalry horses have 
not tasted oats, nothing but hay or straw (not even water 
always) ; the artillery horses had to live by grazing, brown 
leaves their main diet latterly. Not horses any longer ; but 
walking trestles, poor animals ! And the men, well, they 
are fallen pale; but they are resolute as ever. The nine 
corn-mills, which they have in this circuit of theirs, grind now 
night and day ; and all the cavalry are set to thresh whatever 
grain can be found about; no hind or husbandmen shall retain 
one sheaf : in this way, they hope, utter hunger may be staved- 
off, and the great attempt made. 1 

Browne skilfully and perfectly did his part of the Adventure. 
Browne arrives punctually at Lichtenhayn, evening of the 
llth; bivouacks, hidden in the Woods thereabouts, in cold 
damp weather ; stealthily reconnoitres the Prussian Villages 
ahead, and trims himself for assault, at sound of the two 
cannons tomorrow. But there came no cannon-signal on the 

i Prfris de la RttraiU de FArmt* Saxonm de son Camp de Pirna (in 
GesammelU Nachruhten, i, 482-494), 



CH. vii.] HOW THE SAXONS GET OUT OF PIRNA 79 

ist-i4th Oct. 1756] 

morrow ; far other signallings and messagings tomorrow, and 
next day, and next, from the Konigstein and neighbourhood ! 
6 Wait, Excellency Feldmarschall ' (writes Bruhl to him, Note 
after Note, instead of signalling from the Konigstein) : * do 
wait a very little ! You run no risk in waiting ; we, even if 
we must yield, will make that our first stipulation ! ' < You 
will ? ' grumbles Browne ; and waits, naturally, with extreme 
impatience. But the truth is, the Adventure, on the Saxon 
side of it, has already altogether misgone ; and becomes, from 
this point onwards, a mere series of failures, futilities and 
disastrous miseries, tragical to think of. Worth some record 
here, since there are Documents abundant ; especially as 
Feldmarschall Rutowski (who is General-in-Chief, an old, 
not esteemed, friend of ours) has produced, or caused to be 
produced, a Narrative, which illuminates the Business from 
within as well. 1 The latter is our main Document here : 

I know not how much of the blame was General Rutowski's : one 
could surmise some laxity of effort, and a rather slovenly survey of facts, 
in that quarter. The Enterprise; from the first, was flatly impossible., 
say judges ; and it is certain, poor Rutowskf s execution was not first- 
rate. * How get across the Elbe ? ' Rutowski had said to himself, perhaps 
not quite with the due rigour of candour proportionate to the rigorous 
fact : * How get across the Elbe ? We have copper pontoons at Piraa ; 
but they will be difficult to cart. Or we might have a boat-bridge ; boats 
planked together two and two. At Pirna are plenty of boats ; and by 
oar and track-rope, the River itself might be a road for them ? Boats or 
pontoons to Konigstein, by water or land, they must be got. Eight 
miles of abysmal roads, our horses all extenuated ? Impossible to cart 
these pontoons !' said Rutowski to himself. Pity he had not tried it 
He had a week to do those eight bad miles in ; and 2,000 lean horses, 
picking grass or brown leaves, while their riders threshed. f We will 
drag our pontoons by water, by the Elbe tow-path,' thought Rutowski, 
( that will be easier ' ; and forthwith set about preparing for it, secretly 
collecting boats at Pirna, steersmen, towing-men, bridge-tackle and what 
else will be necessary. 



1 Prtcis, etc, (just cited) ; compare Tagebuch- der Einschliessung des 
Sachsischen Lagers bey Pirna ( Diary,' etc., which is the Prussian Account; 
in Seyfarth, Beylagen}^ ii. 22-48. 



80 SEVEN- YEARS WAR BEGINS [BOOK xvn. 

[ist-X4th Oct. 1756 

Rutowski made, at least, no delay. Browne's messenger, we find, had 
come to him, e Thursday 7th'; and on Friday night Rutowski has a 
sq\id of boatmen, steersmen and two score of towing peasants ready ; 
and actually gets under way. They are escorted by the due battalio- , 
with fieldpieces ; who are to fire upon the Prussian batteries, and keep- 
up such a blaze of musketry and heavier shot, as will screen the boats in 
passing. Surely a ticklish operation, this ; arguing a sanguine temper 
in General Rutowski ! The south bank of the River is ours ; but there 
are various Prussian batteries, three of them very strong, along the north 
bank, which will not fail to pelt us terribly as we pass. No help for it ; 
we must trust in luck ! Here is the sequel, with dates adjusted. 

Elbe River , Night of October 8th-th. Friday night, accordingly, so soon 
as Darkness (unusually dark this night) has dropt her veil on the 
business, Rutowski sets-forth. The Prussian battery, or bridge-head 
(tte-de-pont), at Pirna, has not noticed him, so silent was he. But, alas, 
the other batteries do not fail to notice ; to give fire ; and, in fact, on 
being answered, and finding it a serious thing, to burst out into horrible 
explosion ; unanswerable by the Saxon fieldpieces ; and surely perilous 
to human nature steering and towing those big River-Boats. ' Loyal to 
our King, and full of pity for him ; that are we ; ' but towing at a rate, 
say of two shillings per head ! Before long, the forty towing peasants 
fling-down their ropes, first one, then more, then all, in spite of efforts, 
promises, menaces ; and vanish among the thickets, forfeiting the two 
shillings, on view of imminent death. Soldiers take the towing-ropes ; 
try to continue it a little ; but now the steersmen also manage to call 
halt : 'We won't I Let us out, let us out ! We will steer you aground 
on the Prussian shore if you don't ! ' making night hideous. And the 
towing enterprise breaks-down for that bout ; double-barges mooring on 
the Saxon shore, I know not precisely at what point, nor is it material. 

Saturday Night October 9th-IQth, New boatmen, forty new towmen have 
been hired at immense increase of wages; say four shillings for the 
night : but have you much good probability, my General, that even for 
that high guerdon imminence of death can be made indifferent to tow- 
men ? No, you haven't. The matter goes this night precisely as it did 
last : towmen vanishing in the horrible cannon tumult ; steersmen 
shrieking, *We will ground you on the Prussian shore'; very soldiers 
obliged to give it up ; and General Rutowski himself obliged to wash his 
hands of it, as a thing that cannot be done. In fact, a thing which need 
not liave been tried, had Rutowski been rigorously candid with himself 
and his hopes, as the facts now prove to be. * Twenty-four hours lost 
by this bad business ' (says he; c thirty-six,' as I count, or, to take it 
rigorously, 'forty-eight* even): and now, Sunday morning instead of 
Friday, at what, in sad truth, is metaphorically 'the eleventh hour/ 



CH. VII.] HOW THE SAXONS GET OUT OF PHINA 81 

ist-i4th Oct. 1756] 

Rutowski has to bethink him of his copper pontoons ; and make the 
impossible carting 1 method possible in a day's time., or do worse. 

Sunday, Monday, October Wth-Ilth, By unheard-of exertions, all hands 
and all spent-horses now at a dead-lift effort night and day, Rutowski 
does got his pontoons carted out of the Pirna storehouse ; lands them at 
Thiirmsdorf, opposite the Lilienstein, a mile or so short of Konigstein, 
where his Bridge shall be. It is now the 11th, at night. And our 
pontoons are got to the ground, nothing more. Every man of us, at 
this hour, should have been across, and trimming himself to climb, with 
bayonet fixed ! Browne is ready, expecting our signal-shot to storm-in 
on his side. And our bridge is not built, only the pontoons here. ( All 
things went perverse/ adds Rutowski, for farther comfort: r we' (Saxon 
Home-Army) 'had with us, except Officers, only Four Pontoneers, or 
trained Bridge-builders ; all the rest are at Warsaw ; ' sad thought, but 
too late to think it ! 

Tuesday, till Wednesday early (12A-13A), Bridge, the four Pontoneers, 
with Officers and numb soldiers doing their best, is got built ; Browne 
waiting for us, on thorns, all day; Prussians extensively beginning to 
strengthen their posts, about the Lilienstein, about lachtenhayn, or where 
risk is ; and in fact pouring across to that northern side, quite aware of 
Rutowski and Browne. 

That same night, 12th- 13th, while the Bridge was strug- 
gling to complete itself, rain now falling, and tempests 
broken out, the Saxon Army, from Pirna down to Henners- 
dorf, had lifted itself from its Lines, and got under way 
towards Thiirmsdorf, and the crossing-place. Dark night, 
plunging rain ; all the elements in uproar. The worst roads 
in Nature ; now champed doubly ; * such roads as never any 
Army marched on before. 1 Most of their cannon are left 
standing ; a few they had tried to yoke, broke down, * and 
choked up the narrow road altogether; so that the cavalry 
had to dismount, and lead their horses by side-paths,' figure 
what side-paths ! Distance to Thiirmsdorf, from any point 
of the Saxon Lines, cannot be above six miles : but it takes 
them all that night and all next day. Such a march as 
might fill the heart with pity. Oh, ye Rutowskis, Briihls, 
though never so decorated by twelve tailors, what a sight ye 
are at the head of men ! Dark night, wild raging weather, 

VOL. vi. F 



82 SEVEN- YEARS WAR BEGINS [BOOKXVII. 

[i4th Oct. 1736 

labyrinthic roads worn knee-deep. It is broad daylight, 
Wednesday 13th, and only the vanguard is yet got across, 
trailing a couple of cannons ; and splashes about, endeavour- 
ing to take rank there, in spite of wet and hunger ; rain still 
pouring, wind very high. 

Nothing of Browne comes, this Wednesday ; but from 
the opposite Gross-Sedlitz and Gottleube side, the Prussians 
are coming. This morning, at daylight, struck by symptoms, 
6 the Prussians mounted our empty redoubts * : they are now 
in full chase of us, Ziethen with Hussars as vanguard. A 
difficult bit of marching, even Ziethen and his light people 
find it ; sprawling forward, at their cheeriest, with daylight 
to help, and in chase, not chased, through such intricacies of 
rock and mud. Ziethen's company did not assist the Saxons ! 
They wheel round, show fight, and there is volleying and 
bickering all day; the Saxon march getting ever more per- 
turbed. Nearly all the baggage has to be left. Ziethen 
takes into the woods near Thiirmsdorf ; giving fire as the 
poor wet Saxons, now much in a pell-mell condition, pass to 
their Bridge. 1 Heavier Prussians are striding on to rear ; 
these, from some final hill-top, do at last belch-out two 
cannon-shots : figure the confusion at that Bridge, the speed 
now becoming delirious there ! Towards evening, rain still 
violent, the Saxons, baggage-less, and rushing quite pell-mell 
the latter part of them, are mostly across, still countable to 
14,000 or so ; upon which they cut their Bridge adrift, and 
let the river take it. At Raden, a few miles lower, the 
Prussians fished it out ; rebuilt it more deliberately, and 
we shall find it there anon. This day Friedrich, hearing 
what is afoot, has returned in person from the Lobositz 
Country ; takes Struppen as his headquarter, which was 
lately the Polish Majesty's. 

From Browne there has nothing come this Wednesday ; 
but tomorrow morning at seven there comes a Letter from 
him, written this night at ten ; to the effect : 

1 Prussian Awunt (in Gesamm&lte Nachrickien) t i. 85^. 



CH. VIL] HOW THE SAXONS GET OUT OF PIRNA 88 

I4th Oct. 1756] 

* Headquarter, Lichtenhayn, Wednesday October 13th, 10 P.M. 
'EXCELLED, Have* (omitting the I) 'waited here at Lichtenhayn 
since Tuesday, expecting your signal cannon; hearing nothing of it, 
conclude you have by misfortune not been able to get across ; and that 
the Enterprise is up. My own position being dangerous * (Prussians of 
double my strength entrenched within few miles of me), e I turn tome- 
wards tomorrow at nine A.M. ; ready for whatever occurs #$then; and 
sorrowfully say adieu/ 1 

Dreadful weather for Browne in his bivouac, and wearisome waiting 
with Prussians and perils accumulating on him ! Browne was ill of lungs ; 
coughing much ; lodging, in these violent tempests, on the cold ground. 
A right valiant soldier and man, as does appear ; the flower of all the 
Irish Brownes (though they have quite forgotten him in our time), 
and of all those Irish Exiles then tragically spending themselves in 
Austrian quarrels! 'You saw the great man/ says one who seems to 
have been present, * how he sacrificed himself to this Enterprise. What 
Austrian Fieldmarshal but himself would ever have lowered his loftiness 
to lead, in person, so insignificant a Detachment, merely for the public 
good ! I have seen staff-officers, distinguished only by their sasheries 
and insignia, who would not have stirred to inspect a vedette without 250 
men. Our Fieldmarshal was of another turn. Sharing with his troops 
all the hardships, none excepted, of these critical days ; and in spite of a 
violent cough, which often brought the visible blood from his lungs, and 
had quite worn him down ; exposing himself, like the meanest of the 
Army, to the tempests of rainy weather. Think what a sight it was, 
going to your very heart, and summoning you to endurance of every 
hardship, that evening ' (not said which), e when the Fieldmarshal, 
worn-out with his fatigues and his disorder, sank out of fainting-fits into 
a sleep ! The ground was his bed, and the storm of clouds his coverlid. 
In crowds his brave war-comrades gathered round ; stripped their cloaks, 
their coats, and strove in noble rivalry which of them should have the 
happiness to screen the Father of the Army at their own cost of exposure, 
and by any device keep the pelting of the weather from that loved 
head ! ' 2 There is a picture for you, in the heights of Lichtenhayn, as 
you steam past Schandau, in contemplative mood ; and perhaps think of 
'Justice to Ireland ! ' among other sad thoughts that rise. 

From Thiirmsdorf to the Pontoon-Bridge there was a kind 
of road ; down which the Saxons scrambled yesterday ; and, 
by painful degrees, got wriggled across. But, on the other 

1 Prtds (ut supra), p. 493 ; Helden-GescMchte^ iii, 940 ; etc. 

* Cogniazzo, Gestandnisse tines CEsterreichischen Veterans^ iL 251* 



84 SEVEN- YEARS WAR BEGINS [BOOKXVII. 

[i4th Oct. 1756 

shore, forward to the Hamlets of Halbstadt and Ebenheit, 
there is nothing but a steep slippery footpath : figure what a 
problem for the 14,000 in such weather ! Then at Ebenheit, 
close behind, Browne-wards, were Browne now there, rises the 
Lilienstein, abrupt rocky mountain, its slopes on both hands 
washed by the River (River making its first elbow here, closely 
girdling this Lilienstein): "on both these slopes are Prussian 
batteries, each with its abatis ; needing to be stormed : that 
will be your first operation. Abatis and slopes of the Lilien- 
stein once stormed, you fall into a valley or hollow, raked 
again by Prussian batteries ; and will have to mount, still 
storming, out of the valley, sky-high across the Ziegenrlick 
(Goafs-back) ridge : that is your second preliminary operation, 
After which you come upon the work itself; namely, the 
Prussian redoubts at Lichtenhayn, and 12,000 men on them 
by this time! A modern Tourist says, reminding or in- 
forming : 

e From the Konigstein to Pirna, Elbe, if serpentine, is like a serpent 
rushing at full speed. Just past the Konigstein, the Elbe, from west- 
ward, as its general course is, turns suddenly to northward ; runs so fo* 
a mile and a half; then, just before getting to the Bastei at Raden, turns 
suddenly to westward again, and so continues. Tourists know Raden/ 
where the Prussians have just fishetl-out a Bridge for themselves, with 
the Bastei high aloft to west of it. The Old Inn, hospitable though 
sleepless, stands pleasairtly upon the River-brink, overhung by high cliffs : 
close on its left side, or in the intricacies to rear of it, are huts and 
houses, sprinkled about, as if burrowed in the sandstone ; more comfort- 
ably than you could expect. The site is a narrow dell, narrow chasm, 
with labyrinthic chasms branching-ofF from it; narrow and gloomy as 
seen from the River, but opening-out even into cornfields as you advance 
inwards : work of a small Brook, which is still industriously tinkling and 
gushing there, and has in Pre-Adamite times been a lake, and we know 
not what. Nieder- Raden, this, on the north side of the River ; of Ober- 
Raden, on the south side, there is nothing visible from your Inn windows,' 
nor have we anything to do with it farther. An older Guide of 
Tourists yields us this second Fraction (capable of condensation) : 

'* * To Halbstadt, thence to Ebenheit, your path m steeper and 
steeper; from Ebenheit to the Lilienstein you take a guide. The 
Mountain is conical; coarse red sandstone; steps cut for you where 



CH. vil.] HOW THE SAXONS GET OUT OF PIRNA 85 

i4th Oct. 1756] 

needed : August the Strong's Hunting-Lodge (Jagdhutte) is here (August 
went thither in a grand way, 1708, with his Wife) ; Lodge still extant, 
by the side of a wood ; Lilienstein towering huge and sheer, solitary, 
grand, like some colossal Pillar of the Cyclops, from this round Pediment 
of Country which you have been climbing ; tops of Lilienstein plumed 
everywhere with fir and birch, Pediment also very green and woody. 
August the Strong, grandly visiting here, 1708,, on finish of those stair- 
steps cut for you, set-up an Ebenezer^ or Column of Memorial at this 
Hunting-Hut,, with Inscription which can still be read, though now with 
difficulty in its time-worn state : 

f " Friedericus Augustus , Rex" (of what? Dare not say of Poland just 
now, for fear of Charles xn.), ee et Elector Sax., ut Fortunam virtute, ita 
asperam hanc Rupem primus " (jprimus not of men, but of Saxon Electors) 
"superavit, Aditumque fadliorem reddi curavit. Anno 1708." 'Ut Fortu- 
nam virtute, As his fortune by valour, 90 he conquered this rugged rock 
by,' Poor devil, only hear him ; and think how good Nature is (for the 
time being) to poor devils and their 354 bastards ! x 

Briihl and the Polish Majesty, safe enough they, and 
snug in the Konigstein, are clear for advancing: 'Die like 
soldiers, for your King and Country ! ' writes Polish Majesty, 
< Thursday, two in the morning ** ; that also Rutowski reads ; 
and I think still other Royal Autographs, sent as Postscripts 
to that. From the Konigstein they duly fire-off the two 
Cannon-shot, as signal that we are coming ; signal which 
Browne, just in the act of departing, never heard, owing to 
the piping of the winds and rattling of the rain. * Advance, 
my heroes ! ' counsel they : * You cannot drag your ammuni- 
tions, say you ; your poor couple of big guns ? Here are his 
Majesty's own royal horses for that service ! ' and, in effect, 
the royal stud is heroically flung open in this pressure ; and a 
splashing column of sleek quadrupeds, * 150 royal draught- 
horses, early in the forenoon,' 2 swim across to Ebenheit 

1 M. (agister) Wilhelm Lebrecht Gotzinger, Schandau und seine Umgelungen, 
oder Beschreibung der Sachsischen Schweitz (Dresden, 1812), pp. 145-148. 
Gotzinger, who designates himself as * Pastor at Neustadt near Stolpen ' (north- 
west border of the Pirna Country), has made of this (which would now be called 
a Tourist's Guide, and has something geological in it) a modest, good little Book, 
put together with industry, clearness, brevity. Gives interesting Narrative of 
our present Business too, as gathered from his * Father ' and other good sources 
and testimonies. 2 Gotzinger, p. 156. 



86 SEVEN- YEARS WAR BEGINS [BOOKXVII. 

[X5th-i7th Oct. 1758 

accordingly, if that could encourage. And * about noon, 
there is strong cannonading from the Konigstein, as signal 
to Browne/ who is off. Polish Majesty looking with his 
spy-glass in an astonished manner. In vain ! Rutowski and 
his Council of War, sitting wet in a hut of Ebenheit, with 
14,000 starved men outside, who have stood seventy-two 
hours of rain, for one item, see nothing for it but c surrender 
on such terms as we can get. 1 

c In fact,' independently of weather and circumstances, * the 
Enterprise,' says Friedrich, * was radically impossible ; nobody 
that had known the ground could have judged it other. 1 
Rutowski had not known it, then ? Browne never pretended 
to know it. Rutowski was not candid with the conditions ; 
the conditions never known nor candidly looked at ; and they 
are now replying to him with candour enough. From the 
first his Enterprise was a final flicker of false hope; going 
out, as here, by spasm, in the rigours of impossibility and 
flat despair. 

That column of royal horses sent splashing across the 
River, that was the utmost of self-sacrifice which I find re- 
corded of his Polish Majesty in this matter. He was very 
obstinate ; his Bruhl and he were. But his conduct was not 
very heroic. That royal Autograph, * General Rutowski, and 
ye true Saxons, attack these Prussian lines, then ; sell your 
lives like men ' (not like Bruhl and me), must have fallen cold 
on the heart, after seventy-two hours of rain ! Rutowskfs 
wet Council of War, in the hut at Ebenheit, rain still pour- 
ing, answers unanimously, * That it were a leading of men to 
the butchery'; that there is nothing for it but surrender. 
Bruhl and Majesty can only answer: * Well-a-clay ; it must 
be so, then ! ' Winterfeld, Prussian Commander hereabouts, 
grants Armistice, grants liberal * wagon-loads of bread ' first 
of all; terms of Capitulation to be settled at Struppen 
tomorrow. 

Friday October \5th 9 Rutowski goes across to Struppen, 
the late Saxon headquarter, now Friedricbus ; Friday gone 



CH. VH.] HOW THE SAXONS GET OUT OF PIRNA 87 

I5th-I7th Oct. 1756] 

fortnight was the Day of Lobositz. Winterfeld and he are 
the negotiators there; Eriedrich ratifying or refusing by 
marginal remarks. The terms granted are hard enough: 
but they must be accepted. First preliminary of all terms 
has already been accepted: a gift of bread to these poor 
Saxons ; their haversacks are empty- their cartridge-boxes 
drowned; it has rained on them three days and nights. 
Last upshot of all terms is still well known to everybody: 
That the 14,000 Saxons are compelled to become Prussian, 
and * forced to volunteer ' ! 

That had been Friedrich's determination, and reading of 
his rights in the matter, now that hard had come to hard. 
* You refused all terms ; you have resisted to death (or 
death's- door) ; and are now at discretion ! ' Of the question, 
What is to be done with those Saxons ? Friedrich had 
thought a great deal, first and last ; and had found it very 
intricate, as readers too will, if they think of it. * Prisoners 
of War, to keep them locked-up, with trouble and expense, 
in that fashion ? They can never be exchanged : Saxony has 
now nothing to exchange them with ; and Austria will not. 
Their obstinacy has had costs to me; who of us can count 
what costs ! In short, they shall volunteer ! "* 

c Never did I, for my poor part, authorise such a thing,* 
loudly asseverated Rutowski afterwards. And indeed the 
Capitulation is not precise on that interesting point. A 
lengthy Document, and not worth the least perusal other- 
wise; we condense it into three Articles, all grounding on 
this general Basis, not deniable by Rutowski : * The Saxon 
Army, being at such a pass, ready to die of hunger, if we did 
not lift our finger, has, so to speak, become our property; 
and we grant it the following terms : ' 

c l. Kettledrums, standards and the like insignia and matters of 
honour, carry these to the Konigstein, with my regretful respects to 
his Polish Majesty. Konigstein to be a neutral Fortress during this 
\Var. Polish Majesty at perfect liberty to go to Warsaw* (as he on the 
instant now did, and never returned). 



88 SEVEN- YEARS WAR BEGINS [BOOKXVII. 

[i7th Oct. 1756 
*2. Officers to depart on giving their parole. Not to serve against us 

during this War * (Parole given, nothing like too well kept). 

* 3. Rest of the Army, with all its equipments, munitions, soul and 

body (so to speak), is to surrender utterly, and be ours, as all Saxony 

shall for the present be/ l 

That is, in sum, the Capitulation of Struppen. Nothing 
articulate in it about the one now interesting point, and in 
regard to that, I can only fancy Rutowski might interject, 
interrogatively, perhaps at some length : ' Our soldiers to be 
Prisoners of War, then ? ' c Prisoners ; yes, clearly, unless 
they choose to volunteer, and have a better fate ! Prisoners 
can volunteer. They are at discretion ; they would die, if 
we did not lift our finger ! ' thus I suppose Winterfeld would 
rejoin, if necessary; and that, in the Winterfeld-Rutowski 
Conferences, the thing had probably been kept in a kind of 
chiaroscuro by both parties. 

Very certain it is, Sunday 17th October 1756, Capitula- 
tion being signed the night before, Friedrich goes across at 
Nieder-Raden (where the Pilgrim of the Picturesque now 
climbs to see the Bastei ; where the Prussians have, by this 
time, a Bridge thrown together out of those Pontoons), 
goes across at Neider-Raden, up that chasmy Pass ; rides to 
the Heights of Waltersdorf, in the opener country behind ; 
and pauses there, while the captive Saxon Army defiles past 
him, laying down its arms at his feet. Unarmed, and now 
under Prussian word of command, these ex-Saxon soldiers go 
on defiling ; march through by that Chasm of Neider-Raden ; 
cross to Ober-Raden ; and, in the plainer country thereabouts, 
are, in I know not what length of hours, but in an in- 
credibly short length, so swift is the management, changed 
wholly into Prussian soldiers : * obliged to volunteer/ every 
one of them ! 

That is the fact ; fact loudly censured ; fact surely question- 
able, to what intrinsic degree I at this moment do not know. 

1 In Helden-GeschichU, iii. 920-928, at full length, with Friedrich's margin* 
ftUa noticeably brief. 



CH. VIL] HOW THE SAXONS GET OUT OF PIRNA 89 

lyth Oct. 1756] 

Fact much blamable before the loose public of mankind; 
upon which I leave men to their verdict. It is not a fact 
which invites imitation, as we shall see ! Fact how accom- 
plished ; by what methods ? that would be the question with 
me ; but even that is left dark, * The horse regiments, three 
of heavy horse, he broke ; and distributed about, a good few 
in his own Garde-du-Corps.' Three other horse regiments 
were in Poland, the sole Saxon Army now left, of whom, at 
least of one man among whom, we may happen to hear. 
* Ten foot regiments ' (what was reckoned a fault) * he left 
together; in Prussian uniform, with Prussian Officers. They 
were scattered up and down; put in garrisons; not easy 
handling them : they deserted by whole companies at a time 
in the course of this War.' 1 Not a measure for imitation, as 
we said ! How Friedrich defended such hard conduct to the 
Saxons ? Reader, I know only that Destiny and Necessity, 
urged on by Saxons and others, was hai? ,-*as adamant upon 
Friedrich at this time ; and that Friedrich did not the least 
dream of making any defence ; and will have to take your 
verdict, such as it may be. 

Moritz of Dessau had a terrible Winter of it, organising 
and breaking-in these Saxon people, got by press-gang in 
this way. Polish Majesty, 'with 500 of suite,' had driven 
instantly for Warsaw; post-horses most politely furnished 
him, and all the Prussian posts and soldiers well kept out of 
his road, road chosen for him to that end. Poor soul, he 
never came back. For six years coming, he saw, from Warsaw 
in the distance (amid anarchy and N-ie-pozwalamj which he 
never lacked there), the wide War raging, in Saxony especially ; 
and died soon after it was done. Nor did Bruhl return, 
except broken by that event, and to die in few months after. 
Let us pity the poor fat-goose of a Majesty (not ill-natured 
at all, only stupid and idle) : some pity even to the doomed- 
phantasm Bruhl, if you can ; and thank Heaven to have got 
done with such a pair ! 

1 Preuss, ii. 22, 135 ; in Stenzel (v. 16-20) moie precise details. 



90 SEVEN- YEARS WAR BEGINS [BOOKXVII. 

[iSth Oct. 1756 

Friedrich's treatment of the Saxon Troops, Saxon Majesty 
and Country : who shall say that it was wise in all points ? 
It would be singular treatment, if it were ! In all things, 
After is so different from Before and During. The truth is, 
Friedrich hoped long to have made some agreement with the 
Saxons. And readers now, in the universal silence, have no 
notion of Friedriclfs complexities from fact, and of the loud 
howl of hostile rumour, which was piping through all journals, 
diplomacies and foreign human throats, against him at that 
time. 

'The essential passages of War and Peace/ says a certain Com- 
mentator, 'during those Five weeks of Pirna, can be made intelligible 
in small compass. But how the world argued of them then and after- 
wards, and rang with hot Gazetteer and Diplomatic logic from side to 
side, no reader will now ever know. A world-tornado extinct,, gone : 
think of the sounds uttered from human windpipes, shrill with rage 
some of them, hoarse others with ditto ; of the vituperations, execrations, 
printed and vocal, grating harsh thunder upon Friedrich and this new 
course of his. Huge melody of Discords, shrieking, droning, grinding 
on that topic, through the afflicted Universe in general, for certain years. 
The very Pamphlets printed on it, cannot Dryasdust give me the 
number of tons weight, then ? Dead now every Pamphlet of them ; a 
thing fallen horrible to human nature ; extinct forever, as is the wont in 
such cases/ 

I will give only this of Voltaire; a mild Epigram, done 
at The Delices, in pleasant view of Ferney and good things 
coming. A bolt shot into the storm- tost Sea and its 
wreckages, by a Mariner now cheerily drying his clothes on 
the shore there ; in fact, an indifferent Epigram, on Kings 
Friedrich and George, which is now flying about in select 
circles : 

( Eivaux du Vainqueur de VJSuphraU, 

XjOncle et le JSTeveu, 
L'unfait la guerre en pirate, 
ISautre en parti bleu. 3 

'Rivals of Alexander the Great, this Uncle and Nephew make war, 
\he one as a Pirate ' (seizure of those French ships), ' the other ' (Saxony 



CH. vii.] HOW THE SAXONS GET OUT OF PIRNA 91 

1 8th Oct. 1756] 

stolen) f as Captain of an Accidental Thieving-Squad/ parti bleu, as toe 

French soldiers call it. 1 

Pirna was no sooner done than Friedrieh returned to the 
c Camp at Lobositz,"* where his victorious Keith- Army has 
been lying all this while. The Camp of Lobositz, and all 
Camps Prussian and Austrian, are about to strike their tents, 
and proceed to Winter-quarters, to prepare against next 
Spring. Eriedrich set off thither October 18th (the very 
day after that of Waltersdorf) ; with intent to bring home 
Keith^s Army, and see if Browne meant anything farther 
(which Browne did not, or does only in the small Tolpatch 
way) ; also to meet Schwerin, whom he had summoned over 
from Silesia for a little conference there. Schwerin, after 
eating Konigsgratz Country well, which was all he could 
do, as Piccolomini would not come out, and we know how 
strong the ground is, had retired to Silesia again, in due 
season (snapping-up, in a sharply conclusive manner, any 
Tolpatcheries that attempted chase of him); taken Winter 
cantonments in Silesia, headquarter Schweidnitz ; and is now 
getting his Instructions, here personally, in the Metal 
Mountains, for a day or two. 2 

Friedrieh brought his Keith- Army home to Gross-Sedlitz, 
to join the other Force there; and distributed the whole into 
their Winter-quarters. Cantoned far and wide, spreading out 
from Pirna on both hands : on the left or western hand, by 
Zwickau, Freyberg, Chemnitz, up to Leipzig, Torgau; and 
on the right or north-east hand, by Zittau, Gorlitz, Bautzen, 
to protect the Lausitz against Austrian inroads, while a 
remote Detachment, under Winterfeld, watches the Bober 
River with similar views. 8 All which done, or settled to be 
done, Friedrieh quits Gross-Sedlitz, November 14th; and 
takes-up his abode at Dresden for this Winter. 

1 Walpole's Letters, ' To Sir Horace Mann, 8th December 1756,' 

8 Htlden-Geschichte, iii. 946, 948. 

8 In Hcldtn-GtscMchte, iii. 948 et seq., a minute List by Place and Regiment 



98 SEVEN-YEARS WAR BEGINS [BOOKXVII. 

[Jan. -March 1757 



CHAPTER VIII 

WINTER IN DRESDEN 

THE Saxon Army is incorporated, then; its King gone 
under the horizon ; the Saxon Country has a Prussian Board 
set over it, to administer all things of Government, especially 
to draw taxes and recruits from Saxony. Torgau, seat of 
this new Board, has got fortified; < 1,5 00 inhabitants were 
requisitioned as spademen for that end, at first with wages,' 
latterly, I almost fear, without! The Saxon Ministers are 
getting drilled, cashiered if necessary; and on all hands, 
rigorous methods going forward; till Saxony is completely 
under grasp; in which state it was held very tight indeed, 
for the six years coming. There is no detailing of all that ; 
details, were they even known to an Editor at such distance, 
would weary every reader. Enough to understand that 
Friedrich has not on this occasion, as he did in 1744, omitted 
to disarm Saxony, to hobble it in every limb, and have it, 
at discretion, tied as with ropes to his interests and him. 1 
His management was never accounted cruel ; and it was 
studiously the reverse of violent or irregular : but it had to 
be rigorous as the facts were; nor was it the worst, or 
reckoned the worst, of Saxony's miseries in this time. 

Poor Country, suffering for its Bruhl ! In the Country, 
except for its Bruhl, there was no sin against Prussia ; the 
reverse rather. The Saxon population, as Protestants, have 
no good-will to Austria and its aims of aggrandisement. In 
Austrian spy-letters, now and afterwards, they are described 
to us as ' gut Preussisch'* ; * strong for Prussia, the most of 
them, even in Dresden itself.' 

Whether Friedrich could have had much real hope to end 
the War this Year, or scare it off from beginning, may be a 

1 Helden-Ge$chichte> in. 946-956. 



CHAP, viii.] WINTER IN DRESDEN 98 

Jan.-March 1757] 

question. If he had, it is totally disappointed. The Saxon 
Government has brought ruin on itself and Country, but it 
has been of great damage to Friedrich. Would Polish 
Majesty have consented to disband his soldiers, and receive 
Friedrich with a bona-f.de ' Neutrality/ Friedrich could have 
passed the Mountains still in time for a heavy stroke on 
Bohemia, which was totally unprepared for such a visit* 
And he might, from the Towers of Prag, for instance, 
have, far more persuasively, held-out the olive-branch to an 
astonished Empress-Queen : * Leave me alone, Madam ; will 
you, then ! Security for that ; I wanted and want nothing 
more ! ' But Polish Majesty, taking on him the character of 
Austrian martyr, and flinging himself into the gulf, has 
prevented all that ; has turned all that the other way. 

Austria, it appears, is quite ungrateful : ' Wasn't he 
bound?' thinks Austria, as its wont rather is. Forgetful 
of the great deliverance wrought for it by poor Polish 
Majesty ; whom it could not deliver except into bottomless 
wreck ! Austria, grateful or not, stands unscathed ; has 
time to prepare its Armaments, its vocal Arguments : Austria 
is in higher provocation than ever ; and its very Arguments, 
highly vocal to the Reich and the world, 'Is not this man a 
robber, and enemy of mankind ? "* do Friedrich a great deal of 
ill. Friedrieh's sudden Campaign, instead of landing him in 
the heart of the Austrian States, there to propose Peace, has 
kindled nearly all Europe into flames of rage against him, 
which will not consist in words merely ! Never was misunder- 
standing of a man at a higher pitch : ' Such treatment of 
a peaceable Neighbour and Crowned Head, witness it, ye 
Heavens and thou Earth ! ' Dauphiness falling on her knees 
to Most Christian Majesty ; 4 Princess and dearest Sister ' to 
Most Christian Majesty's Pompadour; especially no end of 
Pleading to the German Reich, in a furious, Delphic-Pythoness 
or quasi-inspired tone : all this goes on. 

From the time when Pirna was blockaded, Kaiser Franz, 
his high Consort and sense of duty urging him, has been 



94 SEVEN- YEARS WAR BEGINS [BOOKXVII. 

[Jan-March 1757 

busy in the Reich's-Hofrath (kind of Privy-Council or Supreme 
Court of the Reich, which sits at Vienna) ; busy there, and 
in the Reich's Diet at Regensburg; busy everywhere, with 
utmost diligence over Teutschland, forging Reich thunder. 
Manifestos, Hof-Decrets, Dehortatoriums, Excitatoriums ; so 
goes it, exploding like Vesuvius, shock on the back of shock : 
20th September it began; and lasts, crescendo, through 
Winter and onwards, at an extraordinary rate. 1 Of all 
which, leaving readers to imagine it, we will say nothing, 
except that it points towards * Armed Interference by the 
Reich, 1 * Reich's Execution Army ' ; nay, towards ' Ban of the 
Reich' (total excommunication of this Enemy of Mankind, 
and giving of him up to Satan, by bell, book and candle), 
which is a kind of thunderbolt not heard of for a good few 
ages past ! Thunderbolt thought to be gone mainly to rust 
by the judicious ; which, however, the poor old Reich did 
grasp again, and attempt to launch. As perhaps we shall 
have to notice by and by, among the miracles going. 

France too, urged by the noblest concern, feels itself called 
upon. France magnanimously intimates to the Reich's Diet, 
once and again, 'That Most Christian Majesty is guarantee 
of the Treaty of Westphalia ; Most Christian Majesty cannot 
stand such procedures ' ; and then the second time, * That 
Most Christian Majesty will interfere practically,' by 
100,000 men and odd. 2 In short, the sleeping world- 
whirlwinds are awakened against this man. General Dance 
of the Furies; there go they, in the dusky element, those 
Eumenides, 'giant-limbed, serpent-haired, slow-pacing, circling, 
torch in hand ' (according to Schiller), scattering terror and 
madness. At least, in the Diplomatic Circles of mankind ; 
if haply the Populations will follow suit ! 

Friedrich, abundantly contemptuous of Reich's-thunder in 
the rusted kind, and well able to distinguish sound from 

1 In Helden-GescUchte (iv. 163-174? iii. 9565 and indeed fassim through 
those Volumes), the Originals in frightful superabundance. 

2 Helden-GescUckt^ iv. 340 (*26th March 1757'). 



CHAP, vin.] WINTER IN DRESDEN 95 

Jan.-March 1757] 

substance in the Reich or elsewhere, recognises in all this 
sufficiently portentous prophecies of fact withal ; and under- 
stands, none better, what a perilous position he has got into. 
But he cannot mend it; can only, as usual, do his own 
utmost in it. As readers will believe he does ; and that his 
vigilance and diligence are very great. Continual, ubiquitous 
and at the top of his bent, one fancies his effort must have 
been, though he makes no noise on the subject. Consider- 
able work he has with Hanover, this Winter ; with the poor 
English Government, and their * Army of Observation,** which, 
is to appear in the Hanover parts, versus those 100,000 
French, next Spring. To Hanover he has sent Schmettau 
(the Younger Schmettau, Elder is now dead) in regard to 
said Army ; has made a new and closer Treaty with England 
(impossible to be fulfilled on poor England's part) ; and 
laments, as Mitchell often does, the tragically embroiled 
condition of that Country, struggling so vehemently, to no 
purpose, to get out of bed, and not unlike strangling or 
smothering itself in its own blankets, at present ! With and 
in regard to Saxony, his work is of course extremely con- 
siderable ; and in regard to his own Army, and its coming 
Business, considerablest of all. Counter-Manifesto work, to 
state his case in a distinct manner, and leave it with the 
Populations if the Diplomacies are deaf : this too is copiously 
proceeding ; under Artists who probably do not require much 
supervision. In fact, no King living has such servants, in 
the Civil or the Military part, to execute his will. And 
no King so little wastes himself in noises ; a King who has 
good command of himself, first of all ; not to be thrown off 
his balance by any terror, any provocation even, though his 
temper is very sharp. 

Friedrich in person is mainly at Dresden, lodged in the 
Bruhl Palace ; endless wardrobes and magnificences there ; 
three hundred and sixty^/owr Pairs of Breeches hanging 
melancholy, in a widowed manner : Cest assez de culottes ; 
montre%-moi des vertus! Bruhl is far away, in Poland; 



96 SEVEN- YEARS WAR BEGINS [BOOKXVIL 

[Jan. -March 1757 

Madam Briihl has still her Apartments in this Palace, a 
frugal King needs only the necessary spaces. Madam Brilhl 
is very busy here ; and not to good purpose, being well seen 
into. * She had a cask of wine sent her from Warsaw/ says 
Friedrich ; ' orders were given to decant for her every drop of 
the wine, but to be sure and bring us the cask.' Cask was 
found to have two bottoms, intermediate space filled with 
spy - correspondence. Madam Briihl protests and pleads, 
Friedrich not unpolite in reply ; his last Letter to her says, 
c Madam, it is better that you go and join your Husband. 1 

Another high Dame gets sausages from Bohemia; some 
of Friedrich's light troops have an appetite, beyond strict law, 
for sausages; break-in, find Letters along with the other 
stuffing. 1 Friedrich has a good deal of watching and coercing 
to do in that kind, some arresting, conveyance even to 
Clistrin for a time, though nothing crueler proved needful. 
To the poor Queen he keeps-up civilities, but is obliged to be 
strict as Argus; she made him a Gift too, the Night of 
Correggio, admired Notte of Correggio ; having heard that 
he sat before it silent for half an hour, on entering that fine 
Gallery, which is due to our Sovereign Lord and his Briihl, 
<tlas 1 On the other hand, Friedrich had to take from her 
Majesty's Royal Abode those Hundred Swiss of Bodyguard ; 
to discharge the same, and put Prussians in their stead. Nay, 
at one time, on loud outcry from her Majesty, and great 
private cause of complaint against her, there was talk of 
sending the poor Royal Lady to Warsaw, after her Husband ; 
but her objection being violent, nothing came of that: Winter 
following, her poor Majesty died, 2 and gave nobody any 
farther trouble. 

Friedrich's outposts, especially in the Lausitz, are a good 
deal disturbed by Austrian Tolpatcheries ; and do feats, heroic 
in the small way, in smiting down that rabble. A valuable 

1 CEuwes de Frtdfric> iv. 108 ; Mitchell, <27th March 1757' (Raumer, 

P* 3*i)- 
1 27th Novembei 1757. 



CHAP. VIIL] WINTER IN DRESDEN 97 

Jan.-Marc2i 1757] 

Officer or two is lost in such poor service, poor but indispens- 
able; 1 and the troops have not always the repose which 
is intended them. Lieutenant- Colonel London (Scotch by 
kindred, and famous enough before long) is the soul of these 
Croat enterprises, and gets his Colonelcy by them, in a 
month or two ; Browne recommending. Loudon had arrived 
too late for Lobositz, but had been with Browne to Schandau; 
and, on the march homewards, did a bright feat of the Croat 
kind: surprisal, very complete, of that Hill-Castle of Tetschen 
and considerable Hussar Party there ; done in a style which 
caught the eye of Browne ; and was the beginning of great 
things to poor Loudon, after his twenty years of painful 
eclipse under the Indigo Trencks, and miscellaneous Doggeries, 
Austrian and Russian. 2 

Tetschen, therefore, will again need capture by the Prus- 
sians, if they again intend that way. And in the mean while, 
Friedrich, to counterpoise those mischievous Croat people, has 
bethought him of organising a similar Force of his own ; 
Foot chiefly, for, on hint of former experience, he already has 
Hussars in quantity. And, this Winter, there are accordingly, 
in different Saxon Towns, three Irregular Regiments getting 
ready for him ; three ' Volunteer Colonels ' busily enlisting 
each his * Free Corps,' such the title chosen ; chief Colonel 
of them one Mayer, now in Zwickau neighbourhood, with 6 
or 700 loose handy fellows round him, getting formed into 
strict battalion there : s of whom, and of whose soldiering, we 
shall hear farther. For the plan was found to answer ; and 
extended itself year after year ; and the f Prussian Free 
Corps, 1 one way and another, made considerable noise in the 
world. 

Outwardly Friedrich's Life is quiet; busy, none can be 

1 Funeral Discourses (of a very curious, ponderous and serious tone), In 
Gesammelte Nachrichten, ii. 458, 464, etc. 

3 La Vie du Fcldmartchal Baron de Loudon (Translation of one Pezzl's Ger- 
man: a Vienne et k Paris, 1792), i. 1-32. 

8 Pauli (our old diffuse friend), Leben grosser Htldtn dts gegtnwiirtigen Kritgts 
(9 voll., Halle, 1759-1764), iii. 159, Mayr. 

vnt.. VT ft 



98 SEVEN-YEARS WAE BEGINS [BOOK xvil. 

IJan.-March 1757 

more so ; but to the onlooker, placid, polite especially. He 
hears sermon once or twice in the Kreuz-Kirche (Protestant 
High Church); then next day will hear good music, de- 
votional if you call it so, in the Catholic Church, where her 
Polish Majesty is. Daily at the old hour he has his own 
Concert, now and then assisting with his own flute. Makes 
donations to the Poor, and suchlike, due from Saxon Sover- 
eignty while held by him ; on the other hand, reduces salaries 
at a sad rate : Guarini, Queers Confessor, from near ,OOOZ. 
to little more than 300Z., for one instance ; cuts-off about 
5,OOOZ. in all, under this head. 1 And is heavy with billet- 
ing, as new Prussians arrive. Billets at length in the very 
Ambassadors' Hotels, and by way of apology to the Excel- 
lencies, signifies to them in a body : < Sorry for the necessity, 
your Excellencies: but ought not you to go to Warsaw rather? 
Your credentials are to his Polish Majesty. He is not here ; 
nor coming hither, for some time ! ' Which hint, I suppose, 
the Excellencies mostly took. From his own Forests there 
came by the Elbe great rafts of firewood, to warm his soldiers 
in their quarters. Once or twice he makes excursions, of 
a day, of two days ; to the Lausitz, to Leipzig (through 
Freyberg, where he has a post of importance) ; very gracious 
to the University people : * Students be troubled with soldier- 
ing? Far from it, ye learned Gentlemen, servants of the 
Muses 1 Recruitment, a lamentable necessity, is to go on 
under your own Official people, and wholly by the old 
methods. 1 2 

Once, and once only, he made a run to Berlin, January 
4th-13th, 1757: the last for six years and more. Came 
with great despatch, Brother Henri with him, whole journey 
in one day ; got * to his Mother's about 1 1 at night.' 8 A 

1 Udd&n-Geschichte, iv. 306 (' December 1756 '). 

1 Ibid. iv. 303-313 ; Uniwrsitiitsanschlag zu Leipzig ', wegen der Werbung 
('University- Placard about Enlisting* : in Gesammelte NachruhUn> i 811). 
1 Ib. iv. 308. 



CHAP. VIIL] WINTER IN DRESDEN 99 

Jan.-March 1757] 

joyful meeting for the kindred : cheerful light-gleam in the 
dark time, so suddenly eclipsed to them and others by those 
hurricanes that have risen. His Majesty seems to be in 
perfect health ; and wears no look of gloom. At Berlin is 
no Carnival this year ; all are grave, sunk in sad contempla- 
tions of the future. Of his businesses in this interval, which 
were many, I will say nothing ; only of one little Act he did, 
the day before his departure : the writing of this Secret Letter 
of Instructions to Graf Finck von Finckenstein, his chief 
Home Minister, one of his old boy-comrades, as readers may 
recollect. The Letter was read by Count Finck with profound 
attention, llth January 1757, and conned over till he knew 
every point of it ; after which he sealed it up, inscribing on 
the Cover : * Hochsteigerihandige tmd ganz gekdme ' that is, 
' Highest- Autographic and altogether Secret Instructions, by 
the King, which, with the Appendixes, were delivered to me, 
Graf von Finckenstein, the 12th of January 1757."* In this 
docketing it lay, sealed for many years (none knows how 
many), then unsealed, still in strict keeping, in the Private 
Royal Archives, 1 till on Friedrictts Birthday S4th January 
1854, it was, with some solemnity, lithographed at Berlin, 
and distributed to a select public, as readers shall see, 

< Secret Instruction Jbr the Graf von Finck 

* Berlin, loth January 1757. 

'In the critical situation our affairs are in, I ought to give you my 
orders, so that in all the disastrous cases which are in the possibility of 
events, you be authorised for taking the necessary steps. 

< 1. If it chanced (which Heaven forbid) that one of my Armies in 
Saxony were totally beaten ; or that the French should drive the 
Hanoverians from their Country 1 (which they failed not to do), 'and 
establish themselves there, and threaten us with an invasion into the 
Altmark; or that the Russians should get through by the Neuinark, 
you are to save the Royal Family, the principal Dicasteria* (Land- 
Schedules, Lists of Tax-dues), 'the Ministries and the Directorium 1 
(which is the central Ministry of all). 'If it is in Saxony on the Leipzig 

1 Preuss, i. 449 



100 SEVEN-YEARS WAR BEGINS [BOOKXVIL 

(Jan. -March 1757 

aide that we are beaten, the fittest place for the removal of the Royal 
Family, and of the Treasure, is to Custrin : in such case the Royal 
Family and all above-named must go, escorted by the whole Garrison* 
of Berlin, * to Custrin. If the Russians entered by the Neumark, or if a 
misfortune befell us in the Lausitz, it would be to Magdeburg that all 
would have to go : in fine, the last refuge is Stettin, but you must not 
go till the last extremity. The Garrison, the Royal Family and the 
Treasure are inseparable, and go always together : to this must be added 
the Crown Diamonds, the Silver Plate in the Grand Apartments, which, 
in such case, as well as the Gold Plate, must be at once coined into 
money. 

< If it happened that I were killed, the Public Affairs must go on with- 
out the smallest alteration, or its being noticeable that they are in other 
hands : and, in this case, you must hasten forward the Oaths and 
Homagings, as well here as in Preussen ; and, above all, in Silesia. If 
I should have the fatality to be taken prisoner by the Enemy, I prohibit 
all of you from paying the least regard to my person, or taking the least 
heed of what I might write from my place of detention. Should such 
misfortune happen me, I wish to sacrifice myself for the State ; and you 
must obey my Brother, who, as well as all my Ministers and Generals, 
shall answer to me with their heads, Not to offer any Province or any 
Ransom for ine, but to continue the War, pushing their advantages, as 
if I never had existed in the world. 

e I hope, and have ground to believe, that you, Count Finck, will not 
need to make use of this Instruction : but, in case of misfortune, I 
authorise you to employ it ; and, as mark that it is, after a mature and 
sound deliberation, my firm and constant will, I sign it with my Hand 
and confirm it with my Seal.* 

Or, in Friedrich's own spelling etc., in Friedrich's own hand, 
so far as our possibilities permit : 

< Instruction Secrete Pour le Conte dejinc 

' Berlin, ce 10 de fanv. 1757. 

'Dans La Situation Critique ou se trouvent nos affaires je dois Vous 
donnfr mes Ordres pour que dans tout Les Gas Malheureux qui sont dans la 
possibility des Evenemens vow Soy te autori$s aux partis quit faut prendre. 
1) * Sil arivoit (de quoi k Ciel preserve) qu'une de mes Armies en Saxse 
fut totaUement batt&e, ouUen que Les franqais chassassent Les Hanovryeing 
de Leur pads et si etablis&ent et noiLs menassassent d'un Invasion dans la 

1 Yes ; but there follows no C 3) ' anywhere, such the haste I 



CHAP, vni.] WINTER IN DRESDEN 101 

Jan.-March 1757] 

Vieille Marche, ou que let Busses penetrassent par La Nouvdle Marche* il 
faut Sauver la famille Royale, les principeau Dicastere* les Ministres et le 
Directoire. Si nous somes battus en Saxse du Cote de leipssic Le Lieu Le 
plus propre pour Le transport de La famille et du Tressor est a Custrin y il 
faut en ce Cas que la famille JRoyalle et touts cidesus nomSx aillent es Cortes 
de toute La Guarnisson a Custrin. Si ks Russes entroient par la Nouvek 
Marche ou quil nous arivat un Malheur en Lusace, il faudroit que tout Se 
transportat a Magdebourg, enfin Le Dernier refuge est a Stetein, mats U ne 
faut y aller qu'a La Derniere exstremite La Guarnisson la famille Royatle et 
le Tressort sont Inseparables et wnt toujours ensemble il faut y ajouter ks 
Diamans de la Couronne 9 et L'argenterie des Grands Apartments qui en 
pareil cas ainsi que la Veselle d'or doit etre incontinant Monoyee. Sil arwoit 
que je fas tue, ilfaut que Les affaires Continuent Leur train sans la Moindre 
obliteration et Sans qu'on s'apersoive qu'elles sont en d'autre Mains, et en ce 
Cas ilfaut hater Sermens et homages tant id qden prusse et surtout en 
Silesie. Sifavois lafatalite d'etre pris prissonifr par L* Enemy, je Defend 
qu'on Aye le Moindre egard pour ma perssonne ni qu'on fasse La Moindre 
reflection sur ce que je pourois ecrire de Ma Detention, Si pareil Malheur 
m'ariwit je Veuao me Sacriffifr pour L'Etat et ilfaut qu'on obeisse aMon 
frere le quel ainsi que tout Mes Ministres et Generaux me reponderont de 
leur Tette qu'on offrira ni province ni ransson pour moyet que Ion Continuera 
la Guerre en poussant Ses avantages tout Come si je navais jamais eassistS 
dans le Monde, fespere et je dois Croire que Vous Conte fine n'aurex pas 
fiessoin defaire usage de Cette Instruction mais en gas de Malheur je Vous 
autorisse a L'Employer 9 et Marque que C'est apres Une Mure et saine 
Deliberation Ma ferme et Canstante Volonte je le Signe de Ma Main et la 
Muni de mon Cachet 

'FREDERICK/ 1 

These, privately made law in this manner, are Friedrich's 
fixed feelings and resolutions ; how fixed is now farther 
apparent by a fact which was then still more private, 
guessable long afterwards only by one or two, and never 
clearly known so long as Friedrich lived : the fact that he 
had (now most probably, though the date is not known) 
provided poison for himself, and constantly wore it about his 
person through this War. * Five or six small pills, in a small 
glass tube, with a bit of ribbon to it ' : that stern relic lay, 
in a worn condition, in some drawer of Friedrich's, after 

1 Facsimile of Autograph (Berlin, 24th January 1854) where is some indistinct 
History of the Document. Printed also in (Euvr$s 9 xxv. 319-23. 



102 SEVEN-YEARS WAR BEGINS [BOOK xvir. 

[Jan. -March 1757 

Friedrich was gone. 1 For the Facts are peremptory ; and a 
man that will deal with them must be equally so. 

Two days after this Finck missive, Friday lth, Friedrich 
took farewell at Berlin, drove to Potsdam that night with his 
Brother, to Dresden next day. Adieu, Madam ; Adieu, 
Mother ! said the King, in royal terms, but with a heart 
altogether human. * May God above bless you, my Son ! ' 
the old Lady would reply : and the Two had seen one 
another for the last time ; Mother and Son were to meet nc 
more in this world. 

1 Preuss, ii, 175, 315 n. 



BOOK XVIII 

SEVEN-YEARS WAR RISES TO A HEIGHT 

1757-1759 



CHAPTER I 
THE CAMPAIGN OPENS 

SELDOM was there seen such a combination against any man 
as this against Friedrich, after his Saxon performances in 
1756. The extent of his sin, which is now ascertained to 
have been what we saw, was at that time considered to 
transcend all computation, and to mark him out for partition, 
for suppression and enchainment, as the general enemy of 
mankind. * Partition him, cut him down," said the Great 
Powers to one another ; and are busy, as never before, in 
raising forces, inciting new alliances and calling-out the 
general posse comitatus of mankind, for that salutary object. 
What tempestuous fulminations in the Reichstag, and over 
all Europe, England alone excepted, against this man ! 

Latterly the Swedes, who at first had compunctions on the 
score of Protestantism, have agreed to join in the Partitioning 
adventure : * It bikings us his Pommern, all Pommern ours ! "* 
cry the Swedish Parliamentary Eloquences (with French gold 
in their pocket) : < At any rate,"* whisper they, * it spites the 
Queen his Sister ! ' and drag the poor Swedish Nation into 
a series of disgraces and disastrous platitudes it was little 
anticipating. This precious Fiencn-Swedish Bargain (* Swedes 
to invade with $5 ,000 ; France to give fair subsidy," 1 and 



104 SEVEN- YEARS WAE RISES [BOOKXVIII. 

(Jan.-April 1757 

bribe largely) was consummated in March; 1 but did not 
become known to Friedrich for some months later ; nor was 
it of the importance he then thought it, in the first moment 
of surprise and provocation. Not indeed of importance to 
anybody, except, in the reverse way, to poor Sweden itself, 
and to the French, who had spent a great deal of pains and 
money on it, and continued to spend, with as good as no 
result at all. For there never was such a War, before or 
since, not even by Sweden in the Captainless state ! And 
the one profit the copartners reaped from it, was some dis- 
countenance it gave to the rumour which had risen, more 
extensively than we should now think, and even with some 
nucleus of fact in it as appears, That Austria, France and the 
Catholic part of the Reich were combining to put-down Pro- 
testantism. To which they could now answer, * See, Protestant 
Sweden is with us ! ' and so weaken a little what was pretty 
much Friedrich's last hold on the public sympathies at this time. 

As to France itself, to France, Austria, Russia, bound 
by such earthly Treaties, and the call of very Heaven, shall 
they not, in united puissance and indignation, rise to the 
rescue? France, touched to the heart by such treatment of 
a Saxon Kurfurst, and bound by Treaty of Westphalia to 
protect all members of the Reich (which it has sometimes, to 
our own knowledge, so carefully done), is almost more ardent 
than Austria itself. France, Austria, Russia ; to these add 
Polish Majesty himself; and latterly the very Swedes, by 
French bribery at Stockholm : these are the Partitioning 
Powers ; and their shares (let us spare one line for their 
shares) are as follows. 

The Swedes are to have Pommern in whole ; Polish-Saxon 
Majesty gets Magdeburg, Halle, and opulent slices there- 
abouts ; Austria's share, we need not say, is that jewel of a 
Silesia. Czarish Majesty, on the extreme East, takes Preussen, 
Konigsberg-Memel Country in whole ; adds Preussen to her as 
yet too narrow Territories. Wesel-Cleve Country, from the 
* *?ist March 1757' (Stenzel, v. 38; etc.) 



CHAP. I.] THE CAMPAIGN OPENS 105 

Jan.-April 1757] 

other or Western extremity, France will take that clipping, 
and make much of it. These are quite serious business- 
engagements, engrossed on careful parchment, that Spring 
1757, and I suppose not yet boiled-down into glue, but still 
to be found in dusty corners, with the tape much faded. The 
high heads, making preparation on the due scale, think them 
not only executable, but indubitable, and almost as good as 
done. Push home upon him, as united Posse Comitatus of 
Mankind ; in a sacred cause of Polish Majesty and Public 
Justice, how can one malefactor resist? 'Ah, ma tres-chere 
ReineJ and ' Oh, my dearest Princess and Cousin,' what a 
chance has turned up ! 

It is computed that there are arrayed against this one 
King, under their respective Kings, Empress-Queens, Swedish 
Senates, Catins and Pompadours, populations to the amount 
of above 100 millions, in after stages, I remember to have 
seen '150 millions' loosely given as the exaggerated cipher. 
Of armed soldiers actually in the field against him (against 
Hanover and him), in 1757, there are, by strict count, 
430,000. Friedrich's own Dominions at this time contain 
about Five Millions of Population ; of Revenue somewhat less 
than Two Millions sterling. New taxes he cannot legally, 
and will not, lay on his People. His Schatz (ready-money 
Treasure, or Hoard yearly accumulating for such end) is, I 
doubt not, well filled, express amount not mentioned. Of 
drilled men he has, this Year, 150,000 for the field; 
portioned out thriftily, as well beseems, against Four 
Invasions coming on him from different points. In the field, 
150,000 soldiers, probably the best that ever were; and in 
garrison, up and down (his Country being, by nature, the 
least defensible of all Countries), near 40,000, which he 
reckons of inferior quality. So stands the account. 1 These 

1 Stenzel, iv. 308, 306, v. 39 ; Ranke, iii. 415 ; Preuss, ii. 389, 43, 124; etc. 
etc. ; substantially true, I doubt not ; but little or nothing of it so definite and 
conclusively distinct as it ought, in all items, to have been by this time, had 
poor Dryasdust known what he was doing. 



106 SEVEN- YEARS WAR RISES [BOOKXVlii. 

[aeth-ayth March 1757 

are, arithmetically precise, his resources, plus only what may 
lie in his own head and heart, or funded in the other heads 
and hearts, especially in those 150,000, which he and his 
Fathers have been diligently disciplining, to good perfection, 
for four centuries come the time. 

France, urged by Pompadour and the enthusiasms, was 
first in the field. The French Army, in superb equipment, 
though privately in poorish state of discipline, took the road 
early in March; * March 26th and 27th,'* it crossed the 
German Border, Cleve Country and Koln Country ; had been 
rumoured of since January and February last, as terrifically 
grand; and here it now actually is, above 100,000 strong, 
110,405, as the Army-Lists, flaming through all the News- 
papers, teach mankind. 1 Bent mainly upon Prussia, it would 
seem ; such the will of Pompadour. Mainly upon Prussia ; 
Marechal dTEstrees, crossing at Koln, made offers even to his 
Britannic Majesty to be forgiven in comparison ; < Yield us a 
road through your Hanover, merely a road to those Halber- 
stadt-Magdeburg parts, your Hanover shall have neutrality ! ' 
'Neutrality to Hanover?' sighed Britannic Majesty; 'Alas, 
am not I pledged by Treaty ? And, alas, withal, how is it 
possible, with that America hanging over us ? ' and stood 
true. Nor is this all, on the part of magnanimous France : 
there is a Soubise getting under way withal, Soubise and 
30,000, who will reinforce the Reich's Armament, were it on 
foot, and be heard of by and by ! So high runs French 
enthusiasm at present. A new sting of provocation to Most 
Christian Majesty, it seems, has been Friedrich's conduct in 
that Damiens matter (miserable attempt, by a poor mad 
creature, to assassinate, or at least draw blood upon the Most 
Christian Majesty 2 ); about which Friedrich, busy and oblivious, 

1 ffelden-Geschichte, iv. 391 ; iii. 1073. 

3 'Evening of 5th January 1757* (exuberantly plentiful details of it, and of 
the horrible Law-procedures which followed on it : in Adelung, viiL 197-220 ; 
Barbier, etc. etc.)- 



CHAP. I.] THE CAMPAIGN OPENS 107 

i6th April 1757] 

had never, in common politeness, been at the pains to condole, 
compliment, or take any notice whatever. And will now take 
the consequences, as due ! 

The Wesel-Cleve Countries these French find abandoned : 
Friedrich's garrisons have had orders to bring-off the artillery- 
and stores, blow-up what of the works are suitable for blowing- 
up; and join the c Britannic Army of Observation 1 which is 
getting itself together in those regions. Considerable Army, 
Britannic wholly in the money part: new Hanoverians so 
many, Brunswickers, Biickeburgers, Sachsen-Gothaers so many ; 
add those precious Hanoverian-Hessian 0,000, whom we 
have had in England guarding our liberties so long, who 
are now shipped-over in a lot ; fair wind and full sea to them. 
Army of 60,000 on paper; of effective more than 50,000 ; 
Headquarters now at Bielefeld on the Weser ; where, c April 
16th,' or a few days later, Royal Highness of Cumberland 
comes to take command ; likely to make a fine figure against 
Mare'chal d'Estrces and his 100,000 French ! But there was 
no helping it. Friedrich, through Winter, has had Schmettau 
earnestly flagitating the Hanoverian Officialities : c The Weser 
is wadeable in many places, you cannot defend the Weser ! * 
and counselling and pleading to all lengths, without the 
least effect. * Wants to save his own Halberstadt lands, at 
our expense ! ' Which was the idea in London, too : < Don't 
we, by Apocalyptic Newswriters and eyesight of our own, 
understand the man ? ' Pitt is by this time in Office, who 
perhaps might have judged a little otherwise. But Pitt's 
seat is altogether temporary, insecure ; the ruling deities, 
Newcastle and Royal Highness, who withal are in standing 
quarrel. So that Friedrich, Schmettau, Mitchell pleaded to 
the deaf. Nothing but * Defend the Weser,' and ignorant 
Fatuity ready for the Impossible, is to be made out there. 
6 Cannot help it, then, 1 thinks Friedrich, often enough, in bad 
moments ; fc Army of Observation will have its fate. Happily 
there are only 5,000 Prussians in it, Wesel and the other 
garrisons given up ! ' 



108 SEVEN- fEARS WAR RISES [BOOKXVIIL 

[i6th April 1757 

Only 5,000 Prussians: by original Engagement, there 
should have been 25,000 ; and Friedrich's intention is even 
45,000 if he prosper otherwise. For in January 1757 
(Anniversary or nearly so, of that Neutrality Convention last 
year), there had been, encouraged by Pitt, as I could 
surmise, who always likes Friedrich, a definite, much closer 
Treaty of Alliance, with Subsidy of a million sterling,' Anti- 
Russian * Squadron of Observation in the Baltic,' < 25,000 
Prussians, 1 and other items, which I forget. Forget the more 
readily, as, owing to the strange state of England (near 
suffocating in its Constitutional bedclothes), the Treaty could 
not be kept at all, or serve as rule to poor England's exertions 
for Friedrich this Year ; exertions which were of the willing- 
minded but futile kind, going forward pell-mell, not by plan, 
and could reach Friedrich only in the lump, had there been 
any * lump ' of them to sum together. But Pitt had gone 
out ; we shall see what, in Pitt's absence, there was ! So 
that this Treaty 1757 fell quite into the waste-basket (not 
to say, far deeper, by way of < pavement ' we know where !), 
and is not mentioned in any English Book ; nor was known 
to exist, till some Collector of such things printed it, in com- 
paratively recent times. 1 A Treaty 1757, which, except as 
emblem of the then quasi-enchanted condition of England, 
and as Fore-shadow of Pitt's new Treaty in January 1758, 
and of three others that followed and were kept to the letter, 
is not of moment farther. 



Reich? s Thunder, slight Survey of it; with Question, 
Whitherward, if any whither ? 

The thunderous Eliminations in the ReichVDiet, an 
injured Saxony complaining, an insulted Kaiser, after vain 
De-hortatoriums, reporting and denouncing, * Horrors such as 
these : What say you, Reich ? ' have been going-on since 

1 * M. Koch in 1802,' not very perfectly (Scholl, iii. 30, .; who copies what 
Koch has given). 



CHAP. I.] THE CAMPAIGN OPENS 109 

Jan.-Aprili757] 

September last; and amount to boundless masses of the 
liveliest Parliamentary Eloquence, now fallen extinct to all 
creatures. 1 The Kaiser, otherwise a solid pacific gentleman, 
intent on commercial operations (furnishes a good deal of our 
meal, says Friedrich), is Officially extremely violent in behalf 
of injured Saxony, that is to say, in fact, of injured Austria, 
which is one's own. Kur-Mainz, Chairman of the Diet (we 
remember how he was got, and a Battle of Dettingen fought 
in consequence, long since) ; Kur-Mainz is admitted to have 
the most decided Austrian leanings : Britannic George, Austria 
being now in the opposite scale, finds him an unhandy Kur- 
Mainz, and what profit it was to introduce false weights into 
the Reich^s balance that time ! Not for long generations 
before, had the poor old semi-imaginary ReichVDiet risen 
into such paroxysms ; nor did it ever again after. Neva: 
again, in its terrestrial History, was there such agonistic 
parliamentary struggle, and terrific noise of parliamentary 
palaver, witnessed in the poor ReichVDiet. Noise and 
struggle rising ever higher, peal after peal, from September 
1756, when it started, till August 1757, when it had reached 
its acme (as perhaps we shall see), though it was far from 
ending then, or for years to come. 

Contemporary bystanders remark, on the Austrian part, 
extraordinary rage and hatred against Prussia ; which is now 
the one point memorable. Austria is used to speak loud in the 
Diet, as we have ourselves seen : and it is again (if you dive 
into those old JEolus'-Caves, at your peril) unpleasantly not- 
able to what pitch of fixed rage, and hot sullen hatred Austria 
has now gone ; and how the tone has in it a potency of world- 
wide squealing and droning, such as you nowhere heard 
before. Omnipotence of droning, edged with shrieky squeal- 
ing, which fills the Universe, not at all in a melodious way. 
From the depths of the gamut to the shrieky top again, a 
droning that has something of porcine or wild-boar character. 

1 Given, to great lengths, in Heldtn-GtscHicftt^ iii. iv. (and other easily avoid- 
able Books). 



110 SEVEN- YEARS WAR RISES [BOOKXVIII. 

Q an. -April 1757 

Figure assembled the wild-boars of the world, all or mostly 
all got together, and each with a knife just stuck into its 
side, by a felonious individual too well known, you will have 
some notion of the sound of these things. Friedrich some- 
times remonstrates : * Cannot you spare such phraseology, un- 
seemly to Kings ? The quarrels of Kings have to be decided 
by the sword ; what profit in unseemly language, Madam ? ' 
but, for the first year and more, there was no abatement on 
the Austrian part. 

Friedrich's own Delegate at Regensburg, a Baron von 
Plotho, come of old Brandenburg kindred, is a resolute, ready- 
tongued, very undaunted gentleman ; learned in Diplomacies 
and Reich's Law ; carries his head high, and always has his 
story at hand. Argument grounded on Reich's Law and the 
nature of the case, Plotho never lacks, on spur of the hour : 
and is indeed a very commendable parliamentary mastiff ; and 
honourable and melodious in the bark of him, compared with 
those infuriated porcine specimens. He has Kur-Hanover for 
ally on common occasions, and generally from most Protestant 
members individually, or from the CorpiLs Evangelicorum in 
mass, some feeble whimper of support. Finds difficulty in 
getting his Reich's Pleadings printed ; dangerous, everywhere 
in those Southern Parts, to print anything whatever that is 
not Austrian : so that Plotho, at length, gets printers to him- 
self, and sets-up a Printing-Press in his own house at Regens- 
burg. He did a great deal of sonorous pleading for Fried- 
rich ; proud, deep-voiced, ruggedly logical ; fairly beyond the 
Austrian quality in many cases, and always far briefer, which 
is another high merit. October coming, we purpose to look- 
in upon Plotho for one minute; * October 14th, 1757'; 
which may be reckoned essentially the acme or turning-point 
of these unpleasant thunderings. 1 

What good he did to Friedrich, or could have done with 
the tongue of angels in such an audience, we do not accurately 
know. Some good he would do even in the Reich's-Diet 

1 Hdden-GescUchte> iv. 745-9. 



CHAP. I.] THE CAMPAIGN OPENS 111 

Jan.-April 1757] 

there ; and out of doors, over a German public, still more ; 
and is worth, his frugal wages, say l,000i a year, printing 
and all other expense included! This is a mere guess of 
mine, Dryasdust having been incurious: but, to English 
readers it is incredible for what sums Friedrich got his work 
done, no work ever better. Which is itself an appreciable 
advantage, computable in pounds sterling ; and is the parent 
of innumerable others which no Arithmetic or Book-keeping 
by Double Entry will take hold of, and which are indeed 
priceless for Nations and for persons. But this poor old bed- 
ridden Reich, starting in agonistic spasm at such rate : is it 
not touching, in a Corpus moribund for so many Centuries 
past! The Reich is something; though it is not much, 
nothing like so much as even Kaiser Franz supposes it. 
Much or not so much, Kaiser Franz wishes to secure it for 
himself; Friedrich to hinder him, and it must be a poor 
something, if not worth Plotho's wages on Friedrich's part. 

It would insult the patience of every reader to go into 
these spasmodic tossings of the poor paralytic Reich ; or to 
mention the least item of them beyond what had some result, 
or fraction of result, on the world^s real affairs. We shall 
say only, therefore, that after tempests not a few of porcine 
squealing, answered always by counter-latration on the vigilant 
Plotho^s part ; squealing, chiefly, from the ReichVHofrath 
at Vienna, the Head Tribunal of Imperial Majesty, which sits 
judging and denouncing there, touched to the soul, as if by a 
knife driven into its side, by those unheard-of treatments of 
Saxony and disregard to our Delwrtatoriums^ and which bursts- 
out, peal after peal, filling the Universe, Plotho not unvigilant; 
the poor old ReichVDiet did at last get into an acting 
posture, and determine, by clear majority of 99 against 60, 
that there should be a * Reich^s Execution Army ' got on foot. 
ReicK's Execution Army to coerce, by force of arms, this 
nefarious King of Prussia into making instant restitution to 
Saxony, with ample damages on the nail ; that right be done 
to Kurflirsts of this Reich. To such height of vigour has the 



112 SEVEN- YEARS WAR RISES [BOOKXVIII. 

Qan.-April 1757 

ReichVDiet gone ; and was voting it at Regensburg January 
10th ? 1757; 1 that very day when nefarious Friedrich at 
Berlin, cage-hardened in iniquity to such a pitch, sat writing 
his Instruction to Count Finck, which we read not long since. 
Simultaneous movements, unknown to one another, in this 
big wrestle. 

ReichVDiet perfected its Vote ; had it quite through, and 
sanctioned by the Kaisers Majesty, January 9th : ' Arming 
to be a triplum'* (triple contingent required of you this time); 
with Romish-months (Romermonate) of cash contributions from 
all and sundry (rigorously gathered, I should hope, where 
Austria has power), so many as will cover the expense. Army 
to be got on actual foot hastily, instantly if possible : an 
'eilende Reichs-Executions-Armee ' ; so it ran, but the word 
eilende (speedy) had a mischance in printing, and was struck- 
off into elende (contemptibly wretched) : so that on all Market- 
Squares, and Public Places of poor Teutschland, you read 
flaming Placards summoning out, not a speedy or immediate, 
but * a miserable Reich's Execution Army ! ' A word which, 
we need not say, was laughed at by the unfeeling part of the 
public; and was often called to mind by the Reich's Execution 
Army's performances, when said speedy Army did at last take 
the field. 

For the Reich performed its Vote ; actually had a Reich's 
Execution Army; the last it ever had in this world, not by 
any means the worst it ever had, for they used generally to be 
bad. Commanders, managers are named, Romermonate are 
gathered in, or the sure prospect of them ; and, through May 
June 1757, there is busy stir, of drumming, preparing and 
enlisting, all over the Reich. End of July, we shall see the 
Reich's Army in Camp ; end of August, actually in the field ; 
and later on, a touch of its fighting withal. Many other 
things the Reich tried against unfortunate Friedrich, gradual 
advance, in fact, to Ban of the Reich (or total anathema and 
cutting-off from fire and water) : but in none of these, in Ban 
1 Heldcn-Gcschichte,w. 252-303.330; Stenzel, v. 32. 



CHAP. I.] THE CAMPAIGN OPENS 113 

aoth April-ad May 1757] 

as little as any, did it come to practical result at all, or 
acquire the least title to be remembered at this day. Finis 
of Ban, some eight months hence, has something of attractive 
as futility, the curious Death of a Futility. Finis of Ban 
(October 14th, already indicated) we may for one moment 
look-in upon, if there be one moment to spare ; the rest 
readers may fancy it ; and read only of the actuality and 
fighting part, which will itself be enough for them on such a 
matter. 

Friedrich suddenly marches on Prog 

Four Invasions, from their respective points of the compass, 
north-east, north-west, south-east and south-west : here is a 
formidable outlook for the one man against whom they are 
all advancing open-mouthed. The one man, with nothing 
but a Duke of Cumberland and his Observation Army for 
backing in such duel, had need to look to himself ! Which, 
we well know, he does ; wrapt in profoundly silent vigilance, 
with his plans all laid. Of the Four Invasions, three, the 
Russian, French, Austrian, are very large ; and the two latter, 
especially the last, are abundantly formidable. The Swedish, 
of which there is rumouring, he hopes may come to little, or 
not come at all. Nor is Russia, though talking big, and 
actually getting ready above 100,000 men, so immediately 
alarming. Friedrich always hopes the English, with their 
guineas and their managements, will do something for him 
in that quarter ; and he knows, at worst, that the Russian 
Hundred-Thousand will be a very slow-moving entity. The 
Swedish Invasion Friedrich, for the present, leaves to chance : 
and against Russia, he has sent old Marshal Lehwald into 
those Baltic parts ; far eastward, towards the utmost Memel 
Frontier, to put the Country upon its own defence, and make 
what he can of it with 30,000 men, West-Prussian militias 
a good few of them. This is all he can spare on the Swedish- 
Russian side : Austria and France are the perilous pair of 
entities ; not to be managed except by intense concentration 

VOL. vi. H 



SEVEN- YEARS WAR RISES [BOOKXvm. 

[aoth April-2d May 1757 

of stroke ; and by going on them in succession, if one have 
luck ! 

Friedrich's motions and procedures in canton-quarters, 
through Winter and in late months, have led to the belief 
that he means to stand on the defensive ; that the scene of 
the Campaign will probably be Saxony; and that Austria, 
for recovering injured Saxony, for recovering dear Silesia, will 
have to take an invasive attitude. And Austria is busy 
everywhere preparing with that view. Has Tolpatcheries, 
and advanced Brigades, still harassing about in the Lausitz. 
A great Army assembling at Prag, Browne forward towards 
the Metal Mountains securing posts, gathering magazines, foi 
the crossing into Saxony there. There, it is thought, the 
tug of war will probably be. Furious, and strenuous, it is 
not doubted, on this Friedrich's part : but against such odds, 
what can he do? With Austrians in front, with Russians 
to left, with French to right and a-rear, not to mention 
Swedes and appendages : surely here, if ever, is a lost 
King I 

It is by no means Friedrich's intention that Saxony itself 
shall need to be invaded. Friedrich^s habit is, as his enemies 
might by this time be beginning to learn, not that of stand- 
ing on the defensive, but that of going on it, as the prefer- 
able method wherever possible. March 24th, Friedrich had 
quitted Dresden City ; and for a month after (headquarters 
Lockwitz, edge of the Pirna Country), he had been shifting, 
redistributing, his cantoned Army, privately into the due 
Divisions, due readiness for march. Which done, on fixed 
days, about the end of April, the whole Army, he himself 
from Lockwitz, April 0th, to the surprise of Austria and 
the world, Friedrich in three grand Columns, Bevern out of 
the Lausitz, King himself over the Metal Mountains, Schwerin 
out of Schlesien, is marching with extraordinary rapidity 
direct for Prag ; in the notion that a right plunge into the 
heart of Bohemia will be the best defence for Saxony and the 
other places under menace. 



CHAP.L] THE CAMPAIGN OPENS 115 

aoth April-ad May 1757] 

This is a most unexpected movement ; which greatly 
astonishes the world-theatre, pit, boxes and gallery alike (as 
Friedrictfs sudden movements often do) ; and which is, above 
all, interesting on the stage itself, where the actors had been 
counting on a quite opposite set of entries and activities ! 
Feldmarschall Browne and General Konigseck (not our old 
friend Konigseck, who used to drynurse in the Netherlands, 
but his nephew and heir) may cease gathering Magazines, in 
those Lausitz and Metal-Mountain parts : happy could they 
give wings to those already gathered ! Magazines, for Austrian 
service, are clearly not the things wanted there. One does 
not burn one's Magazines till the last extremity ; but wings 
they have none ; and such is the enigmatic velocity of those 
Prussian movements, one seldom has time even to burn them, 
in the last crisis of catastrophe ! Considerable portions of that 
provender fell into the Prussian throat ; as much as ' three- 
months provision for the whole Army,' count they, adding 
to those Frontier sundries the really important Magazine 
which they seized at Jung-Bunzlau farther in. 1 It is one 
among their many greater advantages from this surprisal of 
the enemy, and sudden topsy-turvying of his plans. Browne 
and Konigseck have to retire on Prag at their swiftest ; look- 
ing to more important results than Magazines. 

It is Friedrich's old plan. Long since, in 1744, we saw a 
march of this kind, Three Columns rushing with simultaneous 
rapidity on Prag ; and need not repeat the particulars on this 
occasion. Here are some Notes on the subject, which will 
sufficiently bring it home to readers : 

The Three Columns were, for a part of the way. Four ; the King's 
being, at first, in two branches, till they united again, on the other side 
of the Hills. For the King/ what is to be noted, 'had shot-out, three 
weeks before, a small preliminary branch, under Moritz of Dessau ; who 
marched, well westward, by Eger (starting from Chemnitz in Saxony) , 
and had some tusseling with our poor old friend Duke d'Ahremberg, 
Browne's subordinate in those parts. D'Ahremberg, having 20,000 under 

1 Heldcn-Geschichtei iv. 6-13; etc. 



116 SEVEN- YEARS WAR RISES [BOOKXvm. 

[aoth April 1757 

Mm, would not quit Eger for Moritz ; but pushed-out Croats upon him, 
and sat still. This, it was afterwards surmised, had been a feint on 
Friedrich's part ; to give the Austrians pleasant thoughts : ' ' Invading us, 
is he ? Would fain invade us, but cannot ! " Moritz fell back from Eger ; 
and was ready to join the King's march, "at Linay, April 23d" (third day 
from Lockwitz, on the King's part). Onwards from which point the 
Columns are specifically Three; in strength, and on routes, somewhat 
as follows : 

1. < The First Column, or King's, which is 60,000 after this junction, 
45,000 foot, 15,000 horse, quitted Lockwitz (headquarter for a month 
past), Wednesday April 2,0th. They go by the Pascopol and other roads ; 
through Pirna, for one place : through Karbitz, Aussig, are at Linay on 
the 23d ; where Moritz joins : 24th, in the united state, forward again 
(leave Lobositz two miles to left) ; to Trebnitz, 25th, and rest there one 
day. 

( At Aussig an unfortunate thing befell. Zastrow, respectable old 
General Zastrow, was to drive the Austrians out of Aussig: Zastrow 
does it, April 22d-23d, drives them well over the heights ; April 25th, 
however, marching forward towards Lobositz, Zastrow is shot through 
both temples (Pandour hid among the bushes and cliffs, other side of 
Elbe), and falls dead on the spot Buried in Gottleube Kirk, 1st May/ 

In these Aussig affairs, especially in recapturing the Castle 
of Tetschen near by. Colonel Mayer, father of the new 6 Free 
Corps, 1 did shining service; and was approved of, he and 
they. And, a day or two after, was detached with a Fifteen 
Hundred of that kind, on more important business : First, to 
pick-up one or two Bohemian Magazines lying handy ; after 
which, to pay a visit to the Reich and its bluster about 
Execution- Army, and teach certain persons who it is they are 
thundering against in that awkwardly truculent manner ! 
Errand shiningly done by Mayer, as perhaps we may hear, 
and certainly as all the Newspapers loudly heard, in the 
course of the next two months. 

At crossing of the Eger, Friedrich's Column had some 
chasing of poor D'Ahremberg; attempting to cut him off 
from his Bridges, Bridge of Koschlitz, Bridge of Budin ; but 
he made good despatch, Browne and he ; and, except a few 
prisoners of Ziethen's gathering, and most of his Magazines 
unburnt, they did him no damage. The chase was close 



CHAP. I.] THE CAMPAIGN OPENS 117 

aoth April 1757] 

enough ; more than once, the Austrian headquarter of tonight 
was that of the Prussians tomorrow. Monday May 2d, 
Friedrich's Column was on the Weissenberg of Prag ; Browne, 
D^Ahremberg, and Prince Karl, who is now come up to take 
command, having hastily filed through the City, leaving a fit 
garrison, the day before. Except his Magazines, nothing the 
least essential went wrong with Browne ; but Kdnigseck, who 
had not a Friedrich on his heels, Konigseck, trying more, 
as his opportunities were more, was not quite so lucky, 

2*. e Column Second, to the King's left, comes from the Lausitz under 
Brunswick-Bevern- 18,000 foot, 5,000 horse. This is the Bevern who 
so distinguished himself at Lohositz last year ; and he is now to culminate 
into a still brighter exploit, the last of his very bright ones, as it proved. 
Bevern set out from about Zittau (from Grottau, few miles south of 
Zittau), the same day with Friedrich, that is April 20th ; and had not 
well started till he came upon formidable obstacles. Came upon General 
Konigseck, namely: a Konigseck manoeuvring ahead, in superior force; 
a Maguire, Irish subordinate of Konigseck's, coming from the right to 
cut-off our baggage (against whom Bevern has to detach); a Lacy, 
coming from the left; or indeed, Konigseck and Lacy in concert, 
intending to offer battle. Battle of Reichenberg, which accordingly 
ensued, April 21st/ of which, though it was very famous for so small a 
Battle, there can be no account given here. 

The short truth is, Konigseck falling back, Parthian-like, 
with a force of 30,000 or more, has in front of him nothing 
but Bevern ; who, as he issues from the Lausitz, and till he 
can unite with Schwerin farther southward, is but some 
20,000 odd : cannot Konigseck call halt, and hid Bevern 
return, or do worse ? Konigseck, a diligent enough soldier, 
determines to try ; chooses an excellent position, at or 
round Reichenberg, which is the first Bohemian Town, one 
march from Zittau in the Lausitz, and then one from 
Liebenau, which latter would be Severn's second Bohemian 
stage on the Prag road, if he continued prosperous. Reichen- 
berg, standing nestled among hills in the Neisse Valley (one 
of those Four Neisses known to us, the Neisse where Prince 
Karl got exploded, in that signal manner, Winter 1745, by 



118 SEVEN-YEARS WAR RISES [BOOKXVIII. 

[aoth April-2d May 1757 

a certain King), offers fine capabilities ; which Konigseck has 
laid hold of. There is especially one excellent Hollow (on 
the left or western bank of Neisse River, that is, across from 
Reichenberg), backed by woody hills, nothing but hills, brooks, 
woods all round ; Hollow scooped-out as if for the purpose ; 
and altogether of inviting character to Konigseck. There, 

* Wednesday April 20th,' Konigseck posts himself, plants 
batteries, fells abatis ; plenty of cannon, of horse and foot, 
and, say all soldiers, one of the best positions possible. 

So that Severn, approaching Reichenberg at evening, 
evening of his first march, Wednesday April 20th, finds his 
way barred ; and that the difficulties may be considerable. 

* Nothing to be made of it tonight,' thinks Severn ; * but we 
must try tomorrow ! ' and has to take Camp, 6 with a marshy 
brook in front of him,' some way on the hither side of 
Reichenberg ; and study overnight what method of unbarring 
there may be. Thursday morning early, Bevern, having well 
reconnoitred and studied, was at work unbarring. Bevern 
crossed his own marshy brook ; courageously assaulted Konig- 
seck's position, left wing of Konigseck ; stormed the abatis, 
the batteries, plunged-in upon Konigseck, man to man, horse 
to horse, and after some fierce enough but brief dispute, 
tumbled Konigseck out of the ground. Konigseck made 
some attempt to rally ; attempted twice, but in vain ; had 
fairly to roll away, and at length to run, leaving 1,000 dead 
upon the field, about 500 prisoners; one or two guns, and I 
forget how many standards, or whether any kettledrums. 
This was thought to be a decidedly bright feat on Severn's 
part (rather mismanaged latterly on Konigseck's) ; 1 much 
approved by Friedrich, as he hears of it, at Linay, on his 

1 Tempelhof, i. IQOJ Hdden-Geschichte, iii. 1077 (Friedrich's own Account, 
'Linay in Bohmen, 24th April 1757'); etc. etc. There is, in Btisching's 
Magazin (xvi. 139 et seq.), an intelligible sketch of this Action of Reichenberg, 
with satirical criticisms, which have some basis, on Lacy, Maguire and others, 
by an Anonymous Military Cynic, who gives many such in Btisching (that of 
Fontenoy, for example), not without force of judgment, and signs of wide study 
and experience in his trade. 



CHAP. I.] THE CAMPAIGN OPENS lid 

20th April-2d May 1757] 

own prosperous march Prag-warcL A comfortable omen, 
were there nothing more. 

Konigseck and Company, torn-out of Reichenberg, and set 
running, could not fairly halt again and face-about till at 
Liebenau, twenty miles off, where they found some defile or 
difficult bit of ground fit for them; and this too proved 
capable of yielding pause for a few hours only. For Schwerin, 
with his Silesian Column, was coming-up from the north-east, 
threatening Konigseck on flank and rear : Konigseck could 
only tighten his straps a little at this Liebenau, and again 
get under way; and making vain attempts to hinder the 
junction of Schwerin and Bevern, to defend the Jung-Bunzlau 
Magazine, or do any good in those parts, except to detain the 
Schwerin-Bevern people certain hours (I think, one day in 
all), had nothing for it but to gird himself together, and 
retreat on Prag and the Ziscaberg, where his friends now 
were. 

The Austrian force at Reichenberg was 20,000; would 
have been 30 and odd thousands, had Maguire come up (as 
he might have done, had not the appearances alarmed him too 
much) ; Bevern, minus the Detachment sent against Maguire, 
was but 15,000 in fight; and he has quite burst the Austrians 
away, who had plugged his road for him in such force : is it 
not a comfortable little victory, glorious in its sort ; and a 
good omen for the bigger things that are coming ? Bevern 
marched composedly on, after this inspiriting tussle, through 
Liebenau and what defiles there were ; April 24th, at Turnau, 
he falls into the Schwerin Column ; incorporates himself 
therewith, and, as subordinate constituent part, accompanies 
Schwerin thenceforth. 

3. ' Column Third was Schwerin's, out of Schlesien ; counted to be 
32,000 foot, 12,000 horse. Schwerin, gathering himself, from Glatz and 
the northerly country, at Landshut, very careless, he, of the pleasant 
Hills, and fine scattered peaks of the Giant Mountains thereabouts, was 
completely gathered foremost of all the Columns, having farthest to go. 
And on Monday 18th April, started from Landshut, Winterfeld leading 
one Division. In our days, it is the finest of roads *, high level Pass, of 



120 SEVEN- YEARS WAR RISES [BOOKXVIII. 

[ad May 1757 

good width, across the Giant Range ; pleasant painted hamlets sprinkling 
it, fine mountain ridges and distant peaks looking on ; Schneekoppe 
(Snowfall, its head bright-white till July come) attends you, far to the 
right, all the way : probably Sprite Riibezahl inhabits there ; and no 
doubt River Elbe begins his long journey there, trickling down in little 
threads over yonder, intending to float navies by and by : considerations 
infinitely indifferent to Schwerin. " The road," says my Tourist, ee is not 
Alpine ; it reminds you of Derbyshire-Peak country ; more like the road 
from Castletown to Sheffield than any I could name" ; we have been in 
it before, my reader and I, about Schatzlar and other places. Trautenau, 
well down the Hills, with swift streams, more like torrents, bound Elbe- 
wards, watering it, is a considerable Austrian Town, and the Bohemian 
end of the Pass, Sohr only a few miles from it : heartily indifferent to 
Schwerin at this moment ; who was home from the Army, in a kind of 
disfavour, or mutual pet, at the time Sohr was done. Schwerin's March 
we shall not give; his junction with Bevern (at Turnau, on the Iser, 
April 24th), then their capture of Jung-Bunzlau Magazine, and crossing 
of the Elbe at Melnick, these were the important points ; and, in spite 
of Konigseck's tusselings, these all went well, and nothing was lost 
except one day of time/ 

The Austrians, some days ago, as we observed, filed through 
Prag, Sunday May 1st, not a pleasant holiday-spectacle to 
the populations ; and are all encamped on the Ziscaberg 
high ground, on the other side of the City. Had they been 
alert, now was their time to attack Friedrich, who is weaker 
than they, while nobody has yet joined him. They did not 
think of it under Prince Karl ; and Browne and the Prince 
are said to be in bad agreement. 



CHAPTER II 

BATTLE OF PRAG 

MONDAY morning 2d May 1757, the Vanguard, or advanced 
troops of Friedrich's Column, had appeared upon the Weissen- 
berg, north-west corner of Prag (ground known to them in 
1744, and to the poor Winter-King in 160) : Vanguard in 
the morning; followed shortly by Friedrich himself; and, 
hour after hour, by all the others, marching in. So that, 



CHAP. IL] BATTLE OF PRAG 121 

ad May 1757] 

before sunset, the whole force lay posted there ; and had the 
romantic City of Prag full in view at their feet. A most 
romantic, high-piled, many -towered, most unlevel old City ; 
its skylights and gilt steeplecocks glittering in the western 
sun, Austrian Camp very visible close beyond it, spread out 
miles in extent on the Ziscaberg Heights, or eastern side ; 
Prag, no doubt, and the Austrian Garrison of Prag, taking 
intense survey of this Prussian phenomenon, with comment- 
aries, with emotions, hidden now in eternal silence, as is fit 
enough. One thing we know, * Headquarter was in Welles- 
lawin " ; there, in that small Hamlet, nearly to north, lodged 
Friedrich, the then busiest man of Europe ; whom Posterity 
is still striving for a view of, as something memorable. 

Prince Karl, our old friend, is now in chief command 
yonder ; Browne also is there, who was in chief command ; 
their scheme of Campaign gone all awry. And to Friedrich, 
last night, at his quarters * in the Monastery of Tuchomirsitz/ 
where these two Gentlemen had lodged the night before, it 
was reported that they had been heard in violent alter- 
cation ; l both of them, naturally, in ill-humour at the sur- 
prising turn things had taken ; and Feldmarschall L/owne 
firing-up, belike, at some platitude past or coming, at some 
advice of his rejected, some imputation cast on him, or we 
know not what. Prince Karl is now chief; and indignant 
Browne, as may well be the case, dissents a good deal, as he 
has often had to do. Patience, my friend, it is near ending 
now ! Prince Karl means to lie quiet on the Ziscaberg, and 
hold Prag; does not think of molesting Friedrich in his 
solitary state ; and will undertake nothing, * till Konigseck, 
from Jung-Bunzlau, come in,' victorious or not; or till 
perhaps even Daun arrive (who is, rather slowly, gathering 
reinforcement in Mahren) : * What can the enemy attempt 
on us, in a Post of this strength ? ' thinks Prince Karl. And 
Browne, whatever his insight or convictions be, has to keep 
silence. 

1 Hdden-Gcschichte, iv. n (exact * Diary of the march ' given there). 



122 SEVEN- YEARS WAR RISES [BOOK XVIII. 

[ad May 1757 

f Weissenberg/ let readers be reminded, f is on the hither or western 
side of Prag: the Hradschin' (pronounce Radsheen, with accent on the 
last syllable, as in 'Schwerw* and other such cases), 'the Hradschin, 
which is the topmost summit of the City and of .the Fashionable Quarter, 
old Bohemian Palace, still occasionally habitable as such, and in 
constant use as a Downing -Street, lies on the slope or shoulder of the 
Weissenberg, a good way from the top ; and has a web of streets rushing 
down from it, steepest streets in the world ; till they reach the Bridge, 
and broad-flowing Moldau (broad as Thames at half-flood, but nothing 
like so deep) ; after which the streets become level, and spread-out in 
intricate plenty to right and to left, and ahead eastward, across the 
River, till the Ziscaberg, with frowning precipitous brow, suddenly puts 
a stop to them in that particular direction. From Ziscaberg top to 
Weissenberg top may be about five English miles ; from the Hradschin 
to the foot of Ziscaberg-, north-west to south-east, will be half that 
distance, the greatest length of Prag City. Which is rather rhomboidal 
in shape, its longer diagonal this that we mention. The shorter diagonal^ 
from northmost base of Ziscaberg to southmost of Hradschin, is perhaps 
a couple of miles. Prag stands nestled in the lap of mountains ; and is 
not in itself a strong place in war : but the country round it, Moldau 
ploughing his rugged chasm of a passage through the piled table-land, is 
difficult to manoeuvre in. 

6 Moldau Valley comes straight from the south, crosses Prag ; and, 
making, on its outgate at the northern end of Prag (end of ce shortest 
diagonal" just spoken of), one big loop, or bend and counter-bend, of 
horse-shoe shape, 1 which will be notable to us anon, again proceeds 
straight northward and Elbe-ward. It is narrow everywhere, especially 
when once got fairly north of Prag ; and runs along like a Quasi-High- 
land Strath, amid rocks and hills. Big Hill-ranges, not to be called 
barren, yet with rock enough on each hand, and fine side valleys opening 
here and there : the bottom of your Strath, which is green and fertile, 
with pleasant busy Villages (much intent on water-power and cotton- 
spinning in our time), is generally of few furlongs in breadth. And so 
it lasts, this pleasant Moldau Valley, mile after mile, on the northern 
or Lower Moldau, generally straight north, though with one big bend 
eastward just before ending ; and not till near Mfelnick, or the mouth of 
Moldau, do we emerge on that grand Elbe Valley, glanced at once 
already, from Pascopol or other Height, in the Lobositz times/ 

Friedrich's first problem is the junction with Schwerin: 
junction not to be accomplished south of Ziscaberg in the 
present circumstances; and which Friedrich knows to be a 
ticklish operation, with those Austrians looking on from the 



CHAP. IL] BATTLE OF PRAG 

5th May 1757] 

high grounds there. Tuesday 3d May, in the way of recon- 
noitring, and decisively on Wednesday 4th, Friedrich is off 
northward, along the western heights of Lower Moldau, 
proper force following him, to seek a fit place for the 
pontoons, and get across in that northern quarter. ' How 
dangerous that Schwerin is a day too late ! ' murmurs he ; 
but hopes the Austrians will undertake nothing. Keith, 
with 30,000, he has left on the Weissenberg, to straiten 
Prag and the Austrian Garrison on that side : our wagon- 
trains arrive from Leitmeritz on that side, Elbe-boats bring 
them up to Leitmeritz ; very indispensable to guard that side 
of Prag. Friedriclr's fixed purpose also is to beat the 
Austrians, on the other side of it, and send them packing ; 
but for that, there are steps needful ! 

Up so far as Lissoley, the first day, Friedrich has found no* 
fit place ; but on the morrow, Thursday 5th, farther up, at 
a place called Seltz,^ Friedrich finds his side of the Strath to 
be c a little higher than the other," proper, therefore, for 
cannonading the other, if need be ; and orders his pontoons to 
be built together there. He knows accurately of the Schwerin 
Column, of the comfortable Bevern Victory at Beichenberg, 
and how they have got the Jung-Bunzlau Magazine, and are 
across the Elbe, their bridges all secured, though with delay of 
one day ; and do now wait only for the word, for the three 
cannon-shot, in fact, which are to signify that Friedrich is 
actually crossing to their side of Lower Moldau. 

Friedrich's Bridge is speedily built (trained human hands 
can be no speedier), his batteries planted, his precautions 
taken : the three cannon-shot go off, audible to Schwerin ; 
and Friedrich^s troops stream speedily across, hardly a Pandour 
to meddle with them. Nay, before the passage was complete 
what light-horse squadrons are these ? Hussars, seen to 
be Seidlitz's (missioned by Schwerin), appear on the outskirts : 
a meeting worthy of three-cheers, surely, after such a march 
on both sides ! Friedrich lies on the eastern Hill-tops that 

* Plan, p. 223. 



124 SEVEN- YEARS WAR RISES [BOOKXVIII. 

[6th May 1757 

night (Hamlet of Czimitz his Headquarter, discoverable if 
you wish it, scarcely three miles north of Prag) ; and accurate 
appointment is made with Schwerin as to the meeting-place 
tomorrow morning. Meeting-place is to be the environs of 
Prossik Village, south-eastward over yonder, short way north 
of the Prag-Konigsgr&tz Highway; and rather nearer Prag 
than we now are, in Czimitz here : time at Prossik to be 
6 A.M. by the clock ; and Winterfeld and Schwerin to come 
in person and speak with his Majesty. This is the program 
for Friday May 6th, which proves to be so memorable a day. 
Schwerin is on foot by the stroke of midnight ; comes 
along, c over the heights of Chaber,"* by half-a-dozen, or I know 
not how many roads ; visible in due time to Friedrich's people, 
who are likewise punctually on the advance : in a word, the 
junction is accomplished with all correctness. And, while 
the Columns are marching up, Schwerin and Winterfeld ride 
about in personal conference with his Majesty ; taking survey, 
through spyglasses, of those Austrians encamped yonder on 
the broad back of their Zisca Hill, a couple of miles to south- 
ward. 'What & set of Austrians/ exclaim military critics, 
*to permit such junction, without effort to devour the one 
half or the other, in good time ! ' Friedrich himself, it is 
probable, might partly be of the same opinion ; but he knew 
his Austrians, and had made bold to venture. Friedrich, we 
can observe, always got to know his man, after fighting him a 
month or two ; and took liberties with him, or did not take, 
accordingly. And, for most part, not quite always, as one 
signal exception will show, he does it with perfect accuracy ; 
and often with vital profit to his measures. < If the Austrian 
cooking-tents are a-smoke before eight in the morning/ notes 
he, 'you may calculate, in such case, the Austrians will 
march that day. n With a surprising vividness of eye and 
mind (beautiful to rival, if one could), he watches the signs 
of the times, of the hours and the days and the places ; and 
prophesies from them ; reads men and their procedures, a 

1 Military Instructions 



CHS>.n.J BATTLE OF PRAG 125 

6th May 1757] 

if they were mere handwriting, not too cramr> for Mm. ^e 
Austrians have, by this time, got their Konigseck home, very 
unvictorious, but still on foot, all but a thousand or two : 
they are already stronger than the Prussians by count of 
heads ; and till even Daun come up, what hurry in a Post 
like this? The Austrians are viewing Friedrich, too, this 
morning ; but in the blankest manner : their outposts fire a 
cannon-shot or two on his group of adjutants and him, with- 
out effect; and the Head people send their cavalry out to 
forage, so little prophecy have they from signs seen. 

Zisca Hill, where the Austrians now are, rises sheer up, of 
well-nigh precipitous steepness, though there are trees and 
grass on it, from the eastern side of Prag, say five or six 
hundred feet. A steep, picturesque, massive green Hill ; 
Moldau River, turning suddenly to right, strikes the north- 
west corner of it (has flowed well to west of it, till then), 
and winds eastward round its northern base. As will be 
noticed presently. The ascent of Ziscaberg, by roads, is 
steep and tedious : but once at the top, you find that it is 
precipitous on two sides only, the City or westward side, and 
the Moldau or northward. Atop it spreads out, far and 
wide, into a waving upland level ; bare of hedges ; ploughable 
all of it, studded with littery hamlets and farmsteadings ; far 
and wide, a kind of Plain, sloping with extreme gentleness, 
five or six miles to eastward, and as far to southward, before 
the level perceptibly rise again. 

Another feature of the Ziscaberg, already hinted at, is very 
notable : that of the Moldau skirting its northern base, and 
scarping the Hill, on that side too, into a precipitous, or very 
steep condition. Moldau having arrived from southward, 
fairly past the end of Ziscaberg, had, so to speak, made-up 
his mind to go right eastward, quarrying his way through the 
lower uplands there. And he proceeds accordingly, hugging 
the northern base of Ziscaberg, and making it steep enough ; 
but finds, in the course of a mile or so, that he can no more ; 
upland being still rock-built, not underminablc farther ; and 



126 SEVEN-YEARS WAR RISES [BOOKXVIII. 

[6th May 175? 

so 15 obliged to wind round again, to northward, and finally 
straight westward, the way he came, or parallel to the way he 
came ; and has effected that great Horse-shoe Hollow we 
heard of lately. An extremely pretty Hollow, and curious to 
look upon; pretty villas, gardens, and a * Belvedere Park, 1 
laid-out in the bottom part ; with green mountain- walls rising 
all round it, and a silver ring of river at the base of them : 
length of Horse-shoe, from heel to toe, or from west to east, 
is perhaps a mile ; breadth, from heel to heel, perhaps half as 
much. Having arrived at his old distance to west, Moldau, 
like a repentant prodigal, and as if ashamed of his frolic, just 
over-against the old point he swerved from, takes straight to 
northward again. Straight northward ; and quarries-out that 
fine narrow valley, or Quasi-Highland Strath, with its pleasant 
busy villages, where he turns the overshot machinery, and 
where Friedrich and his men had their pontoons swimming 
yesterday. 

It is here, on this broad back of the Ziscaberg, that the 
Austrians now lie ; looking northward over to the King, and 
trying cannon-shots upon him. There they have been en- 
camping, and diligently entrenching themselves for four days 
past ; diligent especially since yesterday, when they heard of 
Friedrich's crossing the River. Their groups of tents, and 
batteries at all the good points, stretch from near the crown 
of Ziscaberg eastward to the Villages of Hlaupetin, Kyge, and 
their Lakes, near four miles ; and rearward into the interior 
one knows not how far ;* Prince Karl, hardly awake yet, lies 
at Nussel, near the Moldau, near the Wischerad or south- 
eastmost point of Prag ; six good miles west-by-south of Kyge, 
at the other end of the diagonal line. About the same 
distance, right east from Nussel, and a mile or more to south 
of Kyge over yonder, is a littery Farmstead named Sterbohol, 
which is not yet occupied by the Austrians, but will become 
very famous in their War- Annals, this day ! 

Where the Austrian Camp or various Tent-groups were, at 
* Plan, p. 223, 



CHAP. II.] BATTLE OF PRAG 127 

6th May 1757] 

the time Friedrich first cast eye on them, is no great concern 
of his or ours ; inasmuch as ? in two or three hours hence, the 
Austrians were obliged, rather suddenly, to take Order of 
Battle ; and that, and not their camping, is the thing we are 
curious upon. Let us step across, and take some survey of 
that Austrian ground, which Friedrich is now surveying from 
the distance, fully intending that it shall be a battle-ground 
in few hours ; and try to explain how the Austrians drew-up 
on it, when they noticed the Prussian symptoms to become 
serious more and more. By nine in the morning, some two 
hours after Friedrich began his scanning, and the Austrian 
outposts their firing of stray cannon-shots on him, it is 
Battle-lines, not empty Tents (which there was not time to 
strike), that salute the eye over yonder. 

From behind that verdant Horse-shoe Chasm we spoke of, 
buttressed by the inaccessible steeps, and the Moldau, double- 
folded in the form of Horse-shoe, all along the brow of 
that sloping expanse, stands (by 9 A.M. 6 foragers all suddenly 
called in ') the Austrian front ; the second line and the 
reserve, parallel to it, at good distances behind. Ranked 
there ; say 65,000 regulars (Prussian force little short of the 
same), on the brow of Ziscaberg slope, some four miles long. 
Their right wing ends, in strong batteries, in intricate marshes, 
knolls, lakelets, between Hlaupetin and Kyge . the extreme 
of their left wing looks-over on that Horse-shoe Hollow, 
where Moldau tried to dig his way, but could not and had to 
turn back. They have numerous redoubts, in front and in 
all the good places ; and are busy with more, some of them 
just now getting finished, treble-quick, while the Prussians 
are seen under way. As many as sixty heavy cannon in 
battery up and down : of field-pieces they have a hundred 
and fifty. Excellent always with their Artillery, these 
Austrians ; plenty of it, well-placed and well-served : thanks 
to Prince Lichtenstein^s fine labours within these ten years 
past. 1 The villages, the farmsteads, are occupied ; every 
1 (Euvres de Frtdlric (In several places) ; see Hormayr, Lidhtenstein, 



128 SEVEN- YEARS WAR RISES [BOOK xvm. 

[6th May 1757 

rising ground especially has its battery, Homoly Berg, 
Tabor Berg, < Mount of Tabor ; ' say Knoll of Tabor (nothing 
like so high as Battersea Rise, hardly even as Constitution 
Hill), though scriptural Zisca would make a Mount of it ; 
these, and other Bergs of the like type. 

That is the Austrian Battle Order (as it stood about 9, 
though it had still to change a little, as we shall see) : their 
first line, straight or nearly so, looking northward, stands on 
the brow of the Zisca Slope; their second and their third, 
singularly like it, at the due distances behind; in the 
intervals, their tents, which stand scattered, in groups wide 
apart, in the ample interior to southward. The cavalry is 
on both wings ; left wing, behind that Moldau Chasm, cannot 
attack nor be attacked, except it were on hippogriffs, and 
its enemy on the like, capable of fighting in the air, overhead 
of these Belvedere Pleasure-grounds : perhaps Prince Karl will 
remedy this oversight ; fruit of close following of the orthodox 
practice ? Prince Karl, supreme Chief, commands on the left 
wing; Browne on the right, where he can attack or be 
attacked, not on hippogriffs. As we shall see, and others 
will 1 Light horse, in any quantity, hang scattered on all out- 
skirts. With foot, with cannon batteries, with horse, light or 
heavy, they cover in long broad flood the whole of that Zisca 
Slope, to near where it ceases, and the ground to eastward 
begins perceptibly to rise again. 

In this latter quarter, Zisca Slope, now nearly ended, 
begins to get very swampy in parts; on the eastern border 
of the Austrian Camp, at Kyge, Hostawitz, and beyond it 
southward, about Sterbohol and Michelup, there are many 
little lakelets ; artificial fish-ponds, several of them, with their 
sluices, dams and apparatus : a ragged broadish lacing of 
ponds and lakelets (all well dried in our day) straggles and 
zigzags along there, connected by the miserablest Brook in 
Nature, which takes to oozing and serpentising forward there- 
abouts, and does final y get emptied, now in a rather livelier 
condition, into the Moldau, about the fotf-part of that Horse- 



CHAP. II.] BATTLE OF PRAG 139 

6th May 1757] 

shoe or Belvedere region. It runs in sight of the King, I 
think, where he now is ; this lower livelier part of it : little 
does the King know how important the upper oozing portion 
of it will be to him this day. Near Michelup are lakelets 
worth noticing; a little under Sterbohol, in the course of 
this miserable Brook, is a string of fish-ponds, with their 
sluices open at this time, the water out, and the mud bottom 
sown with herb-provender for the intended carps, which is 
coming on beautifully, green as leeks, and nearly ready for 
the fish getting to it again. 

Friedrich surveys diligently what he can of all this, from 
the northern verge. We will now return to Friedrich ; and 
will stay on his side through the terrible Action that is 
coming. Battle of Prag, one of the furious Battles of the 
World; loud as Doomsday; the very Emblem of which, 
done on the Piano by females of energy, scatters mankind 
to flight who love their ears ! Of this great Action the 
Narratives old and modern are innumerable ; false some of 
them, unintelligible wellnigh all. There are three in Lloyd, 
known probably to some of my readers. Tempelhof, with 
criticisms of these three, gives a fourth, perhaps the one 
Narrative which human nature, after much study, can in some 
sort understand. Human readers, especially military, I refer 
to that as their finale. 1 Other interest than military-scientific 
the Action now has not much. The stormy fire of soul that 
blazed that day (higher in no ancient or modern Fight of 
men) is extinct, hopeless of resuscitation for English readers. 

1 In Lloyd, i. 38 ct seq. (the Three) : in Tempelhof, i. 123 (the Fourth) ; ib. 
i. 144 (strength of each Army), 105-149 (remarks of Tempelhof). The * History ; 
or Series of Lectures on the Battles etc. of this War, * by the Royal Staff- Officers, 9 
which, for the last thirty or forty years, is used as Text- Book, or Military 
Euflid t in the Prussian Cadet-Schools, appears to possess the fit professorial 
lucidity and amplitude ; and, in regard to all Official details, enumerations and 
the like, is received as of canonical authority : it is not accessible to the general 
Public, though liberally enough conceded in special cases ; whereby, in effect, 
the main results of it are now become current in modern Prussian Books, By 
favour in high quarters, I had once possession of a copy, for some months } but 
not, at that time, the possibility of thoroughly reading any part of it. 
VOL. Vi. I 



130 SEVEN- YEARS WAR RISES [BOOKXVIII. 

[6th May 1757 

Approximately what the thing to human eyes might be like ; 
what Friedrich's procedure, humour and physiognomy of soul 
was in it : this, especially the latter head, is what we search 
for, had lazy Dryasdust given us almost anything on this 
latter head ! What little can be gleaned from him on both 
heads let us faithfully give, and finish our sad part of the 
combat. 

Friedrich, with his Schwerin and Winterfeld, surveying 
these things from the northern edge, admits that the Austrian 
position is extremely strong; but he has no doubt that it 
must be, by some good method, attacked straightway, and 
the Austrians got beaten. Indisputably the enterprise is 
difficult. Unattackable clearly, the Austrians, on that left 
wing of theirs ; not in the centre well attackable, nor in the 
front at all, with that stiff ground, and such redoubts and 
points of strength: but round on their right yonder; take 
them in flank, cannot we ? On as far as Kyge, the Three 
have ridden reconnoitring ; and found no possibility upon the 
front ; nor at Kyge, where the front ends in batteries, pools 
and quagmires, is there any. * Difficult, not undoable, 1 
persists the King: 'and it must be straightway set about 
and got done.' Winterfeld, always for action, is of that 
opinion, too : and, examining farther down along their right 
flank, reports that there the thing is feasible. 

Feasible perhaps : * but straightway ? ' objects Schwerin. 
His men have been on foot since midnight, and on forced 
marches for days past : were it not better to rest for this 
one day? 'Rest: and Daun, coming-on with 30,000 of 
reinforcement to them, might arrive this night ? Never, my 
good Feldmarschall '; and as the Feldmarschall was a man of 
stiff notions, and had a tongue of some emphasis, the Dialogue 
went on, probably with increasing emphasis on Friedrich's 
side too, till old Schwerin, with a quite emphatic flash of 
countenance, crushing the hat firm over his brow, exclaims : 
'Well, your Majesty: the fresher fish the better fish (frische 



CHAP, n.] BATTLE OF PRAG 131 

6th May 1757] 

Fische, gute Flsche) : straightway, then ! ** and springs-off on 
the gallop southward, he too, seeking some likely point of 
attack. He too, conjointly or not with Winterfeld, I do 
not know: Winterfeld himself does not say; whose own 
modest words on the subject readers shall see before we 
finish. But both are mentioned in the Books as searching, 
at hand-gallop, in this way: and both, once well round to 
south, by the Podschernitz quarter, * with the Austrian 
right flank full in view, were agreed that here the thing 
was possible. ' Infantry to push from this quarter towards 
Sterbohol yonder, and then plunge into their redoubts and 
them ! Cavalry may sweep still farther southward, if found 
convenient, and even take them in rear.' Both agree that 
it will do in this way : ground tolerably good, slightly down- 
wards for us, then slightly upwards again ; tolerable for 
horse even : the intermediate lacing of dirty lakelets, the 
fish-ponds with their sluices drawn, Schwerin and Winterfeld 
either did not notice at all, or thought them insignificant, 
interspersed with such beautiful * pasture-ground, 1 of un- 
usual verdure at this early season of the year. 

The deployment, or * marching-up (Aiifmarschireny of 
the Prussians was wonderful; in their squadrons, in their 
battalions, horse, foot, artillery, wheeling, closing, opening ; 
strangely chequering a country-side, in movements intricate, 
chaotic to all but the scientific eye. Conceive them, flowing 
along, from the Heights of Chaber, behind Prossik Hamlet 
(right wing of infantry plants itself at Prossik, horse westward 
of them) ; and ever onwards in broad many-chequered tide- 
stream, eastward, eastward, then southward ( c our artillery went 
through Podschernitz, the foot and horse a little on this west- 
ward side of it *) : intricate, many-glancing tide of coming 
battle ; which, swift, correct as clockwork, becomes two lines, 
from Prossik to near Chwala (< baggage well behind at Gbell "*); 
thence round by Podschernitz quarter ; and descends, steady, 

* See Plan, p. 223 j ' Podschernitz * is pronounced Potr^mitz (should we 
happen to mention it again) ; * Kygc/ Ktega. 



SEVEN- YEARS WAR RISES [BOOK xvm. 

[6th May 1757 

swift, tornado-storm so beautifully hidden in it, towards 
Sterbohol, there to grip-to. Gradually, in stirring-up those 
old dead pedantic record-books, the fact rises on us : silent 
whirlwinds of old Platt-Deutsch fire, beautifully held-down, 
dwell in those mute masses ; better human stuff there is not 
than that old Teutsch (Dutch, English, Platt-Deutsch and 
other varieties) ; and so disciplined as here it never was 
before or since. In an hour and half, 7 what military men 
may count almost incredible, they are fairly on their ground, 
motionless the most of them by 9 A.M. ; the rest wheeling 
rightward, as they successively arrive in the Chwala-Podscher- 
nitz localities ; and, descending diligently, Sterbohol way ; 
and will be at their harvest- work anon. 

Meanwhile the Austrians, seeing, to their astonishment, 
these phenomena to the north, and that it is a quite serious 
thing, do also rapidly bestir themselves ; swarming like bees ; 
bringing-in their foraging Cavalry, *No time to change 
your jacket for a coat ' : rank, double-quick 1 Browne is on 
that right wing of theirs : * Bring the left wing over hither, 1 
suggests Browne ; < cavalry is useless yonder, unless they had 
hippogriffs ! ' and (again Browne suggesting) the Austrians 
make a change in the position of their right wing, both horse 
and foot: change which is of vital importance, though un- 
noted in many Narratives of this Battle. Seeing, namely, 
what the Prussians intend, they wheel their right wing (say 
the last furlong or two of their long Line of Battle) half 
round to right; so that the last furlong or two stands at 
right angles (' en potencej gallows- wise, or joinerVsquare-wise 
to the rest) ; and, in this way, make front to the Prussian 
onslaught, front now, not flank, as the Prussians are antici- 
pating. This is an important wheel to right, and formation 
in joiners-square manner; and involves no end of interior 
wheeling, marching and deploying ; which Austrians cannot 
manage with Prussian velocity. < Swift with it, here about 
Sterbohd at least, my naenf For hex are the 



CHAP, n.] BATTLE OF PRAG 188 

6th May 1757] 

within wind of us ! ' urges Browne. And here straightway 
the hurricane does break loose. 

Winterfeld, the van of Schwerin's infantry (Schwerin's own 
regiment, and some others, with him), is striding rapidly on 
Sterbohol ; Winterfeld catches it before Browne can. But 
near by, behind that important post, on the Homoly Hill 
(Berg or 'Mountain, 1 nothing like so high as Constitution 
Mountain), are cannon-batteries of devouring quality ; which 
awaken on Winterfeld, as he rushes out double-quick on the 
advancing Austrians ; and are fatal to WinterfeWs attempt, 
and nearly to Winterfeld himself. Winterfeld, heavily 
wounded, sank in swoon from his horse ; and awakening 
again in a pool of blood, found his men all off, rushing back 
upon the main Schwerin body ; ' Austrian grenadiers gazing 
on the thing, about eighty paces ofi^ not venturing to follow,'' 
Winterfeld, half-dead, scrambled across to Schwerin, who is 
now come-up with the main body, his front line fronting the 
Austrians here. And there ensued, about Sterbohol and 
neighbourhood, led on by Schwerin, such a death-wrestle as 
was seldom seen in the Annals of War. Winterfeld^ miss 
ol Sterbohol was the beginning of it ; the exact course of 
sequel none can describe, though the end is well known. 

The Austrians now hold Sterbohol with firm grip, backed 
by those batteries from Homoly Hill. Redoubts, cannon- 
batteries, as we said, stud all the field ; the Austrian stock 
of artillery is very great ; arrangement of it cunning, practice 
excellent ; does honour to Prince Lichtenstein, and indeed is 
the real force of the Austrians on this occasion. Schwerin 
must have Sterbohol, in spite of batteries and ranked 
Austrians, and Winterfeld's recoil tumbling round him: 
and rarely had the oldest veteran such a problem. Old 
Schwerin (fiery as ever, at the age of 73) has been in many 
battles, from Blenheim onwards ; and now has got to his 
hottest and his last. fi Vanguard could not do it ; main body, 
we hope, kindling all the hotter, perhaps may 1 ' A most 
willing mind is in these Prussians of Schwcrink : fatigue of 



1S4 SEVEN-YEARS WAR RISES [BOOKXVIIL 

[6th May 1757 

over-marcMng has tired the muscles of them ; but their 
hearts, all witnesses say, these (and through these, their 
very muscles, * always fresh again, after a few minutes of 
breathing-time *) were beyond comparison, this day ! 

Schwerin's Prussians, as they * march-up ' (that is, as they 
front and advance upon the Austrians), are everywhere saluted 
by case-shot, from Homoly Hill and the batteries northward 
of Homoly ; but march on, this main line of them, finely 
regardless of it or of Winterfeld's disaster by it. The general 
Prussian Order this day is : < By push of bayonet ; no firing, 
none, at any rate, till you see the whites of their eyes!" 
Swift, steady as on the parade-ground, swiftly making up 
their gaps again, the Prussians advance, on these terms ; and 
are now near those * fine sleek pasture-grounds, unusually green 
for the season.' Figure the actual stepping upon these * fine 
pasture-grounds ' : mud-tanks, verdant with mere * bearding 
oat-crop ' sown there as carp-provender ! Figure the sinking 
of whole regiments to the knee; to the middle, some of 
them ; the steady march become a wild sprawl through viscous 
mud, mere case-shot singing round you, tearing you away at 
its ease I Even on those terrible terms, the Prussians, by 
dams, by footpaths, sometimes one man abreast, sprawl 
steadily forward, trailing their cannon with them ; only a 
few regiments, in the footpath parts, cannot bring their 
cannon. Forward ; rank again, when the ground will carry ; 
ever forward, the case-shot getting ever more murderous! 
No human pen can describe the deadly chaos which ensued 
in that quarter. Which lasted, in desperate fury, issue 
dubious, for above three hours; and was the crisis, or 
essential agony, of the Battle. Foot-chargings (once the mud- 
transit was accomplished), under storms of grape-shot from 
Homoly Hill ; by and by, Horse-chargings, Prussian against 
Austrian, southward of Homoly and Sterbohol, still farther 
to the Prussian left; huge whirlpool of tumultuous death- 
wrestle, every species of spasmodic effort, on the one side and 
the other ; King himself present there, as I dimly discover ; 



CHAP. II.] BATTLE OF PBAG 135 

6th May 1757] 

Feldmarschall Browne eminent, in the last of his fields ; and, 
as the old Niebelungen has it, *a murder grim and great' 
going on. 

Schwerin's Prussians, in that preliminary struggle through 
the mud-tanks (which Winterfeld, I think, had happened to 
skirt, and avoid), were hard bestead. This, so far as I can 
learn, was the worst of the chaos, this preliminary part. In- 
tolerable to human nature, this, or nearly so ; even to human 
nature of the Platt-Teutsch type, improved by Prussian drill 
Winterfeld's repulse we saw ; Schwerin's own Regiment in it. 
Various repulses, I perceive, there were, * fresh regiments 
from our Second Line ' storming-in thereupon ; till the poor 
repulsed people * took breath,' repented, c and themselves 
stormed-in again,* 1 say the Books. Fearful tugging, swag- 
ging and swaying is conceivable, in this Sterbohol problem ! 
And after long scanning, I rather judge it was in the wake of 
that first repulse, and not of some other farther on, that the 
veteran Schwerin himself got his death. No one times it for 
us ; but the fact is unforgettable ; and in the dim whirl of 
sequences, dimly places itself there. Very certain it is, * at 
sight of his own regiment in retreat,' Feldmarschall Schwerin 
seized the colours, as did other Generals, who are pot named, 
that day. Seizes the colours, fiery old man : * Heran, melne 
Kinder (This way, my sons)!' and rides ahead, along the straight 
dam again ; his * sons ' all turning, and with hot repentance 
following. * On, my children, Her an I ' Five bits of grape- 
shot, deadly each of them, at once hit the old man ; dead he 
sinks there on his flag ; and will never fight more. * Heron I ' 
storm the others with hot tears; Adjutant von Platen takes 
the flag ; Platen, too, is instantly shot ; but another takes it. 
* Heran, On ! ' in wild storm of rage and grief : in a word, 
they manage to do the work at Sterbohol, they and the rest. 
First line, Second line, Infantry, Cavalry (and even the very 
Horses, I suppose), fighting inexpressibly; conquering one of 
the worst problems ever seen in War. For the Austrians too, 
especially their grenadiers there, stood to it toughly, and 



136 SEVEN- YEARS WAR RISES [BOOKXVIII. 

[6th May 175? 

fought like men ; and * every grenadier that survived of them,' 
as I read afterwards, * got double pay for life.* 

Done, that Sterbohol work ; those Foot-chargings, Horse- 
chargings ; that battery of Homoly Hill ; and, hanging upon 
that, all manner of redoubts and batteries to the rightward 
and rearward : but how it was done no pen can describe, nor 
any intellect in clear sequence understand. An enormous 
m$lee there : new Prussian battalions charging, and ever new, 
irrepressible by case-shot, as they successively get up ; Marshal 
Browne too sending for new battalions at double-quick from 
his left, disputing stiffly every inch of his ground. Till at 
length (hour not given), a cannon-shot tore-away his foot; 
and he had to be carried into Prag, mortally wounded. 
Which probably was a most important circumstance, or the 
most important of all. 

Important too, I gradually see, was that of the Prussian 
Horse of the Left Wing. Prussian Horse of the extreme 
left, as already noticed, had, in the mean while, fallen-in, 
well southward, round by certain lakelets about Michelup, 
on Browne's extreme right ; furiously charging the Austrian 
Horse, which stood ranked there in many lines ; breaking it, 
then again half broken by it ; but again rallying, charging it 
a second time, then a third time, * both to front and flank, 
amid whirlwinds of dust ' (Ziethen busy there, not to mention 
indignant Warnery and others) ; and at length, driving it 
wholly to the winds * beyond Nussel, towards the Sazawa 
Country 1 ; never seen again that day. Prince Karl (after 
Browne's death-wound, or before, I never know) came gallop- 
ing to rally that important Right Wing of horse. Prince 
Karl did his very utmost there ; obtesting, praying, raging, 
threatening : but to no purpose ; the Zietheners and others 
so heavy on the rear of them : and at last there came a 
cramp, or intolerable twinge of spasm, through Prince Karl's 
own person (breast or heart), like to take the life of him : so 
that he too had to be carried into Prag to the doctors* 
And his Cavalry fled at discretion ; chased by Ziethen, on 



CHAP, n.] BATTLE OF PRAG 187 

6th May 1757] 

Friedrich's express order, and sent quite over the horizon. 
Enough, 'by about half-past one/ Sterbohol work is thoroughly 
done : and the Austrian Battle, both its Commanders gone, 
has heeled fairly downwards, and is in an ominous way. 

The whole of this Austrian Right Wing, horse and foot, 
batteries and redoubts, which was put en jpotence, or square- 
wise, to the main battle, is become a ruin ; gone to confusion ; 
hovers in distracted clouds, seeking roads to run away by, 
which it ultimately found. Done all this surely was; and 
poor Browne, mortally wounded, is being carried off the 
ground ; but in what sequence done, under what exact 
vicissitudes of aspect, special steps of cause and effect, no 
man can say; and only imagination, guided by these few 
data, can paint to itself. Such a chaotic whirlwind of blood, 
dust, mud, artillery- thunder, sulphurous rage, and human 
death and victory, who shall pretend to describe it, or draw, 
except in the gross, the scientific plan of it ? 

For, in the mean time, I think while the dispute at 
Sterbohol, on the extreme of the Austrian right wing tf in 
joiners-square form,' was past the hottest (but nobody will 
give the hour), there has occurred another thing, much 
calculated to settle that. And, indeed, to settle everything; 
as it did. This was a volunteer exploit, upon the very 
elbow or angle of said * joiners-square 1 ; in the wet grounds 
between Hlaupetin and Kyge, a good way north of Sterbohol. 
Volunteer exploit ; on the part of General Mannstein, our old 
Russian friend; which Friedrich, a long way off from it, 
blames as a rash fault of MannsteinS, made good by Prince 
Henri and Ferdinand of Brunswick running up to mend it ; 
but which Winterfeld, and subsequent good judges, admit to 
have been highly salutary, and to have finished everything. 
It went, if I read right, somewhat as follows. 

In the Kyge -Hlaupetin quarter, at the corner of that 
Austrian right wing en potence^ there had, much contrary to 
Browne's intention, a perceptible gap occurred ; the corner is 
open there ; nothing in it but batteries and swamps. The 



138 SEVEN- YEARS WAR RISES [BOOK xvm. 

[6th May 1757 

Austrian right wing, wheeling southward, there to form 
potence ; and scrambling and marching, then and subse- 
quently, through such ground at double-quick, had gone too 
far (had thinned and lengthened itself, as is common, in such 
scrambling and double-quick movement, thinks Tempelhof), 
and left a little gap at elbow ; which always rather widened 
as the stress at Sterbohol went on. Certain enough, a gap 
there is, covered only by some half-moon battery in advance : 
into this, General Mannstein has been looking wistfully a long 
time : * Austrian Line fallen out at elbow yonder ; clouted by 
some battery in advance ?' and at length cannot help dashing 
loose on it with his Division. A man liable to be rash, and 
always too impetuous in battle- time. 

He would have fared ill, thinks Friedrich, had not Henri 
and Ferdinand, in pain for Mannstein (some think, privately 
in preconcert with him), hastened in to help ; and done it 
altogether in a shining way ; surmounting perilous difficulties 
not a few. Hard fighting in that corner, partly on the 
Sterbohol terms; batteries, mud-tanks; chargings, recharg- 
ings : * Comrades, you have got honour enough, Kameraden, 
ihr habt Ehre genug** (the second man of you lying dead); 
' let us now try ! ' said a certain Regiment to a certain other, 
in this business. 1 Prince Henri shone especially, the gallant 
little gentleman : coming upon one of those mud-tanks with 
battery beyond, his men were spreading file- wise, to cross it 
on the dams ; * Bursche, this way ! * cried the Prince, and 
plunged-in middle-deep, right upon the battery, and over it, 
and victoriously took possession of it. In a word, they all 
plunge forward, in a shining manner ; rush on those half- 
moon batteries, regardless of results ; rush over them, seize 
and secure them. Rush, in a word, fairly into that Austrian 
hole-at-elbow, torrents more following them, and irretriev- 
ably ruin both fore-arm and shoulder-arm of the Austrians 
thereby. 

Fora-arm (Austrian right wing, if still struggliug and 

1 Arckenholti, i. 75 ; Tempt Ihof, etc. 



CHAP. ll.] BATTLE OF PBAG 189 

6th May 1757] 

wriggling about Sterbohol) is taken in flank ; shoulder-arm, 
or main line, the like ; we have them both in flank ; with 
their own batteries to scour them to destruction here : the 
Austrian Line, throughout, is become a ruin. Has to hurl 
itself rapidly to rightwards, to rearwards, says Tempelhof, 
behind what redoubts and strong points it may have in those 
parts ; and then, by sure stages (Tempelhof guesses three, or 
perhaps four), as one redoubt after another is torn from the 
loose grasp of it, and the stand made becomes ever weaker, 
and the confusion worse, to roll pell-mell into Prag, and 
hastily close the door behind it. The Prussians, Sterbohol 
people, Mannstein-Henri people, left wing and right, are quite 
across the Zisca Back, on by Nussel (Prince KarPs headquarter 
that was), and at the Moldau Brink again, when the thing 
ends. Ziethen's Hussars have been at Nussel, very busy 
plundering there, ever since that final charge and chase from 
Sterbohol. Plundering ; and, I am ashamed to say, mostly 
drunk : * Your Majesty, I cannot rank a hundred sober,** 
answered Ziethen (doubtless with a kind of blush), when the 
King applied for them. The King himself has got to Branik, 
farther up stream. Part of the Austrian foot fled, leftwards, 
southwards, as their right wing of horse had all done, up the 
Moldau. About 16,000 Austrians are distractedly on flight 
that way. Towards the Sazawa Country; to unite with Daun, 
as the now advisable thing. Near 40,000 of them are getting 
crammed into Prag ; in spite of Prince Karl, now recovered of 
his cramp, and risen to the frantic pitch ; who vainly struggles 
at the Gate against such inrush, and had even got through 
the Gate, conjuring and commanding, but was himself swum- 
in again by those panic torrents of ebb-tide. 

Rallying within, he again attempted, twice over, at two 
different points, to get out, and up the Moldau, with his 
broken people; but the Prussians, Nussel-Branik way, were 
awake to him : c No retreat up the Moldau for you, Austrian 
gentlemen ! ' They tried by another Gate, on the other side 
of the River ; but Keith was awake too : * In again, ye 



140 SEVEN- YEARS WAR RISES [BOOKXVIII. 

[6th May 1737 

Austrian gentlemen! Closed gates here too. What else?' 
Browne, from his bed of pain (death-bed, as it proved), was 
for a much more determined outrush : * In the dead of night, 
rank, deliberately adjust yourselves : storm out, one and all, 
and cut your way, night favouring ! ' That was Browned last 
counsel ; but that also was not taken. A really noble Browne, 
say all judges ; died here in about six weeks, and got away 
from Kriegs-Hofraths and Prince Karls, and the stupidity of 
neighbours, and the other ills that flesh is heir to, altogether. 
At Branik the victorious King had one great disappoint- 
ment : Prince Moritz of Dessau, who should have been here 
long hours ago, with Keith's right wing, a fresh 15,000, to 
fall upon the enemy^s rear ; no Moritz visible ; not even now, 
when the business is to chase ! * How is this ? ' * 111 luck, 
your Majesty ! * Moritz's Pontoon Bridge would not reach 
across, when he tried it. That is certain : * just three poor 
pontoons wanting, 1 Rumour says : three or more ; spoiled, I 
am told, in some narrow road, some short-cut which Moritz 
had commanded for them : and now they are not ; and it is 
as if three hundred had been spoiled. Moritz, would he die 
for it, cannot get his Bridge to reach: his fresh 15,000 
stand futile there ; not even Seidlitz with his light horse 
could really swim across, though he tried hard, and is fabled 
to have done so. Beware of short-cuts, my Prince : your 
Father that is gone, what would he say of you here ! It was 
the worst mistake Prince Moritz ever made. The Austrian 
Army might have been annihilated, say judges (of a sanguine 
temper), had Moritz been ready, at his hour, to fall-on from 
rearward ; and where had their retreat been ? As it is, the 
Austrian Army is not annihilated ; only bottled into Prag, 
and will need sieging. The brightest triumph has a bar of 
black in it, and might always have been brighter. Here is a 
flying Note, which I will subjoin : 

' Friedrich'i dispositions for tlie Battle, this day, are allowed to hav 
bea masterly ; but there was one signal fault, thinks Retzow : That he 
did not, as Schw&rin counselled, wait till the morrow. Fanlt which 



CHAP. IL] BATTLE OF PRAG 141 

6th May 1757] 

brought many in the train of it ; that of his fi tired soldiere,* says Retzow, 
being only a first item, and small in comparison. et Had he waited till 
the morrow, those fish-ponds of Sterbohol, examined in the interim, 
need not have been mistaken for green meadows ; Prince Moritz, with 
his 15,000, would have been a fact, instead of a false hope ; the King 
might have done his marching down upon Sterbohol in the night-time, 
and been ready for the Austrians, flank, or even rear, at daybreak : the 
King might " In reality, this fault seems to have been considerable ; to 
have made the victory far more costly to him, and far less complete. No 
doubt he had his reasons for making haste : Daun, advancing Pragward 
with 30,000, was within three marches of him ; General Beck, Daun's 
vanguard, with a 10,000 of irregulars, did a kind of feat at Brandeis, on 
the Prussian post there (our Saxons deserting to him, in the heat of 
action), this very day, May 6th ; and might, if lucky, have taken part at 
Ziscaberg next day. And besides these solid reasons, there was perhaps 
another. Retzow, who is secretly of the Opposition-party, and well 
worth hearing, knows personally a curious thing. He says : 

'" Being then" (in March or April, weeks before we left Saxony) 
tf employed to translate the Plan of Operations into French, for Marshal 
Keith's use, who did not understand German, I well know that it con- 
tained the following three main objects : 1. 'All Regiments cantoning- 
in Silesia as well as Saxony march for Bohemia on one and the same day. 
2. Whole Army arrives at Prag May 4th ' (Schwerin was a day later, 
and got scolded in consequence) ; * if the Enemy stand, he is attacked 
May 6th, and beaten. 3. So soon as Prag is got, Schwerin, with the 
gross of the Army, pushes into Mahren/ and the heart of Austria itself ; 
'King hastens with 40,000 to help of the Allied Army/ "Royal High- 
ness of Cumberland's ; who will much need it by that time ! l 

' Here is a very curious fact and consideration. That the King had so 
prophesied and preordained : f ' May 4th, Four Columns arrive at Prag ; 
May 6th, attack the Austrians, beat them," and now wished to keep his 
word! This is an aerial reason, which I can suspect to have had its 
weight among others. There were twirls of that kind in Friedrich ; 
intricate weak places ; knots in the sound straight-fibred mind he had (as 
in whose mind are they not?), which now and then cost him dear! 
The Anecdote-Books say he was very ill of body, that day, May 6th ; 
and called for something of drug nature, and swallowed it (drug not 
named), after getting on horseback. The Evening Anecdote is prettier : 
How, in the rushing about, Austrians now flying, he got eye on Brother 
Henri ' (clayey to a degree) ; ' and gat down with him, in the blessed 
sunset, for a minute or two, and bewailed his sad losses of Schwerin and 
others. 

1 BUtoow, L 84 n. 



142 SEVEN-YEARS WAR RISES [BOOKXVIII. 

[6th May 1757 

' Certain it is, the victory was bought by hard fighting ; and but for 
the quality of his troops, had not been there. But the bravery of the 
Prussians was exemplary, and covered all mistakes that were made. 
Nobler fire, when did it burn in any Army? More perfect soldiers I 
have not read of. Platt-Teutsch fire, which I liken to anthracite, in 
contradistinction to Gaelic blaze of kindled straw, is thrice-noble, when, 
by strict stern discipline, you are above it withal ; and wield your fire- 
element, as Jove his thunder, by rule ! Otherwise it is but half- 
admirable: Turk-Janissaries have it otherwise; and it comes to com- 
paratively little.' 

This is the famed Battle of Prag; fought May 6th, 1757; 
which sounded through all the world, and used to deafen us 
in drawing-rooms within man's memory. Results of it were : 
On the Prussian side, killed, wounded and missing, 12,500 
men ; on the Austrian, 13,000 (prisoners included), with 
many flags, cannon, tents, much war-gear gone the wrong 
road ; and a very great humiliation and dispirit ment ; 
though they had fought well : 6 No longer the old Austrians, 
by any means,"* as Friedrich sees ; but have iron ramrods, all 
manner of Prussian improvements, and are * learning to march, 1 
as he once says, with surprise not quite pleasant ! 

Friedrich gives the cipher of loss, on both sides, much 
higher: 'This Battle,' says he, c which began towards nine 
in the morning, and lasted, chase included, till eight at 
night, was one of the bloodiest of the age. The Enemy lost 
24,000 men, of whom were 5,000 prisoners; the Prussian 
loss amounted to 18,000 fighting men, without counting 
Marshal Schwerin, who alone was worth above 10,000.' 'This 
day saw the pillars of the Prussian Infantry cut down,' says he 
mournfully, seeming almost to think the * laurels of victory ' 
were purchased too dear. His account of the Battle, as if it 
had been a painful object, rather avoided in his after- thoughts, 
is unusually indistinct ; and helps us little in the extreme 
confusion that reigns otherwise, both in the thing itself and 
in the reporters of the thing. Here is a word from Winter- 
feld, some private Letter, two days after ; which is well worth 
reading for those who would understand this Battle. 



CHAP. II.] BATTLE OF PRAG 148 

6th May 1757] 

'The Enemy had his Left Wing leaning on the City, close by the 
Moldau/ at Nussel; 'and stretched with his Right Wing across the 
high Hill ' (of Zisca) 'to the village of Lieben ' (so he kad stood, looking 
into Prag; hut faced about, on hearing that Friedrich was across the 
River); e having before him those terrible Defiles ' (die terribfen Defilees, 
' Horse-shoe of the Moldau/ as we call it), f and the village of Prossik, 
which was crammed with Pandours. It was about half-past six in the 
morning, when our Schwerin Army* (myself part of it, at this time) 
'joined with the twenty battalions and twenty squadrons, which the 
King had brought across to unite with us, and which formed our right 
wing of battle that day " (our left wing were Schweriners, Sterbohol and 
the fighting done by Schweriners after their long march). * The King 
was at once determined to attack the Enemy ; as also were Schwerin ' 
(say nothing of the arguing) * and your humble servant (meine Wenigkeit) : 
but the first thing was, to find a hole whereby to get at him. 

'This too was selected, and decided on, my proposal being found good; 
and took effect in manner following : We ' (Schweriners) ' had marched 
off left-wise, foremost ; and we now, without halt, continued marching 
so with the Left Wing ' of horse, ' which had the van (tete) ; and moved 
on, keeping the road for Hlaupetin, and ever thence onwards along for 
Kyge, round the Ponds of Unter-Podschernitz, without needing to pass 
these, and so as to get them in our rear. 

'The Enemy, who at first had expected nothing bad, and never 
supposed that we would attack him at once, fagrante delicto 3 and least of 
all in this point ; and did not believe it possible, as we should have to 
wade, breast-deep in part, through the ditches, and drag our cannon, 
was at first quite tranquil. But as he began to perceive our real design 
(in which, they say, Prince Karl was the first to open Marshal Browne's 
eyes), he drew his whole Cavalry over towards us, as fast as it could be 
done, and stretched them out as Right Wing ; to complete which, his 
Grenadiers and Hungarian Regulars of Foot ranked themselves as they 
got up * (makes his potence, HaJcen, or joiner's-square, outmost end of it 
Horse). 

"The Enemy's intention was to hold with the Right Wing of his 
infantry on the Farmstead which they call Sterbaholy' (Sterbohol, a very 
dirty Farmstead at this day) ; ' I, however, had the good luck, plunging 
on, head foremost, with six battalions of our Left Wing and two of the 
Flank, to get to it before him. Although our Second Line was not yet 
come forward, yet, as the battalions of the First were tolerably well to- 
gether, I decided, with General Fouquet, who had charge of the Flank, 
to begin at once; and, that the Enemy might not have time to post 
himself still better, I pushed forward, quick step, out of the Farmstead ' of 
Sterbohol r to meet him, so fast, that even our cannon had not time to 



144 SEVEN- YEARS WAR RISES [BOOKXVIII. 

[6th May 1757 

follow. He did, accordingly, begin to waver ; and I could observe that 
his people here, on this Wing, were making right-about. 

' Meanwhile, his fire of case-shot opened* (from Homoly Hill, on our 
left), ' and we were still pushing on, might now be about two hundred 
steps from the Enemy's Line, when I had the misfortune, at the head 
of Regiment Schwerin, to get wounded, and, swooning away (vor Tod), 
fell from my horse to the ground. Awakening after some minutes, and 
raising my head to look about, I found nobody of our people now here 
beside or round me ; but all were already behind, in full flood of retreat 
(hoch Anschlagen). The Enemy's Grenadiers were perhaps eighty paceg 
from me ; but had halted, and had not the confidence to follow us. I 
struggled to my feet, as fast as, for weakness, I possibly could ; and got 
up to our confused mass* (confusen Klumpen, exact place, where?): 
'but could not, by entreaties or by threats, persuade a single man of 
them to turn his face on the Enemy, much less to halt and try again. 

'In this embarrassment the deceased Feldmarschall found me, and 
noticed that the blood was flowing stream-wise from my neck. As I was 
on foot, and none of my people now near, he bade give me his led horse 
which he still had' (and sent me home for surgery? Winterfeld, 
handsomely effacing himself when no longer good for anything, hurries 
onto the Catastrophe, leaving us to guess that he was not an eye-witness 
farther) f bade give me the led horse which he still had ; and ' (as if that 
had happened directly after, which surely it did not? * and) snatched 
the flag from Captain Rohr, who had taken it up to make the Bursche 
turn, and rode forward with it himself. But before he could succeed in 
the attempt, this excellent man, almost in a minute, was hit with five 
case-shot balls, and fell dead on the ground ; as also his brave Adjutant 
von Platen was so wounded that he died next day. 

' During this confusion and repulse, by which, as already mentioned, 
the Enemy had not the heart to profit, not only was our Second Line 
come on, but those of the First, who had not suffered, went vigorously 
(frisch) at the Enemy/ and in course of time (perhaps two hours yet), 
and by dint of effort, we did manage Sterbohol and its batteries : ( Like 
as ' (still in one sentence, and without the least punctuation ; Winterfeld 
being little of a grammarian, and in haste for the close), ' Like as Prince 
Henri's Royal Highness with our Right Wing/ Mannstein and he, 
'without waiting for order, attacked so prompt and with suchfermett/ in 
that elbow-hole far north of us, 'that everywhere the Enemy's Line 
began to give way ; and instead of continuing as Line, sought corps-wise 
to gain the Heights, and there post itself. And as, without winning said 
Heights, we could not win the Battle, we had to storm them all, one 
after the other ; and this it was that cost us the best, most and bravest 
people. 



CHAP. IL] BATTLE OF PRAG 145 

6th May 1757] 

1 The late Colonel von Goltz ' (if we glance back to Sterbohol itself), 
'who, with the regiment Fouquet, was advancing, right-hand of 
Schwerin regiment* and your servant, ( had likewise got quite close to 
the Enemy ; and had he not, at the very instant when he was levelling 
bayonets, been shot down, I think that he, with myself and the Schwerin 
regiment, would have got in,* and perhaps have there done the job, 
special and general, with much less expense, and sooner 1 l 

This is what we get from Winterfeld ; a rugged, not much 
grammatical man, but (as I can perceive) with excellent eyes 
in his head, and interior talent for twenty grammatical people, 
had that been his line. These, faithfully rendered here, with- 
out change but of pointing, are the only words I ever saw of 
his : to my regret, which surely the Prussian Dryasdust 
might still amend a little ? in respect of so distinguished a 
person, and chosen Peer of Friedrich's. This his brief theory 
of Prag Battle, if intensely read, I find to be of a piece with 
his practice there. 

Schwerin was much lamented in the Army ; and has been 
duly honoured ever since. His body lies in Schwerinsburg, 
at home, far away ; his Monument, finale of a series of 
Monuments, stands, now under special guardianship, near 
Sterbohol on the spot where he fell. A late Tourist says : 

* At first there was a monument of wood ' (tree planted, I will hope), 
which is now all gone ; round this Kaiser Joseph IL once, in the year 
1776, holding some review there, made his grenadier battalions and 
artilleries form circle, fronting the sky all round, and give three volleys 
of great arms and small, Kaiser in the centre doffing hat at each volley, 
in honour of the hero. Which was thought a very pretty thing on the 
Kaiser's part. In 1824, the tree, I suppose, being gone to a stump* 
certain subscribing Prussian Officers had it rooted out, and a modest 
Pyramid of red-veined marble built in its room. Which latter the then 
King of Prussia, Friedrich Wilhelm m., determined to improve upon; 
and so, in 1839, built a second Pyramid close by, bigger, finer, and of 
Prussian iron, this one; purchasing also, from the Austrian Govern- 
ment, a rood or two of ground for site ; and appointing some perpetual 

1 Preuss, ii. 45.47 (in Winterfeld'* hand; dated 'Camp at Prag, 8th May 
1757 * ; addressed to one knows not whom ; first printed by Preuss). 
VOL. VI. K 



146 SEVEN-YEARS WAR RISES [BOOKXVin. 

[gth May-i3th June 1757 

Peculium, or increase of Pension to an Austrian Veteran of merit for 
taking charge there. All which, perfectly in order, is in its place at 
this day. The actual Austrian Pensioner of merit is a loud-voiced, hard- 
faced, very limited, but honest little fellow ; who has worked a little 
polygon ditch and miniature hedge round the two Monuments ; keeps 
his own cottage, little garden, and self, respectably clean; and leads 
stoically a lone life, no company, I should think, but the Sterbohol 
hinds, who probably are Czechs and cannot speak to him. He was once 
"of the regiment Hohenlohe" ; suffers somewhat from cold, in the winter 
time, in those upland parts (the " cords of wood" allowed him being 
limited) ; but complains of nothing else. Two English names were in 
his Album, a military two, and no more. ee Ehret den Held (Honour the 
Hero) I" we said to him, at parting. " Don't I ?" answered he ; glanc- 
ing at his muddy bare legs and little spade, with which he had been 
working in the Polygon Ditch when we arrived. I could wish him an 
additional '* Klafter Holss" (cord more of firewood), now and then, in the 
cold months ! 

e Sterbohol Farmstead has been new-built, in man's memory, but ia 
dirty as ever. Agriculture, all over this table-land of the Ziscaberg, I 
should judge to be bad. Not so the prospect; which is cheerfully 
extensive, picturesque in parts, and to the student of Friedrich offers 
good commentary. Roads, mansions, villages: Prossik, Kyge, Pod- 
schernitz, from the Heights of Chaber round to Nussel and beyond ; 
from any knoll, all Friedrich's Villages, and many more, lie round you 
as on a map, their dirt all hidden, nothing wanting to the landscape, 
were it better carpeted with green (green instead of russet), and shaded 
here and there with wood. A small wild pink, bright-red, and of the 
size of a star, grows extensively about; of which you are tempted to 
pluck specimens, as memorial of a Field so famous in War/ l 



CHAPTER III 
PRAG CANNOT BE GOT AT ONCE 

WHAT Friedrich's emotions after the Battle of Prag were, 
we do not mud know. They are not inconceivable, if we 
read his situation well ; but in the way of speech, there is, as 
usual, next to nothing. Hew are two stray utterances, worth 
gathering from a man so uncommunicative in that form. 
2 Tourist's Note (September 



CHAP, ill.] PRAG CANNOT BE GOT AT ONCE 147 

gth May-isth June 1757] 

Friedrich a month before Prag (From Lockwitz, 25th March, to Princess 
Amelia, at Berlin). 'My dearest Sister, I give you a thousand thanks 
for the hints you have got me from Dr. Eller on the illness of our dear 
Mother. Thrice-welcome this; and reassures me' (alas, not on good 
basis ! ) f against a misfortune which I should have considered very great 
for me. 

'As to us and our posture of affairs, political and military, place 
yourself, I conjure you, above every event. Think of our Country ; and 
remember that one's first duty is to defend it. If you learn that a mis- 
fortune happens to one of us, ask, fe Did he die fighting ? " and if Yes, 
give thanks to God. Victory or else death, there is nothing else for us ; 
one or the other we must have. All the world here is of that temper. 
What ! you would have everybody sacrifice his life for the State, and 
you would not have your Brothers give the example? Ah, my dear 
Sister, at this crisis, there is no room for bargaining. Either at the 
summit of glorious success, or else abolished altogether. This Campaign 
now coming is like that of Pharsalia for Rome, or that of Leuctra for the 
Greeks,* a Campaign we verily shall have to win, or go to wreck upon ! l 

Friedrich shortly after Prag (To his Mother, Letter still extant in 
Autograph, without date). *My Brothers and I are still well. The 
whole Campaign runs risk of being lost to the Austrians ; and I find 
myself free, with 150,000 men. Add to this, that we are masters of a 
Kingdom' (Bohemia here), ' which is obliged to furnish us with troops 
and money. The Austrians are dispersed like straw before the wind. I 
will send a part of my troops to compliment Messieurs the French ; and 
am going' (if I once had Prag !) 'to pursue the Austrians with the rest 
of my Army/ 3 

Friedrich, who keeps his emotions generally to himself, 
does not, as will be seen, remain quite silent to us through- 
out this great Year ; but, by accident, has left us some 
rather impressive gleanings in that kind ; and certainly in 
no year could such accident have been luckier to us; this 
of 1757 being, in several respects, the greatest of his 
Life. From nearly the topmost heights down to the lowest 
deeps, his fortunes oscillated this year ; and probably, of all 
the sons of Adam, nobody's outlooks and reflections had in 
them, successive and simultaneous, more gigantic forms of 
fear and of hope. He is on a very high peak at this moment; 
suddenly emerging from his thick cloud, into thunderous 

1 CRuvres dt JPHdjric, xxvii. i. 391. 2 ,#. xxvi. 75. 



148 SEVEN-YEARS WAR RISES [BOOK xvni. 

[gth May-I3th June 1757 

victory of that kind ; and warning all Pythons what they get 
by meddling with the Sungod ! Loud enough, far-clanging, 
is the sound of the silver bow; gazetteers and men all on 
pause at such new Phoebus Apollo risen in his wrath ; the 
Victory at Prag considered to be much more annihilative 
than it really was. At London, Lord Holderness had his 
Tower-guns in readiness, waiting for something of the kind ; 
and * the joy of the people was frantic/ * 

Very dominant, our 6 Protestant Champion ' yonder, on his 
Ziscaberg ; bidding the enormous Pompadour-Theresa com- 
binations, the French, Austrian, Swedish, Russian populations 
and dread sovereigns, check their proud waves, and hold at 
mid-flood. It is thought, had he in eiFect c annihilated "* the 
Austrian force at Prag, that day (Friday 6th May, as he 
might have done by waiting till Saturday 7th), he could then, 
with the due rapidity, rapidity being indispensable in the 
affair, have become master of Prag, which meant of Bohemia 
altogether ; and have stormed forward, as his program bore, 
into the heart of an Austria still terror-stricken, unrallied ; 
in which case, it is calculated, the French, the Russians, 
Swedes, much more the Reich and suchlike, would all have 
drawn bridle ; and Austria itself have condescended to make 
Peace with a Neighbour of such quality, and consent to his 
really modest desire of being let alone ! Possible, all this, 
think Retzow and others. 2 But the King had not waited till 
tomorrow ; no persuasion could make him wait : and it is 
idle speculating on the small turns which here, as everywhere, 
can produce such deflections of course. 

Beyond question, Prag is not captured, and may, as now 
garrisoned, require a great deal of capturing : and perhaps 
it is but a peak^ this high dominancy of Friedrich^s, not a 
solid tableland, till much more have been done ! Friedrich has 

1 Mitchell Papers and Memoirs (i.e. the Printed Selection, 2 voll. London, 
1850 ; which will be the oftenest cited by us, * Papers and Memoirs '), i. 249 : 
1 Holderness to Mitchell, 20th May 1757*' Mitchell is now attending Friedrich; 
his Letter from Keith's Camp, during the thunder of * Friday May 6th/ is given, 
il>. i. 248. 9 See Retzow, i. lOo-roS ; etc. 



CHAP, ill.] PRAG CANNOT BE GOT AT ONCE 149 

gth May-I3th June 1757] 

nothing of the Gascon : but there may well be conceivable at 
this time a certain glow of internal pride, like that of Phoebus 
amid the piled tempests, like that of the One Man prevail- 
ing, if but for a short season, against the Devil and All Men : 
c I have made good my bit of resolution so far : here are the 
Austrians beaten at the set day, and Prag summoned to 
surrender, as per program ! * 

Intrinsically, Prag is not a strong City : we have seen it 
taken in few days ; in one night ; and again, as in Belleisle^s 
time, we have seen it making tough defence for a series of 
weeks. It depends on the garrison, what extent of garrison 
(the circuit of it being so immense), and what height of 
humour. There are now 46,000 men caged in it, known to 
have considerable magazines; and Friedrich, aware that it 
will cost trouble, bends all his strength upon it, and from his 
two camps, Ziscaberg, Weissenberg, due Bridges uniting, Keith 
and he batter it violently, aiming chiefly at the Magazines 
(which are not all bomb-proof) ; and hope they may succeed 
before it is too late. 

The Vienna people are in the depths of amazement and 
discouragement ; almost of terror, had it not been for a few, 
or especially for one high heart among them. Feldmarschall 
Daun, on the news of May 6th, hastily fell back, joined by 
the wrecks of the right wing, which fled Sazawa way. Brans- 
wick-Bevern, with a 20,000, is detached to look after Daun ; 
finds Daun still on the retreat ; greedily collecting reinforce- 
ments from the homeward quarter; and hanging back, though 
now double or so of Severn's strength. Amazement and 
discouragement are the general feeling among Friedriclfs 
enemies. Notable to see how the whole hostile world march- 
ing-in upon him, French, Russians, much more the Reich, 
poor faltering entity, pauses, as with its breath taken away, 
at news of Prag; and, arrested on the sudden, with lifted 
foot, ceases to stride forward ; and merely tramp- tramps on 
the same place (nay, in part, in the Reich part, visibly tramps 
backward), for above a month ensuing ! Who knows whether, 



150 SEVEN-YEARS WAR RISES [BOOKXVIIL 

[gth May-isth June 1757 

pcftdtically, any of them will come on ; l and not leave Austria 
by itself to do the duel with Friedrich ? If Prag were but 
got, and the 46,000 well locked away, it would be very 
salutary for Friedrich's affairs ! Week after week, the City 
holds out ; and there seems no hope of it, except by hunger, 
and burning their Magazines by red-hot balls. 

Colonel Mayer with his 'Free-Corps* Party makes a Visit, 
of didactic Nature, to the Reich 

Friedrich, as we saw, on entering Bohmen, had shot-off a 
Light Detachment under Colonel Mayer, southward, to seize 
any Austrian Magazines there were, especially one big Magazine 
at Pilsen : which Mayer has handsomely done, May #d (Pilsen 
e a bigger Magazine than Jung-Bunzlau, even "*) ; after which 
Mayer is now off westward, into the OberPfalz, into the 
Nurnberg Countries ; to teach the Reich a small lesson, since 
they will not listen to Plotho, Prag Battle, as happens, had 
already much chilled the ardour of the Reich ! Mayer has 
two IVee-Corps, his own and another; about 1,300 of foot; 
to which are added a 00 of hussars. They have 5 cannon, 
carry otherwise a minimum of baggage ; are swift wild fellows, 
sharp of stroke ; and do, for the time, prove didactic to the 
Reich ; bringing home to its very bosom the late great lesson 
of the Ziscaberg, in an applied form. Mayer made a pretty 
course of it, into the Ober-Pfalz Countries; scattering the 
poor Execution Drill-Sergeants and incipiencies of preparation, 
the deliberative County Meetings, JEms-Convents : ransoming 
Cities, Nurnberg for one city, whose cries went to Friedrich 
on the Ziscaberg, and wide over the world, 2 Nurnberg would 
have been but too happy to * refuse its contingent to the 
Reich's Army,' as many others would have been (poor Kur- 

1 See Correspondance du ComU dt Saint- Germain, an Eye-witness, i. 108 
(cited in Preuss, ii 50) ; etc. etc. 

a In Helden-Ge$chickte> iv. 360-367, the NUrnberg Letter and Responso (3 1st 
May-5th June 1757) : in Pauli, Lebcn grosser Hddtn (iii. 159 et seq,), Account 
of the Mayer Expedition : also in Militair-Lexiken^ iii. 29 (quoting from Pauli). 



CHAP, m.] PRAG CANNOT BE GOT AT ONCE 151 

jth May-igth June 1757] 

Baiern hurrying-off a kind of Embassy to Friedrich, great 
terror reigning among the wigs of Regensburg, and everybody 
drawing back that could), had not Imperial menaces, and 
an Event that fell-out by and by in Prag Country, forced 
compliance. 

Mayers Expedition made a loud noise in the Newspapers ; 
and was truly of a shining nature in its kind ; very perfectly 
managed on Mayer's part, and has traits in it which are 
amusing to read, had one time. Take one small glance from 
Pauli : 

'At Furth in Anspach, 1st June * (after six-days screwing of Nurnberg 
from without, which we had no cannon to take), *a Gratuity for the 
Prussian troops ' (amount not stated) f was demanded and given : at 
Schwabach, farther up the Regnitz River, they took quarters ; no 
exemption made, clergy and laity alike getting soldiers billeted. Meat 
and drink had to be given them ; as also 100 Carolines " (guineas and 
better), 'and- twenty new uniforms. Upon which, next day, they 
marched to Zirndorf, and the Reichsgraf Piickler's Mansion, the Schloss 
of Farrenbach there. Mayer took quarter in the Schloss itself. Here 
the noble owners got-up a ball for Mayer's entertainment ; and did all 
they could contrive to induce a light treatment from him/ Figure it, 
the neighbouring nobility and gentry in gala; Mayer too in his best 
uniform, and smiling politely, with those 'bright little black eyes' of 
his ! For he was a brilliant airy kind of fellow, and had much of the 
chevalier, as well as of the partisan, when requisite ! 

' Out of Farrenbach, the Mayer people circulated upon all the neigh- 
bouring Lordships ; at Wilhelmsdorf, the Reichs-Ftirst von Hohenlohe ' 
(a too busy Anti-Prussian) ' had the worse brunt to bear. The adjacent 
Baireuth lands ' (dear Wilhelmina, fancy her too in such neighbourhood I) 
* were to the utmost spared all billeting, and even all transit/ though 
wandering sergeants of the Reich's Force, 'one sergeant with the 
Wiirzbuig Herr Commissarius and eight .common men, did get picked-up 
on Baireuth ground : and this or the other Anspach Official (Anspach 
being disaffected), too busy on the wrong side, found himself suddenly 
Prisoner of War ; but was given up, at Wilhelmina's gracious request. 
On Bamberg he was sharp as flint ; and had to be ; the Bambergers, 
reinforced at last by " Circle-Militias (Kreis-trupperi) " in quantity, being 
called-out in mass against him; and at Vach an actual Passage of Fight 
had occurred/ 

Of the Affair at Vach," pretty little Drawn-Battle (mostlj 



152 SEVEN-YEARS WAR RISES [BOOKXVIII. 

[gth May-i3th Jun 1757 

on affair of art), Mayer verms * Kreis-troops to the amount 
of 6,000, with twelve cannon, or some say twenty-four 1 
(which they couldn't handle) ; and how Mayer cunningly took 
a position unassailable, * burnt Bridges of the Regnitz River,' 
and, plying his five cannon against these ardent awkward 
people, stood cheerful on the other side ; and then at last, in 
good time, whisked himself off to the Hill of Culmbach, with 
all his baggage, inexpugnable there for three days : of all 
this, though it is set-down at full length, we can say nothing. 1 
And will add only, that, having girt himself and made his 
packages, Mayer left the Hill of Culmbach ; and deliberately 
wended home, by Coburg, and other Countries where he had 
business, eating his way ; and early in July was safe in the 
Metal Mountains again; having fluttered the Volscians in 
their Frankenland Corioli to an unexpected extent. It is 
one of five or six such sallies Friedrich made upon the Reich, 
sometimes upon the Austrians and Reich together, to tumble- 
up their magazines and preparations. Rapid unexpected 
inroads, year after year ; done chiefly by the Free-Corps ; 
and famous enough to the then Gazetteers. Of which, or of 
their doers, as we can in time coming afford little or no 
notice, let us add this small Note on the Free-Corps topic, 
which is a large one in the Books, but must not interrupt 
us again : 

' Before this War was done/ say my Authorities, 'there came 
gradually to be twenty-one Prussian Free-Corps/ foot almost all ; there 
being already Hussars in quantity, ever since the first Silesian ex- 
periences. e Notable Aggregates they were of loose wandering fellows, 
broken Saxons, Prussians, French; (( Hungarian- Protestant" some of 
them, "Deserters from all the Armies" not a few; attracted by the 
fame of Friedrich, as the Colonels enlisting them had been ; Mayer 
himself, for instance, was by birth a Vienna man; and had been in 
many services and wars, from his fifteenth year and onwards. Most 
miscellaneous, these Prussian Free-Corps ; a swift faculty the indis- 
pensable thing, by no means a particular character : but well-disciplined, 

well-captained ; who generally managed their work well. 



1 Pauli, iiL 159, etc. (who gives Mayer's own Z*//<?rand others, upon Vach), 



CHAP, in.] PRAG CANNOT BE GOT AT ONCE 158 

gth May-i3th June 1757] 

'They were, by origin, of Anti-Tolpatcli nature, got-up on the diamond- 
cut-diamond principle ; they stole a good deal, with order sometimes, 
and offcener without ; but there was nothing of the old Mentzel-Trenck 
atrocity permitted them, or ever imputed to them ; and they did, 
usually with good military talent, sometimes conspicuously good, what 
was required of them. Regular Generals, of a high merit, one or two of 
their Captains came to be : Wunseh, for example ; Werner, in some 
sort; and, but for his sudden death, this Mayer himself. Others of 
them, as Von Hordt (Hard is his Swedish name) ; and ' c Quintus Icilius " 
(by nature Guichard, of whom we shall hear a great deal in the Friedrich 
circle by and by), are distinguished as honourably intellectual and 
cultivated persons. 1 

Toor Mayer died within two years hence (5th January 1759); of 
fever, caught by unheard-of exertions and over-fatigues; after many 
exploits, and with the highest prospects opening on him. A man of 
many adventures, of many qualities ; a wild dash of chivalry in him all 
along, and much military and other talent crossed in the growing. In 
the dull old Books I read one other fact which is vivid to me, That 
Wilhelmina, as sequel of those first Franconian exploits and procedures, 
"had given him her Order of Knighthood, Order of Sincerity and 
Fidelity"' poor dear Princess, what an interest to Wilhelmina, this 
flash of her Brother's thunder thrown into those Franconian parts, and 
across her own pungent anxieties and sorrowfully affectionate thoughts, 
in those weeks ! 

Shortly after Mayer, about the time when Mayer was 
wending homeward. General von Oldenburg, a very valiant 
punctual old General, was pushed-out westward upon Erfurt, 
a City of Kur-Mainz's, to give Kur-Mainz a similar monition. 
And did it handsomely, impressively upon the Gazetteer 
world at least and the Erfurt populations, though we can 
afford it no room in this place. Oldenburg's force was but 
some 2,000 ; Pirna Saxons most of them : such a winter 
Oldenburg has had with these Saxons ; bursting-out into 
actual musketry upon him once; Oldenburg, volcanically 
steady, summoning the Prussian part, * To me, true Prussian 

1 Count de Hordt's Memoirs (autobiographical, or in the first-person : English 
Translation, London, 1806 ; two French Originals, a worse in 1789, and a better 
now at last), Preface, i-xii. In Helden-Geschichte, v. 102-104, 93, a detailed 
* List of the Free-Corps in 1758' (twelve of foot, two of horse, at that time) : 
see Preuss, ii. 372 n.; Pauli (ubi supra), Life of Mayer* 



154 SEVEN-YEABS WAH RISES [BOOKXVIII. 

[gth May-iath June 1757 

Bursche ! * and hanging nine of the mutinous Saxons. And 
has coerced and compesced them (all that did not contrive to 
desert) into soldierly obedience; and, 20th June, appears at 
the Gate of Erfurt with them, to do his delicate errand there. 
Sharply conclusive, though polite and punctual. *Send to 
Kur-Mainz, say you? Well, as to your Citadel, and those 
1,400 soldiers all moving peaceably off thither, Yes. As 
to your City : within one hour, Gate open to us, or we open 
it ! * l And Oldenburg marches in, as vice-sovereign for the 
time : but, indeed, has soon to leave again ; owing to what 
Event in the distance will be seen ! 

If Prag Siege go well, these Mayer-Oldenburg expeditions 
will have an effect on the Reich : but if it go ill, what are 
they, against Austria with its force of steady pressure ? All 
turns on the issue of Prag Siege : a fact extremely evident 
to Friedrich too ! But these are what in the interim can be 
done. One neglects no opportunity, tries by every method. 

Of the smgula/r quasi-bewitched Condition of England, and 
what is to be hoped from itjbr the Common Cazise, if Prag 
go amiss 

On the Britannic side, too, the outlooks are not good ; 
much need Friedrich were through his Prag affair, and * hasten- 
ing with forty thousand to help his Allies," that is. Royal 
Highness of Cumberland and Britannic Purse, his only allies 
at this moment. Royal Highness and Army of Observation 
(should have been 67,000, are 50 to 60,000, hired Germans . 
troops good enough, were they tolerably led) finds the 
Hanover Program as bad as Schmettau and Friedrich ever 
represented it ; and, already, unless Prag go well, wears, 
to the understanding eye, a very contingent aspect. DTBstrdes 
outnumbers him ; D'Estrees, too, is something of a soldier, 
a very considerable advantage in affaii*s of war. 

1 In Heldtn-Geschichte (v. 371-384) copious Account, with the Missives to and 
from, the Reich's-Pleadings that followed, the etc., etc. Militair* Lexikon 
Oldenburg. 



CHAP, ill.] PRAG CANNOT BE GOT AT ONCE 135 

gth May-iath June 1757} 

D'Estrees, since April, is in Wesel; gathering-in the 
revenues, changing the Officialities: much out of discipline, 
they say; 'hanging' gradually 1,000 marauders'; in 
round numbers, 1,000 this year. 1 DTEstrees does not yet 
push forward, owing to Prag, If he do It is well known 
how Royal Highness fared when he did, and what a Campaign 
Royal Highness made of it this Year 1757 ! How the 
Weser did prove wadeable, as Schmettau had said to no 
purpose; wadeable, bridgeable; and Royal Highness had to 
wriggle back, eve? back ; no stand to be made, or far worse 
than none : back, ever back, till he got into the Sea, for that 
matter, and to the end of more than one thing ! Poor man 
friends say he has an incurable Hanover Ministry, a Program 
that is inexecutable. As yet he has not lost head, any head 
he ever had : but he is wonderful, he ; and his England is ! 
We shall have to look at him once again ; and happily once 
only. Here, from my Constitutional Historian, are some 
Passages which we may as well read in the present interim of 
expectation. I label, and try to arrange : 

1. England in Crisis. s England is indignant with its Hero of Culloden 
and his Campaign 1757 ; but really has no business to complain. Royal 
Highness of Cumberland, wriggling helplessly in that manner, is a fair 
representative of the England that now is. For years back., there has 
been, in regard to all things Foreign or Domestic, in that Country, by 
way of National action, the miserablest haggling as to which of various 
little-competent persons shall act for the Nation. A melancholy con- 
dition indeed ! 

* But the fact is, his Grace of Newcastle, ever since his poor Brother 
Pelham died (who was always a solid, loyal kind of man, though a dull ; 
and had always, with patient affection, furnished his Grace, much 
wnsupplied otherwise, with Common-Sense hitherto), is quite insecure in 
Parliament, and knows not what hand to turn to. Fox is contemptuous 
of him ; Pitt entirely impatient of him ; Duke of Cumberland (great in the 
glory of Culloden) is aiming to oust him, and bear rule with his Young 
Nephew, the new Rising Sun, as the poor Papa and Grandfather gets old. 
Even Carteret (Earl Granville as they now call him, a Carteret much 
changed since those high-soaring Worms-Hanau times !) was applied to. 

1 Stenzel, v. 65 ; Retzow, i. 173. 



156 SEVEN-YEARS WAR RISES [BOOK xvm. 

[gth May-X3thJune 1757 

But the answer was what could the answer be ? High-soaring Carteret, 
scandalously over-set and hurled-out In that Hanau time, had already- 
tried once (long ago, and with such result !) to spring-in again, and 
ee deliver his Majesty from factions " ; and actually had made a ff Granville 
Ministry " ; Ministry which fell again in one day. l To the complete dis- 
gust of Carteret-Granville ; who, ever since, sits ponderously dormant 
(kind of Fixture in the Privy Council, this long while back) ; and is 
resigned, in a big contemptuous way, to have had his really consider- 
able career closed upon him by the smallest of mankind ; and, except 
occasional blurts of strong rugged speech which come from him, and a 
good deal of wine taken into him, disdains making farther debate with 
the world and its elect Newcastles. Carteret, at this crisis, was again 
applied to, "Cannot you? In behalf of an afflicted old King?" But 
Carteret answered, No. 2 

* In short, it is admitted and bewailed by everybody, seldom was there 
seen such a Government of England (and England has seen some strange 
Governments), as in these last Three Years. Chaotic Imbecility reigning 
pretty supreme. Ruler's Work, policy, administration, governance, 
guidance, performance in any kind, where is it to be found? For if 
even a Walpole, when his Talking- Apparatus gets out of gear upon him, 
is reduced to extremities, though the stoutest of men, fancy what it 
will be, in like case, and how the Acting-Apparatuses and Affairs 
generally will go, with a poor hysterical Newcastle, now when his 
Common-Sense is fatally withdrawn ! The poor man has no resource but 
to shuffle about in aimless perpetual fidget ; endeavouring vainly to say 
Yes and No to all questions, Foreign and Domestic, that may rise. 
Whereby, in the Affairs of England, there has, as it were, universal St- 
Vitus'-dance supervened, at an important crisis : and the Preparations 
for America, and for a downright Life-and-Death Wrestle with France 
on the Jenkins' s-Ear Question, are quite in a bad way. In an ominously 
bad. Why cannot we draw a veil over these things !' 

2. Pitty and the Hour of Tide. 'The fidgetings and shufflings, the 
subtleties, inane trickeries, and futile hitherings and thitheriugs of 
Newcastle may be imagined : a man not incapable of trick ; but anxious 
to be well with everybody, and to answer Yes and No to almost every- 
thing, and not a little puzzled, poor soul, to get through, in that 
impossible way ! Such a paralysis of wriggling imbecility fallen over 
England, in this great crisis of its fortunes, aa is still painful to con- 
template : and indeed it has been mostly shaken out of mind by the 
modern Englishman ; who tries to laugh at it, instead of weeping 1 and 
considering-, which would better beseem. Pitt npeaks with a tragical 
vivacity, in all ingenious dialects, lively though serious; and with a 

' l nth February 1746 ' (Thackeray, Life of Chatham, i. 146. a Ibid. i. 264. 



CHAP. III.] PHAG CANNOT BE GOT AT ONCE 157 

gth May-i3th June 1757] 

depth of sad conviction, which is apt to be slurred over and missed 
altogether by a modern reader. Speaks as if this brave English Nation 
were about ended ; little or no hope left for it ; here a gleam of 
possibility, and there a gleam, which soon vanishes again in the fatal 
murk of impotencies, do-nothiiigisms. Very sad to the heart of Pitt. A 
once brave Nation arrived at its critical point, and doomed to higgle and 
puddle there till it drown in the gutters : considerably tragical to Pitt ; 
who is lively, ingenious, and, though not quitting the Parliamentary 
tone for the Hebrew-Prophetic, far more serious than the modern reader 
thinks. 

'In Walpole's Book 1 there is the liveliest Picture of this dismal 
Parliamentary Hellbroth, such a Mother of Bead Dogs as one has 
seldom looked into ! For the Hour is great ; and the Honourable 
Gentlemen, I must say, are small. The Hour, little as you dream of it, 
my Honourable Friends, is pregnant with questions that are immense. 
Wide Continents, long Epochs and Mons hang on this poor jargoning of 
yours; the Eternal Destinies are asking their much-favoured Nation, 
"Will you, can you?'* much -favoured Nation is answering in that 
manner. Astonished at its own stupidity, and taking refuge in laughter. 
The Eternal Destinies are very patient with some Nations ; and can 
disregard their follies, for a long while ; and have their Cromwell, have 
their Pitt, or what else is essential, ready for the poor Nation, in a 
grandly silent way ! 

* Certain it is, though how could poor Newcastle know it at all! 
here is again the hour of tide for England. Tide is full again ; has 
been flowing long hundreds of years, and is full : certain, too, that time 
and tide wait on no man or nation. In a dialect different from Cromwell's 
or Pitt's, but with a sense true to theirs, I call it tho Eternal Destinies 
knocking at England's door again : ff Are you ready for the crisis, birth- 
point of long Ages to you, which is now come?" Greater question had 
not been, for centuries past. None to be named with it since that high 
Spiritual Question (truly a much higher, and which was in fact the 
parent of thw, and of all of high and great that lay ahead), which 
England and Oliver Cromwell were there to answer : <c Will you hold by 
Consecrated Formulas, then, you English, and expect salvation from 
traditions of the eldei*s; or are you for Divine Realities, as the one 
sacred and indispensable thing ? " Which they did answer, in what way 
we know. Truly the Highest Question ; which, if a Nation can answer 
wett } it will grow in this world, and may come to be considerable, and to 
have many high Questions to answer, this of Pitt's, for example. And 
the Answers given do always extend through coming ages ; and do 
always bear harvests, accursed or else blessed, according as the Answers 

1 Memoirs oftfte Last Tin Years of George //. 



158 SEVEN-YEARS WAR RISES [BOOKXVUI. 

[gth May-i3th June 1757 

were, A tihing awfully true, if you have eye for it; a tiring to make 
Honourable Gentlemen serious, even in the age of percussion-caps ! No, 
my friend, Newcastleisms, impious Poltrooneries, in a Nation, do not 
die : neither (thank God) do Cromwellisms and pious Heroisms ; but 
are alive for the poor Nation, even in its somnambulencies, in its 
stupidest dreams. For Nations have their somnambulencies ; and, at 
any rate, the questions put to Nations, in different ages, vary much. 
Not in any age, or turning-point in History, had England answered the 
Destinies in such a dialect as now, under its Newcastle and National 
Palaver.' 

3. Of Walpole, as Recording AngeL ' Walpole's George the Second is a 
Book of far more worth than is commonly ascribed to it ; almost the 
one original English Book yet written on those times, which, by the 
accident of Pitt, are still memorable to us. But for Walpole, burning 
like a small steady light there, shining faithfully, if stingily, on the evil 
and the good, that sordid muddle of the Pelham Parliaments, which 
chanced to be the element of things now recognisable enough as great, 
would be forever unintelligible. He is unusually accurate, punctual, 
lucid ; an irrefragable authority on English points. And if, in regard 
to Foreign, he cannot be called an understanding witness, he has read 
the best Documents accessible, has conversed with select Ambassadors 
(Mitchell and the like, as we can guess) ; and has informed himself to a 
degree far beyond most of his contemporaries. In regard to Pitt's 
Speeches, in particular, his brief jottings, done rapidly while the matter 
was still shining to him, are the only Reports that have the least human 
resemblance. We may thank Walpole that Pitt is not dumb to us, as 
well as dark. Very curious little scratchings and etchings, those of 
Walpole ; frugal, swift, but punctual and exact ; hasty pen-and-ink out- 
lines ; at first view, all barren ; bald as an invoice, seemingly ; but which 
yield you, after long study there and elsewhere, a conceivable notion ot 
what and how excellent these Pitt Speeches may have been. Airy, 
winged, like arrow-flights of Phoebus Apollo ; very superlative Speeches 
indeed. Walpole's Book is carefully printed, few errors in it like that 
" Chapeau " for Chasot,' which readers remember : e but, in respect to 
editing, may be characterised as still wanting an Editor. A Book 
unedited ; little but lazy ignorance of a very hopeless type, thick con- 
tented darkness, traceable throughout in the marginal part. No attempt 
at an Index, or at any of the natural helps to a reader now at such 
distance from it. Nay, till you have at least marked, on the top of each 
page, what Month and Year it actually is, the Book cannot be read at 
all; except by an idle creature, doing worse than nothing under the 
name of reading V 

4, Pitt's Spe*ch8, foreshadowing What e It m a kind of epoch in your 



CHAP, in.] PRAG CANNOT BE GOT AT ONCE 169 

0th May-iath June 1757] 

studies of modern English History when you get to understand of Pitta* 
Speeches, that they are not Parliamentary Eloquences, but things which 
with his whole soul he means, and is intent to do. This surprising 
circumstance, when at last become undeniable, makes, on the sudden, an 
immense difference for the Speeches and you 1 Speeches are not a thing 
of high moment to this Editor ; it is the Thing spoken, and how far the 
speaker means to do it, that this Editor inquires for. Too many Speeches 
there are, which he hears admired all round, and has privately co enter- 
tain a very horrid notion of ! Speeches, the finest in quality (were quality 
really "fine" conceivable in such case), which want a corresponding fine- 
ness of source and intention, corresponding nobleness of purport, con- 
viction, tendency; these, if we will reflect, are frightful instead of 
beautiful. Yes; and always the frightfuler, the " finer" they are; 
and the faster and farther they go, sowing themselves in the dim 
vacancy of men's minds. For Speeches, like all human things, though 
the fact is now little remembered, do always rank themselves as forever 
blessed, or as forever unblessed. Sheep or goats ; on the right hand of 
the Final Judge, or else on the left There are Speeches which can be 
called true ; and, again, Speeches which are not true : Heavens, only 
think what these latter are ! Sacked wind, which you are intended to 
sow, that you may reap the whirlwind ! After long reading, I find 
Chatham's Speeches to be what he pretends they are : true, and worth 
speaking then and there. Noble indeed, I can call them with you : 
the highly noble Foreshadow, necessary preface and accompaniment of 
Actions which are still nobler. A very singular phenomenon within 
those walls, or without! 

' Pitt, though nobly eloquent, is a Man of Action, not of Speech ; an 
authentically Royal kind of Man. And if there were a Plutarch in these 
times, with a good deal of leisure on his hands, he might run a Parallel 
between Friedrich and Chatham. Two radiant Kings ; very shining 
Men of Action both ; both of them hard bestead, as the case often is. 
For your born King will generally have, if not "all Europe against 
him," at least pretty much all the Universe. Chatham's course to 
Kingship was not straight or smooth, as Friedrich, too, had his well- 
nigh fatal difficulties on the road. Again, says the Plutarch, they are 
very brave men both ; and of a clearness and veracity peculiar among 
their contemporaries. In Chatham, too, there is something of the flash 
of steel ; a very sharp-cutting, penetrative, rapid individual, he too ; and 
shaped for action, first of all, though he has to talk so much in the 
world. Fastidious, proud, no King could be prouder, though his element 
is that of Free-Senate and Democracy. And he has a beautiful poetic 
delicacy, withal ; great tenderness in him, playfulness, grace ; in all 
way ? an airy as well as a solid loftiness of mind. Not born a King 1 , 



160 SEVEN-YEARS WAE RISES [BOOKXVIII. 

[gth May-isth June 1757 

alas, no, not officially so, only naturally so ; has his kingdom to seek. 
The Conquering of Silesia, the Conquering of the Pelham Parliaments 
But we will shut-up the Plutarch with time on his hands. 

'Pitt's Speeches, as I spell them from Walpole and the other faint 
tracings left, are full of genius in the vocal kind, far beyond any 
Speeches delivered in Parliament : serious always, and the very truth, 
such as he has it ; but going in many dialects and modes ; full of airy 
flashings, twinkles, and coruscations. Sport, as of sheet-lightning 
glancing about, the bolt lying under the horizon ; bolt hidden, as is fit, 
under such a horizon as he had. A singularly radiant man. Could 
have been a Poet, too, in some small measure, had he gone on that line. 
There are many touches of genius, comic, tragic, lyric, something of 
humour even, to be read in those Shadows of Speeches taken down for 
us by Walpole. * * 

( Jn one word, Pitt, shining like a gleam of sharp steel in that murk of 
con tern ptibili ties, is carefully steering his way towards Kingship over it. 
Tragical it is (especially in Pitt's case, first and last) to see a Royal Man, 
or Born King, wading towards his throne in such an element But, alas, 
the Born King (even when he tries, which I take to be the rarer case) so 
seldom can arrive there at all ; sinful Epochs there are, when Heaven's 
curse has been spoken, and it is that awful Being, the Born Sham-King, 
that arrives ! Pitt, however, does it. Yes ; and the more we study Pitt, 
the more we shall find he does it in a peculiarly high, manful and honour- 
able as well as dextrous manner ; and that English History has a right 
to call him (e the acme and highest man of Constitutional Parliaments ; 
the like of whom was not in any Parliament called Constitutional, nor 
will again be.'" 

Well, probably enough ; too probably ! But what it more 
concerns us to remember here, is the fact, That in these dismal 
shufflings which have been, Pitt, in spite of Royal dislikes and 
Newcastle peddlings and chicaneries, has been actually in 
Office, in the due topmost place, the poor English Nation 
ardently demanding him, in what ways it could. Been in 
Office; and is actually out again, in spite of the Nation. 
Was without real power in the Royal Councils ; though of 
noble promise, and planting himself down, hero-like, evidently 
bent on work, and on ending that unutterable * St.-Vitus 1 - 
dance * that had gone so high all round him. Without real 
power, we say; and has had no permanency. Came irji llth- 
19th November 1756; thrown out 5th April 1757. After 



CHAP, in.] P&AG CANNOT BE GOT AT ONCE 161 

9th May-i3th June 1757] 

six-months trial, the St. Vitus finds that it cannot do with 
him ; and will prefer going on again. The last act his Royal 
Highness of Cumberland did in England was to displace Pitt : 
* Down you, I am the man ! ' said Royal Highness ; and went 
to the Weser Countries on those terms. 

Would the reader wish to see, in summary, what Pitt's 
Offices have been, since he entered on this career about thirty 
years ago ? Here, from our Historian, is the List of them in 
order of time ; Stages qfPitfs Course^ he calls it 

1*. * December 1734, Comes into Parliament, age now twenty-six; 
Cornet in the Blues as well ; being poor, and in absolute need of some 
career that will suit. April 1736, makes his First Speech : Prince 
Frederick the subject, who was much used as battering-ram by the 
Opposition ; whom perhaps Pitt admired for his madrigals, for his 
Literary patronisings, and favour to the West-Wickham set. Speech, 
full of airy lightning, was much admired. Followed by many, with the 
lightning getting denser and denser; always on the Opposition side' 
(once on the Jenkins s-Ear Question, as we saw, when the Gazetteer 
Editor spelt him Mr. Pitts): 'so that Majesty was very angry, sulky 
Public much applausive ; and Walpole was heard to say, " We must 
muzzle, in some way, that terrible Cornet of Horse ! " but could not, 
on trial ; this man's f ( price," as would seem, being awfully high ! 
August-October 1744, Sarah Duchess of Marlborough bequeathed him 
10,000, as Commissariat equipment in this his Campaign against the 
Mudgods, 1 glory to the old Heroine for so doing ! Which lifted Pitt 
out of the Cornetcy or Horseguards element, I fancy; and was as the 
nailing of his Parliamentary colours to the mast. 

2*. 'February 14^, 1746, Vice-Treasurer for Ireland : on occasion of 
that Pelham-Granville ** As-you-were 1 " (Carteret Ministry, which lasted 
One Day), and the slight shufflings that were necessary. Now first in 
Office, after such Ten Years of colliding and conflicting, and fine 
steering in difficult waters. Vice-Treasurer for Ireland : and ' ' soon 
after, on Lord Wilmington's death," Paymaster of the Forces. Continued 
Paymaster about nine years. Rejects, quietly and totally, the big income 
derivable from Interest of Government Moneys lying delayed in the 
Paymaster's hand ("Dishonest, I tell you ! ") and will none of it, though 
poor. Not yet high, still low over the horizon, but shining brighter and 
brighter. Greatly contemptuous of Newcastle and the Platitudes and 
Poltrooneries ; and still a good deal in the Opposition strain, and not 

1 Thackeray, i. 138. 
VOL. VI. L 



162 SEVEN-YEARS WAR RISES [BOOKXVlll. 

[gth May-i3th July 1757 

always tempering the wind to the shorn Iamb. For example, Pitt (still 
Paymaster) to Newcastle on King of the Romans Question (1752 or so) : 
**You engage for Subsidies, not knowing their extent; for Treaties, not 
knowing the terms !" " What a bashaw !" moan Newcastle and the 
top Officials. "Best way is, don't mind it," said Mr. Stone' (one of 
their terriers, a hard-headed fellow, whose brother became Primate of 
Ireland by and by). 

3. e November 20ZA, 1755, Thrown out : on Pelham's death, and the 
general hurlyburly in Official regions, and change of partners with no 
little difficulty, which had then ensued ! Sir Thomas Robinson,' our old 
friend, 'made Secretary, not found to answer. Pitt sulkily looking on 
America, on Minorca ; on things German, on things in general ; warily 
set on returning, as is thought; but How? FOOD to Pitt: " Will you 
join we?" Pitt : "No," with such politeness, but in an unmistakable 
way ! Ten months of consummate steering on the part of Pitt ; 
Chancellor Hardwicke coming as messenger, he among others ; Pitt's 
answer to him dextrous, modestly royal. Pitt's bearing, in this grand 
juncture and crisis, is royal, his speakings and also his silences notably 
fine. October 20th, 1756: to Newcastle face to face, "I will accept no 
situation under your Grace 1 " and, about that day month, comes in, 
on his own footing. That is to say, 

'November IQth, 1756, to England's great comfort, Sees himself 
Secretary of State (age now just forty-eight). Has pretty much all 
England at his back; but has, in face of him, Fox, Newcastle and 
Company, offering mere impediment and discouragement ; Royal High- 
ness of Cumberland looking deadly sour. Till finally, 

c April 5th, 1757, King bids him resign ; Royal Highness setting-off 
for Germany the second day after. Pitt had been in rather more than 
Four months. England, at that time a silent Country in comparison, 
knew not well what to do ; took to offering him Freedoms of Corpora- 
tions in very great quantity. Town after Town, from all the four winds, 
sympathetically firing off, upon a misguided Sacred Majesty, its little 
Box, in this oblique way, with extraordinary diligence. Whereby, after 
six-months bombardment by Boxes, and also by Events, June 29th, 1757 * 
We will expect June 29th. 1 

In these sad circumstances. Preparations so-called have 
been making for Hanover, for America; such preparations 
as were never seen before. Take only one instance ; let one 
be enough : 

1 Thackeray, i. 231, 264 ; Almon, Anecdotes of Pitt (London, 1810), i. 151, 
182, 218. 



CHAP. III.] PBAG CANNOT BE GOT AT ONCE 163 

gth May-isth June 1757] 

'By the London Gazette, well on in February 1756, we learn that 
Lord London, a military gentleman of small faculty, but of good con- 
nexions, has been nominated to command the Forces in America ; and 
then, more obscurely, some days after, that another has been nominated : 
one of them ought certainly to make haste out, if he could ; the 
French, by account, have 25,000 men in those countries, with real 
officers to lead them ! Haste out, however, is not what this Lord Loudon 
or his rival can make. In March, we learn that Lord Loudon has been 
again nominated; in an improved manner, this time; and still does 
not look like going. <f Again nominated, why again?" Alas, reader, 
there have been hysterical fidgetings in a high quarter ; internal shiftings 
and shufflings, contradictions, new proposals, one knows not what. 1 One 
asks only : How is the business ever to be done, if you cannot even 
settle what imbecile is to go and try it? 

f Seldom had Country more need of a Commander than America now. 
America itself is of willing mind ; and surely has resources, in such a 
Cause ; but is full of anarchies as well : the different States and sections 
of it, with their discrepant Legislatures, their half-drilled Militias, 
pulling each a different way, there is, as in the poor Mother Country, 
little result except of the St-Vitus kind. In some Legislatures are 
anarchic Quakers, who think it unpermissible to fight with those hector- 
ing French, and their tail of scalping Indians ; and that the " method of 
love " ought to be tried with them. What is to become of those poor 
people, if not even a Lord Loudon can get out ? * 

The result was. Lord Loudon had not in his own poor 
person come to hand in America till August 1756, Season 
now done ; and could only write home, c All is St. Vitus out 
here! Must have reinforcement of 10,000 men! 7 *Yes,' 
answers Pitt, who is now in Office : c you shall have them ; 
and we will take Cape Breton, please Heaven ! ' but was 
thrown out ; and by the wrigglings that ensued, nothing of 
the 10,000 reached Lord Loudon till Season 1757 too was 
done. Nor did they then stead his Lordship much, then or 
afterwards ; who never took Cape Breton, nor was like doing 
it ; but wriggled to and fro a good deal, and revolved on his 
axis, according to pattern given. And set (what chiefly 
induces us to name him here) his not reverent enough Sub- 
ordinate, Lord Charles Hay, our old Fontenoy friend, into 

1 Gentleman's Magazine for 1756, pp. 92, 150, 359, 450. 



164 SEVEN-YEARS WAR RISES [BOOKXVIIL 

[gth May- isth June 1757 

angry impatient quizzing of him ; and by and by into 
Court-Martial for such quizzing. 1 Court-Martial, which was 
much puzzled by the case; and could decide nothing, but 
only adjourn and adjourn ; as we will now do, not mention- 
ing Lord Loudon farther, or the numerous other instances at 
all. 2 

Pitt, we just saw, far from being confirmed and furthered, 
has been thrown-out by Royal Highness of Cumberland, the 
last thing before crossing to that exquisite Weser Problem. 
6 Nothing now left at home to hinder us and our Hanover and 
Weser Problem ! ' thinks Royal Highness. No, indeed : a 
comfortable pacific No-government, or Battle of the Four 
Elements, left yonder ; the Anarch Old waggling his addle 
head over it ; ready to help everybody, and bring fire and 
water, and Yes and No, into holy matrimony, if he could ! 
Let us return to Prag. Only one remark more ; upon * April 
5th.' That was the Day of Pitt's Dismissal at St. James's : 
and I find, at Schonbrunn it is likewise the day when Reiclis- 
Hofrath (Kaiser in Privy Council) decides, in respect to 
Friedrich, that Ban of the Reich must be proceeded with, and 
recommends Reich's Diet to get through with the same, 3 
Official England ordering its Pitt into private life, and 
Official Teutschland its Friedrich into outlawry (*Be quiet 
henceforth, both of you ! ') are, by chance, synchronous 
phenomena, 

Phenomena of Prag Siege: Prag Siege is interrupted 
Friedrich's Siege of Prag proved tedious beyond expecta- 

1 Peerage Books, Tweeddale. 

3 *ist May 1760, Major -General Lord Charles Hay died 1 (Gentleman's 
Magazine of Year) ; and his particular Court- Martial could adjourn for the last 
time. 'I wrote something for Lord Charles, 1 said the great Johnson once, 
many years afterwards ; * and I thought he had nothing to fear from a Court- 
Martial. I suffered a great loss when he died : he was a mighty pleasing man 
in conversation, and a reading man * (Bos well's Life of Johnson ; under date, * 3d 
April 1776*). 

8 Heldcn-Geschichtt (Reichs-Prpcedures, ubi suprb). 



CHAP, ill.] PRAG CANNOT BE GOT AT ONCE 165 

xgth-a4th May 1757] 

tion. In four days he had done that exploit in 1744; but 
now, to the world's disappointment, in as many weeks he 
cannot. Nothing was omitted on his part : he seized all 
egresses from Prag, rapidly enough; had beset them with 
batteries, on the very night or morrow of the Battle ; every 
egress beset, cannon and ruin forbidding any issue there. On 
the 9th of May, cannonading began; proper siege- cannon 
and ammunition, coming up from Dresden, were completely 
come May 1 9th ; after which the place is industriously 
battered, bombarded with red-hot balls ; but except by 
hunger, it will not do. Prag as a fortress is weak, 
but as a breastwork for 50,000 men it is strong. The 
Austrians tried sallies ; but these availed nothing, very ill- 
conducted, say some. The Prussians, more than once, had 
nearly got into the place by surprisal ; but, owing to mere 
luck of the Austrians, never could, say the same parties. 1 

A Diarium of Prag Siege is still extant. Two Diarmms ; 
punctual diurnal account, both Austrian and Prussian : 3 
which it is far from our intention to inflict on readers, in this 
haste. Siege lasted six weeks ; four weeks extremely hot, 
from May 1 9th, when the proper artilleries, in complete state, 
got up from Dresden. Line of siege- works, or intermittent 
series of batteries, is some twelve miles long; from Branik 
southward to beyond the Belvedere northward, on both sides 
of the Moldau. King's Camp is on the Ziscaberg ; Keith's on 
the Lorenz Berg, embracing and commanding the Weissen- 
berg ; there are two Bridges of communication, Branik and 
Podoli : King lodges in the Parsonage of Michel, the busiest 
of all the sons of Adam ; what a set of meditations in that 
Parsonage ! The Besieged, 46,000 by count, offer to 
surrender Prag on condition of * Free withdrawal ' : * No ; 
you shall engage, such of you as won't enlist with us, not to 
serve against me for six years."* Here are some select 
Specimens ; Prussian chiefly, in an abridged state : 

1 Archenholtz, i. 85, 87. 

2 In Helden-Gc$chicht6i iv. 42-56, Prussian Diarmm; ibid. 73-86, Austrian. 



166 SEVEN-YEARS WAR RISES [BOOKXVIII. 

[agth May 1757 

'May 19&, No sooner was our artillery come (all tlie grounds and 
beds for it had been ready beforehand), than as evening fell, it began to 
play in terrific fashion/ 

NigU of the 23d-24ZA May, There broke-out a furious sally; their 
first, and much their hottest, say the Prussians : a very serious affair ; 
which fell upon Keith's quarter, west side of the Moldau. Sally, say 
something like 10,000 strong; picked men all, and strengthened with 
half a pound of horse-flesh each ' (unluckily without salt) : judge what 
the common diet must have been, when that was generous ! ( No salt to 
it ; but a fair supplement of brandy. Browne, from his bed of pain (died 
26th June), had been strongly urgent. Aim is, To force the Prussian 
lines, by determination and the help of darkness, in some weak point : 
the whole Army, standing ranked on the walls, shall follow, if things 
go well ; and storm itself through, away Daun-wards, across the River 
by Podoli Bridge. 

* Sally broke-out between 1 and 2 A.M. ; but we had wind of it, and 
were on the alert. Sally tried on this place and on that ; very furious 
in places, but could not anywhere prevail. The tusseling lasted for near 
six hours (Prince Ferdinand' of Preussen, King's youngest Brother, 
r and others of us, getting hurts and doing exploits), till, about 7 A.M., 
it was wholly swept-in, with loss of 1,000 dead. Upon which, their 
whole Army retired to its quarters, in a hopeless condition. Escape 
impossible. Near 50,000 of them ; but in such a posture. Provision of 
bread, the spies say, is not scarce, unless the Prussians can burn it, 
which they are industriously trying (diligent to learn where the 
Magazines are, and to fire incessantly upon the same) : plenty of meal 
hitherto ; but for butcher's-meat, only what we saw. Forage nearly done, 
and 12,000 horses standing in the squares and market-places, not even 
stabling for them, not to speak of food or work, slaughtering and 
salting ' (if one but had salt 1) * the one method. Horse-flesh two 
kreutzers a pound ; rises gradually to double that value. 

{ May 29th, About sunset there came a furious burst of weather : rain- 
torrents mixed with battering hail ; some flaw of water-spout among the 
Hills; for it lasted hour on hour, and Moldau came down roaring 
double-deep, above a hundred yards too wide each way ; with cargoes 
of ruin, torn-up trees, drowned horses ; which sorely tried our Bridge at 
Branik. Bridge, half of it, did break away (Friedrich's half, forty-four 
pontoons; Keith's people got their end of the Bridge doubled-in and 
saved) : the Austrians, in Prag, fished-out twenty-four of Friedrich's 
pontoons ; the other twenty we caught at our Bridge of Podoli, farther 
down. A most wild night for the Prussian Army in tents ; and indeed 
for Prag itself, the low parts of which were all under water ; unfortunate 
individuals getting drowned in the cellars; and, still more important, 



CHAP, in.] PBAG CANNOT BE GOT AT ONCE 167 

agth May 1757] 

a great deal of Austrian meal, which had been carried thither, to be safe 
from the red-hot balls. 

{ It was thought the Austrians, our Bridge being down, might try a 
sally again. To prevent which., hardly was the rain done, when, on our 
part, a rocket flew aloft ; and there began on the City, from all sides, a 
deluge of bombs and red-hot balls. So that the still-dripping City was 
set fire to, in various parts ; and we could hear ' (what this Editor never 
can forget) e the WeJi-Klagen (wail) of the Townsfolk as they tried to 
quench it, and it always burst-out again. The fire-deluge lasted for six 
hours/ Human Weh-Klagen, through the hollow of Night, audible to 
the Prussians and us : e Woe 's me ! water-deluges, then fire-deluges ; 
death on every hand ! ' According to the Austrian accounts, there 
perished, by bursting of bomb-shells, falling of walls, by hunger and 
other misery and hurts, f above 9,000 Townsfolk in this Siege.* Yes^ my 
Imperial friends; War is not a thing of streamering and ornamental 
trumpeting alone ; War is an inexorable, dangerously-incalculable thing. 
Is it not a terrible question, at whose door lies the beginning of a War ! 

'June 5th, 12,000 poor people of Prag were pushed-out: cc Useless 
mouths,, will you contrive to disappear some way ! " But, after haggling 
about all day, they had to be admitted in again, under penalty of being shot 

f June Sthy City looking black and ruinous, whole of the Neustadt in 
ashes ; few houses left in the Jew Town ; in the Altstadt the fire raged 
on (wuthete fort). Nothing but ruin and confusion over there; popula- 
tion hiding in cellars, getting killed by falling buildings. Burgermeister 
and Townsfolk besiege Prince Karl, " For the Virgin's sake, have pity 
on us, Your Serenity !" Poor Prince Karl has to be deaf, whatever his 
feelings. 

e He was diligent in attending mass, they say : he alone of the Princes, 
of whom there were several ; two Saxon Princes among others, Prince 
Xavier the elder of them, who will be heard of again. A profane set, 
these, lodging in the Clementinum * (vast Jesuit Edifice, which had been 
cleared-out for them, and ' the windows filled with dung outside, 1 against 
balls) : c there, with wines of fine vintage, and cookeries plentiful and 
exquisite, that know nothing of famine outside, they led an idle dis- 
orderly life, ran races in the long corridors* (not so bad a course), 
e dressed themselves in Priests 1 vestures' (which are abundant in such 
locality), 'and made travesties and mummeries of Holy Religion; the 
wretched creatures, defying despair, as buccaneers might when their 
ship is sinking. To surrender, everything forbids; of escape, there is 
no possibility. 1 

* June 9th, The bombardment abates ; a Laboratorium of our own flew 
aloft by some spark or accident ; and killed thirteen men. 

* Archenholte, i. 86 ; HddevGe$chichte> iv. 73-84, 



168 SEVEN-YEARS WAE RISES [BOOKXVIII. 

[I5th June 1757 

* June 15th, From the King's Camp a few bombs ' (King himself now 
gone) { kindled the City in three places * : but there is, by this time, 
new game afield ; Prag Siege awaiting its decision not at Prag, but some 
way off, 

Friedrich has been doing his utmost; diligent, by all 
methods, to learn where the Austrian Magazines were, that 
is, on what special edifices and localities shot might be 
expended with advantage ; and has fired into these ' about 
12,000 bombs/ Here is a small thing still remembered : 

( Spies being, above all, essential in this business, Friedrich had be- 
thought him of one Kasebier, a supreme of Housebreakers, whom he 
has, safe with a ball at his ankle, doing forced labour at Spandau ' (in 
Stettin, if it mattered). ' Kasebier was actually sent for, pardon 
promised him if he could do the State a service. Kasebier smuggled 
himself twice, perhaps three times, into Prag ; but the fourth time he 
did not come back/ 1 Another Note says: 'Kasebier was a Tailor, and 
Son of a Tailor, in Halle ; and the expertest of Thieves. Had been 
doing forced labour, in Stettin, since 1748; twice did get into Prag; 
third time, vanished. A highly celebrated Prussian thief; still a myth 
among the People, like Dick Turpin or Cartouche, except that his was 
always theft without violence/ 2 

We learn vaguely that the price of horse-flesh in Prag has 
risen to double ; famine very sore : but still one hears nothing 
of surrender. And again there is vague rumour that the City 
may be as it will ; but that the Garrison has meal, after all 
we have ruined, which will last till October. Such a Problem 
has this King: soluble within the time; or not soluble? 
Such a question for the whole world, and for himself more 
than any. 



CHAPTER IV 

BATTLE OF KOLIN 

ON and after June 9th, the bombardment at Prag abated, 
and never rose to briskness again; the place of trial for 
decision of that Siege having flitted elsewhither, as we said, 
1 Retzow, i. IQ8 q, 2 Preuss, ii. 57 n. 



CHAP, iv.j BATTLE OF KOLIN 169 

I3th-i8th June 1757] 

About that time, rumours came-in, not so favourable, from 
the Duke of Bevern ; which Friedrich, strong in hope, strove 
visibly to disbelieve, but at last could not. Bevern reports 
that Daun is actually coming on, far too strong for his resist- 
ing ; in other terms, that the Siege of Prag will not decide 
itself by bombardment, but otherwise and elsewhere. Of which 
we must now give some account; brief as may be, especially 
in regard to the preliminary or marching part. 

Daun, whose light troops plundered Brandeis (almost within wind of 
the Prussian Rear) on the day while Prag Battle was fighting, had, on 
that fatal event, gradually drawn back to Czaslau, a place we used to 
know fifteen years ago ; and there, or in those neighbourhoods, defen- 
sively manoeuvring, and hanging upon Kuttenberg, Kolin, especially 
upon his Magazine of Suchdol, Daun, always rather drawing back, with 
Brunswick-Bevern vigilantly waiting on him, has continued ever since ; 
diligently recruiting himself; ranking the remains of the right wing 
defeated at Prag ; drawing regiments out of Mahren, or whencesoever 
to be had. Till, by these methods, he is grown 60,000 strong ; nearly 
thrice superior to Bevern ; though being a * Fabius Cunctator ' (so called 
by and by), he as yet attempts nothing. Forty thousand in Prag, with 
Sixty here in the Czaslau Quarter, 1 that makes 100,000; say his Prussian 
Majesty has two-thirds of the number : can the Fabius Cunctator attempt 
nothing, before Prag utterly famish ? 

Order comes to him from Vienna: f Rescue Prag; straightway go 
upon it, cost what it like ! * Daun does go upon it ; advances visibly 
towards Prag, Bevern obliged to fall back in front of him. Sunday 12th 
June, Daun despatches several Officers to Prince Karl at Prag, with 
notice that^ f On the 20th, Monday come a week, he will be in the 
neighbourhood of Prag with this view : they, of course, to sally out, 
and help from rearward/ ' Several Officers, under various disguises,* go 
with that message, June 12th ; but none of them could get into the 
City ; and some of them, I judge, must have fallen into the Prussian 
Hussar Parties : at any rate, the news they carried did get into the 
Prussian circuit, and produced an instant resolution there. Early next 
morning, Monday 13th, King Friedrich, with what disposable force is 
on the spot, 10,000 capable of being spared from siege-work, and 4,000 
more that will be capable of following, under Prince Moritz, in two days, 
sets forth in all speed. Joins Bevern that same night ; at Kaurzim, 
thirty-five miles off, which is about midway from Prag to Czaslau,* and 

1 Tempelhof, i. 196 ; Retzow (i. 107, 109) counts 46,000 + 66,0x30, 
* See Plan, p. 223. 



170 SEVEN- YEARS WAR RISES [BOOKXVIII. 

[I3th-i8th June 1757 

only three miles or so from Daun's quarters that night, had the King 
known it. which he did not. 

Daun must be instantly gone into ; and shall, if he is there at all, 
and not fallen back at the first rumour of us, as Friedrich rather 
supposes. In any case, there are preliminaries indispensable : the 4,000 
of Prince Moritz still to come up ; secondly, bread to be had for us, 
which is baking at Nimburg, across the Elbe, twenty miles off; lastly 
(or rather firstly, and most indispensable of all), Daun to be reconnoitred. 
Friedrich reconnoitres Daun with all diligence ; pushes-on everything 
according to his wont ; much obstructed in the reconnoitring by Pandour 
clouds, under which Daun has veiled himself, which far outnumber our 
small Hussar force. Daun, as usual, showing always great skill in regard 
to camps and positions, has planted himself in difficult country: a 
little river with its boggy pools in front ; behind and around, an intricate 
broken country of knolls and swamps, one ridge in it which they even 
call a Berg or Hill, Kamhayek Berg ; not much of a Hill after all, but 
forming a long backbone to the locality, west end of it straight behind 
Daun's centre, at present. Friedrich's position is from north to south ; 
like Daun's, taking advantage of what heights and brooks there are ; and 
edging northward to be near his bread-ovens : right wing still holds by 
Kaurzim, left wing looking down on Planian, a little Town on the High 
Road (Kaiser-Strasse) from Prag to Vienna. Little Town destined to 
get-up its name in a day or two, next little Town to which, twelve miles 
farther on, is Kolin, secretly destined to become and continue still more 
famous among mankind. Kolin is close to the Elbe, left or south bank ; 
Elbe hereabouts strikes into his long north-western course (to Wittenberg 
all the way; Pirna, say 150 miles off, is his half-way house in that 
direction) ; strikes-off northward hereabouts, making for Nimburg", 
among other places : Planian, right south of Nimburg, is already fifteen 
good miles from Elbe. 

This is Friedrich's position, Wednesday June 15th and the day follow- 
ing ; somewhat nearer his ovens than yesterday. Daun is yet parallel to 
him, has his centre behind Swoyschitz, an insignificant Village at the foot 
of those Kamhayek Heights, which is, ever since, to be found in Maps, 
Friday 17th, Friedrich's bread-wagons and 4,000 having come in, as 
doubtless the Pandours report in the proper place, Daun does not quite 
like his strong position any more, but would prefer a stronger, Friday 
about sunset, e great clouds of dust' rise from Daun: changing his 
position, the Prussians see, if for Pandours and gathering darkness they 
can at present see little else. Daun, truly, observing the King to have 
in that manner edged-up, towards Planian, is afraid of his right wing 
from such a neighbour. So that the reader must take his Map again. 
Or, if he care not for such things, let him skip, and leave me solitary to 



CHAP, iv.] BATTLE OF KOLIN 171 

i8th June 1757] 

my sad function ; till we can meet on easier ground, and report the 
Battle which ensued. Daun hustles his right wing hack out of that 
dangerous proximity; wheels his whole right wing and centre ninety 
degrees round, so as to reach out now towards Kolin, and lie on the 
north slope of the Kamhayek ridge ; places his left wing en potence 
(gihhet-wise), hanging round the western end of said Kamhayek,, its 
southern extremity at Swoyschitz, its northern at Hradenin, where (not 
a mile from Planian) his right wing had formerly heen ; with other 
intricate movements not worth following, under my questionable 
guidance, on a Map with unpronounceable names. Enough to say that 
Daun's right wing is now far east at Krzeczhorz, well beyond Chotzemitz, 
whereabouts his centre now comes to stand (and most of his horse there, 
both the wings being hilly and rough, unfit for horse) ; and that, this 
being nearly the last of Daun's shiftings and hustlings for the present, 
or indeed in essential respects the very last, readers may as well note the 
above main points in it. 

Hustled into this still stronger place, with wheeling and 
shoving, which lasted to a late hour, Daun composes himself 
for the night. He lies now, with centre and right looking 
northward, pretty much parallel to the Planian-Kolin or 
Prag- Vienna Highway, and about a mile south of the same ; 
extreme posts extending almost to Kolin on that side; left 
wing well planted en potence ; Kamhayek ridge, north face 
and west end of it, completely his on both the exposed or 
Anti-Prussian faces. Friedrich feels uncertain whether he has 
not gone his ways altogether; but proposes to ascertain by 
break of day. 

By break of day Friedrich starts, having cleared-off certain 
Pandour swarms visible in places of difficulty, who go on first 
notice, and without shot fired. 1 Marches through Planian in 
two columns, along the Kolin Highway and to north of it ; 
marches on, four or five miles farther, nothing visible but the 
skirts of retiring Pandours, c Daun's rearguard probably ? ' 

1 Lloyd, i. 61 et seq. (or Tempelhof s Translation, i. 151-164) ; Tempelhof s 
own Account is, i. 179-196; Retzow's, i. 120-149 (fewer errors of detail than 
usual) ; Kutzen, Der Tag von Kolin (Breslau, 1857), a useful little compilation 
from many sources. Very incorrect most of the common accounts are ; Kausler's 
SMachten, Jomini, and the like. 



172 SEVEN-YEARS WAR RISES [BOOKXVIIL 

[i8th June 1757 

Friedrich himself is with Ziethen, who has the vanguard, as 
Friedrich's wont is, eagerly enough looking out; reaches a 
certain Inn on the wayside (Wirfhshaus *of Slatislunz or 
Golden-Sun? say the Modern Books, though I am driven to 
think it Novomiesto, nearer Planian ; but will not quarrel on 
the subject) ; Inn of good height for one thing ; and there, 
mounting to the top-story or perhaps the leads, descries 
Daun, stretching far and wide, leant against the Kamhayek, in 
the summer morning. What a sight for Friedrich : < Big 
game shall be played, then ; death sure, this day, to thousands 
of men : and to me ? Well P 

Friedrich calls halt : rest here a little ; to consider, examine, 
settle how. A hot close morning ; rest for an hour or two, 
till our rear from Kaurzim come up : horses and men will 
be the better for it, horses can have a mouthful of grass, 
mouthful of water ; some of them c had no drink last night, so 
late in getting home. 1 Poor quadrupeds, they also have to 
get into a blaze of battle-rage this day, and be blown to pieces 
a great many of them, in a quarrel not of their seeking ! 
Horse and rider are alike satisfied on that latter point; 
silently ready for the task they have ; and deaf on questions 
that are bottomless. 

At this Hostelry of Novomiesto (not of Slatislunz or 
f Golden-Sun * at all, which is a * Sun ' fallen dismally eclipsed 
in other ways *), Friedrich halted for three hours and more ; 

1 ' The Inn of Slati-SIunz was burnt, about twenty years ago ; nothing of it 
but the stone walls now dates from Friedrich's time. It is a biggish solid- 
looking House of two stones (whether ever of three, I could not learn) ; stands 
pleasantly, at the crown of a long rise from Kolin j and inwardly, alas, in our 
day, offers little but bad smells and negative quantities 1 Only the ground-floor 
is now inhabited. From the front, your view northward, Nimhurg way, acros 
the Elbe Valley, is fertile, wide-waving, pretty : but rearward, upstairs, having 
with difficulty got permission, you find bare balks, tattered feathers, several 
hundredweight of pigeon's dung, and no outlook at all, except into walls of office- 
houses and the overhanging brow of Heights, fatal, clearly, to any view of 
Daua, even from a third story!' (Tourist's, Note, 1858) Tempelhof (ubi suprb) 
seems to have known the right place ; not Retzow, or almost anybody since : 
and indeed the question, except for expressly Military people, is of no moment. 



CHAP. IV.] BATTLE OF KOLIN 178 

i8th June 1757] 

saw Daun developing himself into new Order of Battle, ' every 
part of his position visible ' ; considered with his whole might 
what was to be tried upon him ; and about noon, having 
made-up his mind, called his Generals, in sight of the pheno- 
menon itself there, to give them their various orders and 
injunctions in regard to the same. The Plan of Fight, 
which was thought then, and is still thought by everybody, 
an excellent one, resting on the * oblique order of attack,' 
Friedrich's favourite mode, was, if the reader will take his 
Map, conceivable as follows. 

Daun has by this time deployed himself; in three lines, 
or two lines and a reserve; on the high-lying Champaign 
south of the Planian-Kolin Great Road ; south, say a mile, 
and over the crests of the rising ground, or Kamhayek ridge, 
so that from the Great Road you can see nothing of him. 
His line, swaying here and there a little, to take advantage 
of its ground, extends nearly five miles, from east to west ; 
pointing towards Planian side, the left wing of it; from 
Planian, eastward, the way Friedrich has marched, Daunts 
left wing may be four miles distant. On the other side, 
Daunts right wing, main line always pretty parallel to the 
Highway, and pointing rather southward of Kolin, reaches 
to the small Hamlet of Krzeczhorz, which is two miles off 
Kolin. In front of his centre is a Village called Chotzemitz 
(from which for a while, in those months, the Battle gets 
its name, Battle of Chotzemitz,' by Daun's christening) : in 
front of him, to right or to left of Chotzemitz, are some four 
or even six other Villages (dim rustic Hamlets, invisible from 
the High Road), every Village of which Daun has well beset 
with batteries, with good infantry, not to speak of Croat 
parties hovering about, or dismounted Pandours squatted in the 
corn. That easternmost Village of his is spelt * Krzeczhorz * 
(unpronounceable to mankind), a dirty little place; in and 
round which the Battle had its hinge or cardinal point : the 
others, as abstruse of spelling, all but equally impossible to 
the human organs, we will forbear to name, except in case 



174 SEVEN-YEARS WAR RISES [BOOKXVIIL 

[i8th June 1757 

.f necessity. Half a mile behind Krzeczhorz (let us write it 
Kreczor, for the future : what can we do ?), is a thin little 
Oak-wood, bashes mainly, but with sparse trees too, which 
is now quite stubbed out, though it was then important 
enough, and played a great part in the result of this day's 
work. Radowesnitz, a pronounceable little Village, half a 
mile farther or southward of the Oak-bush, is beyond the 
extremity of Daun's position ; low down on a marshy little 
Brook, which oozes through lakes and swamps towards Kolin, 
in the northerly direction. 

Most or all of these Villages are on little Brooks (natural 
thirst so leading them) : always some little runlet of water, 
not so swampy when there is any fall for it; in general 
lively when it gets over the ridge, and becomes visible from 
this Highway. And it is curious to see what a considerable 
dell, or green ascending chasm, this little thread of water, 
working at all moments for thousands of years, has hollowed 
out for itself in the sloping ground ; making a great military 
obstacle, if you are mounting to attack there. Poor Czech 
Hamlets all of them, dirty, dark, malodorous, ignorant, 
abhorrent of German speech ; in what nook those inarticu- 
late inhabitants, diving underground at a great rate this 
morning, have hidden themselves today, I know not. The 
country consists of knolls and slopes, with swamps inter- 
mediate; rises higher on the Planian side; but except the 
top of that Kamhayek ridge on the Planian side, and 
f FriedrichVBerg * on the Kolin side, there is nothing that 
you could think of calling a Hill, though many Books (and 
even Friedrich's Book) rashly say otherwise. FriedrichVBerg, 
now so called, is on the north side of the Highway : half a 
mile north-eastward of Slatislunz, the malodorous Inn, A 
conical height of perhaps a hundred and fifty feet ; rises 
rather suddenly from the still-sloping ground, checking the 
slope there; on which the Austrian populations have built 
some memorial lately, notable to Tourists. Here Friedrich 
* stood during the Battle,' say they ; and the Prussians had 



CHAP, iv.] BATTLE OF KOLIN 175 

i8th June 1757] 

a battery there/ Which remains uncertain to me, at least 
the battery part of it : that Friedrich himself was there, 
now and then, can be believed ; but not that he kept * stand- 
ing there ' for long together. FriedrichVBerg does command 
some view of the Kreczor scene, which at times was cardinal, 
at others not : but Friedrich did not stand anywhere : 
* oftenest in the thick of the fire, 1 say those who saw. 

Friedrich, from his Inn near Planian, seeing how Daxin 
deploys himself, considers him impregnable on the left wing ; 
impregnable, too, in front : not so on the Kreczor side, 
right flank and rear ; but capable of being rolled together, 
if well struck at there. Thither therefore; that is his 
vulnerable point. March along his front ; quietly parallel in 
due Order of Battle, till we can bend round, and plunge-in 
upon that. The Van, which consists of Ziethen's Horse and 
Hiilsen's Infantry ; Van, having faced to right at the proper 
moment and so become Left Wing, will attack Kreczor; 
probably carry it ; each Division following will in like manner 
face to right when it arrives there, and fall-on in regular 
succession in support of Hiilsen (at Hulsen's right flank, if 
Hiilsen be found prospering) : our Right Wing is to refuse 
itself, and be as a Reserve, no fighting on the road, you 
others, but steady towards Hiilsen, in continual succession, 
all you ; no facing round, no fighting anywhere, till we get 
thither : < March ! ' 

The word is given about 2 P.M.; and all, on the instant, is 
in motion ; rolls steadily eastward, in two columns, which will 
become First Line and Second. One along the Highway, the 
second at due distance leftward on the green ground, no hedge 
or other obstacle obstructing in that part of the world. 
Daunts batteries, on the right, spit at them in passing, to no 
purpose; sputters of Pandour musketry, from coverts, there 
may be: Prussians finely disregarding, pass along; flowing tide- 
like towards their goal and place of choice. An impressive 
phenomenon in the sunny afternoon ; with Daun expectant of 
them, and the Czech populations well hidden underground ! - 



176 SEVEN-YEARS WAR RISES [BOOKXVIII. 

[i8th June 1757 

Ziethen, vanmost of all, finds Nadasti and his Austrian 
squadrons drawn across the Highway, hitherward of the 
Kreczor latitude : Ziethen dashes on Nadasti ; tumbles his 
squadrons and him away; clears the Road, and Kreczor 
neighbourhood, of Nadasti : drives him quite into the hollow 
of Radowesnitz, where he stood inactive for the rest of the 
day. Hiilsen now at the level of Kreczor (in the latitude of 
Kreczor, as we phrased it), halts, faces to right ; stiffly presses 
up, opens his cannon -thunders, his bayonet -charges and 
platoon-fires upon Kreczor. Stiffly pressing up, in spite of 
the violent counter-thunders, Hiilsen does manage Kreczor 
without very much delay, completely enough, and like a 
workman; takes the battery, two batteries; overturns the 
Infantry ; in a word, has seized Kreczor, and, as new tenant, 
swept the old, and their litter, quite out. Of all which 
Ziethen has now the chase, and by no means will neglect 
that duty. Ziethen, driving the rout before him, has driven 
it in some minutes past the little Oak-wood above mentioned ; 
and, or rather but, what is much to be noted, is there 
taken in flank with cannon-shot and musketry, Daun having 
put batteries and Croat parties in the Oak-wood; and is 
forced to draw bridle, and get out of range again. 

Hialsen, advancing towards this little Oak-wood, is surprised 
to discover, not the wood alone, but a strong Austrian force, 
foot and horse, to rear of it ; such had been Daun's and 
NadastFs precaution, on view of those Friedrich phenomena, 
flowing on from Planian, guessed to be hitherward. At 
sight of which Wood and foot-party, Hiilsen, no new Battalion 
having yet arrived to second him, pauses, merely cannonading 
from the distance, till new Battalions shall arrive. Unhappily 
they did not arrive, or not in due quantity at the set time, 
for what reason, by what strange mistake ? men still ask 
themselves. Probably by more mistakes than one. Enough, 
Hiilsen struggling here all day, with reinforcements never 
adequate, did take the Wood, and then lose it ; did take and 
lose this and that ; but was unable to make more of it than 



CHAP, iv.] BATTLE OF KOLIN 177 

iSthJune 1757] 

keep his ground thereabouts. A resolute man, says Retzow, 
but without invention of his own, or head to mend the 
mistakes of others. In and about Kreczor, Hiilsen did 
maintain himself with more and more tenacity, till the 
general avalanche, fruit of sad mistakes, swept him, quite 
spasmodically struggling at that period, off to the edge of it, 
and all the others clean away ! Mistakes have been to right- 
wards, one or even two, the fruit of which, small at first, 
suffices to turn the balance, and ends in an avalanche, or 
precipitous descent of ruin on the Prussian side. 

One mistake there was, miles westward on the right wing ; 
due to Mannstein, our too impetuous Russian friend. Mann- 
stein well to right, while marching forward according to order, 
has Croat musketry spitting upon him from amid the high 
corn, to an inconvenient extent : such was the common lot, 
which others had borne and disregarded : perhaps it was 
beyond the average on Mannstein, or Mannstein's patience 
was less infinite ; anyway it provoked Mannstein to boil 
over ; and in an evil moment he said, * Extinguish me that 
Croat canaille, then!'' Regiment Bornstedt faced to right, 
accordingly ; took to extinguishing the Croat canaille, which 
of course fled at once, or squatted closer, but came back with 
reinforcements ; drew Mannstein deeper in, fatally delayed 
Bornstedt, and proved widely ruinous. For now he stopped 
the way to those following him : regiments marching on to 
rear of Mannstein see Mannstein halted, volleying with the 
Austrians ; ask themselves * How ? Is there new order come ? 
Attack to be in this point ? * And successively fall-on to 
support Mannstein, as the one clear point in such dubiety. So 
that the whole right wing from Regiment Bornstedt westward 
is storming up the difficult steeps, in hot conflict with the 
Austrians there, where success against them had been judged 
impracticable ; and there is now no reserve force anywhere to 
be applied to in emergency, for Hulsen's behoof or another's ; 
and the Plan of Battle from Mannstein westward has been 
fatally overturned. Poor Mannstein, there is no doubt, 

VOL, VI. M 



178 SEVEN-YEARS WAR RISES faooxxvin. 

[i8th June 1751 

committed this error, being too fiery a man. Surely to him 
it was no luxury, and he paid the smart for it in skin and 
soul : c badly wounded in this business ; ' nay, in direct sequel, 
not many weeks after, killed by it, as we shall see 1 

To Mannstein's mistake, Friedrich himself, in his account 
of Kolin, mainly imputes the disaster that followed ; and such, 
then and afterwards, was the universal judgment in military 
circles ; loading the memory of too impetuous Mannstein with 
the whole. 1 Much talk there was in Prussian military circles ; 
but there must also have been an admirable silence on the 
part of some. To Three Persons it was known that another 
strange incident had happened far ahead, far eastward, of 
Mannstein's position : incident which did not by any means 
tend to alleviate, which could only strengthen and widen, the 
evil results of Mannstein ; and which might have lifted part 
of the load from Mannstein's memory ! Not till the present 
Century, after the lapse of almost fifty years, was this secret 
slowly dug out of silence, and submitted to modern curiosity. 

The incident is this; never whispered-of for near fifty 
years (so silent were the three) ; and endlessly tossed about 
since that ; the sense of it not understood till almost now. 2 
The three parties were : King Friedrich ; Moritz of Dessau, 
leading-on the centre here; Moritz^s young Nephew Franz, 
Heir of Dessau, a brisk lad of seventeen, learning War here 
as Aide-de-Camp to Moritz : the exact spot is not known to 
me, probably the ground near that Inn of Slatislunz, or 
Golden Sun ; between the foot of Friedrich's-Berg and that : 
fact indubitable, though kept dark so long. Moritz is 
marching with the centre, or main battle, that way, intending 
to wheel and turn hillwards, Kreczor-wise, as per order, certain 
furlongs ahead ; when Friedrich (having, so I can conceive it, 
seen from his Hill-top, how Hiilsen had done Kreczor, alto- 
gether prosperous there; and what endless capability there 

1 See Retzow, i. 135 ; Tempelhof, i. 214, 220. 

2 See Retzow, i 126 ; Berenhorst ; etc. etc. ; then Jinatty, Kutzen, pp. 
99, 217. 



CHAP. IV.] BATTLE OF KOLIN 179 

i8th June 1758] 

was of prospering to all lengths and speeding the general 
winning, were Hiilsen but supported soon enough, were there 
any safe short-cut to Hiilsen) dashed from his Hill-top in hot 
haste towards Prince Moritz, General of the centre, intending 
to direct him upon such short-cut; and hastily said, with 
Olympian brevity and fire, c Face to right here I ' With Jove- 
like brevity, and in such blaze of Olympian fire as we may 
imagine. Moritz himself is of brief, crabbed, fiery mind, brief 
in temper ; and answers to the effect, * Impossible to attack 
the enemy here, your Majesty ; postured as they are ; and we 
with such orders gone abroad i ' c Face to right, I tell you 1 "* 
said the King, still more Olympian, and too emphatic for 
explaining. Moritz, I hope, paused, but rather think he did 
not, before remonstrating the second time ; neither perhaps 
was his voice so low as it should have been : it is certain 
Friedrich dashed quite up to Moritz at this second remon- 
strance, flashed out his sword (the only time he ever drew 
his sword in battle) ; and now, gone all to mere Olympian 
lightning and thunder-tone, asks in this attitude, * Will Er 
(Will He) obey orders, then ? ' Moritz, fallen silent of 
remonstrance, with gloomy rapidity obeys. 

Prince Franz, the young Nephew of Moritz, alone witnessed 
this scene ; scene to be locked in threefold silence. In his old 
age, Franz had whispered it to Berenhorst, his bastard Half- 
Uncle, a famed military Critic, who is still in the highest 
repute that way (Berenhorst's Kriegsltunsty and other deep 
Books), and is recognisable, to lay readers, for an abstruse 
strong judgment; with equal strength of abstruse temper 
hidden behind it, and very privately a deep grudge towards 
Friedrich, scarcely repressible on opportunity. From Beren- 
horst it irrepressibly oozed out ; x much more to Friedrich's 
disadvantage than it now looks when wholly seen into. Not 
change of plan, not ruinous caprice on Friedrich's part, as 

1 'Hdnrich von Berenhorst* (a natural son of the Old Dessauer's ), 'in his 
Betrachtnngen uber die Kriegskunst^ is the first that alludes to it in print 
(Leipzig, 1797, page in second edition, 1798, is i. 219).' 



180 SEVEN-YEARS WAR RISES [BOOKXvm. 

[i8th June 1757 

Berenhorst, Retzow and others would have it ; only excess of 
brevity towards Moritz, and accident of the Olympian fire 
breaking out. Friedrich is chargeable with nothing, except 
perhaps (what Moritz knows the evil of) trying for a short- 
cut ! Such is now the received interpretation. Prince Franz, 
to his last day, refused to speak again on the subject ; 
judiciously repentant, we can fancy, 01 having spoken at all, 
and brought such a matter into the streets and their pie- 
powder adjudications. 1 For the present, he is Adjutant to 
Moritz, busy obeying to the letter. 

Friedrich, withdrawing to his Height again, and looking 
back on Moritz, finds that he is making right-in upon the 
Austrian line ; which was by no means Friedrich's meaning, 
had not he been so brief. Friedrich, doubtless with pain, 
remembers now that he had said only, * Face to right ! ' and 
had then got into Olympian tempest, which left things dark 
to Moritz. 6 Halb-lmk^ Half to left withal ' "* he despatches 
that new order to Moritz, with the utmost speed : * Face to 
right ; then, forward half to left.' Had Moritz, at the first, 
got that commentary to his order, there had probably been 
no remonstrance on Moritz^s part, no Olympian scene to keep 
silent ; and Moritz, taking that diagonal direction from the 
first, had hit-in at or below Kreczor, at the very point where 
he was needed. Alas for overhaste ; short-cuts, if they are to 
be good, ought at least to be made clear ! Moritz, on the 
new order reaching him, does instantly steer half-left ; but he 
arrives now above Kreczor, strikes the Austrian line on this 
side of Kreczor; disjoined from Hiilsen, where he can do no 
good to Hiilsen : in brief, Moritz, and now the whole line with 
him, have to do as Mannstein and sequel are doing, attack in 
face, not in flank ; and try what, in the proportion of one to 
two, uphill, and against batteries, they can make of it in that 
fashion ! 

And so, from right wing to left, miles long, there is IK>W 
universal storm of volleying, bayonet-charging, thunder of 
1 In Kutgen, pp. 217-237, a long dissertation on it. 



CHAP. iv.J BATTLE OF KOLIN 181 

i8th June 1757] 

artillery, case-shot, cartridge-shot, and sulphurous devouring 
whirlwind ; the wrestle very tough and furious, especially on 
the assaulting side. Here, as at Prag, the Prussian troops 
were one and all in the fire; each doing strenuously his 
utmost, no complaint to be made of their performance. 
More perfect soldiers, I believe, were rarely or never seen on 
any field of war. But there is no reserve left : Mannstein 
and the rest, who should have been reserve, and at a GeneraPs 
disposal, we see what they are doing ! In vain, or nearly so, 
is Friedrich's tactic or manoeuvring talent ; what now is there 
to manoeuvre? All is now gone up into one combustion. 
To fan the fire, to be here, there, fanning the fire where need 
shows : this is now Friedrich's function ; f everywhere in the 
hottest of the fight,' that is all we at present know of him, 
invisible to us otherwise. This death-wrestle lasted perhaps 
four hours ; till seven or towards eight oVlock in the June 
evening ; the sun verging downwards ; issue still uncertain. 

And, in fact, at last the issue turned upon a hair ; such 
the empire of Chance in War matters. Cautious Daun, it is 
well known, did not like the aspect of the thing ; cautious 
Daun thinks to himself, 4 If we get pushed back into that 
Camp of yesternight, down the Kamhayek Heights, and right 
into the impassable swamps ; the reverse way, Heights now 
My, not ours, and impassable swamps waiting to swallow us ? 
Wreck complete, and surrender at discretion ! ' Daun 
writes in pencil : * The retreat is to Suchdol ' (Kuttenberg 
way, southward, where we have heights again and magazines); 
Daun's Aide-de-camp is galloping everywhither with that im- 
portant Document; and Generals are preparing for retreat 
accordingly, one General on the right wing has, visibly to 
Hulsen and us, his cannon out of battery, and under way 
rearwards ; a welcome sight to Hulsen, who, with imperfect 
reinforcement, is toughly maintaining himself there all day. 

And now the, Daun Aide-de-camp, so Chance would have 
it, cannot find Nostitz the Saxon Commandant of Horse in 
that quarter ; finds a * Saxon Lieutenant-Colonel B ' (* Ben- 



182 SEVEN-YEARS WAR RISES [BOOKXVIII. 

[i8th June 1757 

kendorf ' all Books now write him plainly), who, by another 
little chance, had been still left there : Can the Herr Lieu- 
tenant-Colonel tell me where General Nostitz is ?' Benkendorf 
can tell ; will himself take the message : but Benkendorf 
looks into the important Pencil Document; thinks it pre- 
mature, wasteful, and that the contrary is feasible ; persuades 
Nostitz so to think ; persuades this regiment and that (Saxon, 
Austrian, horse and foot) ; though the cannon in retreat go 
trundling past them : ' Merely shifting their battery, don't 
you see : -Steady ! ' And, in fine, organises, of Saxon and 
Austrian horse and foot in promising quantity (Saxons in 
great fury on the Pirna score, not to say the Striegau, and 
other old grudges), a new unanimous assault on Hiilsen. 

The assault was furious, and became ever more so ; at 
length irresistible to Hiilsen. Hiilsen's horse, pressing-on as 
to victory, are at last hurled back; could not be rallied; 1 
fairly fled (some of them) ; confusing Hiilsen's foot, foot is 
broken, instantly ranks itself, as the manner of Prussians 
is; ranks itself in impromptu squares, and stands fiercely 
defensive again, amid the slashing and careering : wrestle of 
extreme fury, say the witnesses. * This for Striegau ! ' 
cried the Saxon dragoons, furiously sabring. 2 Yes ; and is 
there nothing to account of Pirna, and the later scores ? 
Scores unliquidated, very many still ; but the end is, Hiilsen 
is driven away ; retreats, Parthian-like, down-hill, some space ; 
whose sad example has to spread rightwards like a powder- 
train, till all are in retreat, northward, towards Nimburg, 
is the road ; and the Battle of Kolin is finished. 

Friedrich made vehement effort to rally the Horse, to rally 
this and that ; but to no purpose : one account says he did 
collect some small body, and marched forth at the head of it 
against a certain battery; but, in his rear, man after man 

1 That of * Rack&r> wollt ikr 6wig teben, Rascals, would you live forever? 1 
with the 'Fritz, for eight groschen, this day there has been enough 1' is to be 
counted pure myth ; not unsuccessful, in its withered kind. 

2 Archenholtz, i. iocx 



CHAP. IV.] BATTLE OP KOLIN 

i8th June 1757] 

fell away, till lieutenant-Colonel Grant (not * Le Grand, 1 as 
some call him, and indeed there is an accent of Scotch in him, 
still audible to us here) had to remark, * Your Majesty and I 
cannot take the battery ourselves ! ' Upon which Friedrich 
turned round; an4 ? finding nobody, looked at the Enemy 
through his glass, and slowly rode away 1 on a different 
errand. 

Seeing the Battle irretrievably lost, he now called Severn 
and Moritz to him ; gave them charge of the retreat * To 
Nimburg, cross Elbe there ' (fifteen good miles away) ; < and 
in the defiles of Planian have especial care f and himself rode 
off thitherward, his Garde-du-Corps escorting. Retzow says, 
*a swarm of fugitive horse-soldiers, baggage-people, grooms 
and led horses gathered in the train of him : these latter, at 
one point/ Retzow has heard in Opposition circles, Crushed 
up, galloping : " Enemy's hussars upon us ! " and set the 
whole party to the gallop for some time, till they found the 
alarm was false."* 2 Of Friedrich we see nothing, except as if 
by cloudy moonlight in an uncertain manner, through this 
and the other small Anecdote, perhaps semi-mythical, and 
true only in the essence of it. 

Daun gave no chase anywhere ; on his extreme left, he 
had, perhaps as preparative for chasing, ordered-out the 
cavalry; * General Stampach and cavalry from the centre,' 
with cannon, with infantry and appliances, to clear away the 
wrecks of Mannstein, and what still stands, to right of him, 
on the Planian Highway yonder. But Stampach found 
6 obstacles of ground, wet obstacles and also dry, Prussian 
posts, smaller and greater, who would not stir a hand-breadth : 
in fact, an altogether deadly storm of Negative, spontaneous 
on their part, from the indignant regiments thereabouts, 
King's First Battalion, and two others; who blazed-out on 
Sfeampach in an extraordinary manner, tearing to shreds every 
attempt of his, themselves stiff as steel : c Die, all of us, 
rather than stir ! * And, in fact, the second man of these 

1 Retzow, i. 139. a Ibid. 1. 140. 



184 SEVEN-YEARS WAR RISES [BOOKXVin. 

[i8th June 1757 

poor fellows did die there. 1 So that Bevern, Commander in 
that part, who was absent speaking with the King, found on 
his return a new battle broken out ; which he did not forbid 
but encourage ; till Stampach had enough, and withdrew in 
rather torn condition. This, if this were some preparative 
for chasing, was what Daun did of it, in the cavalry way ; 
and this was all. The infantry he strictly prohibited to stir 
from their position, * No saying, if we come into the level 
ground, with such an enemy ! ' and passed the night under 
arms. Far on our left, or what was once our left, Ziethen 
with all his squadrons, nay,Hulsen with most of his battalions, 
continued steady on the ground ; and marched away at their 
leisure, as rearguard. 

4 It seemed," says Tempelhof, in splenetic tone, c as if Feld- 
marschall Daun, like a good Christian, would not suffer the 
sun to go down on his wrath. This day, nearly the longest 
in the year, he allowed the Prussian cavalry, which had 
beaten Nadasti, to stand quiet on the field till ten at night 1 
(till nine) ; * he did not send a single hussar in chase of the 
infantry. He stood all night under arms ; and next day re- 
turned to his old Camp, as if he had been afraid the King 
would come back. Arriving there himself, he could see, 
about ten in the morning, behind Kaurzim and Planian, the 
whole Prussian Baggage fallen into such a coil that the 
wagons were with difficulty got on way again ; nevertheless 
he let it, under cover of the grenadier battalion Manteuffel, 
go in peace. 1 2 A man that for caution and slowness could 
make no use of his victory ! 

The Austrian force in the Field this day is counted to have 
been 60,000 ; their losses in killed, wounded, and missing, 
8,114. The Prussians, who began 34,000 in strength, lost 
13,773 ; of whom prisoners (including all the wounded), 
5,380. Their baggage, we have seen, was not meddled 
with : they lost 45 cannon, 22 flags, a loss not worth adding, 

1 Kutzen, p. 138 (from the canonical, or * Staff-Officers' enumeration: sec 
p. 129, 2 Tempelhof, i. 195. 



CHAP. IV.] BATTLE OF KOLIN 185 

i8th June 1757] 

in comparison to this sore havoc, for the second time, in the 
flower of the Prussian Infantry. 1 

The news reached Prag Camp at two in the morning 
(Sunday 19th) : to the sorrowful amazement of the Generals 
there; who ' stood all silent; only the Prince of Prussia 
breaking-out into loud lamentations and accusations, 1 which 
even Retzow thinks unseemly. Friedrich arrived that Sunday 
evening : and the Siege was raised, next day ; with next to no 
hindrance or injury. With none at all on the part of Daun ; 
who was still standing among the heights and swamps of 
Planian, busy singing, or shooting, universal Te-Deum, with 
very great rolling fire and other pomp, that day while Fried- 
rich gathered his Siege-goods and got on march. 



The Maria-Theresa Order, new Knighthood Jwr Austria 

No tongue can express the joy of the Austrians over this 
victory, vouchsafed them, in this manner, by Lieutenant- 
Colonel Benkendorf and the Powers Above. Miraculously, 
behold, they are not upon the retreat to Suchdol, at double- 
quick, and in ragged ever-lengthening line ; but stand here, 
keeping rank all night, on the Planian-Kolin upland of the 
Kamhayek : behold, they have actually beaten Friedrich ; 
for the first time, not been beaten by him. Clearly beaten 
that Friedrich, by some means or other. With such a result, 
too ; consider it, drawn sword was at our throat ; and 
marvellously now it is turned round upon his (if Daun he alert), 
and we let us rejoice to all lengths, and sing Te-Deum and 
Te-Daunum with one throat, till the Heavens echo again. 

There was quite a hurricane, or lengthened storm, of jubila- 
tion and tripudiation raised at Vienna on this victory : New 
Order of Maria Theresa, in suitable Olympian fashion, with 
no end of regulating and inaugurating, with Daun the first 
Chief of it ; and < Pensions to Merit ' a conspicuous part of 

1 Retzow, i. 141 (whose numbers are apt to be inaccurate) ; Kutzen, p. 144 
(who depends on the Canonical Staff- Officer Account). 



186 SEVEN-YEARS WAR RISES [BOOK xvm. 

[i8th June 1751 

the plan, we are glad to see. It subsists to this day : the 
grandest Military Order the Austrians yet have. Which then 
deafened the world, with its infinite solemnities, patentings, 
discoursings, trumpetings, for a good while. As was natural, 
surely, to that high Imperial Lady with the magnanimous 
heart ; to that loyal solid Austrian People with its pudding- 
head, Daun is at the top of the Theresa Order, and of 
military renown in Vienna circles; of Lieutenant-Colonel 
Benkendorf I never heard that he got the least pension or 
recognition ; continued quietly a military lion to discerning 
men, for the rest of his days. 1 

Nay, once, on Daunts Te-Deum day, he had a kind of 
recognition ; and even, by good accident, can tell us of it in 
his own words : 2 

e I was sent for to headquarters by a trumpeter/ Benkendorf was, 
f when all was ready for the Te-Deum. Feldmarschall Daun was pleased 
to say at sight of me, " That as I had had so much to do with the victory, 
it was but right I should thank our Herr Gott along with him." Having 
no change of clothes, as the servant, who was to have a uniform and 
some linens ready for me, had galloped off during the Fight, and our 
baggage was all gone to rearward, I tried to hustle out of sight among 
the crowd of Imperial Officers all in gala : but the reigning Puke of 
Wurtemberg* (Wilhelmina's Son-in-law, a perverse obstinate Herr, 
growing ever more perverse ; one of Wilhelmina's sad afflictions in these 
days) e called me to him, and said, " He would give his whole wardrobe, 
could he wear that dusty coat with such honour as I ! " ' yes ; and tried 
hard, in his perverse way, for some such thing ; but never could, as we 
shall see. 

How lucky that Polish Majesty had some remains of Cavalry 
still at Warsaw in the Pirna time ; that they were made into 
a Saxon Brigade, and taken into the Austrian service ; Brigade 
of three Regiments, Nostitz for Chief, and this Benkendorf a 
Lieutenant-Colonel, among them ; and that Polish Majesty, 
though himself lost, has been the saving of Austria twice 
within one year ! 

1 'Died at Dresden, General of Cavalry/ 5th May iSoi (Rodenbeck, i. 338, 
339) 2 Kutzen (citing some Biography of Benkendorf), p. 143. 



CHAP.v.] FRIEDHICH AT LEITMEHITZ 187 

aoth-ayth June 1757] 



CHAPTER V 

FRIEDRICH AT LEITMERITZ, HIS WORLD OF ENEMIES 
COMING ON 

OF Friedrich's night-thoughts at Nimburg ; how he slept, 
and what his dreams were, we have no account. Seldom did 
a wearied heart sink down into oblivion on such terms. By 
narrow miss, the game gone ; and with such results ahead. It 
was a right valiant plunge this that he made, with all his 
strength and all his skill, home upon the heart of his chief 
enemy. To quench his chief enemy before another came up : 
it was a valiant plan, and valiantly executed; and it has 
failed. To dictate peace from the walls of Vienna : that lay 
on the cards for him this morning ; and at night ? Kolin 
is lost, the fruit of Prag Victory too is lost ; and Schwerin and 
new tens of thousands, unreplaceable for worth in this world, 
are lost : much is lost 1 Courage, your Majesty, all is not 
lost, you not, and honour not. 

To the young Graf von Anhalt, on the road to Nimburg, 
he is recorded to have said, * Don't you know, then, that every 
man must have his reverses (Mais ne savez-vous done pas 
que chaque homme doit avoir $e# revers) ? It appears I. am 
to have mine. 1 1 And more vaguely, in the Anecdote-Books, 
is mention of some stanch ruggedly pious old Dragoon, who 
brought, in his steel cap, from some fine-flowing well he had 
discovered, a draught of pure water to the King ; old Mother 
Earth's own gift, through her rugged Dragoon, exquisite refec- 
tion to the thirsty wearied soul ; and spoke, in his Dragoon 
dialect, c Never mind, your Majesty 1 Der AllmdcTitige and 
we ; it shall be mended yet. t( The Kaiserin may get a victory 
for once ; but does that send us to the Devil (davon holt uns 
der Teufel nichf) ! w * words of rough comfort, which were 
well taken. 

1 Rodenbeck, i. 309. 



188 SEVEN-YEARS WAR RISES [BOOK XVIII. 

[aoth-27th June 1757 

Next morning, several Books, and many Drawings and 
Sculptures of a dim unsuccessful nature, give us view of him, 
at Nimburg; sitting silent 'on a Brunnen-Rohr'* (Fountain 
Apparatus, waste-pipe or feeding-pipe, too high for convenient 
sitting) ; he is stooping forward there, his eyes fixed on the 
ground, and is scratching figures in the sand with his stick, as 
the broken troops reassemble round him. Archenholtz says : 

* He surveyed with speechless feeling the small remnant of his 
Lifeguard of Foot, favourite First Battalion; 1,000 strong 
yesterday morning, hardly 400 now;' gone the others, in 
that furious Anti-Stampach outburst which ended the day's 
work ! c All soldiers of this chosen Battalion were personally 
known to him; their names, their age, native place, their 
history ' (the pick of his Ruppin regiment was the basis of it) : 
in one day, Death had mowed them down ; they had fought 
like heroes, and it was for him that they had died. His eyes 
were visibly wet, down his face rolled silent tears.** l 

In public I never saw other tears from this King, though 
in private I do not warrant him ; his sensibilities, little as you 
would think it, being very lively and intense. * To work, 
however ! * This King can shake away such things ; and is 
not given overmuch to retrospection on the unalterable Past. 

* Like dewdrops from the lion's mane ' (as is figuratively said) ; 
the lion swiftly rampant again ! There was manifold swift 
ordering, considering and determining, at Nimburg, that day ; 
and towards night Friedrich shot rapidly into Headquarters 
at Prag, where, by order, there is, as the first thing of all, a 
very rapid business going on, well forward by the time he 
arrives. 

To fold one's Siege-gear and Army neatly together from 
those Two Hill-tops, and march away with them safe, in sight 
of so many enemies : this has to be the first and rapidest 
thing; if this be found possible, as one calculates it may, 
After which, the world of enemies, held in the slip so long, 
1 Archenholtz, i. 104, 101 ; Kutzen, pp. 259, 138; Retzow, i. 142, 



CHAP, v.] FRIEDRICH AT LEITMERITZ 189 

30th-27th June 1757] 

will rush-in from all the four winds, unknown whitherward ; 
one must wait to see whitherward and how. 

Friedrich's History for the remaining six months of this 
Year falls, accordingly, into three Sections. Section Jirst: 
Waiting how and towards what objects his enemies, the 
Austrians first of all, will advance; this lasts for about a 
month ; Friedrich waiting mainly at Leitmeritz, on guard 
there both of Saxony and of Silesia, till this slowly declare 
itself. Slowly, perhaps almost stupidly, but by no means 
satisfactorily to Friedrich, as will be seen ! After which, 
Section second of his History lasts above two months ; Fried- 
ricK's enemies being all got to the ground, and united in hope 
and resolution to overwhelm and abolish him ; but their plans, 
positions, operations so extremely various that, for a long 
time (end of August to beginning of November), Friedrich 
cannot tell what to do with them ; and has to scatter himself 
into thin threads, and roam about, chiefly in Thuringen and 
the West of Saxony, seeking something to fight with, and 
finding nothing; getting more and more impatient of such 
paltry misery; at times nigh desperate; and habitually 
drifting on desperation as on a lee shore in the night, despite 
all his efforts. Till, in Section third, which goes from 
November 5th, through December 5th, and into the New 
Year, he does find what to do; and does it, in a forever 
memorable way. 

Three Sections ; of which the reader shall successively have 
some idea, if he exert himself ; though it is only in snatches, 
suggestive to an active fancy, that we can promise to dwell on 
them, especially on the First Two, which lie pretty much un- 
surveyable in those chaotic records, like a world-wide coil of 
thrums. Let us be swift, in Friedrich's own manner ; and 
try to disemprison the small portions of essential ! Here, 
partly from Eyewitnesses, are some Notes in regard to Section 
First : 1 

1 Westphalen, Geschichte d&r Fddziige des Herzogs Ferdinand (and a Private 
Journal of W.'s there), ii. 13-19 5 Retzow } etc. 



190 SEVEN-YEARS WAR RISES [BOOKXVIII. 

[27th June 1757 

* Sunday ISth June, At 2 A.M., Major Grant arrives at Prag* (must have 
started instantly after that of f 6 We two cannot take the battery, your 
Majesty]") 'goes to Prince Ferdinand of Brunswick, interim Com- 
mander on the Ziscaberg, with order To raise Siege. Consternation on 
the part of some ; worse, on the Prince of Prussia's part ; the others kept 
silence at least, and set instantly to work. On both Hills, the cannons 
are removed (across Moldau the Zisca-Hill ones), batteries destroyed, 
Siege-gear neatly gathered up, to go in wagons to Leitmeritz, thence by 
boat to Dresden ; all this lies ready done, the dangerous part of it done, 
when Friedrich arrives. 

f Monday 2Qth, before sunrise, Siege raised. At three in the morning 
Friedrich marches from the Ziscaberg ; to eastward he, to Alt-Bunzlau, 
thence to Alt-Lissa/ Nimburg way, with what objects we shall see. 
e Marshal Keith's fine performance. Keith, from the Weissenberg, does 
not march, such packing and loading still; all the baggages and 
artilleries being with Keith. Not till four in the afternoon did Keith 
march ; but beautifully then ; and folded himself away, rearguard 
under Schmettau " retreating chequerwise," nothing but Tolpatcheries 
attempting on him, westward, Budin-ward, without loss of a linstock, 
not to speak of guns. Very prettily done on the part of Keith. By 
Budin, to Leitmeritz, he ; where the Bang will join him shortly.* 

Friedrich's errand in Alt-Lissa, eastward, while Keith went 
westward, was, To be within due armVlength of the Moritz- 
Bevern, or beaten Kolin Army, which is coming up that way ; 
intending to take post, and do its best, in those parts, with 
Zittau Magazine and the Lausitz to rear of it. One of our 
Eyewitnesses, a Herr Westphalen, Ferdinand of Brunswick's 
Secretary, who, with his Chief, got into wider fields before 
long, yields these additional particulars face to face : 

* Tuesday 2lst June 1757. King's Headquarters in Lissa or neighbour- 
hood till Friday next; which is central for both these movements, 
Thursday, orders seven regiments of horse to reinforce Keith. No 
symptom yet of pursuit anywhere. 

f Friday 24Jh. Prince Moritz with the Kolin Army made appearance, 
all safe, and is to command here ; King intending for Keith. After 
dinner, and the due interchange of battalions to that end, King sets off, 
with Prince Henri, towards Keith ; Headquarter in Alt-Bunzlau again. 
Saturday Night, at Melnick;* Sunday, Gastorf: Monday Night 

* Plan, p. 223. 



CHAP.V.] FRIEDRICH AT LEITMERITZ 191 

2oth-27th June 1757] 

June, Leitmeritz ; King lodges in the Cathedral Close, in sight of Keith, 

who is on the opposite side of Elbe, hut the town has a Bridge for 
tomorrow. ff Never was a quieter march ; not the shadow of a Pandour 
visible. The Duke M (Ferdinand, my Chief, Chatham's jewel that is to 
be, and precious to England) (f has suffered much from a " in fact, from 
a cours de ventre, temporary bowel-derangement, which was very trouble- 
some, owing to the excessive heats by day, and coldness of the nights. 

'Tuesday 28th, Junction with Keith, Bridge rightly secured, due 
party of dragoons and foot left on the right bank, to occupy a height 
which covers Leitmeritz. e f Clearing of the Pascopol " (that is, sweeping 
the Pandours out of it), is the first business ; Colonel Loudon with his 
Pandours, a most swift sharp-cutting man, being now here in those 
parts ; doing a deal of mischief. Three days ago, Saturday 25th, Keith 
had sent seven battalions, with the proper steel-besoms, on that Pascopol 
affair ; Tuesday, on junction, Majesty sends three more : job done on 
Wednesday ; reported (f done/' though I should not be surprised,' says 
Westphalen, c if some little highway robbery still went on among the 
Mountains up there/ 

No ; and before quitting hold, what is this that Loudon 
(on the very day of the King's arrival, June 27th), on the old 
Field of Lobositz over yonder, has managed to do ! General 
Mannstein, wounded at Kolin, happened, with others in like 
case, to be passing that way, towards Dresden and better 
surgery, when London's Croats set upon them, scattering 
their slight escort: * Quarter, on surrender! Prisoners?' 
* Never ! ' answered Mannstein ; * Never ! ' that too impetuous 
man, starting out from his carriage, and snatching a musket : 
and was instantly cut-down there. And so ends ; & man of 
strong head, and of heart only too strong. 1 

From Prag onwards, here has been a delicate set of opera- 
tions ; perfectly executed, thanks to Friedrich's rapidity of 
shift, and also to the cautious slowly-puzzling mind of Daun. 
Had Daun used any diligence, had Daun and Prince Karl 
been broad awake, together or even singly ! But Friedrich 
guessed they seldom or never were; that they would spend 
some days in puzzling; and that, with despatch, he would 
1 Preuss, ii. 58 ; Militair-Lexikon^ iii. 10. 



192 SEVEN-YEARS WAR RISES [BOOK xvni. 

[aoth-ayth June 1757 

have time for everything. Daun, we could observe, stood 
singing Te-Deum, greatly at leisure, in his old Camp, 20th 
June, while Friedrich, from the first gray of morning, and 
diligently all day long, was withdrawing from the trenches of 
Prag, Friedrich's people, self and goods getting folded-out 
in the finest gradation, and with perfect success ; no Daun to 
hinder him, Daun leisurely doing Te-Deum, forty miles off, 
helping on the wrong side by that exertion ! l Poor 
Browne, he is dead of his wounds, in Prag yonder,' writes 
Westphalen, in his Leitmeritz Journal, * news came to us July 
1st : men said, " Ah, that was why they lay asleep." ' 

Till June S6th, Daun and Karl had not united; nor, 
except sending out Loudon and Croats, done anything, either 
of them. Sunday June 26th, at Podschernitz on the old 
Field of Prag, a week and a day after Kolin, they did get 
together ; still seemingly a little puzzled, * Shall we follow the 
King ? Shall we follow Moritz and Bevern ? ' nothing clear 
for some time, except to send out Pandour parties upon both. 
Moritz, since parting with the King in Alt-Bunzlau neighbour- 
hood, has gone northward some marches, thirty miles or so, to 
Jmzg*-Bunzlau, meeting of Iser and Elbe, surely a good 
position : Moritz, on receipt of these Pandour allowances of 
his, writes to the King, 'Shall we retreat on Zittau, then, 
your Majesty? Straight upon Zittau?' Fancy Friedrich's 
astonishment; who well intends to eat the Country first, 
perhaps to fight if there be chance, and at least to lie outside 
the doors of Silesia and the Lausitz, as well as of Saxony 
here ! and answers, with his own hand, on the instant : 
* Your Dilection will not be so mad ! ' 2 And at once recalls 
Moritz, and appoints the Prince of Prussia to go and take 
command. Who directly went ; a most important step for 
the King's interests and his own. Whose fortunes in that 
business we shall see before long ! 

At Leitmeritz the King continues four weeks, with his 

1 Cogniazzo, ii. 367. 

8 In Preuss, ii. 58, the pungent little Autograph in full. 



CHAP, v.] PRIEDRICH AT LEITMERITZ 193 

87th June-aoth July 1757] 

Army parted in this way; waiting how the endless hostile 
element, which begirdles his horizon all round, will shape 
itself into combinations, that he may set-upon the likeliest 
or the needfulest of these, when once it has disclosed itself. 
Horizon all round is black enough : Austrians, French, Swedes, 
Russians, Reichs Army ; closer upon him or not so close, all 
are rolling in : Saxony, the Lausitz and Silesia, Brandenburg 
itself, it is uncertain which of these may soonest require his 
active presence. 

The very day after his arrival in Leitmeritz, Tuesday 
8th June, while that junction with Keith was going on, and 
the troops were defiling along the Bridge for junction with 
Keith, a heavy sorrow had befallen him, which he yet knew 
not of. An irreparable Domestic loss; sad complement to 
these Military and other Public disasters. Queen Sophie 
Dorothee, about whose health he had been anxious, but had 
again been set quiet, died at Berlin that day. 1 In her seventy- 
first year : of no definite violent disease ; worn down with 
chagrins and apprehensions, in this black whirlpool of Public 
troubles. So far as appears, the news came on Fried rich by 
surprise : * bad cough,' we hear of, and of his anxieties about 
it, in the Spring time ; then again of * improvement, recovery, 
in the fine weather 1 ; no thought, just now, of such an 
event : and he took it with a depth of affliction, which my 
less informed readers are far from expecting of him. 

July 2d, the news came : King withdrew into privacy ; to 
weep and bewail under this new pungency of grief, superadded 
to so many others. Mitchell says : * For two days he had no 
levee ; only the Princes dined with him ' (Princes Henri and 
Ferdinand ; Prince of Prussia is gone to Jung-Bunzlau, would 
get the sad message there, among his other troubles) : < yester- 
day, July 3d, King sent for me in the afternoon, the first 
time he has seen anybody since the news came : I had the 
honour to remain with him some hours in his closet. I must 
own to your Lordship I was most sensibly afflicted to see him 

1 Monbijou, 28th June 1757 j born at Hanover, 27 th March 1687. 
VOL. VT. N 



SEVEN-YEARS WAR RISES [BOOKXVIIL 

[27th June-aoth July 1757 

indulging his grief, and giving way to the warmest filial 
affections ; recalling to mind the many obligations he had to 
her late Majesty; all she had suffered, and how nobly she 
bore it ; the good she did to everybody ; the one comfort he 
now had, to think of having tried to make her last years more 
agreeable.' 1 In the thick of public business, this kind of 
mood to Mitchell seems to have lasted all the time of 
Leitmeritz, which is about three weeks yet : Mitchell's Note- 
books and Despatches, in that part, have a fine Biographic 
interest; the wholly human Friedrich wholly visible to us 
there as he seldom is. Going over his past Life to Mitchell ; 
brief, candid, pious to both his Parents ; inexpressibly sad ; 
like moonlight on the grave of one's Mother, silent that, while 
so much else is too noisy ! 

This Friedrich, upon whom the whole world has risen like 
a mad SorcererVSabbath, how safe he once lay in his cradle, 
like the rest of us, mother's love wrapping him soft : and 
now ! These thoughts commingle in a very tragic way with 
the avalanche of public disasters which is thundering down on 
all sides. Warm tears the meed of this new sorrow ; small 
in compass, but greater in poignancy than all the rest 
together* *My poor old Mother, oh, my Mother, that so 
loved me always, and would have given her own life to shelter 
mine ! ' It was at Leitmeritz, as I guess, that Mitchell first 
made decisive acquaintance, what we may almost call intimacy, 
with the King : we already defined him as a sagacious, long- 
headed, loyal-hearted diplomatic gentleman, Scotch by birth 
and by turn of character ; abundantly polite, vigilant, discreet, 
and with a fund of general sense and rugged veracity of mind ; 
whom Friedrich at once recognised for what he was, and much 
took-to, finding a hearty return withal ; so that they were 
soon well with one another, and continued so. Mitchell, as 
orders were, c attended the King's person' all through this 

1 Papers and Memoirs, i. 253 ; Despatch to Holderness, 4th July (slightly 
abridged) ; see#. i. 357-359 (Private Journal). Westphalen, ii. 14. See (Euvres 
d$ Frj&ric, iv. 182. 



CHAP.V.] FRIEDRICH AT LEITMERITZ 195 

ayth June-aoth July 1757] 

War, sometimes in the bla^e of battle itself and nothing but 
cannon-shot going, if it so chanced ; and has preserved, in his 
multifarious Papers, a great many traits of Fried rich, not to 
be met with elsewhere. 

MitchelPs occasional society, conversation with a man of 
sense and manly character, which Friedrich always much loved, 
was, no doubt, a resource to Friedrich in his lonely roamings 
and vicissitudes in those dark years. No other British 
Ambassador ever had the luck to please him or be pleased by 
him, most of them, as Ex-Exchequer Legge and the like 
Ex-Parliamentary people, he seems to have considered dull, 
obstinate, wooden fellows, of fantastic, abmpt, rather abstruse 
kind of character, not worth deciphering; some of them, 
as Hanbury Williams, with the mischievous tic (more like 
galvanism or St.-Vitus'-dance) which he called 'wit," and the 
inconvenient turn for plotting and intriguing, Friedrich could 
not endure at all, but had them as soon as possible recalled, 
of course, not without detestation on their part, 

At Leitmeritz, it appears, he kept withdrawn to his closet 
a good deal ; gave himself up to his sorrows and his thoughts ; 
would sit many hours drowned in tears, weeping bitterly like 
a child or a woman. This is strange to some readers ; but it 
is true, and ought to alter certain current notions. Fried- 
rich, flashing like clear steel upon evil-doers and mendacious 
unjust persons and their works, is not by nature a cruel man, 
then, or an unfeeling, as Rumour reports ? Header, no, far 
the reverse ; and public Rumour, as you may have remarked, 
is apt to be an extreme blockhead, full of fury and stupidity 
on such points, and had much better hold its tongue till it 
know in some measure. Extreme sensibility is not sure to be 
a merit ; though it is sure to be reckoned one, by the greedy 
dim fellows looking idly on : but, in any ca^e, the degree of 
it that dwelt (privately, for most part) in Friedrich was great ; 
and to himself it seemed a sad rather than joyful fact. 
Speaking of this matter, long afterwards, to Garve, a 
Silcsian Philosopher, with whom he used to converse at 



196 SEVEN-YEARS WAR EISES [BOOK XVIIL 

[s/th June-aoth July 1757 

Breslau, he says ; or let dull Garve himself report it, in the 
literal third-person : 

' And herein., I/ the Herr Garve (venturing to dispute, or qualify, on 
one of his Majesty's favourite topics)-, ' believe, lies the real ground of 
ef happiness": it is the capacity and opportunity to accomplish great 
things. This the King would not allow ; but said, That I did not suffi- 
ciently take into account the natural feelings, different in different 
people, which, when painful, embittered the life of the highest as of the 
lowest That, in his own life, he had experienced the deepest sufferings 
of this kind : "And/' added he, with a touching tone of kindness and 
familiarity which never occurred again in his interviews with me, <f if 
you (Er) knew, for instance, what I underwent on the death of my 
Mother, you would see that I have been as unhappy as any other, and 
unhappier than others, because of the greater sensibility I had (well ich 
mehr Empfindlichkeit gehaU habe)" ' l 

There needed not this new calamity in Friedrich's lot just 
now ! From all points of the compass, his enemies, held in 
check so long, are floating-on : the confluence of disasters and 
ill-tidings, at this time, very great. From Jung-Bunzlau, 
close by, his Brother's accounts are bad; and grow ever 
worse, as will be seen I On the extreme West, July 3d,' 
while Friedrich at Leifcmeritz sat weeping for his Mother, 
the French take Embden from him ; 'July 5th, 1 the Russians, 
Memel, on the utmost East. June 80th, six days before, 
the Russians, after as many months of haggling, did cross the 
Border ; 37,000 of them on this point ; and set to bombard- 
ing Memel from land and sea. Poor Memel (garrison only 
700) answered very fiercely, 'sank two of their gunboats 1 
and the like; but the end was as we see, Feldmarschall 
Lehwald able to give no relief. For there were above 70,000 
other Russians (Feldmarschall Apraxin with these latter, 
and Cossacks and Calmucks more than enough) crossing else- 



1 Fragmentc zur Schilderung des Geistes, des Characters und der 
Friednchs des Zweiten^ von Christian Garve (Breslau, 1798), i. 314-316. An 
unexpectedly dull Book (Garve having talent and reputation); kind of monotonous 
Preachment upon Friedrich's character ; almost nothing but th* above fraction 
now derivable from it. 



CHAP, v.] FRIEDRICH AT LEITMERITZ 197 

ayth June-aoth July 1757] 

where, south in Tilsit Country, upon old Lehwald. 1 Lehwald, 
with 30,000, in such circumstances what is to become of 
Preussen and him ! Nearer hand, the Austrians, the French, 
the very Reichs Army, do now seem intent on business. 

The Reichs Execution Army, we saw how Mayer and the 
Battle of Prag had checked it in the birth-pangs ; and given 
rise to pangs of another sort; the poor lieichs Circles 
generally exclaiming, < What ! Bring the war into our own 
borders ? Bring the King of Prussia on our own throats ! ' 
and stopping short in their enlistments and prepara- 
tions ; in vain for Austrian Officials to urge them. Watch- 
ing there, with awe-struck eye, while the 12>000 bombs 
flew into Prag. 

The Battle of Kolin has reversed all that ; and the poor 
old Reich is again bent on business in the Execution way. 
Drumming, committeeing, projecting, and endeavouring, with 
all her might, in all quarters ; and, from and after the 
event of Kolin, holding visible Encampment, in the Nurnberg 
Country ; fractions of actual troops assembling there. * On 
the Plains of Furth, between Ftirth and Farrenbach, east 
side the Rivei Ilegnitz, there was the Camp pitched, 1 says 
my Anonymous Friend ; who gives me a cheerful Copperplate 
of the thing : red pennons, blue, and bright mixed colours ; 
generals'* tents ; order-of-battle, and respective rallying-points : 
with Bamberg Country in front, and the peaks of the Pine 
Mountains lying pleasantly behind : a sight for the curious.* 
It is the same ground where Mayer was careering lately ; 
neighbouring nobility and gentry glad to come in gala, and 
dance with Mayer. Hither, all through July, come con- 
tingents straggling in, thicker and thicker ; * August 8th,' 
things now about complete, the Bishop of Bamberg came to 
take survey of the Reichs-Heer (Bishop^s remarks not given) ; 



) iv, 407-413. 

1 J. F. S. (whom I named Anonymous &f Hamburg long since ; who has boiled 
down, with great diligence, the old Newspapers, and gives a great many 
not*s, etc., without Index), i. 21 1, 224 (the Copperplate), 



198 SEVEN-YEARS WAR RISES [BOOKXVIII. 

[27th June-aoth July 1757 

August 10th ? came the young reigning Duke of Hildburg- 
hausen (Duke's grand-uncle is to be Commander), on like 
errand ; August llth, the Reichs-Heer got on march. West- 
ward ho ! readers will see towards what. 

A truly elende^ or miserable, Reichs Execution Army (as 
the Teleprinter had made it) ; but giving loud voice in the 
Gazettes ; and urged by every consideration to do something 
for itself. Prince of Hildburghausen, a general of small 
merit, though he has risen in the Austrian service, and we 
have seen him with Seckendorf in old Turk times, has, for 
his Kaiser's sake, taken the command ; sensible perhaps that 
glory is not likely to be rife here; but willing to make 
himself useful. Kaiser and Austria urge, everywhere, with 
all their might : Prince of Hessen-Darmstadt, who lay on the . 
Weissenberg lately, one of Keith's distinguished seconds there 
and a Prussian Officer of long standing, has, on Kaiser's 
order, quitted all that, and become Hildburghausen's second 
here, in the Camp of Fiirth ; thinking the path of duty lay 
that way, though his Wife, one of the noble women of her 
age, thought very differently. 1 A similar Kaiser's order, 
backed by what Law-thunder lay in the Reich, had gone out 
against Friedrich's own Brothers, and against every Reichs 
Prince who was in Friedrich's service ; but, except him of 
Hessen-Darmstadt, none of them had much minded. 2 I did 
not hear that his strategic talent was momentous : but Prussia 
had taught him the routine of right soldiering, surely to 
small purpose ; and Friedrich, no doubt, glanced indignantly 
at this small thing, among the many big ones. 

From about the end of June, the Reichs Army kept 
dribbling in : the most inferior Army in the world ; no part 
of it well drilled, most of it not drilled at all ; and for 
variety in colour, condition, method, and military and 

1 Her Letter to Friedrich, * Berlin, 30th October 1757,' (Euvres dt r&ttru % 
xxvii H. 135, 

1 In Orlichj F&rst Merit* von Ankalt Dessau (Berlin, 1842), pp, 74, 75, 
Prince Moritz's ratfetr mournful Letter on the subject, with Friedrich's sharp 
Answer. 



CHAP.v.] FRIEDRICH AT LEITMEHITZ 199 

37th June-aoth July 1757] 

pecuniary and other outfit, beggaring description. Hild- 
burghausen does his utmost ; Kaiser the like. The number 
should have far exceeded 50,000 ; but was not, on the field, 
of above half that number: 25,000; add at last 8,000 
Austrian txx>ops, two regiments of them cavalry ; good these 
8,000, the rest bad, that was the Reichs Execution Army; 
most inferior among Armies ; and considerable part of it, all 
the Protestant part, privately wishing well to Friedrich, they 
say. Drills itself multifariously in that Camp between Furth 
and Farrenbach, on the east side of Regnitz River. Fancy 
what a sight to Wilhelmina, if she ever drove that way; 
which I think she hardly would. The Baireuth contingent 
itself is there ; the Margraf would have held-out stiff on that 
point ; but Friedrich himself advised compliance. Margraf 
of Anspach, perverse tippling creature, ill with his Wife, 
I doubt, has joyfully sent his legal hundreds; will vote 
for the Reichs Ban against this worst of Germans, whom 
he has for Brother-in-law. Dark days in the heart of 
Wilhelmina, those of the Camp at Furth. Days which 
grow ever darker, with strange flashings-out of empyrean 
lightning from that shrill true heart; no peace more, till 
the noble heroine die ! 

This elende Reichs-Heer, miserable *Army of the Circles, 1 
is mockingly called 'the Hoopers, Coopers (Tonneliers)J and 
gets quizzing enough, under that and other titles, from an 
Opposition Public. Far other from the French and Austrians ; 
who are bent that it should do feats in the world, and prove 
impressive on a robber King. Thus too, * for Deliverance of 
Saxony,' to cooperate with Reichs-Heer in that sacred object, 
thanks to the zeal of Pompadour, Prince de Soubise has got 
together, in Elsass, a supplementary 80,000 (40,330 said 
Theory, but Fact never quite so many) ; and is passing them 
across the Rhine, in Frankfurt Country, all through July, 
while the drilling at Furth goes on. With these, Soubise, 
simultaneously getting under way, will steer north-eastward ; 
join the Reichs-Heer about Erfurt, before August end ; and 



200 SEVEN -YEARS WAR RISES [BOOK xvm. 

[27th June-aoth July 1757 

and we shall see what becomes of the combined Soubise and 
Reichs Army after that I 

It must be owned, the French, Pompadour and love of 
glory urging, are diligent since the event of Kolin. In select 
Parisian circles, the Soubise Army, or even that of D'Estrees 
altogether, produced by the tears of a filial Dauphiness, 
is regarded as a quasi-sacred, or uncommonly noble thing ; 
and is called by her name, 6 IlArm'ee de la Dauphine? or for 
shortness 'La Dauphlne^ without adjunct. Thus, like a kind 
of chivalrous Bellona, vengeance in her right hand, tears and 
fire in her eyes, The Dauphiness advances ; and will join 
Reichs-Heer at Erfurt before August end. Such the will of 
Pompadour; Richelieu encouraging, for reasons of his own. 
Soubise, I understand, is privately in pique against poor 
D'Er trees; 1 and intends to eclipse him by a higher style of 
diligence ; though D'Estrces too is doing his best. 

July 3d, we saw the D'Estrees people taking Embden ; 
D'Estrees, quiet so long in his Camp at Bielefeld, had at 
once bestirred himself, Kolin being done ; shot-out a de- 
tachment leftwards, and Embden had capitulated that day. 
Adieu to the Shipping Interests there, and to other pleasant 
things ! c July 9th, after sunset,** D"Estrees himself got on 
march from Bielefeld; set forth, in the cool of night, 60,000 
strong, and 10,000 more to join him by the road (the rest 
are left as garrisons, reserves, 1,000 marauders of them 
swing as monitory pendulums, on their various trees, for one 
item), direct towards Hanover and Royal Highness of 
Cumberland; who retreats, and has retreated, behind the 
Ems, the Weser, back, ever back ; and, to appearance, will 
make a bad finish yonder. 

To Friedrich, waiting at Leitmeritz, all these thing* are 
gloomily known ; but the most pressing of them is that of 

1 'Reappeared unexpectedly in Paris' (from D'Estre*es's Army), *22d June 1 
(four days after Kolin) : got-up this Dauphiness Army> by aid of Pompadour, 
with Richelieu, etc.: Barbur, iv. 227, 231. Richelieu f bu*y At Straaburg 
ktely' (29th July s CoUim's PWAwV*, p. 101). 



CHAP.V.] FRIEDRICH AT LEITMERITZ 201 

I3th July 1757] 

the Austrians and Jung-Bunzlau close by. Let us give some 

utterances of his to Wilhelmina, nearly all we have of direct 

from him in that time ; and then hasten to the Prince of 
Prussia there : 



Friedrich to Wilhelmina (at Baireuth) 

Leitmeritz, 1st July 1757. * * 'Sensible as heart can be to the 
tender interest you deign to take in what concerns me. Dear Sister, 
fear nothing on my score : men are always in the hand of what we call 
Fate ' (" Predestination, Gnadenwahl," Pardon us, Papa ! ce qu'on 
nomme le destiri); accidents will befall people, walking on the streets, 
sitting in their room, lying in their bed ; and there are many who escape 
the perils of war.' * * ' I think, through Hessen will be the safest 
route for your Letters, till we see ; and not to write just now except on 
occasions of importance. Here is a piece in cipher ; anonymous,' 
intended for the Newspapers, or some such road. 

July 5th. 'By a Courier of Plotho's, returning to Regensburg' (who 
passes near you), * I write to apprise my dear Sister of the new misery 
which overwhelms us. We have no longer a Mother. This loss puts the 
crown on my sorrows. I am obliged to act ; and have not time to give 
free course to my tears. Judge, 1 pray you, of the situation of a feeling 
heart put to so cruel a trial. All losses in the world are capable of being 
remedied ; but those which Death causes are beyond the reach of hope/ 

July 7th. ' You are too good ; I am ashamed to abuse your indulgence. 
But do, since you will, try to sound the French, what conditions of Peace 
they would demand ; one might judge as to their intentions. Send that 
Mirabeau (ce M. de Mirabeau) to France. Willingly will I pay the 
expense. He may offer as much as five million thalers ' (750,000/.) to 
the Favourite* (yes, even to the Pompadour) f for Peace alone. Of 
course, his utmost discretion will be needed ' ; should the English get 
the least wind of it ! But if they are gone to St. Vitus, and fail in every 
point, what can one do ? Ce M. de Mirabeau 3 readers will be surprised 
to learn, is an Uncle of the great Mirabeau's ; who has fallen into roving 
courses, gone abroad insolvent ; and " directs the Opera at Baireuth/' in 
these years ! One Letter we will give in full : 

'Leitmeritz, 13th July 1757. 

*MY DEAREST SISTER, Your Letter has arrived : I see in it your 
regrets for the irreparable loss we have had of the best and worthiest 
Mother in this world. I am so struck-down with all these hlowi from 
within mxd without, that I feel myielf in a sort of stupefaction. 



202 SEVEN-YEARS WAR RISES [uoOKXVin. 

'The French have just laid hold of Friesland' (seized Embden, July 
3d); 'are about to pass the Weser: they have instigated the Swedes 
to declare War against me ; the Swedes are sending 17,000 men 
(rather more if anything ; but they proved beautifully ineffectual) ' into 
Pommern,* will be burdensome to Stralsund and the poor country 
people mainly ; having no Captain over them but a hydra-headed 
National Palaver at home, and a Long-pole with Cocked-hat on it here 
at hand. i The Russians are besieging Mem el ' (have taken it, ten days 
ago) : c Lehwald has them on his front and in his rear. The Troops of 
the Reich,' from your Plains of Furth yonder, ( are also about to march. 
All this will force me to evacuate Bohemia, so soon as that crowd of 
enemies gets into motion. 

f I am firmly resolved on the extremest efforts to save my Country. 
We shall see (quitte d roir) if Fortune will take a new thought, or if she 
will entirely turn her back upon me. Happy the moment when I took 
to training myself in philosophy ! There is nothing else that can sustain 
the soul in a situation like mine. I spread-out to you, dear Sister, the 
detail of my sorrows : if these things regarded only myself, I could stand 
it with composure ; but I am bound Guardian of the safety and happiness 
of a People which has been put under my charge. There lies the sting 
of it : and 1 shall have to reproach myself with every fault, if, by delay 
or by overhaste, I occasion the smallest accident; all the more as, at 
present, any fault may be capital. 

* What a business ! Here is the liberty of Germany, and that Pro- 
testant Cause for which so much blood has been shed ; here are those 
Two great Interests again at stake ; and the pinch of this huge game is 
such, that an unlucky quarter of an hour may establish over Germany 
the tyrannous domination of the House of Austria for ever ! 1 am in the 
case of a traveller who sees himself surrounded and ready to be assassi- 
nated by a troop of cutthroats, who intend to share his spoils. Since the 
League of Cambrai ' (1508-1510, with a Pope in it and a Kaiser and Most 
Christian King, iniquitously sworn against poor Venice ; to no purpose, 
as happily appears), e there is no example of such a Conspiracy as that 
infamous Triumvirate ' (Austria, France, Russia) ' now forms against me. 
Was it ever seen before, that three great Princes laid plot in concert to 
destroy a Fourth, who had done nothing against them ? I have not had 
the least quarrel either with France or with Russia, still less with 
Sweden. If, in common life, three citizens took it into their heads to 
fall-upon their neighbour, and burn his house about him, they very 
certainly, by sentence of tribunal, would be broken on the wheel. 
What 1 and will Sovereigns, who maintain these tribunals and these 
laws in their States, give such example to their subjects ?* f Happy, my 
dear Sivfcar, is the 01cure man, whose good serwe, from youth upwards, 



CHAP.V.] FRIEDRICH AT LEITMERITZ 208 

30th June-22d July 1757] 

has renounced all sorts of glory ; who, in his safe low place,, has none to 
envy him^ and whose fortune does not excite the cupidity of scoundrels ! 

* But these reflections are vain. We have to be what our birth, which 
decides, has made us in entering upon this world. I reckoned that, 
being King-, it beseemed me to think as a Sovereign ; and I took for 
principle, that the reputation of a Prince ought to be dearer to him than 
life. They have plotted against me ; the Court of Vienna has given 
itself the liberty of trying to maltreat me ; my honour commanded me 
not to suffer it. We have come to War ; a gang of robbers falls on me, 
pistol in hand : that is the adventure which has happened to me. The 
remedy is difficult : in desperate diseases there are no methods but 
desperate ones. 

* I beg a thousand pardons, dear Sister : in these three long pages I 
talk to you of nothing but my troubles and affairs. A strange abuse it 
would be of any other person's friendship. But yours, my dear Sister, 
yours is known to me ; and I am persuaded you are not impatient when 
I open my heart to you : a heart which is yours altogether ; being filled 
with sentiments of the tenderest esteem, with which I am, my dearest 
Sister, your* (in truth, affectionate Brother at all times) e F/ l 



Prince August WWielm Jinds a bad Problem at Jiing-Bunzlau , 
and does it badly : Friedrich thereupon has to rue from 
Leitmeritz, and take the Field elsewhere, in bitter Haste and 
Impatience, with Outlooks worse than ever. 

The Prince of Prussia's Enterprise had its intricacies ; but, 
by good management, was capable of being done. At least, 
so Friedrich thought ; though, in truth, it would have been 
better had Friedrich gone himself, since the chief pressure 
happened to fall there ! The Prince has to retire, Parthian- 
like, as slowly as possible, with the late Kolin or Moritz- 
Bevern Army, towards the Lausitz, keeping his eye upon 
Silesia the while; of course securing the passes and strong 
places in his passage, for defence of his own rear at lowest ; 
especially securing Zittau, a fine opulent Town, where his 
chief Magazine is, fed from Silesia now. The Army is in 
good strength (guess 80,000), with every equipment com- 
plete; in discipline, in health and in heart, such as beseems a 

1 CEuvres fa Frtdtric, xxvii. i. 294, 295, 296-8, 



204 SEVEN-YEARS WAR RISES [BOOK xvm, 

fsoth June-aad July 1757 

Prussian Army, probably longing rather, if it venture to 
long or wish for anything not yet commanded, to have a 
stroke at those Austrians again, and pay them something 
towards that late Kolin score. 

The Prince arrived at Jung-Bunzlau, June 30th ; Winter- 
feld with him, and, at his own request, Schmettau. The 
Austrians have not yet stirred : if they do, it may be upon 
the King, it may be upon the Prince : in three or even in 
two marches, Prince and King can be together, the King 
only too happy, in the present oppressive coil of doubts, to 
find the Austrians ready for a new passage of battle, and an 
immediate decision. The Austrians did, in fact, break-out, 
seemingly, at first, upon the King ; but in reality upon the 
Prince, whom they judge safer game ; and the matter became 
much more critical upon him than had been expected. 

The Prince was thought to have a good judgment (too 
much talk in it, we sometimes feared), and fair knowledge in 
military matters. The King, not quite by the Prince's 
choice, has given him Winterfeld for Mentor; Winterfeld, 
who has an excellent military head in such matters, and a 
heart firm as steel, almost like a second self in the King's 
estimation. Excellent Winterfeld ; but then there are also 
Schmettau, Bevern and others, possibly in private not too 
well affected to this Winterfeld. In fact, there is rather a 
multitude of Counsellors ; and an ingenuous fine-spirited 
Prince, perhaps more capable of eloquence on the Opposition 
side, than of condensing into real wisdom a multitude of 
counsels, when the crisis rises, and the affair becomes really 
difficult. Crisis did rise : the victorious Austrians, after such 
delay, had finally made-up their minds to press this one a 
little, this one rather than the King, and hang upon his 
skirts ; Daun and Prince Karl set-out after him, just about 
the time of his arrival, * 70,000 strong," the Prince hears, 
including plenty of Pandours, Certain it is, the poor Princess 
mind did flounder a good deal ; and his procedures succeeded 
xtremely ill on this occasion. Certain, too, that they wer 



CHAP.v.j FRIEDRICH AT LEITMERITZ SOS 

30th June-aad July 1757] 

extremely ill-taken at headquarters : and that he even died 
soon after, chiefly of broken heart, said the censorious 
world. It is well known how Europe rang with the matter 
for a long while ; and Books were printed, and Documents, 
and Collections by a Master's Hand. 1 We, who can spend 
but a page or two on it, must carefully stand by the essential 
part. 

* June SOth July 3d, Prince at Jung-Bunzlau, in chief command. 
Besides Winterfeld, the Generals under him are Ziethen, Schmettau, 
Fouquet, Retzow, Goltz, and two others who need not be of our 
acquaintance. Impossible to stay there, thinks the Prince, thinks 
everybody ; and they shift to Neuschloss, westward thirty miles. July 
1st, Daun had crossed the Elbe (Daun let us say for brevity, though 
it is Daun and Karl, or even Karl and Daun, Karl being 1 chief, and 
capable of saying so at times, though Daun is very splendent since 
Kolin), crossed the Elbe above Brandeis; Nadasti, with precursor 
Pandours, now within an hour's march of Jung-Bunzlau ; and it was 
time to go. 

f July Sd-Gth, At Neuschloss, which is thought a strong position, key 
of the localities there, and nearer Friedrich too, the Prince stayed not 
quite four days ; shifted to Bohm (BohmwcA) Leipa, July 7th, rather off 
from Leitmeritz, but a march towards Zittau, where the provisions are."* 
f( A bad change," said the Prince's friends afterwards ; " change advised 
by Winterfeld, who never mentioned that circumstance to his Majesty, 
many as he did mention, not in the best way ! " Prince gets to Bohm 
Leipa July 7th ; stays there, in questionable circumstances, nine days. 

'Bohm Leipa is still not above thirty miles north-eastward of the 
King ; and it is about the same distance south-westward from Zittau, out 
of which fine Town, partly by cross-roads, the Prince gets his provisions 
on this march. From Zittau hitherward, as far as the little Town of 
Gabel, which lies about half way, there is broad High Road, the great 
Southern Kaiser-Strasse ; from Gabel, for Bohm Leipa, you have to cross 
south-westward by country roads ; the keys to which, especially Gabel, 
the Prince has not failed to secure by proper garrison parties. And so, 
for about a week, not quite uncomfortably, he continues at Bohm Leipa ; 



1 Lettres Secrltes touchant la Dernitre Gusrre ; de Main de Mattre; 
m deux parties (Franc r ort et Amsterdam, 1772): this is the Prince's own State- 
ment, Proof in hand. By far the clearest Account is in Schmettau's Ltben (by 
his Son), pp. 353-384. See also Preusa, ii. 57*61, and especially u. 2*3, 

* Plan, p. 223. 



S06 SEVEN-YEARS WAR RISES [BOOKXVIII. 

[30th June-aad July 1757 

getting-in his convoys from Zittau. Diligently scanning the Pandour 
stragglings and sputterings round him, which are clearly on the increas* 
ing hand. Diligently corresponding with the King, meanwhile ; who 
much discourages undue apprehension, or retreat movement till the last 
pinch. <f Edging backward, and again backward, you come bounce upon 
Berlin one day, and will then have to halt J " which is not pleasant to 
the Prince. But, indisputably, the Pandour spurts on him do become 
Pandour gushings, with regulars also noticeable : it is certain the Austrians 
are out, pretending first to mean the King and Leitmeritz ; but know- 
ing better, and meaning the Prince and Bohm Leipa all the while/ 
By way of supplement, take Daun's positions in the interim : 

Daun and Karl were at Podschernitz 20th June ; 1st July, cross 
the Elbe, above Brandeis (Nadasti now within an hour's march of Jung- 
Bunzlau) ; 7th July (day while the Prince is flitting to Bohm Leipa), 
Daun is through Jung-Bunzlau to Munchengratz; thence to Liebenau ; 
14th, to Niemes, not above four miles from the Prince's rightmost 
outpost (rightmost or eastmost, which looks away from his Brother); 
while a couple of advanced parties, Beck and Maguire, hover on his 
flank Zittau- ward, and Nadasti (if he knew it) is pushing on to rear. 

* Thursday lith July, About six in the evening, at Bohm Leipa, 
distinct cannon-thunder is heard from north-east : " Evidently Gabel 
getting cannonaded, and our wagon convoy " (empty, going to Zittau 
for meal, General Puttkammer escorting) " is in a dangerous state ! " 
And by and by hussar parties of ours come in, with articulate news to 
that bad effect : " Gabel under hot attack of regulars ; Puttkammer 
with his 3,000 vigorously defending, will expect to be relieved within 
not many hours!' Here has the crisis come. Crisis sure enough; 
and the Prince, to meet it, summons that refuge of the irresolute, a 
Council of War. 

e Wmterfeld, who is just come home in these moments, did not attend ; 
not, till three next morning, Winterfeld had gone to bed ; fairly 
"tired dead/' with long marching and hurrying about. To the poor 
Prince there are three courses visible. Course first, That of joining the 
King at Leitmeritz. Gabel, Zittau lost in that case; game given-up ; 
reception likely to be bad at Leitmeritz ! Course second, the course 
Friedrich himself would at once have gone upon, and been already well 
ahead with, That of instantly taking measures for the relief of Putt- 
kammer. Dispute Gabel to the last ; retreat, on loss of it, Parthian-like, 
to Zittau, by that broad Highway, short and broad, whole distance hence 
only thirty miles. (e Thirty miles," say the multitude of Counsellors : 
"Yes, but the first ftfceen, to Gabel, is cross-road, hilly, difficult; they 
have us in flank! 7 ' ee We are 25,000," urges the Prince; "fifteen 
miles is not much ! " The thing had its difficulties : the Prince himself, 



CHAT.V.] FRIEDRICH AT LEITMER1TZ 207 

aad July 1757] 

it appears, faintly thought it feasible : " 25,000 we ; 20,000 they ; only 
fifteen miles," said he. But the variety of Counsellors : se Cross-roads, 
defiles, flank-march, dangerous/* said they. And so the third course, 
which was incomparably the worst, found favour in Council of War: 
That of leaving Gabel and Puttkammer to their fate ; and of pushing-oif 
for Zittau leftwards through the safe Hills, by Kamnitz, Kreywitz, 
Rumburg ; which, if the reader look, is by a circuitous, nay, quite 
parabolic course, twice or thrice as far : (e In that manner let us save 
Zittau and our Main Body ! " said the Council of War. Yes, my friends ; 
a cannon-ball, endeavouring to get into Zittau from the town-ditch, 
would have to take a parabolic course; and the cannon-ball would 
be speedy upon it, and not have Hill roads to go by! This notable 
parabolic circuit of narrow steep roads may have its difficulties for an 
Army and its baggages ! * Enough, the poor Prince adopted that worst 
third course ; and even made no despatch in getting into it ; and it 
proved ruinous to Zittau, and to much else, his own life partly included. 
( July I6th-22d. Thursday night, or Friday 3 A.M., that third and incom- 
parably worst course was adopted : Gabel, Puttkammer with his wagons, 
ensigns, kettledrums, all this has to surrender in a day : High Road to 
Zittau, for the Austrians, is a smooth march, when they like to gather 
fully there, and start. And in the Hills, with their jolts and precipitous 
windings, infested too by Pandours, the poor Prussian Main Body, on 
its wide parabolic circuit, has a time of it ! Loses its pontoons, loses 
most of its baggage ; obliged to set fire, not to the Pandours, but to 
your own wagons, and necessaries of army life ; encamps on bleak 
heights j no food, not even water ; road quite lost, road to be rediscovered 
or invented ; Pandours sputtering on you out of every bush and hollow, 
your peasant wagoners cutting traces and galloping-off : such are the 
phenomena of that march by circuit leftward, on the poor Prince's part. 
March began, soon after midnight, Saturday 16th, Schmettau as van- 
guard; and' 



And, in fine, by Friday 2<f, after not quite a week of it, 
the Prince, curving from northward (in parabolic course, less 
speedy than the cannon-balTs would have been) into sight of 
Zittau, behold, there are the Austrians far and wide to left 
of us, encamped impregnable behind the Neisse River there ! 
They have got the Eckarfs Hill, which commands Zittau : 
and how to get into Zitlau and our magazines, and how to 
subsist if we were in ? The poor Prince takes post on what 
Heights there are, on his own side of the Neisse; looks 
wistfully down upon Zittau, asking How ? 



208 SEVEN-YEARS WAR RISES [BOOKXVIII 

[23d July 175 

About stroke of noon the Austrians, from their Eckarts 
berg, do a thing which was much talked of. They opei 
battery of red-hot balls upon Zittau ; kindle the roofs of it 
shingle-roofs in dry July ; set Zittau all on blaze, the 10,00( 
innocent souls shrieking in vain to Heaven and Earth ; anc 
before sunset, Zittau is ashes and red-hot walls, not Zittai 
but a cinder-heap, Prussian Garrison not hurt, nor Magazhn 
as yet ; Garrison busy with buckets, I should guess, bu* 
beginning to find the air grow very hot. On the morrov 
morning, Zittau is a smouldering cinder-heap, hotter anc 
hotter to the Prussian Garrison; and does not exist as * 
City. 

One of the most inhuman actions ever heard of in War 
shrieks universal Germany ; asks itself what could have set t 
chivalrous Karl upon this devil-like procedure ? * Protestants 
these poor Zittauers were ; shone in commerce ; no suet 
weaving, industrying, in all Teutschland elsewhere : Hah 
An eye-sorrow, they, with their commerce, their weavings anc 
industryings, to Austrian Papists, who cannot weave 01 
trade ? ' that was finally the guess of some persons ; wide 
of the mark, we may well judge. Prince Xavier of Saxony 
present in the Camp too, made no remonstrance, said others 
Alas, my friends, what could Xavier probably avail, the 
foolish fellow, with only three regiments? Prince Karl, il 
was afterwards evident, could have got Zittau unburnt ; and 
could even have kept the Prussians out of Zittau altogether, 
Zittau surely would have been very useful to Prince Karl, 
But overnight (let us try to fancy it so), not knowing the 
Prussian possibilities, Prince Karl, screwed to the devilish 
point, had got his furnaces lighted, his red-hot balls ready : 
and so, hurried-on by his Pride and by his other Devils, had 
There are devilish things sometimes done in War. And 
whole cities are made ashes by them. For certain, here is a 
strange way of commencing your * Deliverance of Saxony 1 ! 
And Prince Karl carries, truly, a brand-mark from this con- 
flagration, and will till all memory of him cease. As to 



CHAP.V.] FRIEDRICH AT LEITMEEITZ 209 

34th July 1757] 

Zittau, it rebuilt itself. Zittau is alive again; a strong 
stone city, in our day* On its new-built Townhouse stands 
again 4 Benejhcere et male audire regmm est> To do well, and 
be ill spoken of, is the part of kings ' l (amazingly true of 
them, when they are not shams). What times for Herrn- 
huth ; preparing for its Christian Sabbath, under these omens 
near by ! 

The Prince of Prussia tells us, he * early next morning 
(Saturday 3d July) had his tents pitched ** ; which was but 
an unavailing procedure, with poor Zittau gone such a road. 
* Bring us bread out of that ruined Zittau/ ordered the 
Prince : his Detachment returns ineffectual, ' So hot, we 
cannot march in.' And the Garrison Colonel (one Dierecke 
and five battalions are garrison) sends out word : ' So hot, we 
cannot stand if * Stand it yet a very little ; and ! * 
answers the Prince : but Dierecke and battalions cannot, or 
at least cannot long enough ; and set to marching out. In 
firm order, I have no doubt, and with some modicum of 
bread : but the tumbling of certain burnt walls parted 
Colonel and men, in a sad way. Colonel himself, with the 
colours, with the honours (none of his people, it seems, 
though they were scattered loose), was picked-up by a 
Austrian party, and made prisoner. A miserable busin ss, 
this of Zittau 1 

Next evening, Sunday, after dark, Prince of Prussia strikes 
his tents again; rolls-off in a very unsuccinct condition; 
happily unchased, for he admits that chase would have been 
ruinous. Off towards Lobau (what nights for Zimendorf 
and Herrnhuth, as such things tumble past them !) ; thence 
towards Bautzen ; and arrives in the most lugubr'ous torn 
condition any Prussian General ever stood in. Reaches 
Bautzen on those terms ; and is warned that his Brother 
will be there in a day or two. 

One may fancy Friedrich's indignation, astonishment and 

1 A saying of Alexander the Great's (Plutarch, in Alexandra}. 
VOL. VI. O 



tlO SEVEN-YEARS WAR RISES [BOOKXVin* 

[aad-a6th July 1757 

grief, when lie heard of that march towards Zittau through 
the Hills by a parabolic course ; the issue of which is too 
guessable by Friedrich. He himself instantly rises from 
Leitmeritz ; starts, in fit divisions, by the Pascopol, by the 
Elbe passes, for Pirna ; and, leaving Moritz of Dessau with 
a 10,000 to secure the Passes about Pirna, and Keith to 
come on with the Magazines, hastens across for Bautzen, to 
look into these advancing triumphant Austrians, these strange 
Prussian proceedings. On first hearing of that side-march, 
his auguries had been bad enough ; l but the event has far 
surpassed them. Zittau gone ; the Army hurrying home, as 
if in flight, in that wrecked condition ; the door of Saxony, 
door of Silesia left wide open, Daun has only to choose ! 
Day by day, as Friedrich advanced to repair that mischief, 
the news of it have grown worse on him. Days rife other- 
wise in mere bad news. The Russians in Memel, Preussen at 
their feet ; Soubise's French and the Reichs Army pushing-on 
for Erfurt, to * deliver Saxony, 1 on that western side : and 
from the French-English scene of operations In those same 
bad days Royal Highness of Cumberland has been doing a 
feat worth notice in the above connexion ! Read this, from 
an authentic source 

' Hastenteck, 22d-26th Juty 1757. Royal Highness, hitching back and 
back, had got to Hameln, a strong place of his on the safe side of the 
Weser ; and did at last, Hanover itself being now nigh, call halt ; and 
resolve to make a stand. July 22d* (very day while the Prince of 
Prussia came in sight of Zittau, with the Austrians hanging over it), 
' Royal Highness took post in that favourable vicinity of Hameln ; at 
perfect leisure to select his ground : and there sat waiting D'Estrees, 
swamps for our right wing, and the Weser not far off; small Hamlet 
of Hastenbeck in front, and a woody knoll for our left; totally 
inactive for four days long; attempting nothing upon D'Estrees and 
his intricate shufflings, but looking idly noonward to the courses of the 
sun, till D'Estrees should come up. Royal Highness is much swollen 
into obesity, into flabby torpor ; a changed man since Fontenoy times ; 

* Letter to Wilhelmina, 'Linay, 22d July 1 (second day of the march from 
Leitmeritz): (2ww, xxvii. i. 298. 



CHAP.v.] FRIEDRICH AT LEITMERITZ 811 

32d-a6th July 1757] 

shockingly inactive, they say, in this post at Hastenbeck. D'Estr&fl, 
too, is ridiculously cautious, ( * has manoeuvred fifteen days In advancing 
about as many British miles." D'Estrees did at last come up (July 
25th), nearly two to one of Royal Highness, 72,000 some count him, 
but considerably anarchic in parts, overwhelmed with Court Generals 
and Princes of the Blood, for one item ; and decides on attacking, next 
morning. D'Estre'es duly went to reconnoitre, but unluckily ff had mist 
suddenly falling/' (t Well ; we must attack, all the same ! ** 

' And so, 26th July, Tuesday, there ensued a Battle of Hastenbeck : the 
absurdest Battle in the world ; and which ought, in fairness, to have 
been lost by both 9 though Royal Highness alone had the ill luck. Both 
Captains behaved very poorly ; and each of them had a subaltern who 
behaved well. D'Estrees, with his 70,000 versus 40,000 posted there, 
knows nothing of Royal Highness's position ; sees only Royal High- 
ness's left wing on that woody Height ; and after hours of preliminary 
cannonading, sends out General Chevert upon that. Chevert, his 
subaltern * (a bit of right soldier-stuff, the Chevert whom we knew at 
Prag, in old Belleisle times), 'goes upon it like fury; whom the 
Brunswick Grenadiers resist in like humour, hotter and hotter. Some 
hard fighting there, on Royal Highness's left ; Chevert very fiery, 
Grenadiers very obstinate; till, on the centre, westward, in Royal 
High ness's chief battery there, some spark went the wrong way, and 
a powder-wagon shot itself aloft with hideous blaze and roar ; and in the 
confusion, the French rushed-in, and the battery was lost. Which dis- 
couraged the Grenadiers ; so that Chevert made some progress upon 
them, on their woody Height, and began to have confident hope. 

'Had Chevert known, or had D'Estrees known, there was, close 
behind said Height, a Hollow, through which these Grenadiers might 
have been taken in rear. Dangerous Hollow, much neglected by Royal 
Highness, who has only General Breitenbach with a weak party there. 
This Breitenbach, happening to have a head of his own, and finding 
nothing to do in that Hollow or to rightward, bursts-out^ of his own 
accord, on Chevert's left flank ; cannonading, volleying, horse-charging ; 
the sound of which ( ff Hah, French there too ! ") struck a damp 
through Royal Highness, who instantly ordered retreat, and took the 
road. What singular ill-luck that sound of Breitenbach to Royal High- 
ness ! For observe, the effect of Breitenbach, which was, to recover the 
lost battery (gallant young Prince of Brunswick, (e Hereditary Prince," 
or Duke that is to be, striking-in upon it with bayonet-charge at the 
right moment), made D'Estrees too order retreat! te Battle lost," 
thinks D'Estrees; and with good cause, had Breitenbach been sup- 
ported at all. But no subaltern durst ; and Royal Highness himself was 
not overtakeable, so far on the road. Royal Highness wept on hearing ; 



*1 SEVEN-YEARS WAR RISES [BOOKXVIII. 

[agth July 1757 

the Brunswick Grenadiers too are said to have wept (for rage); an4 
probably Breitenbach and the Hereditary Prince.' l 

This is the last of Royal High ness's exploits in War. The retreat 
had been ordered * To Hanover f ; but the baggage by mistake took the 
road for Minden ; and Royal Highness followed thither, much the 
same what road he or it takes* Friedrich might still hope he would 
retreat on Magdeburg ; 40,000 good soldiers might find a Captain there, 
and be valuable against a D'Estrees and Soubise in those parts. But no ; 
it was through Bremen Country, to Stade, into the Sea, that Royal 
Highness, by 111 luck, retreated ! He has still one great vexation to give 
Friedrich, to us almost a comfort, knowing what followed out of it ; 
and will have to be mentioned one other time in this History, and then 
go over our horizon altogether. 

Whether Friedrich had heard of Hastenbeck the day his 
Brother and he met (July S9th, at Bautzen), I do not know : 
but it is likely enough he may have got the news that very 
morning ; which was not calculated to increase one's good 
humour ! His meeting with the Prince is royal, not fraternal, 
as all men have heard. Let us give, with brevity, from 
Schmettau Junior, the exact features of it ; and leave the 
candid reader, who has formed to himself some notion of 
kingship and its sorrows and stern conditions (having perhaps 
himself something of kingly, in a small potential way), to 
interpret the matter, and make what he can of it : 

* Bautzen, 29th July 1757. The King with reinforcement is coming 
hither, from the Dresden side ; to take-up the reins of this dishevelled 
Zittau Army ; to speed with it against the Austrians, and, if humanly 
possible, lock the doors of Silesia and Saxony again, and chase the 
intruders away. Prince of Prussia and the other Generals have notice, 
the night before: "At 4 A.M. tomorrow (20th), wait his Majesty." 
Prince and Generals wait accordingly, all there but Goltz and Winter- 
feld ; they not, which is noted. 

'For above an hour, no King- ; Prince and Generals ride forward ; 
there is the King coming ; Prince Henri, Duke Ferdinand of Brunswick 
and others in his train. King noticing them, at about 300 paces dis- 
tance, drew bridle ; Prince of Prussia did the like, train and he saluting 1 



1 Mauvillon, i. 228 ; Anonymous of Hamburg, i 20! (who givei a Plan and 
all manner of details, if needed by anybody); Kausler,- etc. etc. 



CHAP, v.] FRIEDRICH AT LEITMERITZ $18 

goth July 1757] 

with their hats, m did the King's train in return. King did not salute; 
on the contrary, he turned his horse round and dismounted, as did 
everybody else on such signal. King lay down on the ground, as if 
waiting the arrival of his Vanguard ; and bade Winterfeld and Goltz sit 
by him." Poor Prince of Prussia, and battered heavy-laden Generals ! 
' After a minute or two, Goltz came over and whispered to the Prince. 
f{ Hither, meine Herren, all of you ; a message from his Majesty ! " cried 
the Prince. Whereupon, to Generals and Prince, Goltz delivered, in 
equable official tone, these affecting words : (e His Majesty commands me 
to inform your Royal Highness, That he has cause to be greatly dis- 
contented with you ; that you deserve to have a Court-martial held over 
you, which would sentence you and all your Generals to death ; but that 
his Majesty will not carry the matter so far, being unable to forget that 
in the Chief General he has a Brother ! " ' 1 

The Prince answered, He wanted only a Court-martial; 
and the like, in stiff tone. Here is the Letter he writes next 
day to his Brother, with the Answer : 

Prince of Prussia to the King 

' Bautzen, 30th July 1757. 

*Mv T>EAR BROTHER The Letters you have written me, and the 
reception I yesterday met with, are sufficient proof that, in your opinion, 
I have ruined my honour and reputation. This grieves, but it does not 
crush me, as in my own mind I am not conscious of the least reproach. 
I am perfectly convinced that J did not act by caprice : I did not follow 
the counsels of people incapable of giving good ones ; I have done what 
I thought to be suitablest for the Army. All your Generals will do me 
that justice. 

<I reckon it useless to beg of you to have my conduct investigated : 
this would be a favour you would do me ; so I cannot expect it. My 
health has been weakened by these fatigues, still more by these chagrins. 
I have gone to lodge in the Town, to recruit myself. 

' I have requested the Duke of Bevern to present the Army Reports ; 
he can give you explanation of everything. Be assured, my dear 
Brother, that in spite of the misfortunes which overwhelm me, and 
which I have not deserved, I shall never cease to be attached to the 
State ; and as a faithful member of the same, my joy will be perfect when 
I learn the happy issue ot your Enterprises. I have the honour to be,' 

AUGUST WILHELM.* 

1 Schmettau, pp. 384-5. * Main dt Matire, p. ai. 



SI* SEVEN-YEARS WAR RISES [BOOK xvui. 

[30th July-isth Aug. 1757 

ffinffs Answer* the mme day 

* Camp near Bautzen, SOfch July 1757. 

f MY DEAR BROTHER, Your bad guidance lias greatly deranged my 
affairs. It is not the Enemy, it is your ill-judged measures that have 
done me all this mischief. My Generals are inexcusable; either for 
advising you so ill, or in permitting you to follow resolutions so unwise. 
Your ears are accustomed to listen to the talk of flatterers only. Daun 
has not flattered you ; behold the consequences. In this sad situation, 
nothing is left for me but trying the last extremity. I must go and give 
battle; and if we cannot conquer, we must all of us have ourselves killed. 

* I do not complain of your heart ; but I do of your incapacity, of your 
want of judgment in not choosing better methods. A man who * (like 
me ; mark the phrase, from such a quarter !) f has but a few days to live 
need not dissemble. I wish you better fortune than mine has been ; and 
that all the miseries and bad adventures you have had may teach you to 
treat important things with more of care, more of sense, and more of 
resolution. The greater part of the misfortunes which I now see to be 
near comes only from you. You and your Children will be more over- 
whelmed by them than I. Be persuaded nevertheless that I have 
always loved you, and that with these sentiments I shall die. 

FRIEDRIOH.' 1 

As the King went off to the Heights of Weissenberg, Zittau 
way, to encamp there against the Austrians, that same 
evening, the Prince did not answer this Letter, except by 
asking verbally through Lieu tenant -Colonel Lentulus (a mute 
Swiss figure, much about the King, who often turns-up in 
these Histories), *for leave to return to Dresden by the first 
escort.' * Depends on himself;- an escort is going this 
night ! ' answered Friedrich. And the Prince went accord- 
ingly ; and, by two stages, got into Dresden with his escort 
on the morrow. And had, not yet conscious of it, quitted 
the Field of War altogether ; and was soon about to quit the 
world, and die, poor Prince. Died within a year, 12th June 
1758, at Oranienburg, beside his Family, where he had 
latterly been. 2 Winterfeld was already gone, six months 
before him ; Goltz went, not long after him ; the other Zittau 
Generals all survived this War. 

1 Main d* Mtftr*, p. 22. * Preuss, Ji. 60 ( Mf. 78). 



CHAP, v,] FRIEDRICH AT LEITMERITZ 215 

3th July-isth Aug. 1757] 

The poor Prince's fate, as natural, was much pitied; and 
Friedrich, to this day, is growled 'at for 4 inhuman treatment" 
and so on. Into which question we do not enter, except to 
say that Friedrich too had his sorrows ; and that probably 
his concluding words, * with these sentiments I shall die,' were 
perfectly true. Main de Ataitre went widely abroad over the 
world. The poor Prince's words and procedures were eagerly 
caught-up by a scrutinising public, and some of the former 
were not too guarded. At Dresden, he said, one morning, 
calling on a General Finck whom we shall hear of again : 
'Four such disagreeing, thin-skinned, high-pacing (uncuilge^ 
piquirte) Generals as Fouquet, Schmettau, Winterfeld and 
Goltz, about you, what was to be done ! ' said the Prince to 
Finck. 1 

His Wife, when at last he came to Oranienburg, nursed 
him fondly ; that is one comfortable fact. Prince Henri, to 
the last, had privately a grudge of peculiar intensity, on this 
score, against all the peccant parties, King not excepted. As 
indeed he was apt to have, on various scores, the jealous, too 
vehement little man. 

Friedrich's humour at this time I can guess to have been 
well-nigh desperate. He talks once of * a horse, on too much 
provocation, getting the bit between its teeth ; regardless 
thenceforth of chasms and precipices : ' 2 though he himself 
never carries it to that length; and always has a watchful 
eye, when at his swiftest ! From Weissenberg, that night, he 
drives-in the Pandours on Zittau and the Eckartsberg ; but 
the Austrians don't come out. And, for three weeks, in this 
fierce necessity of being speedy, he cannot get one right stroke 
at the Austrians ; who sit inexpugnable upon their Eckart's 
Hill, bristling with cannon ; and can in no way be manoeuvred 
down, or forced or enticed into Battle. A baffling, bitterly 
impatient three weeks; two of them, the worst two, he 
spends at Weissenberg itself, chasing Pandours, and scuffling 

1 Preuss, ii. 79 n. : see ibid. 60, 78. 

* Letter to Wilhelmina, * Linay, sad July* (cited above). 



16 SEVEN-YEARS WAR RISES [BOOK xvm. 

[3oth July-i6th Aug. 1757 

on the surface, till Keith and the Magazine-train come up ; 
even writing Verses now and then, when the hours get 
unendurable otherwise ! 

The instant Keith and the Magazines are come, he starts 
for Bernstadt; 56,000 strong after this junction: and a 
Prussian Officer, dating * Bernstadtel ' (Bernstadt on the now 
Maps), *lst August 1757,^ sends us this account; which 
also is but of preliminary nature : 



I5th, Majesty left Weissenberg, and marched hither, much to 
the enemy's astonishment, who had lain perfectly quiet for a fortnight 
past, fancying they were a mastiff on the door-sill of Silesia : little 
thinking- to be trampled-on in this unceremonious way ! General Beck, 
when our hussars of the vanguard made appearance, had to saddle and 
ride as for life, leaving every rag of baggage, and forty of his Pandours 
captive. Our hussars stuck to him, chasing him into Ostritz, where they 
surprised General Nadasti at dinner; and did a still better stroke of 
business : Nadasti himself could scarcely leap on horseback and get off ; 
left all his field-equipage, coaches, horses, kitchen-utensils, flunkies 
seventy-two in number, and, what was worst of all, a secret box, in 
which were found certain Dresden Correspondences of a highly treason- 
ous character, which now the writers there may quake to think of ; if 
Fr>ri;ich, or we, could take much notice of them, in this press of 
hurries ! l 

Next day, August 16th, Friedrich detached five battalions 
to Gorlitz ; Prince Karl (he calls it Dauri) still camping on 
the Eckartsberg ; and himself, about 4 P.M., with the main 
Army, marched up to those Austrians on their Hill, to see if 
they would fight. 2 No, they wouldn't : they merely hustled 
themselves round so as to face him ; face him, and even 
flank him with cannon-batteries if he came too near. Steep 
ground, * precipitous front of rocks,' in some places. *A 
hollow before their front ; Village of Wittgenau there, and 
three roads through it, one of them with width for wheels ' ; 
Daun sitting inaccessible, in short. Next day, Winterfeld, 
with a detached Division, crossed the Neisse, tried Nadasti : 
* Attack Nadasti, on his woody knoll at Hirschfeld yonder ; 
Heldin-Geschichte, iy, 396-599. * (Eivvr&s dt Fridiric, ir. 137, 



CHAP, v.] FRIEDRICH AT LEITMERITZ 217 

foth July-agth Aug. 1757] 

they will have to rise and save him!"* In vain, that too; 
they let Nadasti take his own luck : for four days (16th-20th 
August) everything was tried, in vain. 

No Battle to be had from these Austrians. And it would 
have been so infinitely convenient to us : Reichs Army and 
Soubise^s French are now in the actual precincts of Erfurt 
(August 5th, Soubise took quarter there) ; Royal Highness 
of Cumberland is staggering back into the Sea ; Richelieu's 
French (not D'Estrees's any more, DTEstrees being super- 
seded in this strange way) are aiming, it is thought, towards 
Magdeburg, had they once done with Royal Highness ; Swedes 
are getting hold of Pom m era ; Russians, in huge force, 
of Preussen : how comfortable to have had our Austrians 
finished before going upon the others ! For four days more 
(August 20th-24th), Friedrich arranges his Army for watch- 
ing the Austrians, and guarding Silesia ; Bevern and Winter- 
feld to take command in his absence : and, August 25th, 
has to march, with a small Division, which, at Dresden, he 
will increase by Moritz's, now needless in the Pirna Country ; 
towards Thiiringen ; to look into Soubise and the Reichs 
Army, as a thing that absolutely cannot wait. Arrives in 
Dresden Monday August 9th ; and Or let the old News- 
paper report it, with the features of life : 

'Dresden, 29th August 1757, This day, about noon, his Majesty, with 
a part of his Army from the Upper Lausitz, arrived at the Neustadt 
here. Though the kitchen had been appointed to be set up at what they 
call The Barns (Die Scheunen), his Majesty was pleased to alight in 
Konigsbriick Street, at the new House of Bruhl's Chamberlain, Haller ; 
and there passed the night, Tuesday evening 30th, his Majesty the 
King, with his Lifeguards of Horse and of Foot, also with the Gens- 
d'Armes and other Battalions, marched through the City, about a mile 
out on the Freiberg road, and took quarter in Klein Hamberg. The 
31st, all the Army followed/- a poor 23,000, Moritz and he, that was 
all ! 1 * the King's field-equipage, which had been taken from the Bruhl 
Palace and packed in twelve wagons, went with them.* 2 

1 '22,360' (Tempelhof, i. 228), 

a Rodenbeck, p. 316; Preuss, ii. 84 w.; Mitchell's Interview (Memofrs and 
) i. 270). 



818 SEVEN-YEARS WAR RISES [BOOKXVIIL 

lyth Sept, 175? 



CHAPTER VI 

DEATH OF WINTEEFELD 

BEFOKE going upon this forlorn march of FriedricK's, one 
of the forlornest a son of Adam ever had, we must speak 
of a thing which befell to rearward, while the march was only 
half-done, and which greatly influenced it and all that fol- 
lowed. It was the seventh day of Friedrich's march, not 
above eighty miles of it yet done, when Winterfeld perished 
in fight No Winterfeld now to occupy the Austrians in his 
absence; to stand between Silesia and them, or assist him 
farther in his lonesome struggle against the world. Let us 
spend a moment on the exit of that brave man : Bernstadt, 
Gorlitz Country, September 7th, 1757. 

The Bevern Army, 36,000 strong, is still there in its 
place in the Lausitz, near Gorlitz ; Prince Karl lies quiet in 
his near Zittau, ever since he burnt that Town, and stood 
four days in arms unattackable by Friedrich with prospect of 
advantage. The Court of Vienna cannot comprehend this 
state of inactivity-: ' Two to one, and a mere Bevern against 
you, the King far away in Saxony upon his desperate Anti- 
French mission there : why not go-in upon this Bevern ? 
The French, whom we are by every courier passionately 
importuning to sweep Saxony clear, what will they say of 
this strange mode of sweeping Silesia clear ? ' Maria Theresa 
and her Kriegs-Hofrath are much exercised with these 
thoughts, and with French and other remonstrances that 
come. Maria Theresa and her Kriegs-Hofrath at length 
despatch their supreme Kaunitz, Graf Kaunitz in person, 
to stir-up Prince Karl, and look into the matter with his 
own wise eyes and great heart. Prince Karl, by way of treat 
to this high gentleman, determines on doing something 
striking upon Bevern. 

Bevern lies with his main body about Gorlltfc, in and to 



CHAP. VI.] DEATH OF WINTERFELD 819 

yth Sept. 1757] 

westward of Gorlltz 3 a pleasant Town on the left bank of the 
Neisse (readers know, there are four Neisses, and which of 
them this is), with fine hilly country all round, bulky solitary 
Heights and Mountains rising out of fruitful plains, two 
Hochkirchs (High-Kirlts\ for example, are in this region, one 
of which will become extremely notable next year : Bevern 
has a strong camp leaning on the due Heights here, with 
Gorlitz in its lap ; and beyond Gorlitz, on the right bank of 
the Neisse, united to him by a Bridge, he has placed Winter- 
feld with 10,000, who lies with his back to Gorlitz, proper 
brooks and fencible places flanking him, has a Dorf (Thorp} 
called Moys in his lap ; and, some short furlong beyond Moys, 
a 2,000 of his grenadiers planted on the top of a Hill called 
the Moysberg, called also the Holzberg ( Woodhill) and Jakels- 
berg, of which the reader is to take notice. Fine outpost, 
with proper batteries atop, with hussar squadrons and hussar 
pickets sprinkled about ; which commands a far outlook to- 
wards Silesia, and in marching thither, or in continuing here, 
is useful to have in hand, were it not a little too distant 
from the main body. It is this Jiikelsberg, capable of being 
snatched if one is sudden enough, that Prince Karl decides 
on ; * it may be good for much or for little to Prince Karl ; 
and, if even for nothing, it will be a brilliant affront upon 
Winterfeld and Bevern, and more or less charming to Kaunitz, 
Winterfeld, the ardent enterprising man, King's other self, 
is thought to be the mainspring of affairs here (small thanks 
to him privately from Bevern, add some) : and is stationed in 
the extreme van, as we see ; Winterfeld is engaged in many 
things besides the care of this post ; and indeed where a 
critical thing is to be done, we can imagine Winterfeld goes 
upon it. * We must try to stay here till the King has 
finished in Saxony ! * says Winterfeld always. To which 
Bevern replies,, * Excellent, truly ; but how ? * Bevern has his 
provender at Dresden, sadly far off; has to hold Bautzen 
garrisoned, and gets much trouble with his convoys. Better 
* $*se Plan, p. 223. 



SEVEN-YEARS WAR RISES [BOOK xvm. 

[7th Sept. 1757 

in Silesia, with our magazines at hand, thinks Bevern, less 
mindful of other considerations. 

Tuesday September 6th, Prince Karl sends Nadasti to 
the right bank of the River, forward upon Moys, to do the 
Jakelsberg before day tomorrow : only some 2,000 grenadiers 
on it; Nadasti has with him 15,000, some count 20,000 of 
all arms, artillery in plenty ; surely sufficient for the Jakels- 
berg ; and Daun advances, with the main body, on the other 
side of the River, to be within reach, should Moys lead to 
more serious consequences. Nadasti diligently marches all day ; 
posts himself at night within few miles of Moys ; gets his cannon 
to the proper Hills (Gallows Hill and others), his Croats to 
the proper Woods ; and before daylight on the morrow, means 
to begin upon the Moys Hill and its 2,000 grenadiers. 

Wednesday morning, at the set hour, Nadasti, with artillery 
bursting-out and quivering battle-lines, is at work accordingly ; 
hurls-up 1,000 Croats for one item, and regulars to the 
amount of * forty companies in three lines.' The grenadiers, 
somewhat astonished, for the morning was misty and their 
hussar-posts had come hastily in, stood upon their guard, like 
Prussian men; hurled back the 1,000 Croats fast enough; 
stubbornly repulsed the regulars too, and tumbled them down 
hill with bullet-storm for accompaniment ; gallantly foiling 
this first attempt of Nadastfs. Of course Nadasti will make 
another, will make ever others : capture of the Jakelsberg can 
hardly be doubtful to Nadasti. 

Winterfeld was not at Moys, he was at Gorlitz, just got in 
from escorting an important meal-convoy hither out of Bautzen ; 
and was in conference with Bevern, when rumour of these Croat 
attacks came in at the gallop from Moys. Winterfeld made 
little of the rumours : he had heard of some attack intended, 
out it was to have been overnight, and has not been. * Mere 
foraging of Croat rabble, like yesterday ! ' said Winterfeld, and 
continued his present business. In few minutes the sound of 
heavy cannonading convinced him. 'Haha, there are my 
guests,' said he ; < we must see if we cannot entertain them 



CHAP, vi.] DEATH OF WINTERFELD 

7th Sept. x ; sv 3 

right ! ' sprang to horseback, ordered on, double-quick, the 
three regiments nearest him, and was off at the gallop, too 
late ; or, alas, too early we might rather say ! Arriving at 
the gallop, Winterfeld found his grenadiers and their in- 
sufficient reinforcements rolling back, the Hill lost ; Winter- 
feld * sprang to a fresh horse, 1 shot his lightning glances and 
energies to this hand and that ; stormfully rallied the matter, 
recovered the Hill ; and stormfully defended it, for, I 
should guess, an hour or more ; and might still have done 
one knows not what, had not a bullet struck him through the 
breast, and suddenly ended all his doings in this world. 

Three other reasons the Prussians give for loss of their 
Hill, which are of no consequence to them or to us in com- 
parison. First, that Bevern, on message after message, sent 
no reinforcement ; that Winterfeld was left to his own 1 0,000, 
and what he and they could make of it. Bevern is jealous of 
Winterfeld, hint they, and willing to see his impetuous 
audacity checked. Perhaps only cautious of getting into a 
general action for what was intrinsically nothing ? Second, 
that two regiments of Infantry, whom Winterfeld detached 
double-quick to seize a couple of villages (Leopoldshayn, 
Hermsdorf) on his right, and therefrom fusillade Nadasti on 
flank, found the villages already occupied by thousands of 
Croats, with regular foot and cannon-batteries, and could in 
no wise seize them. This was a great reverse of advantage. 
Third, that an Aide-de-Camp made a small misnomer, mis- 
report of one word, which was terribly important : * Bring me 
hither Regiment ManteufFel ! ' Winterfeld had ordered. 
The Aide-de-Camp reported it * Grenadiers Manteuifel ' : upon 
which, the grenadiers, who were posted in a walled garden, an 
important point to WinterfeWs right, came instantly to 
order ; and Austrians instantly rashed-in to the vacant post, 
and galled WmterfekPs other flank by their fire. 1 

Enough, Winterfeld lay bleeding to death, the Hill was 

1 Abundant Accounts In Seyfarth, fl ($/?%<*), 162-183 \ 
iv. 615*633; Rmow i, 216-2*1. 



SEVEN-YEARS WAR RISES [BOOK 

[7th Sept, 1757 

lost, Prussians drawing-off slowly and back-foremost, about 
two in the afternoon ; upon which the Austrians also drew-off, 
leaving only a small party on the Hill, who voluntarily quitted 
it next morning. Next morning, likewise, Winterfeld had 
died. The Hill was, except as bravado, and by way of 
comfort to Kaunitz, nothing for the Austrians ; but the death of 
Winterfeld, which had come by chance to them in the business; 
was probably a great thing. Better than two pitched battles 
gained : who shall say ? He was a shining figure, this Winter- 
feld ; dangerous to the Austrians. The most shining figure in 
the Prussian Army, except its Chief; and had great thoughts 
in his head. Prussia is not skilful to celebrate her Heroes, 
the Prussian Muse of History, choked with dry military 
pipeclay, or with husky cobwebbery and academic pedantry, 
how can she? but if Prussia can produce heroes worth 
celebrating, that is the one important point. Apart from 
soldiership, and the outward features which are widely dif- 
ferent, there is traceable in Winterfeld some kinship in soul 
to English Chatham his contemporary ; though he has not 
had the fame of Chatham. 

Winterfeld was by no means universally liked ; as what 
brave man is or can be? Too susceptible to flattery; too 
this, too that. He is, one feels always, except Friedrich only, 
the most shining figure in the Prussian Army ; and it was 
not unnatural he should be Friedrich's one friend, as seems 
to have been the case. Friedrich, when this JobVmessage 
reached him (in Erfurt Country, eight days hence), was deeply 
affected by it. To tears, or beyond tears, as we can fancy. 
' Against my multitude of enemies, I may contrive resources,"* 
he was heard to say ; < but I shall find no Winterfeld again ! * 
Adieu, my one friend, real Peer, sole companion to my lonely 
pilgrimage in these perilous high regions. 

' The Prince of Prussia, contrariwise ' (saya a miserable little Note, 
which must not be withheld), c brightened-up at the news : ** I shall now 
die much more content, knowing that there is one so bad and dangerous 
man &wer in the Army ! " And, !* months after, In his actual death*- 



CHAP, vii.] FRIEDRICH IN THURINGEN 228 

3ist Aug.-isth Sept. 1757] 

moments, he exclaimed ; " 1 end my life, the last period of which has 
cost me so much sorrow ; but Winterfeld is he who shortened my 
days ! " ' * Very bitter Opposition humours circulating 1 , in their fashion, 
there as elsewhere in this world ! 

Bevern, the millstone of Winterfeld being off his neck, has 
become a more responsible, though he feels himself a much- 
delivered man. Had not liked Winterfeld, they say ; or had 
even hated him, since those bad Zittau times. Can now, at 
any rate, make for Schlesien and the meal magazines, when he 
sees good. He will find meal readier there ; may he find 
other things corresponding ! Nobody now to keep him pain- 
fully manoeuvring in these parts; with the King's Army 
nearer to him, but meal not. 

On the third day after (September 10th), Bevern, having 
finished packing, took the road for Schlesien ; Daun and Karl 
attending him ; nothing left of Daun and Karl in those Saxon 
Countries, except, at Stolpen, out Dresden- wards, some 
Reserve-post or Rear-guard of 15,000, should we chance to 
hear of that again. And from the end of September onwards, 
Bevern^s star, once somewhat bright at Reichenberg, shot 
rapidly downwards, under the horizon altogether ; and there 
came, post after post, such news out of Schlesien, to say 
nothing of that Stolpen Party, as Friedrich had never heard 
before. 



CHAPTER VII 

FRIEDRICH IN THURINGEN, HIS WORLD OF ENEMIES 

ALL COME 

THE Soubise-Hildburghausen people had got rendezvoused 
at Erfurt about August 25th; 50,000 by account, and no 
enemy within 00 miles of them ; and in the Versailles circles 
it had been expected they would proceed to the * Deliverance 
of Saxony * straightway. What is to hinder ? Friedrkh, 
haggling with the Austrians at Bernstadt 3 could muster b*it a 

1 Freuss, ii, 7$ ; citing Retsow, 



S24 SEVEN-YEARS WAR RISES [BOOKXVUI. 

[3ist Aug>isth Sept. 1757 

poor 23,000, when he did march towards Erfurt. In those 
same neighbourhoods, within reach of Soubise, is the Richelieu, 
late DTEstrees, Army; elated with Hastenbeck, comfortably 
pushing Royal Highness of Cumberland, who makes no resist- 
ance, step by step, into the sea ; victoriously plundering, far 
and wide, in those Countries, Hanover itself the Headquarter, 
In the Versailles circles, it is farther expected that Richelieu, 

* Conqueror of Minorca,' will shortly besiege and conquer 
Magdeburg, and so crown his glories. Why not ; were the 

* Deliverance of Saxony ' complete ? 

The whole of which turned-out greatly otherwise, and to 
the sad disappointment of Versailles. The Conqueror of 
Minorca is probably aware that the conquering of Magde- 
burg, against one whose platforms are not rotten, and who 
does not ' lie always in his bed, 1 as poor old Blakeney did, will 
be a very different matter. And the private truth is, Mar&hal 
de Richelieu never turned his thoughts upon Magdeburg at all, 
nor upon any point of war that had difficulties, but solely 
upon collecting plunder for himself in those Countries. One 
of the most magnificent marauders on record ; in no danger, 
he, of becoming monitory and a pendulum, like the 1,000 
that already swing in that capacity to rear of him ! And he 
did manage, in this Campaign, which was the last of his 
military services, so as to pay-off at Paris c above 50,000/. of 
debts ; and to build for himself a beautiful Garden Mansion 
there, which the mocking populations called "Hanover 
Pavilion (Pavilion cTHanovre) " ; ' a name still sticking to it, 
I believe. 1 Of the Richelieu Campaign we are happily 
delivered from saying almost anything ; and the main interest 
for us turns now on that Soubise-Hildburghauscn wing of it, 
which also is a sufficiently contemptible affair ; not to be 
spoken of beyond the strictly unavoidable. 

Friedrich, with his 23,000 setting out from Dresden 
August 30th, has a march of about 170 miles towards 

1 Bar bier, Hi 256, 371. 



CHAP, vn.] FRIEDRICH IN THURINGEN S25 

3*st Aug.-isth Sept. 1757] 

Erfurt. He may expect to find, counting Richelieu, if 
Royal Highness of Cumberland persist in acting zero as 
hitherto,*- a confused mass of about 150,000 Enemies, of one 
sort and other, waiting him ahead ; not to think of those 
he has just left behind ; and he cannot well be in a trium- 
phant humour ! Behind, before, around, it is one gathering 
of Enemies : one point only certain, that he must beat them, 
or else die. Readers would fain follow him in this forlorn 
march ; him, the one point of interest now in it : and readers 
shall, if we can manage, though it is extremely difficult. For, 
on getting to Erfurt, he finds his Soubise-Hildburghausen 
Army off on retreat among the inaccessible Hills still farther 
westward ; and has to linger painfully there, and to detach, 
and even to march personally against other Enemies; and 
then, these finished, to march back towards his Erfurt ones, 
who are taking heart in the interim : and, in short, from 
September 1st to November 5th, there are two months of 
confused manoeuvring and marching to and fro in that West- 
Saxon region, which are very intricate to readers. November 
5th is a day unforgettable : but anterior to that, what can we 
do ? Here, dated, are the Three grand Epochs of the thing ; 
which readers had better fix in mind as a preliminary : 

1. September 13/7i, Friedrich has got to Erfurt neighbour- 
hood ; but Soubise and Company are off westward to the Hills 
of Eisenach, won't come down; Friedrich obliged to linger 
thereabouts, painfully waiting almost a month, till 

2. October Upbearing that * 15,000 Austrians ' (that 
Stolpen Party, left as rearguard at Stolpen ; Croats mainly, 
under a General Haddick) are on march for Berlin, he rises in 
haste thitherward, through Leipzig, Torgau, say 100 nnie; 
hears that Haddick has been in Berlin (16th~17th October) 
for one day, and that he is off again full speed, with a ransom 
of 30,0001, which they have had to pay him : upon which 
Friedrich calls halt in the Torgau country ; and would have 
been uncertain what to do, had not 

8. Soubise and Company, extremely elated with this 

VOL. VI. 1" 



SEVEN-YEARS WAR RISES [BOOKXVIH. 

[3ist Aug.-iath Sept. 1757 

Haddick Feat, come out from their Hills, intent to deliver 
Saxony after all. So that Friedrich has to turn back (October 
6th-30th) through Leipzig again ; towards, in fact towards 
Rossbach and November 5th, in his old Saale Country, which 
does not prove so wearisome as formerly ! 

These are the cardinal dates ; these let the reader recur to, 
if necessary, and keep steadily in mind ; it will then perhaps 
be possible to intercalate, in a manner intelligible to him, 
what other lucent phenomena there are ; and these dismal 
wanderings, and miserablest two months of Friedrich^s life, 
will not be wholly a provoking blotch of enigmatic darkness, 
but in some sort a thing with features in the twilight of the 
Past. 



I. Friedrich^ March to Erfurt from Dresden (31st August 
13th September 1757) 

The march to Erfurt was of twelve days, and without 
adventure to speak of. Mayer and Free-Battalion had the 
vanguard, Friedrich there as usual ; main body, under Keith 
with Ferdinand and Moritz, following in several columns : 
straight towards their goal ; with steady despatch ; for twelve 
days ; weather often very wet. 1 Seidlitz, with cavalry, had 
gone ahead, in search of one Turpin, a mighty hunter and 
Hussar among the French, who was threatening Leipzig, 
threatening Halle : but Turpin made-off at sound of him, 
without trying fight ; so that Seidlitz had only to halt, and 
rejoin, hoping better luck another time. 

A march altogether of the common type, the stages of it 
not worth marking except for special readers ; and of memor- 
able to us offers only this, if even this : at Hot 1m, in Leipzig 
Country, the eighth stage from Dresden, Friedrich writes, 
willing to try for Peace if it be possible. 

1 Tempelhof, L 229; Rodenbeck, i. 317 (not very correct); in Westphalen 
(ii. 20 etc.) a personal Diary of this March, and of wha,t followed on 
Ferdinand's part, 



CHAP, va] FRIEDEICH IN THURINGEN 827 

yth Sept. 1757] 

To the Marechal Due de Richelieu 

*RQtha, 7th September 1757. 

( l feel, M. le Due, that you have not been put in the post where you 
are for the purpose of Negotiating 1 . I am persuaded, however, that the 
Nephew of the great Cardinal Richelieu is made for signing treaties no 
less than for gaining battles. I address myself to you from an effect of 
the esteem with which you inspire even those who do not intimately 
know you. 

' 'Tis a small matter, Monsieur (II s'agit d'une bagatelle) : only to 
make Peace, if people are pleased to wish it ! I know not what your 
Instructions are : but, in the supposition that the King your Master, 
now assured by your successes, will have put it in your power to labour 
in the pacification of Germany, I address to you the Sieur d'Eleheset ' 
(Sieur Balbi is the real name of him, an Italian Engineer of mine, who 
once served with you in the Fontenoy times, and some say he has 
privately a 15,000/, for your Grace's acceptance, 'the Sieur d'Eleheset), 
in whom you may place complete confidence. 

( Though the events of this Year afford no hope that your Court still 
entertains a favourable disposition for my interests, I cannot persuade 
myself that a union which has lasted between us for sixteen years may 
not have left some trace in the mind. Perhaps I judge others by myself. 
But, however that may be, I, in short, prefer putting my interests into 
the King your Master's hands rather than into any other's. If you have 
not, Monsieur, any Instructions as to the Proposal hereby made, 1 beg 
of you to ask such, and to inform me what the tenor of them is. 

* He who has merited statues at Genoa' (ten years ago, in those Anti- 
Austrian times, when Genoa burst-up in revolt, and the French and 
Richelieu beautifully intervened against the oppressors); f he who 
conquered Minorca in spite of immense obstacles ; he who is on the 
point of subjugating Lower Saxony, can do nothing more glorious than 
to restore Peace to Europe. Of all your laurels, that will be the fairest 
Work in this Cause, with the activity which has secured you such rapid 
progress otherwise; and be persuaded that nobody will feel more 
grateful to you than, Monsieur le Due, Your faithful Friend, 



Richelieu, it appears by any evidence there is, went will- 

1 Given in Rodenbeck^ I 313 (doubtless from Mlmoires de Richelieu, Paris, 
1793, ix. 175, the one fountain-head in regard to this small affair): for 'the 
I5,ooo/.* and other rumoured particulars, see Retstow, i. 197 j Preuss, ii. 84 > 
(Euvres d& Frtdiric % iv. 145. 



3S8 SEVEN-YEABS WAR RISES [BOOK xvm. 

[gth Sept. 1757 

ingly into this scheme ; and applied at Versailles, as desired ; 
with a peremptory negative for result. Nothing came of the 
Richelieu attempt there; nor of < ce M. de MirabeauJ if he 
ever went; nor of any other on that errand. Needless to 
apply for Peace at Versailles (and a mere waste of your * sum 
of 15,0002.,' which one hopes is fabulous in the present 
scarcity of money) : nor should we perhaps have mentioned 
the thing at all, except for the sake of Wilhelmina, whose 
fond scheme it is in this extremity of fate ; scheme which she 
tries in still other directions, as we shall see; her Brother 
willing too, but probably with much less hope. If a civil 
Letter and a bribe of Money will do it, these need not be 
spared. 

This at Rotha is the day while Winterfeld, on Hoys Hill, 
is meeting his death. To-day at Pegau, in this neighbour- 
hood, Seidlitz, who could not fall-in with Turpin, has given 
the Hussars of London a beautiful slap ; the first enemy we 
have seen on this march ; and the last, nothing but Loudon 
and Hussars visibly about, the rest of those Soubise-Reichs 
people dormant, as would seem, 'DTSlcheset,' Balbi, or 
whoever he was, would not find Richelieu at Hanover ; but 
at a place called Kloster-Zeven, in Bremen Country, fifty or 
sixty miles farther on. There, this day, are Richelieu with 
one Sporcken a Hanoverian, and one Lynar a Dane, rapidly 
finishing a thing they were pleased to call * Convention of 
Kloster-Zeven ' ; which Friedrich regarded as another huge 
misfortune fallen on him, though it proved to have been far 
the reverse a while after. Concerning which take this brief 
Note ; cannot be too brief on such a topic : 

'Never was there a more futile Convention than that of Kloster-Zeven , 
which filled all Europe with lamentable noises, indignations and anxieties, 
during the remainder of that Year ; and is now reduced, for Europe and 
the Universe, to a silent mathematical point, or mere mark of position, 
requiring still to be attended to in that character, though itself aero in 
any other. Here are the main particulars, in their sequence. 

* August 3d, towards midnight, " 11 P-M M say the Books, Marechal dt 
Richelieu arrives in the D'Estn&fl Camp ("Camp of Olden** orf/* still 



CHAP, vn.] FRIEDRICH IN THUBINGEN 889 

gth Sept, 1757] 

Only one march west of Hastenbeck) ; to whom D'Estrees on the instant 
loftily delivers-up his Army ; explains with loyalty, for a few days more, 
all things needful to the new Commander; declines to be himself Second; 
and loftily withdraws to the Baths of Aachen " for his health." 

( Royal Highness of Cumberland is, by this time, well-on Elbe-ward, 
Ocean-ward. Till August 1st, for one week, Royal Highness of Cumber- 
land lay at Minden, some thirty odd miles from Hastenbeck ; deploring 
that sad mistake ; but unpersuadable to stand, and try amendment of it : 
August 1st, the French advancing on him again, he moved off northward, 
sea- ward. By Nienburg, Verden, Rotenburg, Zeven, Bremenvorde, Stade ; 
arrived at Stade, on the tidal Waters of the Elbe, August 5th ; and by 
necessity did halt there. From Minden onwards, Richelieu, not D'Estrees, 
has had the chasing of Royal Highness : one of the simplest functions ; 
only that the country is getting muddy, difficult for artillery-carriage 
(thinks Richelieu), with an Army so dilapidated, hungry, short of pay ; 
and that Royal Highness, a very furious person to our former knowledge, 
might turn on us like a boar at bay, endangering everything ; and finally, 
that one's desire is not for battle, but for a fair chance of plunder to pay 
one's debts. 

* Britannic Majesty, in this awful state of his Hanover Armaments, 
has been applying at the Danish Court; Richelieu too sendfc off an 
application thither : ce Mediate between us, spare useless bloodshed ! " l 
Whereupon Danish Majesty (Britannic's son-in-law) cheerfully under- 
takes it ; bids one Lynar bestir himself upon it. Count Lynar, an 
esteemed Official of his, who lives in those neighbourhoods ; Danish 
Viceroy in Oldenburg, much concerned with the Scriptures, the Sacred 
Languages and other seraphic studies, and a changed man since we saw 
him last in the Petersburg regions, making love to Mrs. Anton Ulrich 
long ago ! Lynar, feeling the axis of the world laid on his shoulder in 
tins manner, loses not a moment ; invokes the Heavenly Powers ; goes 
on it with an alacrity and a despatch beyond praise. Runs to the Duke 
of Cumberland at Stade; thence to Richelieu at Zeven; back to the 
Duke, back to Zeven : *' Won't you ; and won't you ? '* and in four short 
days has the once world-famed ee Convention of Kloster-Zeven." standing 
on parchment, signed, ready for ratifying : * f Royal Highness's Army 
to go home to their countries again" (routes, methods, times: when, 
how, and what next, all left unsettled), et and noise of War to cease in 
those parts." Signed cheerfully on both sides 9th September 17&7 ; and 
Lynar striking the stars with his sublime head, 1 

1 Vsdfons, p. 291. 

2 BUsching (who ilone is exact in the matter), Btytri&t iv. 167-8, Lymr i 
sea Scholl, iii 49 j Valfons, pp. ^2-3 j (Enorts de PrMric, iv. 143 (with 
correction f Preuss's Note there). 



280 SEVEN-YEARS WAR RISES [BOOK xvtu. 

[gth Sept. 1757 

' Unaccountable how Lynar had managed such a difficulty. He says 
seraphieally, in a Letter to a friend^ which the Prussian hussars got hold 
of, "The idea of it was inspired by the Holy Ghost": at which the 
whole world haha'd again. For it was a Convention vague, absurd, not 
capable of being executed ; ratification of it refused by both Courts, by 
the French Court first, if that was any matter : and the only thing now 
memorable of it is, that it was a total Futility ; but that there ensued 
from it a Fact still of importance ; namely : 

* That on the 5th of October following, Royal Highness quitted Stade, 
and his wrecked Army hanging sorrowful there, like a flight of plucked 
cranes in mid-air ; arrived at Kensington October 12th; heard the 
paternal Majesty say, that evening, "Here is my son who has ruined 
me, and disgraced himself i " and thereupon indignantly laid-down his 
military offices, all and sundry; and ceased altogether to command 
Armies, English or other, in this world. 1 Whereby, in the then and 
now diagram of things, Kloster-Zeven, as a mathematical point, continues 
memorable in History, though shrunk otherwise to zero ! 

' Pitt's magnanimity to Royal Highness was conspicuous. Royal 
Highness, it is said, had been very badly used in this matter by his poor 
peddling Father and the Hanover Ministers; the matter being one 
puddle tf imbecilities from beginning to end. He was the soul of 
honour ; braTe as a Welf lion ; but of dim poor head ; and had not the 
faintest vestige 1 (aUergeringste says Mauvillon) 'of military skill : awful 
in the extreme to see in command of British Armies ! Adieu to him, 
forever and a day." 

Ever since July 29th, three days after Hastenbeck, Pitt 
had been in Office again ; such the bombardment by Corpora- 
tion-Boxes and Events impinging on Britannic Majesty : but 
not till now, as I fancy, had Pitt's way, in regard to those 
German matters, been clear to him. The question of a 
German Army, if you must have a No-General at the top of 
it, might well be problematical to Pitt To equip your 
strong fighting man, and send him on your errand, regardless 
of expense ; and, by way of preliminary, cut the head off him, 
before saying * Good-speed to you, strong man ! * But with 
a General, Pitt sees that it can be different ; that perhaps 
4 America can be conquered in Germany,' and that, with a- 
Britannic Majesty so disposed, there is no other way of trying 

1 In Wcdpoh (iii. 59-64) the amplest minuteness of detail* 



CHAP. vii. J FRIEDRICH IN THURINGEN 231 

I3th Sept.-ioth Oct. 1757] 

it. To this course Pitt stands henceforth, heedless of the 
gazetteer cackle, ' ITah, our Pitt too become German, after 
all his talking 1 ' like a seventy-four under full sail, with 
sea, wind, pilot all of one mind, and only certain waterfowl 
objecting. And is King of England for the next Four 
Years ; the one King poor England has had this long while ; 
his hand felt shortly at the ends of the Earth. And 
proves such a blessing to Friedrich, among others, as nothing 
else in this War ; pretty much his one blessing, little as he 
expected it. Before long, Excellency Mitchell begins con- 
sulting about a General, and Friedrich dimly sees better 
things in the distance, and that Kloster-Zeven had not been 
the misfortune he imagined, but only *The darkest hour,' 
which, it is said, lies < nearest to the dawn.' 



II. The Soulise-Hildburghausen People take into the Hills ; 
Friedrich in Erfurt Neighbourhood) hanging on, Week 
after Week, in an Agony of Inaction (13th September 
loth October) 

Friedrich's march has gone by Dobeln, Grimma, to Pegau 
and Rotha, Leipzig way, but with Leipzig well to right : it 
just brushes Weissenfels to rightward, next day after Rotha ; 
crosses Saale River near Naumburg, whence straight through 
Weimar Country, Weimar City on your left, to Erfurt on 
the northern side ; * and, 

'Erfurt, Tuesday 13th September 1757, About 10 in the morning-' 
(listen to a faithful Witness), e there appeared Hussars on the heights to 
northward: "Vanguard of his Prussian Majesty!" said Erfurt with 
alarm, and our French guests with alarm. And scarcely were the words 
uttered, when said Vanguard, and gradually the whole Prussian Army* 
(only some 9,000, though we all thought it the whole), came to sight ; 
posting itself in half-moon shape round us there ; French and lleichs 
folk hurrying-off what they could from the Cyriaksberg and Petersberg, 
by the opposite gates/ towards Gotha, and the Hills of Eisenach. 

* Think what a dilemma for Erfurt, jammed between two horns in this 

1 Map, end of vol. 



*S2 SEVEN-YEARS WAH RISES [BOOK XVlii. 

[I3th Sept.-xsth Oct. 1757 

way, should one horn enter before the other got out ! Much parleying 
and supplicating on the part of Erfurt: Till at last, about 4 P.M., French 
being all off, Erfurt flung its gates open ; and the new Power did enter, 
with some due state: Prussian Majesty in person (who could have hoped 
it !) and Prince Henri beside him ; Cavalry with drawn swords ; Infantry 
with field pieces, and the band playing' Prussian grenadier march, I 
should hope, or something equally cheering. r The rest of the Vanguard, 
and, in succession, the Army altogether, had taken Camp outside, look- 
ing down on the Northern Gate, over at Ilgertshofen, a village in the 
neighbourhood, about two miles off.' l 

That is the first sight Friedrich has of * La DauphineJ 
as the Versailles people call this Bellona, come to * deliver 
Saxony 1 ; and she is considerably coyer than had been ex- 
pected. Many sad days, and ardent vain vows of Friedrich, 
befjre he could see the skirt of her again ! From Ilgerts- 
hofen, north-westward to Dittelstadt, Gamstadt, and other 
poor specks of villages in Gotha Territory, is ten or fifteen 
miles ; from Dittelstadt eastward to Buttstadt and Buttel- 
stadt, in Weimar Country, may be twenty-five : in this area, 
Friedrich, shifting about, chiefly for convenience of quarters, 
headquarter Kirschleben for a while, Buttelstadt finally 
and longest, had to wander impatiently to and fro for four 
weeks and more ; no work procurable, or none worth mention- 
ing : in the humour of a man whose House is on fire, flaming 
out of every window, front and rear; who has run-up with 
quenching apparatus ; and cannot, being spell-bound, get the 
least bucket of it applied. And is by nature the rapidest 
soul now alive. Figure his situation there, as it gradually 
becomes manifest to him ! 

For the present, Daitphiness Bellona, hurrying to the Hills, 
has left some tagrag of remnant in Gotha. Whereupon, the 
second day, here is an * Own Correspondent ' again, not 
coming by electric telegraph, but (what is a sensible advan- 
tage) credible in every point, when he does come : 

* Gotha, Thursday Hth September. Grand-Duke and Duchesn, like 
everybody else, have been much occupied all morning with the fact, that 

iv. 636-7. 



CHAP. VIL] FRIEDRICH IN THURINGEN *S3 

Kth Sept. 1757] 

the Prussian Army* (Seidlitz and a regiment or two, nothing more) c i 
actually here ; took possession of the Town-Gates and Main Guard this 
morning, certain Hungarian-French hussar rabble, hateful to every one 
in Gotha, having made-off in time, rapidly towards Eisenach and the 
Hills. 

'Towards noon, his Royal Majesty in highest person, with his Lord 
Brother the Prince Henri's Royal Highness, arrived in Gotha; sent 
straightway, by one of his Officers, a compliment to the Grand-Duke ; 
and <s would have the pleasure to come and dine, if his Serene Highness 
permitted." Serene Highness, self and Household always cordially 
Friedrich's, was just about sitting-down to dinner; and answered with 
exuberantly glad surprise, or was answering, when Royal Majesty him- 
self stept-in with smiling face ; and embracing the Duke, said : ** I 
timed myself to arrive at this moment, thinking your Durchlaucht would 
be at dinner, that I might be received without ceremony, and dine like a 
neighbour among you." Unexpected as this visit was, the joy of Duke 
and Duchess,' always fast friends to Friedrich, and the latter ever 
afterwards his correspondent, 'may be conceived, but not adequately 
expressed ; as both the Serenities were touched, in the most affecting 
manner, by the honour of so great a King's sudden presence among 
them. 

'His Majesty requested that the Frau von Buchwald, our Most 
Gracious Duchess's Hof-Dame, whose qualities he much valued, might 
dine with them,' being always fond of sensible people, especially 
sensible women. * The whole Highest and High company * (Royal, that 
is, and Ducal) * was, during table, uncommonly merry. The King 
showed himself altogether content; and his bright clever talk and 
sprightly sallies, awakening everybody to the like, left not the least 
trace visible of the weighty toils he was then engaged in ; as if the 
weightier these were, the less should they fetter the noble openness 
(Freymiithigkeit) of this high soul, which is not to be cast down by the 
heaviest burden. 

* His Majesty having taken leave of Duke and Duchess, and graciously 
permitted the chiefest persons of the Gotha Court to pay their respecti, 
withdrew to his Army/ 1 Slept, I find elsewhere, 'at Gamstadt, on the 
floor of a little Inn ' ; meaning to examine Post* in that part, next 
morning. 

Her has been a cheerful little scene for Friedrich ; the 
last he has in these black weeks. A laborious Predecessor, 
itriviog to elucidate, leaves me this Note : 

1 Letter in HeM#n~GesMciktf t iv. 638-9. 



SEVEN-YEARS WAR RISES [BOOKXVHL 

[i5th Sept. 1757 

e What a pity one knows nothing, nor can know, about this Duke and 
Duchess, though their names, especially the latter* s name, are much 
tossed to and fro in the Books ! We heard of them, favourably, in 
Voltaire's time ; and may again, at least of the Lady, who is henceforth 
a Correspondent of Friedrich's. The above is a dim direct view of them, 
probably our last as well as first. Duke's name is Friedrich m. ; I do 
believe, a man of solidity, honour and polite dignified sense, a highly 
respectable Duke of Sachsen-Gotha, contented to be obscure, and quietly 
do what was still doable in that enigmatic situation. He is Uncle to our 
George in. ; his Sister is the now Princess-Dowager of Wales, with a 
Lord Bute, and I know not what questionable figures and intrigues, or 
suspicions of intrigue, much about her. His Duchess, Louisa Dorothee, 
is a Princess of distinguished qualities, literary tastes, Voltaire's 
Hostess, Friedrich's Correspondent : a bright and quietly-shining 
illumination to the circle she inhabits. Duke is now fifty-eight, Duchess 
forty-seven ; and they lost their eldest Son last year. There has been 
lately a considerable private brabble as to Tutorage of the Duke of 
Weimar (Wilhelmma's maddish Duke, who is dead lately ; and a Prince 
left, who soon died also, but left a Son, who grew to be Goethe's friend) ; 
Tutorage claimed by various Cousins, has been adjudged to this one, 
King Friedrich cooperating in such result 

( As to the famed Grand-Duchess, she is a Sachsen-Meiningen Princess, 
come of Ernst the Pious, of Johann the Magnanimous, as her Husband 
and all these Sachsens are : when Voltaire went precipitant, with such 
velocity, from the Potsdam Heaven, she received him at Gotha ; set him 
on writing his History of the Empire, and endeavoured to break his fall. 
She was noble to Voltaire, and well honoured by that uncertain Spirit. 
There is a fine Library at Gotha ; and the Lady bright loves Books, and 
those that can write them ; a friend of the Light, a Daughter of the 
Sun and the Empyrean, not of Darkness and the Stygian Feus. * l 

Friedrich^s first Letter to her Highness was one of thanks, 
above a year ago, for an act of kindness, act of justice withal, 
which she did to one of his Official people. Here, on the 
morrow of that dinner, is the second Letter, much more aerial 
and cordial, in which style they all continue, now that he has 
seen the admired Princess. 



i. 517 ; t 



CHAP, vii.j FRIEDKICH IN THU1UNGEN 35 

ifith Sept. 1757) 

To flie Most Serene Grand-Duchess of Sachsen-Gofha 

Dittelstadt, 'loth September 1757. 

6 MADAM, Yesterday was a Day I shall never forget ; which satisfied a 
just desire I have had, this long while, to see and hear a Princess whom 
all Europe admires. I am not surprised. Madam, that you subdue 
people's hearts ; you are made to attract the esteem and the homage of 
all who have the happiness to know you. But it is incomprehensible to 
me how you can have enemies ; and how men representing Countries 
that by no means wish to pass for barbarous, can have been so basely 
(indignement) wanting in the respect they owe you, and in the considera- 
tion which is due to all sovereigns * (French not famous for their refined 
demeanour in Saxony this time). ' Why could not I fly to prevent such 
disorders, such indecency ! I can only offer you a great deal of good- 
will ; but I feel well that, in present circumstances, the thing wanted is 
effective results and reality. May I, Madam, be so happy as to render 
you some service ! May your fortune be equal to your virtues ! I 
am with the highest consideration, Madam, your Highness's faithful 
Cousin, P/i 

To Wilhelmina he says of it, next day, still gratified, 
though sad news have come in the interim ; death of Win- 
terfeld, for one black item : 

* * 'The day before yesterday I was in Gotha. It was a touching 
scene to see the partners of one's misfortunes, with like griefs and like 
complaints. The Duchess is a woman of real merit, whose firmness puts 
many a man to shame. Madam de Buchwald appears to me a very 
estimable person, and one who would suit you much : intelligent, 
accomplished, without pretensions, and good-humoured. My Brother 
Henri is gone to see them today. I am so oppressed with grief, that 
I would rather keep my sadness to myself, I have reason to congratulate 
myself much on account of my Brother Henri ; he has behaved like an 
angel, as a soldier, and well towards me as a Brother. J cannot, un- 
fortunately, say the same of the elder. He sulks at me (il me boude) t 
and has sulkily retired to Torgau, from whence, I hear, he is gone to 
Wittenberg. I shall leave him to his caprices and to his bad conduct ; 
and I prophesy nothing good for the future^ unless the younger guide 
him/* * * 

* (Etwrts dt Frtdtrit) xviii. 166, 

a ' Kirschleben, near Erfurt, iyth Stpu*mbr *7S7* (CKuvr^s tk 
xxvii. 1. 306). 



X96 SEVEN-YEARS WAR RISES [BOOKXVIII. 

[i8th Sept. 1757 

This is part of a long sad Letter to Wilhelmina ; parts 
of which we may recur to, as otherwise illustrative. But 
before going into that tragic budget of bad news, let us give 
the finale of Gotha, which occurred the next day, tragi- 
comic in part, and is the last bit of action in those dreary 
four weeks. 

Gotha, 18th September. ' Since Thursday 15th, Major-General Seidlitz,' 
youngest Major-General of the Army, but a rapidly-rising man, 'has 
been Commandant in Gotha, under flourishing circumstances ; popular 
and supreme, though only with a force of 1,500, dragoons and hussars. 
Monday morning early, Seidlitz's scouts bring word that the Soubise- 
Hildburghausen people are in motion hitherward ; French hussars and 
Austrian, Turpin's, Loudon's, all that are; grenadiers in mass; total, 
say, 8,000 horse and foot, with abundance of artillery; have been 
on march all night, to retake Gotha ; with all the Chief Generals and 
Dignitaries of the Army following in their carriages, for some hours past, 
to see it done. Seidlitz, ascertaining these things, has but one course 
leftj that of clearing himself out, which he does with orderly velocity : 
and at 9 A.M. the Dignitaries and their 8,000 find open gates, Seidlitz 
clean off; occupy the posts, with due emphasis and flourish ; and proceed 
to the Schloss in a grand triumphant way, where privately they are not 
very welcome, though one puts the hest face on it, and a dinner of 
importance is the first thing imperative to be set in progress. A flurried 
Court, that of Gotha, and much swashing of French plumes through it, 
all this morning, since Seidlitz had to flit. 

'Seidlitz has not flitted very far. Seidlitz has ranked his small 
dragoon-hussar force in a hollow, two miles off; has got warning* sent to 
a third regiment within reach of him, "Come towards me, and in a 
certain defile, visible from Gotha eastward, spread yourselves so and 
BO !" and judges by the swashing he hears of up yonder, that perhaps 
something may still be done. Dinner, up in the Schloss, is just being 1 
taken from the spit, and the swashing at its height, when l< Hah, what 
is that, though ?'* and all plumes pause. For it is Seidlitz, artistically 
spread into single files, on the prominent points of vision ; advancing 
again, more like 15,000 than 1,500: "And in the Defile yonder, that 
regiment, do you mark it; the King*! vanguard, I should say? To 
horse ! * 

* That i Seidlitz*s fine Bit of Painting, hung out yonder, hooked cm 
the sky itself, as temporary background to Gotha, to be judged of by th 
wnnoisseura. For pictorial effect, breadth of touch, truth to Nature 
and real power on the oonnoiiteur, I have beard of nothing- e^ual by anj 



CHAP, vn.] FRIEDRICH IN THURINGEN *8T 

I3th Sept.-ioth Oct. 1757] 

artist. The high Generalcy, Soubise, Hildburghausen, Darmstadt, mount 
In the highest haste ; everybody mounts, happy he who has anything to 
mount ; the grenadiers tumble out of the Schloss ; dragoons, artillery 
tumble out ; Dauphiness takes wholly to her heels, at an extraordinary 
pace : so that Seidlitz's hussars could hardly get a stroke at her ; caught 
sixty and odd, nine of them Officers not of mark ; did kill thirty ; and 
had such a haul of equipages and valuable effects, cosmetic a good few of 
them, habilatory, artistic, as caused the hussar heart to sing for joy. 
Among other plunder, was Loudon's Commission of Major-General, just 
on its road from Vienna ' (poor Mannstein's death the suggesting cause, 
say some) ; * undoubtedly a shining Loudon ; to whom Friedrich, next 
day, forwarded the Document with a polite Note/ l 

The day after this bright feat of Seidlitz's, which was a 
slight consolation to Friedrich, there came a Letter from the 
Duchess, not of compliment only ; the Letter itself had to be 
burnt on the spot, being, as would seem, dangerous for the 
High Lady, who was much a friend of Friedrich's. Their 
Correspondence, very polite and graceful, but for most part 
gone to the unintelligible state, and become vacant and 
spectral, figures considerably in the Books, and was, no doubt, 
a considerable fact to Friedrich. His Answer on this occasion 
may be given, since we have it, lest there should not else- 
where be opportunity for a second specimen. 

Friedrich to the Grand-Duchess of Sachsen-Gotha 

' Kirschleben, near Erfurt, 20th September 1757. 

e MADAM, Nothing could happen more glorious to my troops than 
that of fighting, Madam, under your eyes and for your defence. I wish 
their help could be useful to you ; but I foresee the reverse. If I were 
obstinately to insist on maintaining the post of Gotha with Infantry, I 
should ruin your City for you, Madam, by attracting thither and fixing 
there the theatre of the War ; whereas, by the present course, you will 
only have to suffer little rubs (passades), which will not last long. 

f A thousand thanks that you could, in a day like yesterday, find the 
moment to think of your Friends, and to employ yourself for them/ 
(Seidlitz's attack was brisk, quite sudden, with an effect like Harlequin's 
aword in Pantomimes; and Gotha in every corner, especially in the 



uht) iv, 640; Westphalen, ii, 37? (Svvrvs te FrUMc , 



288 SEVEN-YEARS WAR RISES [BOOK xvm. 

[I3th Sept -loth Oct. 1757 

Schloss below and above stairs, dinner cooked for A, and eaten by B, 
in that manner, must have been the most agitated of little Cities.) f 1 
will neglect nothing- of what you have the goodness to tell me ; I shall 
profit by these notices. Heaven grant it might be for the deliverance 
and the security of Germany ! 

*The most signal mark of obedience I can give you consists unquestion- 
ably in doing your bidding with this Letter/ (Burn it, so soon as read.) 
e I should have kept it as a monument of your generosity and courage : 
but, Madam, since you dispose of it otherwise, your orders shall be 
executed ; persuaded that if one cannot serve one's friends, one must at 
least avoid hurting them; that one may be less circumspect for one's 
own interest, but that one must be prudent and even timid for theirs. 
I am, with the highest esteem and the most perfect consideration, 
Madam, your Highness's most faithful and affectionate Cousin, F.' 1 

From Erfurt, on the night of his arrival, finding the 
Dauphiness in such humour, Friedrich had ordered Ferdinand 
of Brunswick with his Division and Prince Moritz with his, 
both of whom were still at Naumburg, to go on different 
errands, Ferdinand out Halberstadt-Magdeburg way, whither 
Richelieu, vulture-like, if not eagle-like, is on wing ; Moritz 
to Torgau, to secure our magazine, and be on the outlook 
there. Both of them marched on the morrow (November 
14th) : and are sending him news, seldom comfortable news ; 
mainly that, in spite of all one can do (and it is not little on 
Ferdinand's part), the Richelieu vultures, 80,000 of them, 
floating onward, leagues broad, are not to be kept out of 
Halberstadt, well if out of Magdeburg itself; and that, in 
short, the general conflagration, in those parts too, is pro- 
gressive. 2 Moritz, peaceable for some weeks in Torgau 
Country, was to have an eye on Brandenburg withal, on 
Berlin itself; and before long, Moritz will see something 
noticeable there ! 

From Preussen, Friedrich hears of mere ravagings and horrid 
cruelties, Cossack-Calmuck atrocities, which make human nature 

1 (Ettwes ds Frjcferic, xviii. 167. 

8 In Orlich's Furst Merit*) pp. 71-89 ; and in Westphalen % ii. 23-143 (about 
Ferdinand) : interesting Documentary details. Autographs of Friedrich, etc, in 
regard to both these Expeditions. 



CHAP, vii.] FRIEDRICH IN THURINGEN 

10th Sept.-xoth Oct. 1757] 

shudder : l 4 Fight those monsters ; go into them, at all 
hazards ! ' he writes to Lehwald peremptorily. Lehwald, 
5,000 against 80,000, does so; draws-up, in front of 
Wehlau, not far east of Konigsberg, among woody swamps, 
August 30^, at a Hamlet called Gross-Jagersdorfj with his 
best skill ; fights well, though not without mistakes ; and 
is beaten by cannon and numbers. 2 Preussen now lies at 
Apraxin's discretion. This bit of news too is on the road for 
Erfurt Country. Such a six weeks for the swift man, obliged 
to stand spellbound, idle posterity never will conceive it; 
and description is useless. 

Let us add here, that Apraxin did not advance on Konigs- 
berg, or farther into Preussen at all ; but, after some loiter- 
ing, turned, to everybody's surprise, and wended slowly home. 
* Could get no provision/ said Apraxin for himself. 'Thought 
the Czarina was dying, 7 said the world ; * and that Peter her 
successor would take it well 1 * Plodded slowly home, for 
certain; Lehwald following him, not too close, till over the 
border. Nothing left of Apraxin, and his huge Expedition, 
but Memel alone ; Memel, and a great many graves and ruins. 
So that Lehwald could be recalled, to attend on the Swedes, 
before Winter came. And Friedrich^s worst forebodings did 
not take effect in this case ; nor in some others, as we shall 
see! 

Lamentation- Psalms of Friedrich 

Meanwhile, is it not remarkable that Friedrich wrote more 
Verses, this Autumn, than almost in any other three months 
of his life ? Singular, yes ; though perhaps not inexplicable. 
And if readers could fairly understand that fact, instead of 
running away with the shell of it, and leaving the essence, it 
would throw a great light on Friedrich. He is not a brooding 
inarticulate man, then ; but a bright-glancing, articulate ; not 

1 In ffetdm-Geschichtei iv. 427-437, the hideous details. 
s Tempelhof, i. 299; Retzow, i. 212 j etc. etc. ('Russians lost about 9,000,* 
by their own tale 5,000 ; * the Prussians 3,000 J and the Field). 



840 SEVEN-YEARS WAR RISES [BOOK xvni. 

[i3th Sepl>ioth Oct. 1757 

to be struck dumb by the face of Death itself. Flashes clear* 
eyed into the physiognomy of Death, and Ruin, and the 
Abysmal Horrors opening ; and has a sharp word to say to 
them. The explanation of his large cargo of Verses this 
Autumn is, That always, alternating with such fiery velocity, 
he had intolerable periods of waiting till things were ready. 
And took to verses, by way of expectorating himself, and 
keeping-down his devils. Not a bad plan, in the circum- 
stances, especially if you have so wonderful a turn for ex- 
pectoration by speech. *AU bad as Poetry, those Verses?* 
asks the reader. Well, some of them are not of fir^t-rate 
goodness. Should have been burnt; or the time marked 
which they took up, and whether it was good time wasted 
(which I suppose it almost never was), or bad time skilfully 
got over. Time, that is the great point ; and the heart-truth 
of them, or mere lip-truth, another. We must give some 
specimens, at any rate. 

Especially that notable Specimen from the Zittau Countries: 
the * Epistle to Wilhelmina (Epttre ci ma Sccur 1 )'* ; which is 
the key-note, as it were ; the fountain-head of much other 
verse, and of much prose withal, and Correspondencing not 
with Wilhelmina alone, of which also some taste must be 
given. Primary Epitre , written, I perceive, in that interval 
of waiting for Keith and the magazines, though the final 
date is * Bernstadt, August 4th. <) Concerning which, Smel- 
fungus takes, over-hastily, the liberty to say ; * Strange, is it 
not, to be on the point of fighting for one's existence ; over- 
whelmed with so many businesses ; and disposed to go into 
verse in addition! Conceive that form of mind; it would 
illuminate something of Friedrich 1 s character : I cannot yet 
rightly understand such an aspect of structure, and know not 
what to say of it, except " Strange ! " ' 

Understand it or not, we do gather by means of it some 
indisputable glimpses, nearly all the direct insight allowed us 
out of any source, into Friedrich's inner man ; what his 

de /hfofi^V, xii. 36-42, 



CHAP. VII.] FEIEDRICH IN THURINGEN 

13th Sept.-xoth Oct. 1757] 

thoughts were, what his humour was in that unique crisis ; 
and to readers in quest of that, these Pieces, fallen obsolete 
and frosty to all other kinds of readers, are well worth per- 
using, and again perusing. Most veracious Documents, we 
can observe ; nothing could be truer ; Confessions they are, in 
the most emphatic sense ; no truer ever made to a Priest in 
the name of the Most High. Like a soliloquy of Night- 
Thoughts, accidentally becoming audible to us* Mahomet, I 
find, wrote the Koran in this manner. From these poor 
Poems, which are voices De PrqfundiS) there might, by proper 
care and selection, be constructed a Friedrich's Koran ; and, 
with commentary and elucidation, it would be pleasant to 
read. The Koran of Friedrich, or the Lamentation-Psalms 
of Friedrich ! Bub it would need an Editor, other than 
Dryasdust ! Mahomet's Koran, treated by the Arab Dryasdust 
(merely turning-up the bottom of that Box of Shoulder-blades, 
and printing them), has become dreadfully tough reading, on 
this side of the Globe ; and has given rise to the impossiblest 
notions about Mahomet ! Indisputable it is, Heroes, in their 
affliction, Mahomet and David, have solaced themselves by 
snatches of Psalms, by Suras, bursts of Utterance rising into 
Song ; and if Friedrich, on far other conditions, did the like, 
what has History to say of blame to him ? 

Wilhelmina conies out very strong, in this season of trouble; 
almost the last we see of our excellent Wilhelmina. Like a 
lioness ; like a shrill mother when her children are in peril, 
A noble sisterly affection is in Wilhelmina; shrill Pythian 
vehemence trying the impossible, That a Brother, and such 
a Brother, the most heroic now breathing, brave and true, and 
the soul of honour in all things, should have the whole world 
rise round him, like a delirious Sorcerers-Sabbath, intent to 
hurl the mountains on him, seems such a horror and a madness 
to Wilhelmina, Like the brood-hen flying in the face of 
wild dogs, and packs of hounds in full trail ! Most Christian 
Pompadour Kings, enraged Cssarinas, implacable Empress- 

VOL. vi. a 



842 SEVEN-YEARS WAB RISES [BOOKXVIII. 

(I3th Scpt.-ioth Oct. 1757 

Queens ; a whole world in armed delirium rushes on, regard- 
Jess of Wilhelmina. Never mind, my noble one ; your Brother 
will perhaps manage to come up with this leviathan or that, 
among the heap of them, at a good time, and smite into the 
fifth rib of him. Your Brother does not the least shape 
towards giving-in ; thank the Heavens, he will stand to him- 
self at least ; his own poor strength will all be on his own 
side. 

Wilhelmina's hopes of a Peace with France; mission of 
her Mirabeau, missions and schemes not a few, we have heard 
of on Wilhelmina's part with this view; but the notablest is 
still to mention : that of stirring-up, by Voltaire's means, an 
important-looking Cardinal de Tencin to labour in the business. 
Eminency Tencin lives in Lyon, known to the Princess on her 
Italian Tour; shy of asking Voltaire to dinner on that fine 
occasion ; but, except Officially, is not otherwise than well- 
affected to Voltaire, Was once Chief Minister of France, and 
would fain again be ; does not like these Bernis novelties and 
Austrian Alliances, had he now any power to overset them. 
Let him correspond with Most Christian Majesty, at least ; 
plead for a Peace with Prussia, Prussia being so ready that 
way. Eminency Tencin, on Voltaire^s suggestion, did so, 
perhaps is even now doing so ; till ordered to hold his peace 
on such subjects. This is certain and well known ; but 
nothing else is known, or to us knowable, about it; Vdltaire, 
in vague form, being our one authority, through whom it is 
vain to hunt, and again hunt. 1 The Dates, much more the 
features and circumstances, all lie buried from us f and, 
till perhaps the Lamentation-Pmlms are well edited, must 
continue lying* As a fact certain, but undeniably vague* 

Voltaire's procedure, one can gather, is polite, but two- 
faced ; not sublime on this occasion. In fact, is intended to 
serve himself, To the high Princess he writes devotionally, 
ready to obey in all things; and then to his Eminency 
Cardinal Tencin, it rather seems as if the tone were : c Pooh 1 

), ii $3-93 ; #, j, 143 ; Prcuaft, ii 




/C 




cc 






CHAP. VIL] FBIEDRICH IN THUBINGEN 848 

I3th Scpt.-ioth Oct. 1757] 

yes, your Eminency ; such are the poor Lady's notions. But 
does your Eminency take notice how high my connections 
are ; what service a poor obscure creature might perhaps do 
the State some day?' Friedrich himself is, in these ways, 
brought into correspondence with Voltaire again ; and occa- 
sionally writes to him in this War, and ever afterwards - 
Voltaire responds with fine sympathy, always prettily, in the 
enthusiasm of the moment ; and at other times he writes a 
good deal about Friedrich, oftenest in rather a mischievous 
dialect. * The traitor ! ' exclaim some Prussian writers, not 
many or important, in our time. In fact, there is a con- 
siderable touch of grinning malice (as of Monkey versus Cat, 
who had once burnt "his paw, instead of getting his own 
burnt), in those utterances of Voltaire; some of which the 
reader will grin over too, without much tragic feeling, the 
rather as they did our Felis Leo no manner of ill, and show 
our incomparable Singe with a sparkle of the Tigre in him ; 
theoretic sparkle merely and for moments, which makes him 
all the more entertaining and interesting at the domestic 
hearth. 

Of Friedrich's Lamentation-Psalms we propose to give the 
First and the Last : these, with certain Prose Pieces, inter- 
mediate and connecting, may perhaps be made intelligible to 
readers, and throw some light on these tragic weeks of the 
King's History : 

1". Epttre A ma Sosur (First of the Lamentations-Psalms), Thin is the 
famed 'Epistle to Wilhelmina/ already spoken of; which the King 
despatched from Bemstadt * August 24th/ just while quitting those parts, 
on the Erfurt Errand ; though written before, in the tedium of waiting 
for Keith, The Piece is long^ vehement, altogether sincere; lyrically 
sings aloud, or declaims in rhyme, what one's indignant thought really 
is on the surrounding woes and atrocities, We faithfully abridge, and 
condense into our briefest Prose ; readers can add water and the jingle 
of French rhymes ad libitum. It starts thus : 

*O Bweet and dear hope of my remaining days; Sister, whose 
friendship, so fertile in resources, shares all my sorrows, and with a 
helpful arm assiwts me in the gulf I It ii in vain that the Bestiniei 



SEVEN-YEARS WAE RISES [BOOKXVIH. 

[X3th Sept.-ioth Oct. 1757 

overwhelmed me with disasters : if the crowd of Kings have sworn my 
ruin ; if the Earth have opened to swallow me, you still love me, noble 
and affectionate Sister : loved by you, what is there of misfortuna ? 
(Branches-off into some survey of it, nevertheless.) 

'Huge continents of thunder-cloud, plots thickening against me' (in 
those Menzel Documents), 'I watched with terror; the sky getting 
blacker, no covert for me visible : on a sudden, from the deeps of Hell, 
starts-forth Discord' (with capital-letter), * and the tempest broke. 

1 Ce fut dans ton S6nat, fougueuse Angleterre ! 
Oil, ce monstre inhumainjit Plater la guerre ; 

It was from thy Senate, stormful England, that she first launched-out 
War. In remote climates first ; in America, far away ; between France 
and thee. Old Ocean shook with it ; Neptune, in the depths of his caves 
(ses grottes profondes)) saw the English subjecting his waves (ses ondw) : 
the wild Iroquois,, prize of these crimes (forfaits), bursts-out ; detesting 
the tyrants who disturb his Forests/ and scalping Braddock's people, 
and the like. 

' Discord, charmed to see such an America, and feeble mortals crossing 
the Ocean to exterminate one another, addresses the European Kings : 
te How long will you be slaves to what are called laws ? Is it for you to 
bend under worn-out notions of justice, right? Mars is the one God : 
Might is Right. A King's business is to do something famous in this 
world." 

'O Daughter of the Caesars,* Maria Theresa, 'how, at these words, 
ambition, burning in thy soul, breaks-out uncontrollable ! Probity, 
honour, treaties, duty : feeble considerations these, to a heart letting 
loose its flamy passions ; determining to rob the generous Germans of 
their liberties ; to degrade thy equals ; to extinguish " Schism " (so 
called), and set-up despotism on the wrecks of all/ 

* Huge project' 'ficr Triumvir at,' what not : 'From Eoussillon and 
the sunny Pyrenees to frozen Russia, all arm for Austria, and march at 
her bidding. They concert my downfall, trample on my rights. 

4 The Daughter of the Caesars, proudly certain of victory, 'tis the 
way of the Gr&at, whose commonplace virtue, pusillanimous in reverses, 
overbearing in success, cannot bridle their cupidity, designates to the 
Triumvirate what Kings are to be proscribed J (Britannic George and me, 
Reich busy on us both even now), 'and those ungrateful tyrants, by 
united crime, immolate to each other, without remorse, their dearest 
allies.' For instance : 

* O jour (ligne d'oubli / Quelle atroee imprudence I 
TMrbe, c*est V Anglais gue tu vends a la Jerome; 

it is England thou art selling to France ; ' Ye, 



CHAP, vii.] FRIEDRICH IN THURINGEN 245 

I3th Sept.-xoth Oct. 1757] 

worth noting, ' Ihy generous support in thy first adversities ; thy one 
friend then,, when a world had risen to devour thee, Thou reignest 
now : but it was England alone that saved thee anything to reign 
over ! 

* Tu r fanes, mais lui seul a sauvt tes 4tats; 

Les Menfaits chez les rois nefont que des ingraft. 

9 And thou, lazy Monarch/ stupid Louis, let us omit him : f Pompa- 
dour, selling her lover to the highest bidder, makes France, in our day, 
Austria's slave ! ' We omit Kolin Battle, too, spoken of with a proud 
modesty (Prag is not spoken of at all) ; and how the neighbouring 
ravenous Powers, onlookers hitherto, have opened their throats with one 
accord to swallow Prussia, thinking its downfall certain : * Poor mercenary 
Sweden, once so famous under its soldier Kings, now debased- by a 
venal Senate;' Sweden, 'what say I? my own kindred* (foolish 
Anspach and others), ' driven by perverse motives, join in the plot of 
horrors, and become satellites of the prospering Triumvirs. 

'And thou, loved People* (my own Prussians), 'whose happiness is 
my charge' (notable how often he repeats this), 'it is thy lamentable 
destiny, it is the danger which hangs over thee, that pierces my soul. 
The pomps of my rank I could resign without regret. But to rescue 
thee, in this black crisis, I will spend my heart's blood. Whose is that 
blood but thine? With" joy will I rally my warriors to avenge -thy 
affront; defy death at the foot of the ramparts' (of Daun and his 
Eckartsberg, ahead yonder), 'and either conquer, or be buried under 
thy ruins.* Very well ; but ah, 

'Preparing with such purpose, ye Heavens, what mournful cries are 
those that reach us : " Death has laid low thy Mother ! " Hah, that was 
the last stroke, then, which angry Fate had reserved for me. 
Mother, Death flies my misfortunes, and spreads his livid horrors over 
thee ! ' (Very tender, very sad, what he says of his Mother ; but must 
be omitted and imagined. General finale is :) 

'Thus Destiny with a deluge of torments fills the poisoned remnant of 
my days. The present is hideous to me, the future unknown : what, you 
say I am the creature of a Beneficent Being ? 

* Quoif serais-je form par un JDieu bienfaisant t 
Ah! tfil titait si ban, fandrepour son ouvrage 1 -"- 

Husht, my little Titan ! 

' And now, ye promoters of sacred lies, go on leading cowards by the 
nose, in the dark windings of your labyrinth : to me the enchant- 
ment is ended, the charm disappears. I see that ail men are but the 
sport of Destiny, And that, if there do exist some Gloomy and Inexor- 
able Being, who allows a despised herd of creatures to go on multiplying 
here, he values them as nothing ; looks down on a Phalaris crowned, ou 



S46 SEVEN -YEARS WAR RISES [BOOK xvm. 

[i3th Sept.-ioth Oct. 1757 

a Socrates in chains ; on our rirtues, our misdeeds, on the horrors of 
war, and all the cruel plagues which ravage Earth, as a thing indifferent 
to him, Wherefore ; my sole refuge and only haven, loved Sister, ia in 
the arms of death : 

' Ainsi man aeul <wU et man wiique port 
Se trouve, chire tceur, dans let fcrcw de la mortJ* l 

2*. Wilhelmina to Voltaire, with something of Answer (First of certain 
intercalary Prose Pieces). Wilhelmina has been writing to Voltaire 
before, and getting consolations since Kolin ; but her Letters are lost, 
till this the earliest that is left us ; 

Baireuth, l$th August 1757 (To Voltaire). < One first knows one'i 
friends when misfortunes arrive. The Letter you have written does 
honour to your way of thinking. I cannot tell you how much I am 
sensible to what you have done ' (set Cardinal Tencin astir, with result 
we will hope). * The King, my Brother, is as much so as I. You will 
find a Note here, which he bids me transmit to you ' (Note lost). ' That 
great man is still the same. He supports his misfortunes with a courage 
and a firmness worthy of him. He could not get the Note transcribed. 
It began by verses. Instead of throwing sand on it, he took the ink- 
bottle ; that is the reason why it is cut in two.* 

This Note, we say, is lost to us ; all but accidentally thus : Voltaire, 
12th September, writes twice to friends. Writing to his D'Argental, 
he says : ' The affairs of this King * (Friedrich) go from bad to worse. 
I know not if I told you of the Letter he wrote to me about three weeks 
ago * (say August l7-18th : this same Note through Wilhelmina, evi- 
dently) : r e< I have learned," says he, "that you had interested yourself 
in my successes and misfortunes. There remains to me nothing but to 
sell my life dear," etc. His Sister writes me one much more lamentable ; * 
the one we are now reading : 

' 1 am in a frightful state ; and will not survive the destruction of my 
House and Family. That is the one consolation that remains to me. 
You will have fine subjects for making Tragedies of. times ! 
manners ! You will, by the illusory representation, perhaps draw tearH ; 
while all contemplate with dry eyes the reality of these miseries : the 
downfall of a whole House, against which, if the truth were known, 
there is no solid complaint. I cannot write farther of it : my soul is so 
troubled that I know not what I am doing. But whatever happen, be 
persuaded that I am more than ever your friend, WruiEunNA.* 3 

Friedrich, while Wilhelmina writes so, is at the foot of the Eckarts- 
berg, eagerly manoeuvring with the Austrian*, in hopea of getting battle 

1 CBuvres, xii. 36-42 ; is sent-off to WilMraina 34th Augut 
* In C&wfres ck Voltqriri) Ixxvif . 30. 



CHAP, VIL] FRIEDRICH IN THURINGEN 

3th Sept.-ioth Oct 1757] 

out of them, which he cannot. Friedrich, while he wrote that Note to 
Voltaire, and instead of sandbox shook the inkbottle over it, was just 
going out on that errand. 

Voltaire, 12th September (to a Lady whose Son is in the D'Estreea 
wars). * Here are mighty revolutions, Madame ; and we are not at 
the end yet. They say there have 18,000 Hanoverians been disposed of 
at Stade ' (Convention of Kloster-Zeven). * That is no small matter. I 
can hope M. Richelieu' (who is f mon htrosj when I write to himself) 
f will adorn his head with the laurels they have stuck in his pocket. I 
wish Monsieur your Son abundance of honour and glory without wounds, 
and to you, Madame, unalterable health. The King of Prussia has 
written me a very touching Letter ' (one line of which we have read) ; 
* but 1 have always Madame Denis's adventure on my heart,' at Frank- 
furt yonder. 'If I were well, J would take a run to Frankfurt myself 
on the business,' now that Soubise's reserves are iu those parts, and 
could give Freytag and Schmidt such a dusting for me, if they liktd ! 
Shall I write to Collini on it ? Does write, and agaiu write, the second 
year hence, as still better chances rise. 8 

3*. Wilhelmina to Voltaire again t with Answer (Second of the Prose 
Pieces). Not a very zealous friend of Friedrich's, after all, tins Voltaire ! 
Poor Wilhelmina, terrified by that Epttre of her Brother's, and his fixed 
purpose of seeking Death, has, in her despair (though her Letter is lost), 
been urging Voltaire to write dissuading him ; as Voltaire does. Of 
which presently. Her Letter to Voltaire on this thrice-important subject 
is lost. But in the very hours while Voltaire sat writing what we have 
just read, * always with Madame Denis's adventure on my heart,* Wilhel- 
mina, at Baireuth, is again writing to him as follows : 

Baireuth, 12th September 1757 (To Voltaire).' Your Letter has sensibly 
touched me; that which you addressed to me for the King" (both 
Letters lost to us) 'has produced the same effect on him. J hope 
you will be satisfied with his Answer as to what concerns yourself; but 
you will be as little so as 1 am with the resolutions he has formed. 1 had 
flattered myself that your reflections would make some impression on 
his mind. You will see the contrary by the Letter adjoined, 

* To me there ^remains nothing but to follow his destiny if it is un- 
fortunate. I have never piqued myself on being a philosopher ; though 
I have made my efforts to become so. The small progress I made did 
teach me to despise grandeurs and riches: but 1 could never find in 
philosophy any cure for the wounds of the heart, except that of getting 
done with our miseries by ceasing to live. The state 1 am in is worse 

1 In (Euvnts fa Voltair^ Ixxil 55, 56. 

* Collini, p 208-211 (< January May 1759*). 



248 SEVEN-YEARS WAB RISES [BOOK xvm. 

[i3th Sept.-ioth Oct. 1757 

than death. I see the greatest man of his age, my Brother, my friend, 
reduced to the frightfulest extremity. I see my whole Family exposed 
to dangers and perhaps destruction ; my native Country torn by pitiless 
enemies ; the Country where I am * (Reichs Army, Anspach, what not) 
f menaced by perhaps similar misfortune. Would to Heaven I were 
alone loaded with all the miseries I have described to you ! I would 
suffer them, and with firmness. 

* Pardon these details. You invite me, by the part you take in what 
regards me, to open my heart to you. Alas, hope is wellnigh banished 
from it. Fortune, when she changes, is as constant in her persecutions 
as in her favours. History is full of those examples : but I have found 
none equal to the one we now see ; nor any War as inhuman and as cruel 
among civilised nations. You would sigh if you knew the sad situation 
of Germany and Preussen. The cruelties which the Russians commit in 
that latter Country make nature shudder. 1 How happy you in your 
Hermitage; where you repose on your laurels, and can philosophise 
with a calm mind on the deliriums of men ! I wish you all the happi- 
ness imaginable. If Fortune ever favour us again, count on all my 
gratitude. I will never forget the marks of attachment which you 
have given ; my sensibility is your warrant ; I am never half-and-half 
a friend, and I shall always be wholly so of Brother Voltaire. 

WlLHELMINA, 

* Many compliments to Madame Denis. Continue, I pray you, to 
write to the King/ 2 

Voltaire to Wilhelmina (Day uncertain : The Delices, September 1757). 
c Madam, my heart is touched more than ever by the goodness and 
the confidence your Royal Highness deigns to show me. How can I be 
but melted by emotion ! I see that it is solely your nobleness of soul 
that renders you unhappy. I feel myself born to be attached with 
idolatry to superior and sympathetic minds, who think like you. 

* You know how much I have always, essentially and at heart, been 
attached to the King your Brother. The more my old age is tranquil, 
and come to renounce everything, and make my retreat here a home and 
country, the more am I devoted to that Philosopher-King. I write 
nothing to him but what I think from the bottom of my heart, nothing 
that I do not think most true ; and if my Letter * (dissuasive of seeking 
Death ; wait, reader) e appears to your Royal Highness to be suitable, I 
beg you to protect It with him, as you have done the foregoing/ 3 

4. Friedrich to WilJieZmina, and, by anticipation, her Answer (Third 
of the Prose Pieces). c J^irsch/eben, near Erf art, Vjth September 1757. 
My dearest Sister, I find no other consolation but in your precious 

1 Details, horrible but authentic, in Held&n-Geschichte^ already cited. 

2 In Voltaire, ft. 197-199; Ixxvii. 57. s ft>. Ixxvil 37, 39. 



CHAP, vii.] FRIEDRICH IN THURINGEN *49 

I3th Sept.-ioth Oct. 1757] 

Letters. May Heaven reward so much virtue and such heroic senti- 
ments I 

f Since I wrote last to you,, my misfortunes have but gone on accumu- 
lating 1 . It seems as though Destiny would discharge all its wrath and 
fury upon the poor Country which I had to rule over. The Swedes have 
entered Pommern. The French, after having concluded a Neutrality 
humiliating to the King of England and themselves' (Kloster-Zeven, 
which we know), c are in full march upon Halberstadt and Magdeburg. 
From Preussen I am in daily expectation of hearing of a battle having 
been fought : the proportion of combatants being 25,000 against 80,000 ' 
(was fought, Gross- Jagersdorf, 30th August, and lost accordingly). { The 
Austrians have marched into Silesia, whither the Prince of Bevern 
follows them. I have advanced this way to fall upon the corps of the 
allied Army ; which has run-off, and intrenched itself, behind Eisenach, 
amongst hills, whither to follow, still more to attack them, all rules of 
war forbid. The moment I retire towards Saxony, this whole swarm will 
be upon my heels. Happen what may, I am determined, at all risks, to 
fall upon whatever corps of the enemy approaches me nearest. I shall 
even bless Heaven for its mercy, if it grant me the favour to die sword 
in hand. 

'Should this hope fail me, you will allow that it would be too hard to 
crawl at the feet of a company of traitors, to whom successful crimes 
have given the advantage to prescribe the law to me. How, my dear, my 
incomparable Sister, how could I repress feelings of vengeance and of 
resentment against all my neighbours, of whom there is not one who did 
not accelerate my downfall, and will not share in our spoils ? How can 
a Prince survive his State, the glory of his Country, his own reputation ? 
A Bavarian Elector, in his nonage ' (Son of the late poor Kaiser, and left 
shipwrecked in his seventeenth year), ' or rather in a sort of subjection 
to' his Ministers, and dull to the biddings of honour, may give himself up 
as a slave to the imperious domination of the House of Austria, and kiss 
the hand which oppressed his Father : I pardon it to his youth and his 
ineptitude. But is that the example for me to follow? No, dear Sister, 
you think too nobly to give me such mean (Idche) advice. Is Liberty, 
that precious prerogative, to be less dear to a Sovereign in the eighteenth 
century than it was to Roman Patricians of old? And where is it 
said, that Brutus and Cato should cany magnanimity farther than 
Princes and Kings ? Firmness consists in resisting misfortune : but only 
cowards submit to the yoke, bear patiently their chains, and support 
oppression tranquilly. Never, my dear Sister, could I resolve upon such 
ignominy/ 

c If I had followed only my own inclinations, I should have ended it 
(Je me serais dfpcchf) at once* after that unfortunate Battle which I lost 
But I felt that this would be weakness, and that it behoved me to repair 



250 SEVEN-YEARS WAR RISES [BOOKXVIII. 

[i3th Sept.-ioth Oct. 1757 

the evil which had happened. My attachment to the State awoke ; I 
said to myself, It is not in seasons of prosperity that it is rare to find 
defenders, but in adversity. I made it a point of honour with myself to 
redress all that had got out of square ; in which I was not unsuccessful ; 
not even in the Lausitz' (after these Zittau disasters) last of all. But 
no sooner had I hastened this way to face new enemies, than Winterfeld 
was beaten and killed near Gorlitz, than the French entered the heart 
of my States, than the Swedes blockaded Stettin. Now there is nothing 
effective left for me to do : there are too many enemies. Were I even 
to succeed in beating two armies, the third would crush me. Th 
enclosed Note* (in cipher) ( will show you what I am still about to try ; 
it is the last attempt. 

' The gratitude, the tender affection, which I feel towards you, that 
friendship, true as the hills, constrains me to deal openly with you. No, 
my divine Sister, I shall conceal nothing from you that I intend to do ; 
all my thoughts, all my resolutions shall be open and known to you in 
time. I will precipitate nothing : but also it will be impossible for me 
to change my sentiments. 

' As for you, my incomparable Sister, I have not the heart to turn you 
from your resolves. We think alike, and I cannot condemn in you the 
sentiments which I daily entertain (dprouve). Life has been given to us 
as a benefit : when it ceases to be such ' ! ( I have nobody left in this 
world, to attach me to it, but you. My friends, the relations I loved 
most, are in the grave ; in short, I have lost everything. If you take the 
resolution which I have taken, we end together our misfortunes and our 
unhappiness ; and it will be the turn of them who remain in this world, 
to provide for the concerns falling to their charge, and to bear the weight 
which has lain on us so long. These, my adorable Sister, are sad 
reflections, but suitable to my present condition. 

'The day before yesterday I was at Gotha 1 (yes, see above; 
and tomorrow, if I knew it, Seidlitz with pictorial effects will be 
there). * * 

'But it is time to end this long, dreary Letter; which treats almost 
of nothing but my own affairs. I have had some leisure, arid have used 
it to open on you a heart filled with admiration and gratitude towards 
you. Yes, my adorable Sister, if Providence troubled itself about human 
affairs, you ought to be the happiest person in the Universe. Your not 
being such, confirms me in the sentiments expressed at the end of my 
Epitre. In conclusion, believe that I adore you, and that I would give 
my life a thousand times to serve you* These are the sentiments which 
will animate m to the last breath of my life ; being, my beloved Sister, 
ever* Your F. 1 

xx vii. I. 303 -30^. 



CHAP, vil.] FRIEDRICH IN THURINGEN 251 

ijth Sept.-ioth Oct. 1757] 

Wilhelmintfa Answer, \*y anticipation, as we said: written *15t& 
September/ while Friedrich was dining at Gotta, in quest of Soubise. 

*Baireutk, 15th September 1757. My dearest Brother, your Letter and 
the one you wrote to Voltaire, my dear Brother, have almost killed me. 
What fatal resolutions, great God ! Ah, my dear Brother, you say you 
love me; and you drive a dagger into my heart Your Epitre, which I 
did receive, made me shed rivers of tears. I am now ashamed of such 
weakness. My misfortune would be so great* in the issue there alluded 
to, ' that 1 should find worthier resources than tears. Your lot shall be 
mine : I will not survive either your misfortunes or those of the House I 
belong to. You may calculate that such is my firm resolution. 

'But, after this avowal, allow me to entreat you to look back at what 
was the pitiable state of your Enemy when you lay before Prag ! It is 
the sudden whirl of Fortune for both parties. The like can occur again, 
when one is least expecting it. Caesar was the slave of pirates ; and he 
became the master of the world. A great genius like yours finds re~ 
sources even when all is lost ; and it is impossible this frenzy can con- 
tinue. My heart bleeds to think of the poor souls in Preussen" 
(Apraxin and his Christian Cossacks there, who, it is noted, far excel 
the Calmuck worshippers of the Dalai-Lama). f What horrid barbarity, 
the detail of cruelties that go on there ! I feel all that you feel on 
it, my dear Brother. I know your heart, and your sensibility for your 
subjects. 

{ l suffer a thousand times more than I can tell you; nevertheless 
hope does not abandon me. I received your Letter of the 14th by TV"/ 
(who W. is, no mortal knows). f What kindness to think of me, who 
have nothing to give you but a useless affection, which is so richly 
repaid by yours ! 1 am obliged to finish ; but I shall never cease to be> 
with the most profound respect (tres-profond respect? that, and some- 
thing still better, if my poor pen were not embarrassed), 'your' 

WlLHELMINA. 

5*. Friedrich's Response to the Dissuasives of Voltaire (Last of the 
Lamentation-Psalms : * Buttstadt, October 9th '). -Voltaire's Dissuasive 
Letter is a poor Piece ; l not worth giving here. Remarkable only by 
Friedrich's quiet reception of it ; which readers shall now see, as Finis 
to those Lamentation-Psalms. There is another of them, widely known, 
which we will omit : the Epitre to D'Argens ; a passionate enough, 
wandering wildly over human life, and sincere almost to shrillness, in 
parts ; which Voltaire has also got hold of. Omissible here ; the fixity 



1 (Euvres dt Voltairt, bcxvii. 80-83 (<** &&&**> early in September 1757 ; no 
date given). 
3 In CRuvres dt FrM4ric> xii 50-56 ('Erfurt, 23d September 17^7 J ). 



858 SEVEN-YEARS WAR RISES [BOOKXVin. 

[X3th Sept.-ioth Oct. 1757 

of purpose being plain otherwise to Voltaire and us. Voltaire's counter- 
arguments are weak, or worse : e That Roman death is not now expected 
of the Philosopher ; that your Majesty will, in the worst event, still have 
considerable Dominions left, all that your Great-Grandfather had ; still 
plenty of resources ; that, in Paris Society, an estimable minority even 
now thinks highly of you; that in Paris itself your Majesty* (does not 
say expressly, as dethroned and going on your travels) e would have 
resources ! * To which beautiful considerations Friedrich answers, not 
with fire and brimstone, as one might have dreaded, but in this quiet 
manner (Reponse au Sieur Voltaire) : 

* Je suis homme, il suffit, et ndpour la souffrance; 
Aux ri&ueurs du destinj* oppose ma Constance.* 

But with these sentiments, I am far from condemning Cato and Otho. 
The latter had no fine moment in his life, except that of his death/ 
(Breaks-off into Verse :) 

* Croyez que si j 'Mais Voltaire, 
Et particulier com/me lui, 
Me contentant du ntces&aire, 
Je verrais voltiger lafortime W^re, Or, 

to wring the water and the jingle out of it, and give the substance 
in Prose : 

'Yes, if 1 were Voltaire and a private man, I could with much com- 
posure leave Fortune to her whirlings and her plungings ; to me, con- 
tented with the needful, her mad caprices and sudden topsy-turvyings 
would be amusing rather than tremendous. 

' I know the ennui attending on honours, the burdensome duties, the 
jargon of grinning flatterers, those pitiabilities of every kind, those 
details of littleness, with which you have to occupy yourself if set on 
high on the stage of things. Foolish glory has no charm for me, though 
a Poet and King : when once Apropos has ended me forever, what will 
the uncertain honour of living in the Temple of Memory avail ? One 
moment of practical happiness is worth a thousand years of imaginary in 
such Temple. Is the lot of high people so very sweet, then ? Pleasure, 
gentle ease, true and hearty mirth, have always fled from the great and 
their peculiar pomps and labours. 

< No, it is not fickle Fortune that has ever caused my sorrows ; let her 
smile her blandest, let her frown her fiercest on me, I should sleep every 
night, refusing her the least worship. But our respective conditions are 
our law; we are bound and commanded to shape our temper to the 
employment we have undertaken. Voltaire in his hermitage, in a 



1 * I am a man, and therefore born to suffer ; to destiny's rigours my stead- 
fastness must correspond/ Quotation from I know not whom. 



CHAP, vii.] FRIEURICH IN THURINGEN 253 

mh Oct. 1757] 

Country where is honesty and safety, can devote himself in peace to the 
life of the Philosopher, as Plato has described it But as to me, threatened 
with shipwreck, I must consider how, looking the tempest in the face, 
I can think, can live and can die as a King : 

' Pour moi, mcnact du naufrage, 
Je dots, en affrontant Forage, 
Penser, vivre et mourir en rot." 1 

This is of October 9th; this ends, worthily, the Lamenta- 
tion-Psalms ; work having now turned-up, which is a favour- 
able change. Friedrich^s notion of suicide, we perceive, is by 
no means that of puking-up one's existence, in the weak sick 
way ofjfelo de se ; but, far different, that of dying, if he needs 
must, as seems too likely, in uttermost spasm of battle for 
self and rights to the last. From which latter notion nobody 
can turn him. A valiantly definite, lucid and shiningly prac- 
tical soul, with such a power of always expectorating him- 
self into clearness again. If he do frankly wager his life in 
that manner, beware, ye Soubises, Karls and flaccid trivial 
persons, of the stroke that may chance to lie in him ! 

III. Rumour of an Inroad on Berlin suddenly sets Friedrich 
on March thither: Inroad takes Effect ;, with important 
Results > chiefly in a left-hand Form 

October llth, express arrived, important express from 
General Finck (who is in Dresden, convalescent from Kolin, 
and is even Commandant there, of anything there is to com- 
mand), c That the considerable Austrian Brigade or Outpost, 
which was left at Stolpen when the others went for Silesia, 
is all on march for Berlin."* Here is news ! * The whole 
15,000 of them,' report adds ; though it proved to be only 
a Detachment, picked Tolpatches mostly, and of nothing 
like that strength ; shot-off, under a swift General Haddick, 
on this errand. Between them and Berlin is not a vestige of 
force ; and Berlin itself has nothing but palisades, and perhaps 
a poor 4,000 of garrison. * March instantly, you Morita, 

1 (Euvrts, xxiii. 14. 



54 SEVEN-YEARS WAR RISES [BOOKXVIII. 

[t5th Oct. 2757 

who lie nearest ; cross Elbe at Torgau ; I follow instantly ! ' 
orders Friedrich ; l and that same night is on march s or has 
cavalry pushed ahead for reinforcement of Moritz. 

Friedrich, not doubting but there would be captaincy and 
scheme among his Enemies, considered that the Swedes, 
and perhaps the Richelieu French, were in concert with this 
Austrian movement, from east, from north, from west, 
three Invasions coming on the core of his Dominions ; and 
that here at last was work ahead, and plenty of it ! That 
was Friedriclfs opinion, and most other peopled, when the 
Austrian inroad was first heard of : * mere triple ruin coming 
to this King,' as the Gazetteers judged ; great alarm pre- 
vailing among the King^s friends ; in Berlin, very great. 
Friedrich, glad, at any rate, to have done with that dismal 
lingering at Buttelstadt, hastens to arrange himself for the 
new contingencies ; to post his Keiths, his Ferdinands, with 
their handfuls of force, to best advantage ; and push ahead 
after Moritz, by Leipzig, Torgau, Berlin-wards, with all his 
might. At Leipzig, in such press of business and interest, 
judge by the following phenomenon, what a clear-going soul 
this is, and how completely on a level with whatever it may 
be that he is marching towards : 

'Leipzig, 15th October 1757 (Interview with Gottsched.) At 11 this 
morning 1 , Majesty came marching Into Leipzig ; multitudes of things to 
settle there ; things ready, things not yet ready, in view of the great 
events ahead. Seeing that he would have time after dinner, he at once 
sent for Professor Gottsched, a gigantic gentleman, Reigning King of 
German Literature for the time being, to come to him at # P.M. Reigu- 
ing King at that time ; since gone wholly to the Dustbins, tf Popular 
Delusion," as old Samuel defines it, having since awakened to itself, 
with scornful hahas upon its poor Gottsched, and rushed into other roadi 
worse and better j its poor Gottsched become a name now signifying 
Pedantry, Stupidity, learned Inanity and the Worship of Coloured Water, 
to every German mind. 

' At 3 precise, the portly old gentleman (towards sixty now, huge of 
tature, with a shrieky voice, and speaks uncommonly fast) bowed 

* His Meaa to Moritz, Orlick) p. 73 : Rodenbeck, p. 323 (dubious, or 
wrong). 



CHAP, vii.] FRIEDRICH IN THURINGEN 255 

15th Oct. 1757] 

himself in ; and a Colloquy ensued, on Literature and so forth, of the 
kind we may conceive* Colloquy which had great fame in the world; 
Gottsched himself having, such the inaccuracy of rumour and Dutch 
Newspapers, on the matter, published authentic Report of it; 1 now 
one of the dullest bits of reading, and worth no man's bit of time. 
Colloquy which lasted three hours, with the greatest vivacity on both 
sides; King impugning, for one principal thing, the roughness of 
German speech ; Gottsched, in swift torrents (far too copious in such 
company), ready to defend. * ( Those consonants of ours," said the King, 
" they afflict one's ear : what Names we have ; all in mere /e's and p's : 
Knap , Knip , Klop , Krotx , Krok ; your own Name, for 
example !*" Yes, his own Name, unmusical Gottftched, and signifying 
God's-Damage (God's-skaith) withal. c " Husht, don't take a Holy Name 
in vain ; call the man Sched ( c Damage' by itself), can't we ! " said a wit 
once. 2 *'Five consonants together, ttsch, ttsch, what a tone !" continued 
the King. " Hear, in contrast, the music of this Stanza of Rousseau's" 
(Repeats a stanza). " Who could express that in German with such 
melody?" And so on; branching through a great many provinces; King's 
knowledge of all Literature, new and ancient, ee perfectly astonishing- to 
me"; and I myself, the swift-speaking Gottsched, rather copious than 
otherwise. Catastrophe, and summary of the whole, was : Gottsched 
undertook to translate the Rousseau Stanza into German of moderate 
softness ; and by the aid of water did so, that very night ; 3 sent it next 
day, and had <f within an hour " a gracious Royal Answer in verse ; 
calling one, incidentally, ee Saxon Swan, Cygne Saxon" though one is 
such a Goose! " Majesty to march at 7 tomorrow morning," said a 
Postscript, no interviewing more, at present 

'About ten days after* (not to let this thing interrupt us again), 
Friedrich, on his return to Leipzig, had another Interview with Gott- 
sched ; of only one hour, this time ; but with many topics : Reading of 
some Gottsched Ode (Ode, very tedious, frothy, watery, of Thanks to 
Majesty for such goodness to the Saxon Swan ; reading, too, of f some of 
Madam Gottsched's Pieces "). Majesty confessed afterwards, Every hour 
from the very first had lowered his opinion of the Saxon Swan, till at 
length Goosehood became too apparent. Friedrich sent him a gold snuff- 
box by and by, but had no farther dialoguing. 

* A saying of Excellency Mitchell's to Gottsched, for Gottsched, on 

1 Next Year, in a principal Leipzig Magazine, with name signed : given in 
ffelden-Geschichte) iv. 728-39 (with multifarious commentaries and flourishing^, 
denoting an attentive world). Nicolai, AnekdoUn, iii, 2^6-290, 

8 Nicolai, Anekdotm* iii. 287. 

8 Copfcd duly in HtMen*GnsM&kte> if, 76. 



256 SEVEN-YEARS WAR RISES [BOOKXVIII. 

[i5th Oct. 1757 

that second Leipzig- opportunity, went swashing about among the King's 
Suite as well, is still remembered. They were talking of Shakspeare : 
" Genial, if you will," said Gottsched, ee but the Laws of Aristotle ; Five 
Acts, unities strict!" "Aristotle? What is to hinder a man from 
making- his Tragedy in Ten acts, if it suit him better ? " " Impossible, 
your Excellency ! " e< Pooh/' said his Excellency ; <e suppose Aristotle, 
and general Fashion too, had ordered that the clothes of every man were 
to be cut from five ells of cloth : how would the Herr Professor like ** 
(with these huge limbs of his) ce if he found there were no breeches for 
Mm, on Aristotle's account ? " Adieu to Gottsched ; most voluminous of 
men ; who wrote a Grammar of the German Language, which, they say, 
did good. I remember always his poor Wife with some pathos ; who was 
a fine, graceful, loyal creature, often times his intelligence ; and did no 
end of writing and translating and compiling (Addisou's Cato, Addison's 
Spectator, thousands of things from all languages), on order of her Gott- 
sched, till life itself sank in such enterprises ; never doubting, tragically 
faithful soul, but her Gottsched was an authentic Seneschal of Phoebus 
and the Nine/ 1 

Monday 17th, at seven, his Majesty pushed-off accordingly; 
cheery he in the prospect of work, whatever his friends in the 
distance be. Here, from Eilenburg, his first stage Torgau- 
way, are a Pair of Letters in notable contrast. 

Willwlmina to the King (on rumour of Haddick swoln into 
a Triple Invasion, Austrian, Swedish, French) 

Baireuth, 'IWfc October 1757. 

' MY DEAREST BROTHER, Death and a thousand torments could not 
equal the frightful state I am in. There run reports that make me 
shudder. Some say you are wounded ; others, dangerously ill. In vain 
have I tormented myself to have news of you ; I can get none. Oh, my 
dear Brother, come what may, I will not survive you. If I am to continue 
in this frightful uncertainty, I cannot stand it; I shall gink under it, 
and then I shall be happy. I have been on the point of sending you a 
courier ; but* (environed as we are) * I durst not. In the name of God, 
bid somebody write me one word. 

1 Her Letters t collected by a surviving Lady-Friend, * Briefe der Frau Lum 
AMgunde Viktorie Gottsched, born Kulmw (Dresden, 1771-1772, 3 vols. Svo)/ 
arc, I should suppose, the only Gottsched Piece which anybody would now 
think of reading. 



CHAP, vii.] FRIEDRICH IN THURINGEN 257 

I4th-igth Oct. 1757] 

e I know not what I have written ; my heart is torn in pieces ; I feel 
that by dint of disquietude and alarms I am losing my wits, Oh, my 
dear, adorable Brother, have pity on me. Heaven grant I be mistaken, 
and that you may scold me ; but the least thing- that concerns you pierces 
me to the heart, and alarms my affection too much. Might I die a 
thousand times, provided you lived and were happy ! 

* I can say no more. Grief chokes me ; and I can only repeat that 
your fate shall be mine ; being, my dear Brother, your WILHELMINA.' 

What a shrill penetrating tone, like the wildly- weeping voice of 
Rachel ; tragical, painful, gone quite to falsetto and above pitch ; but 
with a melody in its dissonance like the singing of the stars. My poor 
shrill Wilhelmina ! 



King to Wilhelmina (has not yet received the Above) 

'Eilenburg, 17th October 1757. 

*MY DEAREST SISTER, What is the good of philosophy unless one 
employ it in the disagreeable moments of life? It is then, my dear 
Sister, that courage and firmness avail us. 

e I am now in motion ; and having once got into that, you may calculate 
I shall not think of sitting down again, except under improved omens. 
If outrage irritates even cowards, what will it do to hearts that have 
courage ? 

c I foresee I shall not be able to write again for perhaps six weeks : 
which fails not to be a sorrow to me : but I entreat you to be calm 
during these turbulent affairs, and to wait with patience the month of 
December ; paying no regard to the Nurnberg Newspapers nor to those 
of the Reich, which are totally Austrian. 

e I am tired as a dog (comme un chieri). I embrace you with my whole 
heart; being with the most perfect affection (tendresse) 3 my dearest 
Sister, your ' FRIEDBICH. 

* * (at some other hour, same place and day.) f e( No possibility of 
Peace," say your accounts ' (Letter lost) ; c " the French won't hear my 
name mentioned." Well; from me they shall not farther. The way 
will be, to speak to them by action, so that they may repent their 
impertinences and pride. ' x 

The Haddick affair, after all the rumour about it, proved 
to be a very small matter. No Swede or Richelieu had 
dreamt of cooperating ; Haddick, in the end, scarce 4,000 

1 (Euvres de Frtdtric } xxvii I, 308, 309, 310. 
VOL. VT. E 



258 SEVEN-YEARS WAR RISES [BOOKXVIII. 

[*4th-i9th Oct. 1757 

with four cannon; General Rochow, Commandant of Berlin, 
with his small garrison, had not Haddick skilfully slidden 
through woods, and been so magnified by rumour, might have 
marched out, and beaten a couple of Haddicks. As it was, 
Haddick skilfully emerging, at the Silesian Gate of Berlin, 
1 6th October, about eleven in the morning, demanded ransom 
of 300,000 thalers (45,OOOZ.) ; was refused ; began shooting 
on the poor palisades, on the poor drawbridge there ; c at the 
third shot brought down the drawbridge ' ; rushed into the 
suburb ; and was not to be pushed out again by the weak 
party Rochow sent to try it. Rochow, ignorant of Haddick's 
force, marched off thereupon for Spandau with the Royal 
Family and effects; leaving Haddick master of the suburb, 
and Berlin to make its own bargain with him. Haddick, his 
Croats not to be quite kept from mischief, remained master 
of the suburb, minatory upon Berlin, for twelve hours or 
more : and after a good deal of bargaining, ransom of 
45,000, of 90,OOOZ., finally of 27,OOOZ. and * two-dozen 
pair of gloves to the Empress Queen, 1 made off about five 
in the morning ; wind of Moritz^s advance adding wings to 
the speed of Haddick." l 

Moritz did arrive next evening (18th) ; but with his tired 
troops there was no catching of Haddick, now three inarches 
ahead. Royal Family and effects returned from Spandau the 
day following ; but in a day or two more, removed to 
Magdeburg till the Capital were safe from such affronts. 
Much grumbling against Rochow. * What could 1 do ? How 
could I know ? ' answered Rochow, whose eyesight indeed had 
been none of the best. Berlin smarts to the length of 
7,0002. and an alarm; but asserts (not quite mythically, 
thinks Retzow), that * the two-dozen pair of gloves were all 
gloves for the left hand,' Berlin having wit, and a touch of 
absinthe in it, capable of such things ! Friedrich heard the 
news at Annaburg, a march beyond Torgau; and there 

1 ffelden~Gt$chichte> iv, 715-723 (Haddick's own Account, and the Berlin 
one). 



CHAP, vii.] FRIEDRICH IN THURINGEN 259 

*4th-igth Oct. 1757] 

paused, again uncertain, for about a week coming; after 
which, he discovered that Leipzig would be the place ; and 
returned thither, appointing a general rendezvous and con- 
centration there. 



Scene at Regensburg in the Interim 

Just while Haddick was sliding swiftly through the woods, 
Berlin now nigh, there occurred a thing at Regensburg; 
tragic thing, but ending in farce, Finale of Reichs-Acht, in 
short ; about which all Regensburg was loud, wailing or 
haha-ing according to humour ; while Berlin was paying its 
ransom and left-hand gloves. One moment's pause upon this, 
though our haste is great. 

* Reichs Diet had got its Ban of the Reich ready for Friedrich ; Citatio 
(solemn Summons) and all else complete ; nothing now wanted but to 
serve Citatio on him, or e( insinuate " it into him, as their phrase is ; 
which latter essential point occasions some shaking of wigs. Dangerous, 
serving Citatio in that quarter : and by what art try to smuggle it into 
the hands of such a one ? ' ' Insinuate it here into his, Plotho's, hand ; 
that is the method, and that will suffice ! " say the wigs, and choose an 
unfortunate Reichs Notary, Dr. Aprill, to do it; who, in ponderous 
Chancery-style, gives the following affecting report, wonderful, but 
intelligible (when abridged) : 

* Citatio* to come and receive your Ban, a very solemn-sounding* 
Document, commencing (or perhaps it is Aprill himself that so com- 
mences, no matter which), cc In the Name of the Most High God, the 
Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, Amen," c was given, Wednesday 12th 
October, in the Year after Christ our dear Lord and Saviour's Birth, 
1757 Years, To me Georgius Mathias Josephus Aprill, sworn KaiserUch 
Notarius Publicus ; In my Lodging, first-floor fronting south, in Jacob 
Virnrohr the Innkeeper's House here at Regensburg, called the Red- 
Star/ for insinuation into Plotho : 

With which solemn Piece, Aprill proceeded next day, Thursday, 
half-past 2 P.M., to Plotho's dwelling-place, described with equal irre- 
fragability ; and, continues Aprill, c did there, by a servant of the Herr 
Ambassador von Plotho's, announce myself; adding that I had something 
to say to jbiis Excellency, if he would please to admit me. To which 
the Herr Ambassador by the same servant sent answer, that he was ill 
with a cold, and that I might speak to his Secretarius whab I had to say. 



260 SEVEN-YEARS WAB RISES [BOOK xvin. 

[i4th-igth Oct. 1757 

But, as I replied that my message was to his Excellent in person, the 
same servant came back with intimation that I might call again tomorrow 
at noon/ 

Tomorrow., at the stroke of noon, Friday 14th October, Aprill 
punctually appears again, with recapitulation of the pledge given him 
yesterday ; and is informed that he can walk up stairs. ( I proceeded 
thereupon, the servant going before, up one pair of stairs, or with the 
appurtenances (Gexeugeri) rather more than one pair, into the Herr 
Ambassador Freiherr von Plotho's Ante-room; who, just as we were 
entering, stept in himself, through a side-door ; in his dressing-gown, 
and with the words, <f Speak now what you have to say." 

( I thereupon slipt into his hand Oitatio M$cali$ 3 and said* said at 
first nothing, Potho avers; merely mumbled, looked like some poor 
caitiff, come with Law-papers on a trifling Suit we happen to have in 
the Courts here ; and only by degrees said (let us abridge ; Swne 9 
Aprill and Plotho, Ante-room in Regensburg, first-floor and rather 
higher) : 

Aprill. e C I have to give your Excellent this Writing," - (which 
privately, could your Excellent guess it, is) " Oitatio Fiscalw from the 
Reichstag, summoning his Majesty to show cause why Bun of the Reich 
should not pass upon him ! " His Excellent at first took the Citatio and 
adjuncts from me ; and looking into them to see what they were, hiH 
Excellent face began to colour, and soon after to colour a little more ; 
and on his looking attentively at Citatio PfooaRs, h broke into violent 
anger and rage, so that he could not stand still any longer ; but with 
burning face, and both arms held aloft, rushed close to me, Oitatio and 
adjuncts in his right hand, and broke-out in this form : 

Plotho. c ff What ; insinuate (insinuieren), you scoundrel ! " 

AprilL <ec lt is my Notarial Office; I must do it." In npite of which 
the Freiherr von Plotho fell on me with all rage ; grasped me by the 
front of the cloak, and said : 

Plotho. e ee Take it back, wilt thou !" And as I restated doing BO, ha 
stuck it in upon me, and shoved it down with all violence between my 
coat and waistcoat; and, still holding me by the cloak, called to the 
two servants who had been there, "Fling him down stairs I "whfoh 
they, being discreet fellows, and in no flurry, did not quite, nor mnxtpd 
quite to do ( S Must, sir, you see, unless ! "), and so forced ma out of tho 
house; Excellenz Plotho retiring through hi Ante-room, an<i hi* Body- 
servant, who at first had been on the stairn, likewise disappearing as I 
got under way,' and have to report, in such manner, to the I ' 
and Reichs Diet, with tears in my eyes. 1 



1 Preuss, il 397-401 -> in HMen-GwhiehUi iv 745-9, riotho's Account. 



CHAP, vii.] FRIEDRICH IN THURINGEN 261 

a6th-30th Oct. 1757] 

What became of Reichs Ban after this., ask not It fell dead by 
Friedrich's victories now at hand ; rose again into life on Friedrich's 
misfortunes (August 1758), threatening to include George Second in it ; 
upon which the Corpus JSvangelicorum made some counter-mumblement ; 
and, I have heard, the French privately advised : e Better drop it ; 
these two Kings are capable of walking otit of you, and dangerously 
kicking the table over as they go ! ' Whereby it again fell dead, 
positively for the last time, and, in short, is worth no mention or 
remembrance more. 

Corpus Evangelicorum had always been against Reichs Ban : a few 
Dissentients, or Half-Dissentients excepted, as Mecklenburg wholly 
and with a will ; foolish Anspach wholly ; and the Anhalts haggling 
some dissent, and retracting it (why, I never knew) ; for which Meck- 
lenburg and the Anhalta, lying within clutch of one, had to repent 
bitterly in the years coming ! Enough of all that. 

The Haddick invasion, which had got its gloves, left- 
hand or not, and part of its road expenses, brought another 
consequence much more important on the pcr^conira side, 
The triumphing, te-demti-mg and jubilation over it,* His 
Metropolis captured ; Iloyal Family iu flight ! n raised the 
Dauphiness Army, and especially Versailles, into such en- 
thusiasm, that Dauphiness came bodily out (on order from 
Versailles); spread over the Country, plundering and insulting 
beyond example ; got herself reinforced by a 115,000 from 
the Richelieu Army; crossed the Saale; determined on taking 
Leipzig, beating Friedrieh, and I know not what Keith, in 
I^eipsdg with a small Party, had summon** from Soubige** 
vanguard (October 24th): Keith amwemi, He would bum 
the suburbs ; ujxm which, said vanguard, hearing of Fried- 
rich'H advent withal, took itself rapidly away. And Soubifte 
and it would fain have recrod Saalt', 1 have midratood, 
bad not Versailles been peremptory* 

In a word, Prhxlrich arrived at JU'ipxtg October 2(ith ; 
Ferdinand, MoritK mid all the oliitrs coining or almndy come: 
and there is something great jut at Ittmcl Friedricir ntay 
in J^elpzig wa.s only four day. Cheering prosfKtct of work 
now ahead here; -iwW to thiw, awiunuut* from I*rt?u*i fliat 
Apraxin JH fairly going bonus mtd I^hwaid coining to look 



SEVEN-YEARS WAR RISES [BOOKXVIII. 

[a6th-30th Oct. 1757 

after the Swedes. Were it not that there is bad news from 
Silesia, things generally are beginning to look up. 

Of the hour spent on Gottsched, in these four days, we 
expressly take no notice farther ; but there was another visit 
much less conspicuous, and infinitely more important : that of 
a certain Hanoverian Graf von Schulenburg, not in red or 
with plumes, like a Major-General as he was, but 'in the 
black suit of a Country Parson, 1 coming, in that unnoticeable 
guise, to inform Friedrich officially, 'That the Hanoverians 
and Majesty of England have resolved to renounce the Con- 
vention of Kloster-Zeven ; to bring their poor Stade Army 
into the field again ; and do now request him, King Friedrich, 
to grant them Duke Ferdinand of Brunswick to be General 
of the same. 1 1 

Here is an unnoticeable message, of very high moment 
indeed. To which Friedrich, already prepared, gives his 
cheerful consent; nominations and practicalities to follow, 
the instant these present hurries are over. Who it was that 
had prepared all this, whose suggestion it first was, Priedridbus, 
Mitchell's, George's, Pitt's, I do not know, I cannot help 
suspecting Pitt ; Pitt and Friedrich together. And certainly 
of all living men, Ferdinand, related to the English and 
Prussian royalties, a soldier of approved excellence, and like- 
wise a noble-minded, prudent, patient and invincibly valiant 
and steadfast man, was, beyond comparison, the fittest for 
this office. Pitt is now fairly in power; and perceives, 
such Pitt's originality of view, that an Army with a (Jap tain 
to it may differ beautifully from one without. And in fact 
we may take this as the first twitch at the reins, on Pitffc 
part ; whose delicate strong hand, all England running to it 
with one heart, will be felt at the ends of the earth before 
many months go. To the great and unexpected joy of 

1 Mauvillon, L 256; Westphalen, i. 315: indistinct both, and with slight 
variations. Mitchell Papers (in British Museum), likewise indistinct : Addi - 
tional MSS. 6815, PP 9 6 and 108 ('Lord Holderncss to Mitchell/ doubtless on 
Pitt's instigation, * loth October 1757,* is the beginning of it, two days before 

Royal Highness got home from Stade) ; see i$. 6806, pp. 241-252. 



CHAP.VIIL] BATTLE OF ROSSBACH 263 

30th Oct. 1757] 

Friedrich, for one. 6 England has taken long to produce a 
great man/ he said to Mitchell ; * but here is one at last ! ' 



CHAPTER VIII 

BATTLE OF ROSSBACH 

FRTEDRICH left Leipzig Sunday October f30th ; encamped, 
that night, on the famous Field of Lutzen; with the vanguard, 
he (as usual, and Mayer with him, who did some brisk smiting- 
home of what French there were); Keith and Duke Ferdinand 
following, with main body and rear* 

Movements on the Soubise-Hildburghausen part are all 
retrograde again ; can Dauphiness Bellona do nothing, then, 
except shuttle forwards and then backwards according to 
Friedridbus absence or presence? The Soubise-Hildburghauisen 
Army does immediately withdraw on this occasion, as on the 
former; and makes for the safe side of the Saale again, rapidly 
retreating before Fried rich, who is not above one to two of 
them, -more like one to three, now that Broglio\s Detach- 
ment is come to hand, Broglio got to Mersclwrg October 
26th, guess 15,000 strong ; considerably out of repair, 
and glad to have done with such a march, and be within 
reach of Soubise. This is the Second Son of our old Bluster- 
ous Friend ; a man who came to some mark, and to a great 
deal of trouble, in this War ; and ended, readers know how, 
at the Siege of the Bastille thirty-two years afterwards ! 

So soon as rested, Broglio, by order, moves leftwards to 
Halle, to guard Sn&le Bridge then? ; Houhise himself edging 
after him to Merseburg, on a similar errand; and leaving 
Hildburghausen to take charge of Weissenfels and the Third 
Saale Bridge,* That is Dauphincss's posture while Friedrich 
encamp at Liiten:~ltt impatient human nature fix these 
three places for itself, uncl hasten to the catastrophe of 
* Han, end of vol. 



264 SEVEN-YEARS WAR RISES [BOOKXVIIL 

[3ist Oct. 1757 

wretched Dauphiness. Soubise, it ought to be remembered, 
is not in the highest spirits ; but his Officers in over-high, 
6 Doing this petit Marquis de Brandebourg the honour to have 
a kind of War with him (de lui faire une espcce de guerre).? 
as they term it. Being puffed-up with general vanity, and 
the newspaper rumour about Haddiek^s feat, which, like the 
gloves it got, is going all to left-hand in this way. Hild- 
burghausen and the others overrule Soubise; and indeed 
there is no remedy ; ' Provision almost out ; how retreat to 
our magazines and our fastnesses, with Friedrich once across 
Saale, and sticking to the skirts of us ? ' Here, from eye- 
witnesses where possible, are the successive steps of Dauphiness 
towards her doom, which is famous in the world ever since. 

6 Monday 31st October 1757,' as the Town-Syndic of 
Weissenfels records, 6 about eight in the morning, 1 the King 
of Prussia, with his whole Army ' (or what seemed to us the 
whole, though it was but a half ; Keith with the other half 
being within reach to northward, marching Merseburg way), 
* came before this Town,' Has been here before ; as Keith 
has, as Soubise and others have : a town much agitated lately 
by transit of troops. It was from the eastern, or high land- 
ward side, where the so-called Castle is, that Friedrich came : 
Castle built originally on some * White Crag ( Weme FeUJ 
not now conspicuous), from which the town and whilom 
Duchy take their name. 

f We have often heard of Weissenfels, while the poor old drunken 
Duke lived, who used to be a Suito* of Wilhelmiua'^ liable to hard 
usage ; and have marched through it, with the Salzburgern, in peaceable 
times. A solid pleasant-enough little place (0^000 souls or HO) ; lien kmnt 
against high ground (White Crags,, or whatever it once was) on the 
eastern or right bank of the Saale ; a Town in part flat, in part very 
steep; the streets of it, or main street and secondaries running off 
level enough from the River and Bridge ; rising by low degree*), but lit 
last rapidly against the high ground or cliffs, ju^t mentioned ; a ntif 

1 Milller, Schlacht hi JR&ssbach ('a Centenary Piece/ Berlin, 1857, contain- 
ing several curious extracts), p. 44; Helden-Gesthbhte) iv, 643, 65X-&0& 



CHAP, vm.] BATTLE OF ROSSBACH 265 

3ist Oct. 1757] 

acclivity of streets, till crowned by the so-called Castle, the cc Augustus 
Burg" in those days, the e f Friedrich-Wilhelm Barrack" in ours. It was 
on this crown of the cliffs that his Prussian Majesty appeared. 

( Saale is of good breadth here ; has done perhaps two hundred miles, 
since he started, in the Fichtelgebirge (Pine Mountains), on his long 
course Elbe-ward ; received, only ten miles ago, his last big branch, the 
wide- wandering Unstrut, coming-in with much drainage from the northern 
parts : in breadth, Saale may be compared to Thames, to Tay or 
Beauly ; his depth not fordable, though nothing like so deep as 
Thames's ; main cargo visible is rafts of timber ; banks green, definite, 
scant of wood : river of rather dark complexion, mainly noiseless, but of 
useful pleasant qualities otherwise. * 

From this Castle or landward side come Friedrieh and his 
Prussians, on Monday morning about eight. & The garrison, 
some 4,000 Reichs folk and a French Battalion or two, shut 
the Gates, and assembled in the Market-place,"* a big square, 
close at the foot of the Heights ; * on the other hand, from 
the top of the Heights ' (Klammcr'k the particular spot), * the 
Prussians cannonaded Town and Gates ; to speedy bursting- 
open of the same ; and rushed in over the walls of the 
Castle-court, and by other openings into the Town : so that 
the garrison above-said had to quit, and roll with all speed 
across the Saale Bridge, and set the same on lire behind 
them. 1 This was their remedy for all the Three Bridges, 
when attacked ; but it succeeded nowhere so well as here. 

4 The fire was of extreme rapidity; prepared beforehand"*: 
Bridge all of dry wood coated with pitch ;< fire reinforced 
too, in view of such event, by all the suet, lard and 
oleaginous matter the Garrison could find in Weisscnfels ; 
some hundredweights of tallow-dips, for one item, going up 
on this occasion,** Bridge, 'worth 100,000 thalers," is 
instantly ablasse : some 400 finding the Bridge MO flamy, and 
the Prussians at their skirts, were obliged to surrender ; 
Peklmarsehall IliUlburghuusen* sleeping about two miles off, 
gets himself awakened in this unpleasant manner. Hying 
garrison halt on the other side of the Hiver, where the rest 
of their Army is ; plant <*awum there against quenching of 



SEVEN-YEARS WAE RISES [BOOK xvm. 

[3ist Oct. 1757 

the Bridge ; and so keep firing, answered by the Prussians, 
with much noise and no great mischief, till 3 P.M., when the 
Bridge is quite gone (Tollkeeper's Lodge and all), and the 
enterprise of crossing there had plainly become impossible. 

Eriedrich quickly, about a mile farther down the River, 
has picked-out another crossing-place, in the interim, and 
founded some new adequate plank or raft bridge there; 
which, by diligence all night, will be crossable tomorrow. 
So that, except for amusing the enemy, the cannonading may 
cease at Weissenfels. A certain Due de Crillon, in command 
at this Weissenfels Bridge-burning and cannonade, has a 
chivalrous Anecdote (amounting nearly to xero when well 
examined) about saving or sparing Friedrieli's life on this 
interesting occasion : How, being now on the safe side of the 
River, he Crillon with his staff taking some refection of 
breakfast after the furious flurry there had been ; there came 
to him one of his Artillery Captains, stationed in an Island 
in the River, asking, c Shall I shoot the King of Prussia, 
Monseigneur? He is down recoimoitering Ms end of the 
Bridge : shaVt I, then ? ' To whom Crilion gives a glass of 
wine and smilingly magnanimous answer to a negative effect. 1 
Concerning which, one has to remark, Not only, jftr&t, that 
the Artillery Captain's power of seeing Friedrich (which is 
itself uncertain) would indeed mean the power of aiming at 
him, but differs immensely from that of hitting him with 
shot ; so that this c Shall I kill the King ? ' was mainly 
thrasonic wind from Captain Bertin. But secondly that there 
is no c Island "* in the River thereabouts, for Captain Berlin to 
fire from ! So that probably the whole story is wind or little 
more : dreamlike, or at best some idle thrasonic* Uusoru tic 
question, on the part of Bertin ; proper answer thereto (con- 
sisting mainly of a glass of wine) from Momeignc'ur ; all 
which, on retrospection, Monseigneur feels, or would fain feel, 
to have been not theoretic-thrasonic but practical, and of a 

i * MJmoires militaires ds Lvuis* etc.. Due dt Crillon (Park* 1791), p. 1 66'$ 

as cited by Pretiss, ii, 88, 



CHAP, vill.] BATTLE OF ROSSBACH 267 

3d Nov. 1757] 

rather godlike nature. Zero mainly, as we said ; Friedrich 
thanks you for zero, Monseigneur. 

c The Prussians were billeted in the Town that night, 7 says 
our Syndic ; 6 and in many a house there came to be twenty 
men, and even thirty and above it, lodged. All was quiet 
through the night ; the French and the Reichs folk were 
drawn back upon the higher grounds, about Burgwerben and 
on to Tagwerben ; * and we saw their watchfires burning." 
Friedrich's Bridge meanwhile, unmolested by the enemy, is 
getting ready. 

Keith, looking across to Merseburg on the morrow morn- 
ing (Tuesday Nov. 1st), whither he had marched direct with 
the other Half of the Army, finds Merseburg Bridge destroyed, 
or broken ; and Soubise with batteries on the farther side, 
intending to dispute the passage. Keith despatches Duke 
Ferdinand to Halle, another twelve miles down, who finds 
Halle Bridge destroyed in like manner, and Broglio intending 
to dispute ; which, however, on second thoughts, neither of 
them did, Friedrich's new Bridge at Herren-Miilile (Lord- 
ships* Mill) is of course an important point to them ; 
Fried rich's passage now past dispute! c Ix*t us fall back," 
say they, * and rank ourselves a little; we are 50 or 60,000 
strong ; ill-off for provisions ; but well able to retreat ; and 
have permission to fight on this side of the River.' 

The combined Army, * Dauphineaa, 1 * or whatever we are to 
call it, does on Wednesday morning (November Sd) gather-in 
its cannon and outskirts, and give-up the Saale question ; 
retire landwards to the higher grounds some miles; and 
dilligently get itself united, and into order of battle better 
or worse, near the Village of Miicheln (which means Kirk 
Michael^ and is still written * tfanct Afkh^r by some on this 
occasion)* There Duuphinens takes po$t> leaning on the 
heights, not in a very scientific way; leaving Keith and 
Ferdinand to rebuild their Bridges unmolested, and all 
Prussians to come across at discretion. Which they have 
* Sketch of Maty end of vol. 



268 SEVEN-YEARS WAR RISES [BOOKXVIIL 

[5th Nov. 1757 

diligently done (2d~3d November), by their respective Bridges; 
and on Thursday afternoon are all across, encamped at Bedra, 
in close neighbourhood to Miicheln ; which Friedrich has 
been out reconnoitering, and finds that he can attack next 
morning very early. 

Next morning, accordingly, * by 2 o'clock, with a bright 
moon shining,' JMedrich is on horseback, his Army following. 
But on examining by moonlight, the enemy have shifted their 
position ; turned on their axis, more or less, into new wood- 
patches, new batteries and bogs ; which has greatly mended 
their affair. No good attacking them so, thinks Friedrich ; 
and returns to his Camp ; slightly cannonaded, one wing of 
him, from some battery of the enemy; and immoderately 
crowed-over by them : < Dare not, you see ! Tried, and was 
defeated ! ' cry their newspapers and they, for one day. 
Friedrich lodges again in Bedra this night, others say in 
Rossbach ; shifts his own Camp a little ; left wing of it now 
at Rossbach (Jtiorse-Brook, or Beck, soon to be a world-famous 
Hamlet) : the effects of hunger on the Dauphiness, so far 
from her supplies, will, he calculates, be stronger than on 
him, and will bring her to better terms shortly. Dauphiness 
needs bread; one may have fine clipping at the skirts of 
her, if she try retreat. That Dauphiness would play the 
prank she did next morning, Friedrich had nob ventured to 
calculate. 



Catastrophe qfDawpHncss (Saturday 5th November 1757) 

Meandering Saale is on one of his big turns, a*s he passes 
Weissenfek; turning, pretty rapidly here, from aouth-wiHtwrnxI* 
which he was a dozen miles ago, round to north-eastward 
again or northward altogether, which he gets to be at 
Merseburg, a doaen farther down. Right across from Wew- 
senfels, lapped in this crook of the Smile, or witshecl by it on 
south side and on east, rises, with extreme laxinesH, a dull 
circular lump of country, six or eight miles in diameter ; with 



CHAP, vm.] BATTLE OF ROSSBACH 269 

5th Nov. 1757] 

Rossbach and half-a-dozen other scraggy sleepy Hamlets 
scattered on it ; which, till the morning of Saturday 5th 
November 1757, had not been notable to any visitor. The 
topmost point or points, for there are two (not discoverable 
except by tradition and guess), the country people do call Hills 
Janus-Hugel, P'6lzen-Hugel, Hill sensible to wagon-horses, in 
those bad loose tracks of sandy mud, but unimpressive on the 
Tourist, who has to admit that there seldom was so flat a Hill. 
Rising, let us guess, forty yards in the three or four miles it 
has had. Might be called a perceptibly potbellied plain, 
with more propriety ; flat country, slightly puffed-up ; in 
shape not steeper than the mould of an immense tea-saucer 
would be. Tea-saucer 6 miles in diameter, 100 feet in depth, 
and of irregular contour, which indeed will sufficiently represent 
it to the reader's mind. 

Saale, at four or five miles distance, bounds this scraggy 
lump on the east and on the south. Westward and north- 
ward, springing about Mucheln on each hand, and setting off 
to right and to left Saale- ward, are what we take to be two 
brooks ; at least are two hollows : and behind these, the 
country rises higher ; undulating still on lazy terms, but now 
painted azure by the distance, not unpleasant to behold, with 
its litter all lapped out of sight, and its poor brooks tinkling 
forward (as we judge) into the Saale, Mcrscburg way, or 
reverse-wise into the Unstrut, the last big branch of Saale. 
Southward from our Janus Height, eight or nine miles off, 
may be seen some vestige of Freiburg ; steeple or gilt 
weathercock faintly visible, on the Unstrut yonder ; which I 
take to be SoubLsels bread-basket at present. And farther 
off, and opposite the moutk of the Unstrut, well across the 
Saak% lies another nameable Town (visible in clear weather, as 
a smoke-cloud at certain hours, about meal-time, when the 
kettles are on boil), the Town of Naumburg,- one of several 
German Naumburgv~~the Naumburg of Gustaf Adolf; where 
Ms slain body lay, on the night of Lit teen Wattle, with Ms 
poor Queen awl othiTH weeping over it. Naumburg in on tho 



270 SEVEN-YEARS WAR RISES [BOOKXVIII. 

[5th Nov. 1757 

other side of Saaie, not of importance to Soubise in such 
posture. 

This is the circular block, or lump of country, on the north 
or north-west side of which Friedrich now lies, and which will 
become, he little thinks how memorable on the morrow. Over 
the heights, immediately eastward of Friedrich, there is a kind 
of hollow, or scooped-out place; shallow valley of some extent, 
which deserves notice against tomorrow : but in general the 
ground is lazily spherical, and without noticeable hollows or 
valleys when fairly away from the River. A dull blunt lump 
of country ; made of sand and mud, may have been grassy 
once, with broom on it, in the pastoral times ; is now under 
poor plough-husbandry, arable or scratchable in all parts, and 
looks rather miserable in winter-time. No vestige of hedge 
on it, of shrub or bush ; one tree, ugly but big, which may 
have been alive in Friedrich's time, stands not far from 
Rossbach Hamlet; one, and no more, discoverable in these 
areas. 

Various Hamlets lie sprinkled about : very sleepy, rusty, 
irregular little places; huts and cattle-stalls huddled down, 
as if shaken from a bag; much straw, thick thatch and 
crumbly mud-brick; but looking warm and peaceable, for 
the Fourfooted and the Twofooted ; which latter, if you 
speak to them, are solid reasonable people, with energetic 
German eyes and hearts, though so ill-lodged. These 
Hamlets, needing shelter and spring-water, stand generally 
in some slight hollow, if well up the Height, as Rossbach is ; 
sometimes, if near the bottom, they are nestled in a sudden 
dell or gash, work of the primeval rains, accumulating from 
above, and ploughing-out their way. The rains, we can see, 
have been busy ; but there is seldom the least stream visible, 
bottom being too sandy and porous. On the western slope, 
there is in our time a kind of coal, or coal-dust, dug up ; in 
the way of quarrying, not of mining ; and one or two big 
chasms of this sort are confusedly busy : the natives mix this 
valuable coal-dust with water, mould it into bricks, and so 



CHAP.VIH.J BATTLE OF B.OSSBACH 271 

5th Nov. 1755-] 

use as fuel : one of the features of these hamlets is the strange 
black bricks, standing on edge about the cottage-doors, to 
drip, and dry in the sun. For this or for other reasons, the 
westward slope appears to be the best; and has a major 
share of hamlets on it : Rossbach is high up, and looks over 
upon Miicheln, and its dim belfry and appurtenances, which 
lie safe across the hollow, perhaps two miles off, safe from 
Friedrich, if there were eatables and lodging to be had in 
such a place. Friedrich's left wing is in Rossbach. Bedra 
where Friedrich's right wing is ; Branderode where the Soubise 
right is ; then Grost, Schevenroda, Zeuchfeld, Pettstadt, 
Lunstadt, especially Reichartswerben, where Soubise's right 
will come to be : these the reader may take note of in his 
Map. Several of them lie in ashes just then ; plundered, re- 
plundered, and at last set fire to ; so busy have Soubise's 
hungry people been, of late, in the Country they came to 

* deliver."* The Freiburg road, the Naumburg road, both 
towards Merseburg, cross this Height ; straight like the 
string, Saale by Weissenfels being the bow. 

The Herrerihaus (Squire's Mansion) still stands in Ross- 
bach, with the littery Hamlet at its flank : a high, pavilion- 
roofed, and though dilapidated, pretentious kind of House ; 
some kind of court round it, some kind of hedge or screen of 
brushwood and brickwall : terribly in need of the besom, it 
and its environment throughout. King, I suppose, did lodge 
there overnight . certain it is the Squire was absent ; and the 
Squired Man, three days afterwards, reported to him as 
follows : * * * * Saturday the 5th, about 8 A.M., his Majesty 
mounted to the roof of the Herrenhaus here, some tiles having 
been removed' (for that end, or by accident, is not said), 

* and saw how the French and Reichs Army were getting in 
movement,' wriggling out of their Camp leftwards, evidently 
aiming towards Grost. 'In about an hour, near half their 
Army was through Grost, and had turned southward, rather 
south-eastward, from Grost, out in the Rossbach and Alms- 



SEVEN-YEARS WAR RISES [BOOKXVIII. 

[5th Nov. 1757 

dorf region, and proceeding still towards PettstadV towards 
Schevenroda more precisely, not towards Pettstiidt yet. * His 
Majesty looked always through the perspective : and to me 
was the grace done to be ever at his side, and to name for 
him the roads the French and Reichs Army was marching." 1 

The King had heard of this phenomenon hours before, and 
had sent out hussars and scouts upon it ; but now sees it with 
his eyes : * Going for Freiburg, and their bread-cupboard,' 
thinks the King ; who does not as yet make much of the 
movement,; but will watch it well, and calculates to have a 
stroke at the rear end of it, in due season. With which 
view, the cavalry, Seidlitz and Mayer, are ordered to saddle ; 
foot regiments, and all else, to be in readiness. This French- 
Reichs Dauphiness is not rapid in her field-exercise ; and has 
a great deal of wriggling and unwinding before she can fairly 
pick herself out, and get forward towards Schevenroda on the 
Freiburg road. In three or in two parallel columns, artillery 
between them, horse ahead, horse arear; haggling alone there; 
making for their bread-baskets, thinks the King. A body 
of French, horse chiefly, under St. Germain, come out, in the 
Schortau-Almsdorf part, with some salvoing and prancing, as 
if intending to attack about Ilossbach, where our left wing is : 
but his Majesty sees it to be a pretence merely; awl St 
Germain, motionless, and doing nothing but cannonade a 
little, seems to agree that it is so. Dauphiness continues her 
slow movements ; King, in this Squire's Mansion of Uossbach, 
sits down to dinner, dinner with Officers at the usual hour of 
noon, little dreaming what the Dauphiness has in her head. 

Truth is, the Dauphiness is in exultant spirits, this morn- 
ing; intending great things against a certain * little Marquis 
of Brandenburg, 1 to whom one does so much honour, (ittmtmls 
looking down yesterday on the King of Praia's Camp,, ablt* 
to count every man in it (and half the men Ixjing invisible, 
owing to bends of the ground), counted him to 10,000 or HO; 
and had said, * Pshaw, are not we above 50,000; let iw end 
1 MUUer, p. 50; Kr*lenbcck. p, 326. 



CHAP, vin.] BATTLE OF ROSSBACH 273 

5th Nov. 1757] 

it ! Take him on his left. Round yonder, till we get upon 
his left, and even upon his rear withal, St. Germain cooperat- 
ing on the other side of him : on left, on rear 3 on front, at 
the same moment, is not that a sure game ? ' A very ticklish 
game, answers surly sagacious Lloyd: *No general will permit 
himself to be taken in flank with his eyes open ; and the King 
of Prussia is the unlikeliest you could try it with 1 ' 

Trying it meanwhile they are ; marching along by the low 
grounds here, intending to sweep gradually leftwards towards 
Janus-Hill quarter ; there to sweep home upon him, coil him 
up, left and rear and front, in their boa-constrictor folds, and 
end his trifle of an Army and him. * Why not, if we do our 
duty at all, annihilate his trifle of an Army ; take himself 
prisoner, and so end it?' Report says, Soubise had really, 
in some moment of enthusiasm lately, warned the Versailles 
populations to expect such a thing ; and that the Duchess of 
Orleans, forgetful of poor King Louisas presence, had in her 
enthusiasm, exclaimed : * Tantmieiuxiy I shall at last see a King, 
then ! * But perhaps it is a mere French epigram, such as 
the winds often generate there, and put down for fact. 
Friedriebus retreat to Weisscnfels is cut-oiF for Friedrich : an 
Austrian party has been at the Herrcn-Muhle Bridge this 
morning, has torn it up and pitched it into the river ; planks 
far on to Merseburg by this time. And, in fact, unless 
Friedrich be nimble But that he usually is. 

Friedridfs dinner had gone on with deliberation for about 
two hours, Friedridbrta intentions not yet known to any, but 
everybody, great and small, waiting eagerly for them, like 
greyhounds on the slip, when Adjutant Gaudi, who had 
l>een on the Housetop the while, rushes into the Dining-room 
faster than he ought, and, with ome tremor in his voice and 
eyes, reports hastily ; * At Schevenroda, at Pettstlldt yonder ! 
Enemy has turned to left- Clearly for the left. 1 -* Well, and 
if he do ? No flurry needed, Captain ! ' answered Friedrich,- 
(not in them* precise words ; but rebuking Gaudi, with a look 
not of laughter wholly, and with a certain question, as to the 

VOL, vi, s 



274 SEVEN-YEARS WAR RISES [BOOKXVIII. 

[5th Nov. 1757 

state of Gaudi's stomachic part, which is still known in 
traditionary circles, but is not mentionable here) ; and went, 
with due gravity, himself to the roof, with his Officers. < To 
the left, sure enough ; meaning to attack us there "* : the 
thing Friedrich had despaired of is voluntarily coining, then ; 
and it is a thing of stern qualities withal ; a wager of life, 
with glorious possibilities behind. 

Friedrich earnestly surveys the phenomenon for some 
minutes; in some minutes, Friedrich sees his way through 
it, at least into it, and how he will do it. Off, eastward ; 
march ! Swift are his orders ; almost still swifter the fulfil- 
ment of them. Prussian Army is a nimble article in com- 
parison with Dauphiness ! In half an hour's time, all is 
packed and to the road ; and, except Mayer and certain Free- 
Corps or Light-Horse, to amuse St Germain and his Almadorf 
people, there is not a Prussian visible in these localities to 
French eyes. * At half-past two,' says the Squire's Man, 
or let us take him a sentence earlier, to lose nothing of such 
a Document: At noon his Majesty took dinner; sat till 
about two o'clock; then again went to the roof; and per- 
ceived that the Enemy's Army at PettstSdt ware turning 
about the little Wood there north-eastward, an if for LuitstHdt' 
(into the Lunstadt road); 'such cannonading too, 1 from 
those Almsdorf people, * that the balls flew over our head**,* 
or I tremulously thought so* At half-pant two, the wore! 
was given, March ! And good speed they made about it, in 
this Herrenhaus, and out of doors too, striking their tenttt, 
and cording-up and trimly shouldering everything with in- 
credible brevity,"* as if machinery were doing it; *and at 
three, on the Prussian part, all was packed and oat into the 
court for being carried off; and, in fact, the PniHia Army 
was on march at three*' Seidlitz, with all hw Iltirse, vanish- 
ing round the comer of the Height ; Kjxseding along, invthihle 
on his northern slope there, straight for the J*uttuaP<ihsen 
Hill part ; the Infantry following, double-quick ; well 
ing, each, what lie has got to do* 



CHAP, vra.] BATTLE OF ROSSBACH MS 

5th Nov. 1757] 

But at this interesting point, the Editors, small thanks 
to them, authentic but thrice-stupid mortals, cut short our 
Eye-witness, not so much as telling us his name, some of 
them not even his date or whereabouts ; and so the curtain 
tumbles down (as if its string had been cut, or suddenly 
eaten by unwise animals), and we are left to grey hubbub, 
and our own resources at secondhand. Except only that a 
French Officer, one of those cannonading from Almsdorf, 
no doubt, declares that it was like a change of scene in 
the Opei'a (decoration cTOptra), x so very rapid ; and that 
*they all rolled~off eastward at quick time. 1 At extremely 
quick time; and soon, in the slight hollow behind Janus 
Hiigel, vanished from sight of these Almsdorf French, and 
of the Soubise-Hildburghausen Army in general. Which 
latter is agreeably surprised at the phenomenon ; and draws 
a highly flattering conclusion from it. * Gone, then ; off at 
double-quick for Merseburg; aha! 1 think the Soubisc-Hild- 
burghauscn people : * Double-quick you too, my pretty men, 
lest they do whisk away, and we never get a stroke at 
them ! ' 

Seidlitos meanwhile, with his cavalry (thirty-eight squadrons, 
about 4,000 horse), is rapidly doing the order he has had. 
Seidlite at a sharp military trot, and the infantry at double- 
quick to keep-up near him, which they cannot quite do, are, 
as we have said, making right across for the Pollen-Hill and 
Janus-Hill quarter ; their route the string, French route the 
bow ; and are invisible to the French, owing to the heights 
between. Seidlite, when he gets to the proper point east- 
ward, will wheel about, front to southward, and be our left 
wing; infantry, an centre and right, will appear in like 
manner; and -we shall nee! 

The exultant Dauphiness, or Scnibfce-Hildburghau&en Army 
(let us call it, for brevity^ wike, Dauphixxess or French, which 



1 Letter in /Iftf/frr, p, fux In WV//4*i/fw (it, 128-133) m a much superior 
French Letter* intercepted aomcwherc, and fallen to Duke Ferdinand; well 
worth reading, citi Rossbfich and the previous AJMfJ 



276 SEVEN-YEARS WAR RISES [BOOKXVIII. 

[5th Nov. 1757 

it mainly was), on that rapid disappearance of the Prussians, 
never doubted but the Prussians were off on flight for Merse- 
burg, to get across by the Bridge there. Whereat Dauphiness, 
doubly exultant, mended her own pace, cavalry at a sharp 
trot, infantry double-quick, but unable to keep up, for the 
purpose of capturing or intercepting the runaway Prussians. 
Speed, my friends, if you would do a stroke upon Friedrich, 
and show the Versailles people a King at last ! Thus they, 
hurrying on, in two parallel columns, infantry, long floods 
of it, coming double-quick but somewhat fallen behind; 
cavalry 7,000 or so, as vanguard, faster and faster ; sweep- 
ing forward on their southern side of the Janus-and-Poken 
slope, and now rather climbing the same. 

Seidlitz has his hussar pickets on the top, to keep him 
informed as to their motions, and how far they are got. 
Seidlitz, invisible on the south slope of the Polzon Hiigel, 
finds about half-past three P.M. that he is now fairly ahead of 
Dauphiness ; Seidlitz halts, wheels, comes to the top, * Got 
the flank of them, sure enough ! ' and without waiting 
signal or farther orders, every instant being precious, rapidly 
forms himself; and plunges down on these poor people. 
6 Compact as a wall, and with an incredible velocity (tfune 
vitesse inaroyable)? says one of them. Figure the astonish- 
ment of Dauphiness ; of poor Broglio, who commands the 
horse here. Taken in flank, instead of taking other people ; 
intercepted, not in the least needing to intercept ! IlfJus no 
time to form, though he tried what he could. Only the two 
Austrian regiments got completely formed ; the rest very 
incompletely; and Seidlite, in the blaxe of rapid steel, is in 
upon them. The two Austrian regiments, and two French 
that are named, made what debate was feasible ;- -courage; 
nowise wanting, in such sad want of captaincy ; nay, 8ouhi.se 
in person galloped into it, if that could have hetjwcl But 
from the first, the matter was hopeless; Seidlitx aloHhing it 
at such a rate, and plunging through it and again through It* 
thrice, some say four times ; so that, in the space of hnlf an 



CHAP, vm.] BATTLE OF ROSSBACH 277 

5th Nov. 1757] 

hour, this luckless cavalry was all tumbling off the ground ; 
plunging down-hill, in full flight, across his own infantry or 
whatever obstacle, Seidlitz on the hips of it ; and galloping 
madly over the horizon, towards Freiburg as it proved ; and 
was not again heard of that day. 

In about half an hour that bit of work was over ; and 
Seidlitz, with his ranks trimmed again, had drawn himself 
southward a little, into the Hollow of Tageswerben, there to 
wait impending phenomena. For Friedrich with the Infantry 
is now emerging over Janus Hill, in a highly thunderous 
manner, eighteen pieces of artillery going, and * four big 
guns taken from the walls of Leipzig * ; and there will be 
events anon. It is said, Hildburghausen, at the first glimpse 
of Friedrich over the hill-top, whispered to Soubise, ' We are 
lost, Royal Highness ! "* * Courage ! ' Soubise would answer ; 
and both, let us hope, did their utmost in this extremely bad 
predicament they had got into, 

Friedrich's artillery goes at a murderous rate ; had come 
in view, over the hill-top, before Seidlitz ended, * nothing 
but the muzzles of it visible 1 (and the fire-torrents from it) 
to us poox* French below. Friedrich's lines ; or rather his one 
line, mere tip of his left wing, only seven battalions in it, 
five of them under Keith from the second or reserve line ; 
whole centre and right wing standing * refused 1 in oblique 
rank, invisible, behind the Hill, Friedrich^ line, we say, the 
artillery to its right, shoots-out in mysterious Prussian rhythm, 
in echelons, in potences, obliquely down the Janus-Hill side ; 
straight, rigid, regular as iron clockwork ; and strides towards 
us, silent, with the lightning sleeping in it : Friedrich has 
got the flank of DauphinesH, and means to keep it. Once 
and again ami a third time, poor Soubise, with his poor 
regiments much in an imbroglio, here heaped on one another, 
there with wide gups, halt being o sudden,' attempts to 
recover the flank, and pitrftei-out this regiment and the other, 
rightward, to IMS even with Friedrich. But with despair 
that it cannot bc; that Friedrich with his echelon**, potence* 



278 SEVEN-YEARS WAR RISES [BOOK xvin. 

[5th Nov. 1757 

and mysterious Prussian resources, pulls himself out like the 
pieces of a prospect-glass, piece after piece, hopelessly fast 
and seemingly no end to them ; and that the flank is lost, 
and that Unhappy G-enerals of Dauphiness, what a pheno- 
menon for them ! A terrible Friedrich, not fled to Merseburg 
at all; but mounted there on the Janus Hill, as on his 
saddle-horse, with face quite the other way ; and for holstei*- 
pistol, has plucked out twenty-two cannon. Clad verily in 
fire ; Chimaera-like, riding' the Janus Hill, in that manner ; 
left leg (or wing) of him spurning us into the abysses, right 
one ready to help at discretion ! 

Hildburghausen, I will hope, does his utmost ; Soubise, 
Broglio, for certain do. The French line is in front, next the 
Prussians : poor Generals of Dauphiness are panting to 
retrieve themselves. But with regiments jammed in this 
astonishing way, and got collectively into the lion's throat, 
what can be done? Steady, rigid as iron clockwork, the 
Prussian line strides forward ; at forty-paces distance delivers 
its first shock of lightning, bursts into platoon fire ; and so 
continues, steady at the rate of five shots a minute,- hard to 
endure by poor masses all in a coil * The artillery tore- 
down whole ranks of us, 1 says the Wurtemberg Dragoon ; 1 
c the Prussian musketry did terrible execution. 1 

Things began to waver very soon, French reeling back 
from the Prussian fire, Reichs troops rocking very uneasy, 
torn by such artillery; when, to crown the matter, SeidlitsK, 
seeing all things rock to the due extent, bursts out of TageH- 
werbcn Hollow, terribly compact and furious, upon the rear 
of them. Which sets all things into inextricable tumble; 
and the Battle is become a rout and a riding into ruin, no 
Battle ever more. Lasted twenty-five minute*, this Hccoml 
act of it, or till half-past four: after which, the curtnins 
rapidly descending (Night's curtain, were there no other) 
cover the remainder ; the only stage-direction, Fvntni Omne& 
Which for a 50 or (10,000, ridden-over by StMlit'/ Horse, 

1 His Letter in A/ttttet', p. 83, 



CHAP, vm.] BATTLE OF ROSSBACH 279 

5th Nov. 1757] 

was not quite an easy matter ! They left, of killed and 
wounded, near 8,000 ; of prisoners, 5,000 (Generals among 
them 8, Officers 300) : in sum, about 8,000 ; not to mention 
cannon, 67 or 72 ; with standards, flags, kettledrums and 
meaner baggages ad libitum in a manner. The Prussian loss 
was, 165 killed, 376 wounded; between a sixteenth and a 
fifteenth part of theirs : in number the Prussians had been 
little more than one to three ; 2^,000 of all arms, -not 
above half of whom ever came into the fire ; Seidlitz and 
seven battalions doing all the fighting that was needed. St. 
Germain tried to cover the retreat ; but * got broken/ he 
says, Mayer bursting-in on him, and soon went to slush 
like the others. 

Seldom, almost never, not even at Crecy or Poictiers, was 
any Army better beaten. And truly, we must say, seldom 
did any better deserve it, so far as the Chief Parties went. 
Yes, Messieurs, this is the petit Marquis de Brandchourg ; 
you will know this one, when you meet him again ! The 
flight, the French part of it, was towards Freiburg Bridge; in 
full gallop, long after the chase had ceased ; crossing of the 
Unstrut there, hoarse, many-voiced, all night ; burning of 
the Bridge ; found burnt, when Friedrich arrived next morn- 
ing. He had encamped at Obschutx, short way from the 
field itself. French Army, Reichs Army, all was gone to 
staves, to utter chaotic wreck, Hiklburghnuaen went by 
Naumburg ; crossed the Saale there ; bent homewards through 
the Weimar Country; one wild flood of ruin, swift as it 
could go ; at Erfurt * only one regiment was in rank, ant! 
marched through with drums boating/ His Army, which 
had been disgustingly unhappy from the first, and was now 
fallen fluid on those mad terms, flowed all away in different 
rills, each by the course* straightest home; and Hildburg* 
hansen arriving at Bawberg* with hardly the ghost or 
mutilated skeleton of an Army, flung down his truncheon, 
* A murrain on jour Hi5chs Armies and regimental chaoses P 
-and went indignantly home, iteichn Army had to 



280 SEVEN-YEARS WAR RISES [BOOKXVIIL 

[5th Nov. 1757 

at the beginning again ; and did not reappear on the scene 
till late next Year, under a new Commander, and with 
slightly improved conditions. 

Dauphiness Proper was in no better case ; and would have 
flowed home in like manner, had not home been so far, and 
the way unknown. Twelve thousand of them rushed strag- 
gling through the Eichsfeld ; plundering and harrying, like 
Cossacks or Calmucks : ' Army blown asunder, over a circle 
of forty-miles radius,' writes St. Ghrmain: c had the Enemy 
pursued us, after I got broken ' (bu M>in upon by Mayer and 
his Free-Corps people), * we had been annihilated. Never did 
Army behave worse ; the first cannon-salvo decided our rout 
and our shame.' l 

In two-days time (November 7th), the French had got to 
Langensalza, fifty-five miles from the Battlefield of Rossbach ; 
plundering, running, sacre-dieu4ug ; a wild deluge of molten 
wreck, filling the Eichsfeld with its waste noises, making night 
hideous and day too ; in the villages Placards were stuck-up, 
appointing Nordhausen and Heiligenstadt for rallying-place, 2 

Soubise rode, with few attendants, all night towards Nord- 
hausen, eighty miles off, foot of the Brocken Country, where 
the Richelieu resources are ; Soubise with few attendants, 
face set towards the Brocken ; himself, it is like, in a some- 
what hag-ridden condition. 

* The joy of poor Teutschland at large/ says one of my Notes,, 'arid how 
all Germans, Prussian and Anti-Prussian alike, flung-up their caps, with 
unanimous Lebe,~-koch 3 at the news of Rossbach^ has often been remarked ; 
and indeed is still almost touching to see. The perhaps bravent Nation 
in the world, though the least braggart, very certainly ein tttpf&r^ W&tk 
(as their Goethe calls them) ; so long insulted, snubbed and tramptad-oxi| 
"by a luckier,, not a braver : has not your exultant Dauphineits got ft 
beautiful little dose administered her ; and is gone off iu foul ghrtakfi, 
and pangs of the interior, let no man ask whitherward ! H Si un 
Allem&nd pwt avoir de f esprit (Can a German possibly have nharjmesi of 
wife)?" Well, yesj it would seem: here m one German graduate who 

1 St Germain to Verney : different Excerpts of Letters in the twti weeki after 
Rossbach and before (given in Preuss, II 97). s Mttlier, p, 73, 



S84 SEVEN-YEARS WAE RISES [BOOK XVill. 

[5th Nov. 1757 

to see, shot sanity into every fibre of it ; and kept it sane and road- 
worthy for the Five Years coming. With a silent velocity, an energy, 
an imperturbable steadfastness and clear insight into cause and effect ; 
which were creditable to the school he came from; and were a very 
joyful sight to Pitt and others concerned. So that from next Tuesday, 
C( November 29th, before daylight/' when Ferdinand's batteries began 
playing upon Harburg (French Fortress nearest to Stade), the reign of 
the French ceased in those Countries ; and an astonished Eichelieu and 
his French, lying scattered over all the West of Germany, in readiness 
for nothing but plunder, had to fall more or less distracted in their turn ; 
and do a number of astonishing things. To try this and that,, of futile, 
more or less frantic nature ; be driven from post after post ; be driven 
across the Aller first of all ; Richelieu to go home thereupon, and be 
succeeded by one still more incompetent. 

e December 13th, a fortnight after Ferdinand's appearance, Richelieu 
had got to the safe side of the Aller (burning of Zelle Bridge and Mle 
Town there, his last act in Germany) ; Ferdinand's quarters now wide 
enough ; and vigorous speed of preparation going on for farther chase, 
were the weather mended. February l*7th (1758), Ferdinand was on foot 
again; Prince de Clermont, the still more incompetent successor of 
Richelieu, gazing wide-eyed upon him, but doing nothing else : and for 
the next six weeks there was seen a once triumphant Richelieu-d'Estreas 
French Army, much in rags, much in disorder, in terror, and here and 
there almost in despair, winging their way; like clouds of draggled 
poultry caught by a mastiff in the corn. Across Weser, across Em, 
finally across the Rhine itself, every feather of them, their long-drawn 
cackle, of a shrieky type, filling all Nature in those months ; the maatiiF 
steadily following. 1 To the astonishment of Pitt and mankind, (Jan 
this be the same Army that Royal Highness led to the Sea and the Parwh 
Pound? The same identically, wasted to about two-thirds by Royal 
Highness ; not a drum in it changed otherwise, only One Man different, 
and he is the important one ! 

'Pitt, when the news of Rossbach came, awakening the bofira and 
steeple-bells of England to such a pitch, had resolved on an emphatic 
measure : that of sending English Troops to reinforce our Allied Army, 
and its new General ; such an Ally as that Rossbach one being rare hi 
the eyes of Pitt t Postpone the meeting of Parliament, yet a ftiw <layn, 

1 Mauvillon, i. 252-284 (' 9th November 1757 1st April 1758 ')> Wtptwte f 
i* 3*6-503 (abundantly explicit, authentic and even entertaining, -wills the ample 
Correspondences, #. il 147-350) ; Schaper, Fie militairt dn /Vita* 

Ferdinand (2 tomes, 8vo, Magdebourg, 1796, 1799), * 7" wo ( careful liookf 
of an official exactitude, like Westphalen'a, and appears to be left incomplete 
like his). 



282 SEVEN-YEARS WAR RISES [BOOK xvm. 

[5th Nov. 1757 

Enough to say, the Author, with a wild burst of spiritual enthusiasm, 
sings the charms of the rearward part of certain men ; and what a royal 
ecstatic felicity there sometimes is in indisputable survey of the same. 
He rises to the heights of Anti-Biblical profanity, quoting Moses on the 
Hill of Vision ; sinks to the bottomless of human or ultra-human 
depravity, quoting King Nicomedes's experiences on CfBsar (happily 
known only to the learned) ; and, in brief, recognises that there is, on 
occasion, considerable beauty in that quarter of the human figure, when 
it turns on you opportunely. A most cynical, profane affair : yet, we 
must say by way of parenthesis, one which gives no countenance to 
Voltaire's atrocities of rumour about Friedrich himself in this matter ; 
the reverse rather, if well read ; being altogether theoretic,, scientific ; 
sings with gusto the glow of beauty you find in that unexpected quarter, 
while kicking it deservedly and with enthusiasm. 'To nee the' what 
shall we call it : seat of honour, in fact, ( of your enemy 1 : haw it not an 
undeniable charm? c l own to you in confidence, O Soubine and 
Company, this fine laurel I have got, and was so in need of, is nothing 
more or other than the sight of your 'four asterisks. * Oblige me, when- 
ever clandestine Fate brings us together, by showing me that *- always 
that, if you would give me pleasure when we meet. * And oh/ next 
stanza says, e to think what our glory is founded on/ on view of that 
unmentionable object, I declare to you 1 And through other stanzas, 
getting smutty enough (though in theory only), which we need not 
prosecute farther. 1 A certain heartiness and epic greatness of cymdnm, 
life's nakedness grown almost as if innocent again; an immense 
suppressed insuppressible Haha, on the part of this King, Strange T- 
Deum indeed. Coming from the very heart, truly, as few of them do ; 
but not, in other points, recommendable at alll -Here, of the night 
before, is something better ; 

To Wilhelmma 

4 Near Wcwsenfels * (Obsohtttz, in fact ; does not yut know what 
the Battle will be called), *6th November 1767. 

'At last, my dear Sister, I can announce you a bit of good news. 
You were doubtless aware that the Coopers with their circles had a mind 
to take Leipzig-. I ran up, and drove them beyond Saale. The Due de 
Richelieu sent them a reinforcement of twenty battalions and fourtomi 
squadrons* (say 16,000 horse and foot); 'they then called thtjmdv 
63,000 strong* Yesterday I went to reconnoitre them ; could not attack 
them in the post they held. Thin had rendered them ranh. Today they 

* (Eiwres de FrAttriCt xiL 70-73 (written at Freiburg* 6th November, wlicn 

his Majesty got thither, and found the Bridge burnt). 



CHAP. VIIL] BATTLE OF ROSSBACH 283 

5th Nov. 1757] 

came out with the intention of attacking" me ; but I took the start of 
them (fes ai prtfwnu). It was a Battle en douceur (soft to one's wish). 
Thanks to God I have not a hundred men killed ; the only General ill 
wounded is Meinecke. My Brother Henri and General Seidlitz have 
slight hurts * (gunshots, not so slight, that of Seidlite) f in the arm. We 
have all the Enemy's cannon, all the ' * * { I am in full march to drive 
them over the Unstrut ' (already driven, your Majesty ; bridge burning), 
e Yo\ij my dear Sister, my good, my divine and affectionate Sister* 
(faithful to the bone, in good truth, poor Wilhelmina), ' who deign to 
interest yourself in the fate of a Brother who adores you, deign also to 
share in my joy. The instant I have time, I will tell you more. I 
embrace you with my whole heart. Adieu. F.' 1 



Ulterior Fate o/* Daupkinew ; flies over the Rhine m bad 
fashion: Dtiuphincsfs Ways zvith the Saxon Populations 
in her Deliverance- Work 

Friedrich had no more fighting with the French. Novem- 
ber 9th, at Merseburg, in all stillness. Duke Ferdinand got 
his Britannic Commission, his full Powers, from Friedrich and 
the parties interested ; in all stillness made his arrangements, 
as if for Magdeburg and his Governorship there, Friedrich 
hastening off* for Silesia the while. Duke Ferdinand did stay 
six days in Magdeburg, inspecting or pretending to inspect ; 
very pleasant with his Sister and the Royalties that are now 
there; but at midnight of day sixth shot-off silently on 
wider errand. And, in sum, on Thursday 34th November 
1757 3 appeared in Stade, on horseback at morning parade 
there ; intimating, to what joy of the poor Brunswick Grena- 
diers and others, That he was come to take command ; that 
Kloster-Zeven is abolished ; that we are not an * Observation 
Army,"* rotting hens Jn the parish pound, any longer, but an 
* Allied Army " (such now our title), intending to strike for 
ourselves, and get out of pound straightway ! 



f Thitrtdnif 24/A A r oww&fr""'"TtfM/#2W/u Duke Ferdinand did accord- 

ingly jwk*ti| the* r*itw of this di*trju*U*d Affnir ; und* in a way wonderful 



xxvif. I, 



284 SEVEN-YEARS WAR RISES [BOOKXVlll. 

[5th Nov. 1757 

to see, shot sanity into every fibre of it ; and kept it sane and road- 
worthy for the Five Years coming. With a silent velocity, an energy, 
an imperturbable steadfastness and clear insight into cause and effect; 
which were creditable to the school he came from; and were a very 
joyful sight to Pitt and others concerned. So that from next Tuesday, 
" November 29th, before daylight/' when Ferdinand's batteries began 
playing upon Harburg (French Fortress nearest to Stade), the reign of 
the French ceased in those Countries ; and an astonished Richelieu and 
his French, lying scattered over all the West of Germany, in readiness 
for nothing but plunder, had to fall more or less distracted in their turn ; 
and do a number of astonishing things. To try this and that, of futile, 
more or less frantic nature ; be driven from post after post ; be driven 
across the Aller first of all ; Richelieu to go home thereupon, and be 
succeeded by one still more incompetent. 

'December 13th, a fortnight after Ferdinand's appearance, Richelieu 
had got to the safe side of the Aller (burning of Zelle Bridg-e and Zelle 
Town there, his last act in Germany) ; Ferdinand's quarters now wide 
enough ; and vigorous speed of preparation going on for farther chase, 
were the weather mended. February Vjth (1758), Ferdinand was on foot 
again; Prince de Clermont, the still more incompetent successor of 
Richelieu, gazing wide-eyed upon him, but doing nothing else ; and for 
the next six weeks there was seen a once triumphant Richelieu-d'Etre6 
French Army, much in rags, much in disorder, in terror, and here and 
there almost in despair, winging their way; like clouds of draggled 
poultry caught by a mastiff in the com. Across W0s@r, across Ems, 
finally across the Rhine itself, every feather of them, their long-drawn 
cackle, of a shrieky type, filling all Nature in those months ; the mantiff 
steadily following, 1 To the astonishment of Pitt and mankind. Can 
this be the same Army that Royal Highness led to the Sea and tlie Purinh 
Pound? The same identically, wasted to about two-thirds by Royal 
Highness ; not a drum in it changed otherwise, only One Man different, 
and he is the important one ! 

'Pitt, when the news of Rossbach came, awakening the bonfires and 
steeple-bells of England to such a pitch, had resolved on an emphatic 
measure : that of sending English Troops to reinforce our Allied Army, 
and its new General ; -such an Ally as that Rossbach one being rare in 
the eyes of Pitt ft Postpone the meeting of Parliament^ yet a few dayn, 

1 Mauvillon, i 252-284 (* 9th November 1 757 ist April X7SS ? ); Wcatplmlen, 
I 316-503 (abundantly explicit, authentic and even entertaining, with the ample 
Correspondences, k ii 147-350) ; Schaper, Vu milUcdm $u Afarjfkal Mm 
Ferdinand (2 tomes, 8vo Magdebourg, 1796, 1799), i. 7-100 (a careful Book > 
of an official exactitude, like Westphalen's, and appears to be left Incomplete 
like his). 



CHAP.vm.] BATTLE OF ROSSBACH 285 

5th Nov. 1757] 

your Majesty/* said Pitt, (e till I get the estimates ready I" 1 To wMcli 
Majesty assented, and all England with him : " England's own Cause/ 1 
thinks Pittj with confidence : f * our way of conquering America, and, in 
the circumstances, our one way ! " English did land, accordingly ; first 
instalment of them, a 12,000 (in August next), increased gradually to 
20,000 ; with no end of furnishings to them and everybody ; with results 
again satisfactory to Pitt; and very famous in the England that then 
was,, dim as they are now grown/ 

The effect of all which was, that Pitt, with his Ferdinands 
and reinforcements, found work for the French ever onwards 
from Rossbach; French also turning as if exclusively upon 
perfidious Albion : and the thing became, in Teutschland, as 
elsewhere, a duel of life and death between these natural 
enemies, Teutschland the centre of it, Teutschland and 
the accessible French Sea-Towns, but the circumference of 
it going round from Manilla and Madras to Havanna and 
Quebec again. Wide-spread furious duel; prize, America 
and life. By land and sea ; handsomely done by Pitt on 
both elements. Land part, we say, was always mainly in 
Germany, under Ferdinand, -In Hessen and the Westphalian 
Countries, as far west as Minden, as far east as Frankfurt-on- 
Mayn, generally well north of Ilhine, well south of Elbe . 
that was, for five years coming, the cockpit or place of 
deadly fence between France and England. Friedrich's arena 
lies eastward of that, occasionally playing into it a little, 
and played into by it, and always in lively sympathy and 
consultation with it : but, except the French subsidisings, 
diplomafcismgs and great diligence against him in foreign 
Courts, Priedrich is, in practical respects, free of the French ; 
and ever after Ro&mbach, Ferdinand and the English keep them 
in full work, growing yearly too full* A heavy business for 
England and Ferdinand ; which is happily kept extraneous to 
Friedrich thenceforth; to him and us; which is not on the 
stage of his affairs and ours* but is to be conceived alwayB as 
vigorously proceeding alongnulc of it, close beyond the scenes, 
will liable at any time to make tragic entry on him again : 
1 Thackeray, I 310, 



286 SEVEN-YEARS WAE RISES JBOOKXVIIL 

[5th Nov. 1757 

of which we shall have to notice the louder occurrences and 
cardinal phases, but, for the future, nothing more. 

Soubise, who had crept into the skirts of the Richelieu 
Army in Hanover or Hessen Country, had of course to take 
wing in that general flight before the mastiff. Soubise did 
not cross the Rhine with it ; Soubise made off eastward ; l 
found new roost in Hanau - Frankfurt Country; and had 
thoughts of joining the Austrians in Bohemia next Campaign ; 
but got new order, such the pinches of a winged Clermont 
with a mastiff Ferdinand at his poor draggled tail ; and 
came back to the Ferdinand scene, to help there ; and never 
saw Friedrich again. Both Broglio and he had a good deal 
of fighting (mostly beating) from Ferdinand; and a great deal 
of trouble and sorrow in the course of this War ; but after 
Rossbach it is not Friedrich or we, it is Ferdinand and the 
Destinies that have to do with them. Poor Soubise, except 
that he was the creature of Generalissima Pompadour, which 
had something radically absurd in it, did not deserve all the 
laughter he got : a man of some chivalry, some qualities. As 
for Broglio, I remember always, not without human emotion, 
the two extreme points of his career as a soldier : Rossbach 
and the Fall of the Bastille. He was towards forty, when 
Friedrich bestrode the Janus Hill in that fiery manner; he 
was turned of seventy when, from the pavements of Paris, the 
Chimsera of Democracy rose on him, in fire of a still more 
horrible description. 

Dauphiness-Bellona, in her special and in her widest sense, 
has made exit, then. Gone, like clouds of draggled poultry 
home across the Rhine. She was the most marauding Army 
lately seen, also the most gasconading, and had the least 
capacity for fighting: three worse qualities no army could 
have. How she fought, we have seen sufficiently. Before 
taking leave of her forever, readers, as she is a paragon in 
her kind, would perhaps take a glance or two at her maraud- 
ing qualities, by a good opportunity that offers. Plotho 
1 Westphalen, i. 501 ('end of March 1758'). 



CHAP, vm.] BATTLE OF ROSSBACH 287 

5th Nov. 1757] 

at Regensburg, that a supreme Reichs Diet may know what 
a < deliverance of Saxony ' this has been, submits one day the 
following irrefragable Documents, ' which have happened,' not 
without good industry of my own, ' to fall into my * (Plotho's) 
< hands.' They are Documents partly of epistolary, partly of a 
Petitionary form, presented to Polish Majesty, out of that Saxon 
Country ; and have an affidavit quality about them, one and all. 

1. Big Dauphiness (that is, DTEstrees) in the Wesel Countries, 
at an early Stage, while still endeavouring what she could 
to behave well> having 1,000 marauders and the like (A 
private Letter) 

f County Mark, 20th June 1757. The French troops are going- on here 
in a way to utterly ruin us. Schmidt,, their President of Justice, whom 
they set-up in Cleve, has got orders to change all the Magistracies of the 
Country ' (Protestant by nature), so as that half the members shall be 
Catholic. Bielefeld was openly plundered by the French for three 
hours long. You cannot by possibility represent to yourself what the 
actual state of misery in these Countries is. A scheffel of rye costs three 
thalers sixteen groschen * (who knows how many times its natural price !). 
'And now we are to be forced to eat the spoiled meal those French 
troops brought with them; which is gone to such a state no animal 
would have it. This poisoned meal we are to buy from them, ready 
money, at the price they fix ; and that famine may induce us, they are 
about to stop the mills, and forcibly take away what little bread-porn we 
have left. God have pity on us, and deliver us soon ! Next week we 
are to have a transit of 6,000 Pfalzers' (Kur-Pfalz, foolish idle fellow, 
and Kur-Baiern too, are both in subsidy of France, as usual; 6,000 
Pfalzers just due here); 'these, I suppose, will sweep us clean bare.' 1 

Wesel Fortress, Gate of the Rhine, could not be defended by Friedrich : 
and the Hanover Incapables, and England still all in St. Vitus, would 
not hear of undertaking it ; left it wide-open for the French ; never 
could recover it, or get the Rhine-Gate barred again, during the whole 
War. One hopes they repented ; but perhaps it was only Pitt and 
Duke Ferdinand that did so, instead ! The Wesel Countries were at 
once occupied by the French; *a conquest of her Imperial Majesty's"; 
continued to be administered in Imperial Majesty's name, and are 
thriving as above. 

iv, 399. 



288 SEVEN-YEARS WAR RISES [BOOK XVIII. 

[5th Nov. 1757 

2. DaujpMnew Proper (that is, Soubise) m Thurmgm^ at a 
late Stage 

'Letter from Freiburg, shortly after Rossbach.It was on the 23d 
October, a Sunday, that we of Freiburg bad our first billeting of French ; 
a body of cavalry from different regiments' (going to take Leipzig, take 
Torgau, what not) : c and from that day Freiburg never emptied of 
French, who kept marching through it in extraordinary quantities. Hie 
marching lasted fourteen days, namely, till the 6th November' (day qftvr 
Rossbach j when they burnt our poor Bridge, and marched for the last 
time); 'and often the billeting was so heavy, that in a single house 
there were forty or fifty men. Who at all times had to be lodged arid 
dieted gratis; nay, many householders, over and above the ordinary 
meal, were obliged to give them money too ; and many poor people, 
who can scarcely get their own bit of bread, had to run and bring at 
once their sixteen or eighteen groschen* (pence) ''worth of wine, not to 
speak of coffee and sugar. And a great increase of the mischief it was 
always, that the soldiers and common people did not understand one 
another's language. * Heavy billeting ; but what was that ? * * * Vast, 
nearly impossible, quantities of forage and provision/ were wrung from 
us, as from all the other Towns and Villages about, * under continual 
threatening to burn and rase us from the earth. Often did our French 
Colonel threaten, " He would have the cannon opened on Freiburg 
straightway." Nay, had it stood by foraging, we might have reckoned 
ourselves lucky. But our straits increased day by day; and sheer 
plundering became more and more excessive. 

' The robbing and torturing of travellers, the plundering and burning 
of Saxon Villages ' < Almost all the Towns and Villages hereabouts are 
so plundered out, that many a one now has nothing but what he carries 
on his body. Plundering was universal : and no noooer was one party 
away, than another came,, and still another ; and often the same house 
was three or four times plundered. Branderode, a Village two leagues 
from this' (stands on the Field of Rossbach, if we look), Ma so mined 
out, that nobody almost has anything left : Chief-Inspector Baron von 
Bose's Schloss there, with its splendid appointments, they ruined utterly; 
took all money, victuals, valuables, furniture, clothes, linen and bed*, 
all they could carry ; what could not be carried away, they cut, hewed 
and smashed to pieces ; broke the wine-casks ; and even tare-up the 
documents and letters they found lying in the place. Br&nderode Dorf 
was twice set fir to by them ; and was, at last, with Zeuchfeld, which ii 
an Amtsdorf, after both had been plundered, reduced to tihe. The 
Churches of Br&uderode a#4 Zauchfeld, with several other C'hurche*, 



CHAP, vill.] BATTLE OF EOSSBACH 289 

5th Nov. 1757] 

were plundered ; the altars broken, the altar-cloths and other vesture* 
cut to pieces, and the sacred vessels and cups carried away, except ' (for 
we have a notarial exactness, and will exaggerate nothing) e that in the 
case of Branderode they sent the cup back. Of the pollution of the 
altars, and of the blasphemous songs these people sang in the churches, 
one cannot think without horror. 

c And it was merely our pretended Allies and Protectors that have 
desecrated our divine service, utterly wasted our Country, reduced the 
inhabitants to want and desperation, and, in short, have so behaved that 
you would not know this region again. Truly these troops have realised 
for us most of the infamies we heard reported of the Cossacks, and their 
ravagings in Preussen lately. 

* It is one of their smallest doings that they robbed a Saxon Clergy- 
man * (name and circumstances can be given if required), * three times 
over, on the public Highway ; shot at him, tied him to a horse's tail and 
dragged him along with them ; so that he is now lying ill, in danger of 
his life. On the whole, it is our beloved Pastors, Clergymen most of all, 
that have been plundered of everything 1 they had. 

' Balgart and Zschieplitz, both Villages half a league from this, have 
likewise been heavily plundered ; they have even left the Parson nothing 
but what he wore on his back. Grost/ another Rossbach place, * which 
belongs to the Kammerjuuker Heldorf, has likewise' * * Ohe, #ai$l 
* All this happened between the 23d and 31st October ; consequently 
before the Battle.* * ** e In many Villages you see the trees and fields 
sprinkled with feathers from the beds that have been slit-up. 

* In several Villages belonging to the Eoyal Electoral Privy Councillor 
/on Bruhl * (who is properly th fountain of all this and of much other 
misery to us, If we knew it !), * the plundering likewise had begun ; and 
a quantity of about a hundred swine 1 (so ho!) *had been cut in pieces : 
hut in the midst of their work, the Allies heard that these were Brfihl 
estates, and ceased their havoc of them. These accordingly are the only 
lands in all this region whose fate hm been tolerable, 

'The appellation, every moment renewed, of te Heretic!** was the 
courteous address from these people to our fellow-Christiana ; ** heretic 
dogs (ktitssttrische IXundt) " was a Pr&dicot always in their mouth* 

* In Weitfchftts/ a mile or two from us, up the Unstrut, *a French 
Colonel who wanted to ricla out upon the works, mad the there Pastor, 
Magister Bchren, stoop down by wny of horiteblock, and mounted into 
the saddle from his back/ (Me^icum, you will kindle the wrath of 
mankind some day, and gat a terrible plucking, with those high wayg of 
yours 1) 

'Churches are all smniihfd ; ob*er temp were sting,, la form of 
litany, from the pulpit* awl at tar* ; what was done with the cammuubu- 
VOL. vx* t 



SEVEN-YEARS WAR RISES [BOOKXVIII. 

[,$th Nov. 1757 

vessels, when they were not worth stealing 1 / is hideous to the religious 
sense, and shall not be mentioned in human speech. 

3. The Brogllo Reinforcement coming across to join Soulise, 
and perform at Rossbach (Humble Petition from the 
Magistrates of Saugerhausen, To the King of Poland's 
Majesty) : 

Sangerhausen, 23d October 1757. * Scarcely had we, with profound 
submission (alter nnterthdnigst), under date of the 13th current, repre- 
sented to your Royal Majesty and Electoral Translucency how heavily 
we were pre^sed-down by the forage-requisition** and transits of troopn, 
and the consequent expenditure in food, drinking 1 , in oats and hay, 
which no one pays, when directly thereafter, on the 14th of October, a 
new French party, of the Fischer Corps,' Fischer in a mighty Hussar, 
scarcely inferior to Turpin ; and stands iu astonishing 1 authority with 
Richelieu, and an Army whose object is plunder,** new party of the 
Fischer Corps, of some sixty men and homo* arrived in the Town ; 
demanded meat, drink, oats and hay, and all things necessary ; which 
they received from us ; and not only paid not one farthing For all this, 
but furthermore some of them, instead of thanki to their Landlord, 
llossold, forcibly broke-up his press, drank hin brandy, and carriad-of a 
Toute (gather-all) with money in it From a Tanner, Undnupr by name, 
they bargained for a buck-skin ; and having taken, would not pay St. 
In the Rttthxkelter (Town Public-house) they drank much wiria, and gave 
nothing- for it: nay, on marching off, because no mounted guide 
(rdtender ftotc) was at hand, and though they had before f xpramly aM 
none such would be needed, they runhed about like distracted portions 
(wie rasende. Lcufr) in the market-place and in the utrtwto; beat the 
people, tumbled them about, and lug##d thpm alaiig, in it violent 
manner ; using abusive language to a frightful extent* and tlimitwiiug 
every misfortune. 

( Hardly were we rid of this confusion and sgtwiialimenti when, on 
October 2 1st, a whole swarm of homes* miw, women t rhildwn and 
wagons, which likewise all belonged to thft Fiehr Corp*, find ww 
commanded by PirHt-Lieutonant Schmidt, canto into our Town, llife 
troop connisted of 80 men, part infantry* part cavalry ; with wmi^ HO 
work-howen, 10 lwtggagewiigoim, and about 1<K) ptr,Hiww f womi^it, U*k 
people and th like. Thty stayed thtt whoh* fisglit h**r ; madtt meiit, 
dr.nk, ront, hay and whatever thty n*c*ded be brought tliinn ; iiuti wtnt 
off next tt*iy nithout iniyiu^ 1 HitythtUff* 

3 Ferdinaad*s CorrevpoadentSy sxptus (Wtstfihethnt t 40*127^ ttc* ttfc 



CHAP, viii.] BATTLE OF ROSSBACH 891 

5th Nov. 1757] 

' Our Inns were now almost quite exhausted of forage in corn or bay ; 
and we knew not how we were to pay what had been spent, when the 
thirty French Light Cavalry, of whom we, with profound submission, on 
the 13th hujua gave your Royal Majesty and Electoral Translucency 
account, renewed their visit upon us ; came, under the command of 
Rittmeister de Mocu, on the 22d of October * (while the baggage-wagons, 
work-horses, women, sick, and so forth, were hardly gone), e towards 
evening, into the Town ; consumed in meat and drink, oats and hay, and 
the like, what they could lay hold of; and next morning' early marched 
away, paying, as their custom is, nothing. 

'Not enough that, besides the great forage contribution (Lieferung), 
which we already, with profound submission, notified to your Royal 
Majesty and Electoral Translucency as having been laid upon us ; and 
that, by order of the Due de Broglio, a new requisition is now laid on 
us, and we have had to engage for sixty-four more sacks of wheat, and 
thirty-two of rye (as is noted under head A, in the enclosed copy), 
there has farther come on us, on the part of the Raichs Army, from 
Kreis-Commissarius Helclorf ' (whose Schloss of Grost, we perceive, they 
have since burnt, by way of thanks to him), 1 the simultaneous Order for 
instant delivery of Forage (as under head B, here enclosed) ! Thus are 
we, at the appointed places, all at once to furnish such quantities, more 
than we can raise ; and know not when or where we shall, either for 
what has been already furnished, or for what is still to be, receive one 
penny of money : nay, over and above, we are to sustain the many 
marchings of troops, and provide to the same what meat, drink, oats, 
bay and so on, they require, without the least return of payment ! 

*So unendurable, and, taken all together, so hard (*/<?) begins the 
conduct of these troops, that profess being eome as friends and helpers, 
to appear to us* And Heaven alone knows how long, under a con- 
tinuance of such things, the subjects (whom the Hailstorm of last year 
had at any rate impoverished) shall be able to support the ftame. We 
would, were a reasonable delivery of forage laid upon us even at a low 
price, and the board and billet of the marching troops paid to us even in 
part, lay-out our whole strength in helping* to bear the burdens of the 
Fatherland ; but if Buch things go on, which will oon leave m only bare 
life and empty hut*, we can look forward to nothing but our ruin and 
destruction. But, an It in not your Royal Majwty'8 and Electoral 
Trans) ucency'ft most gr&ciou* will that we, your Afont Supreme Selfg 
most faithful guhjecU, nhould entirely pemh, therefore we repeat our 
former mont ubmiHive prayer once again with hot (*iV) sorrow of mind 
to Htghitat-the-Sttine; *nd nob xnont nubwwutivcly for that help which 
your Alotft Supreme Self, through most grwiioui mediation with the 

1 Supra, No. a. 



92 SEVEN-YEARS WAE RISES [BOOKXVIIL 

[5th Nov. 1757 

Due de Richelieu, with the Keichs Army or wherever else, might 
perhaps most graciously procure for us. Who, in deepest longing 
thitherwards, with the most deepest devotion, remain ' 1 (Name*, 
unfortunately, not given). 

How many Saxons and Germans generally, alas, how many men 
universally, cry towards celestial luminaries of the governing kind with 
the most deepest devotion, in their extreme need, under their un- 
sufferable injuries ; and are truly like dogs in the backyard barking at 
the Moon. The Moon won't come down to them, and be eaten as green 
cheese ; the Moon can't !- 

4. DaupUness after Rossbach. * Excise-Inspector Ndtselie, 

at Bebra, near Weisscnfels ' (Bebra is well ahead from 

Freiburg and the burnt Bridge, and a good twenty-five 

" miles west of Weissenfeis), 'writes To the King of 

Poland's Majesty, 9th November 1757 : 

f May it please your Royal Majesty and Electoral Tranalucouey, out of 
your highest grace, to take knowledge, from the accompanying Ilngistera 
subsigno Martis* (sign unknown to readers here), 'of the thinffH which, 
in the name of this Township of Bebra, the Burgermetor Johaim Adam, 
with the Baths and others concerned, have laid before the Kxeiw- 
Inspection here. As follows : 

( It will he already well known to the ExciBC-fnapootion that on the 
7th of November (a.c.) of the current year* (day befcira ycHterdny, in 
fact!), 'the French Army so handled this place OR to fmva not only 
taken from the inhabitants, by open force, all bread and sirtidew of food, 
but likewise all clothes, beds, "linens (Wtoche), and other portable good* ; 
that it has broken, split to pieces, and emptied out, all crhwtn, boxes, 
presses, drawers ; has shot dead, in the backyards and ou th thatdi- 
roofs, all manner of feathered-stock, as hens, pigimrtH ; ititfo carried 

forth with it all swine, cow, sheep and horse cattle ; laid violent tods 
on the inhabitants, clapped guns, words, ptafcolft to their lm*mt, ami 
threatened to kill them unless they showed and brought out wlttitfww 
goods they had ; or else has himted them wholly out of thdr hou*% 
shooting at them, cutting sticking and at Iiwt driving thwn away, tliera* 
by to have the freer room to rob and plunder : fltuig'-oui liny niui atli^r 
harvest-stock from the barns in to the mud and dung, arid bad It tram plod 
to ruia under tlit* horses* feet ; nay, in fact, lum diwlfc with thin ftlnu^ in 
so unpermittecl a way an evon to the mcmt hard-hearted nmn mitnt 
compassionable/ Poor felkws ; cetera dtwnt ; but that Is enough 1 



CHAP, vin.] BATTLE OF ROSSBACH 293 

5th Nov. 1757] 

What can a Polish Majesty and Electoral Translucency do? Here too 

is a sorrowful howling to tn Moon. 1 

* * e For a hundred miles round, writes St. Germain j c the Country is 
plundered and harried as if fire from Heaven had fallen on it ; scarcely 
have our plunderers and marauders left the houses standing/ *" I lead a 
band of robbers, of assassins, fit for breaking on the wheel ; they would 
turn tail at the first gunshot^ and are always ready to mutiny. If the 
Government (la GOUT, with its Pompadour presiding, very unlikely for 
such an enterprise !) e cannot lay the knife to the root of all this, we may 
give-up the notion of War.' * * * 

Such a pitch have French Armies sunk to. When was 
there seen such a Bellona as Dauphiness before? Nay, in 
fact, she is the same devil-serving Army that Marshal de 
Saxe commanded with such triumph, Mar&hal de Saxe in 
better luck for opponents ; Army then in a younger stage of 
its development. Foaming then as sweet must, as new wine, 
in the hands of a skilful vintner, poisonous but brisk ; not 
run, as now, to the vinegar state, intolerable to all mortals. 
She can now announce from her camp-theatres the reverse of 
the Roucoux program, * Tomorrow, Messieurs, you are going 
to fight ; our Manager foresees " you will be beaten ; and 
we cannot say what or where the next Piece will be ! Im- 
pious, licentious, high-flaring efflorescence of all the Vices 
is not to be redeemed by the one Quasi- Virtue of readiness 
to be shot ; sweet of that kind, and sour of this?, are the 
same substance, if you only wait. How kind was the Devil 
to his Saxe ; and flew away with him in rosepink, while it 
was still time ! 



CrtsMt'fat) iv, 692. 
s St. Germain* utter Kos&bach and before (in Preuss, ubi suj>r 



SEVEN-VfiARS WAR RISES [uooKXVtit. 

[I3th Nov. ijsSf 



CHAPTER IX 
FKIJEDRICH MAKCHES FOB SILESIA 

THE fame of Friedrich is high enough again in the 
Gazetteer world; all people, and the French themselves, 
laughing at their grandiloquent Dauphiness-Bellona, and 
writing epigrams on Soubise. But Friedrich's difficulties are 
still enormous. One enemy coming with open mouth, you 
plunge-in upon, and ruin, on this hand ; and it only gives 
you room to attempt upon another bigger one on that. 
Soubise he has finished handsomely, for this season ; but 
now he mu^t try conclusions with Prince Karl Quick, 
towards Silesia, after this glorious Victory which the Gazetteers 
are celebrating. 

The news out of Silesia are ominously doubtful, bad at 
the best Duke Severn, once Winterfelcl was gone, had, 
as we observed, felt himself free to act ; unchecked, but a!o 
unsupported, by counsel of the due heroism ; and hat! acted 
unwisely. Made direct for Silesia, namely, where are meal- 
magazines and strong places. Prince Karl, they say, was also 
unwise; took no thought beforehand, or he might have 
gained marches, disputed rivers, Bober, Quotas, with Bevern, 
and as good as hindered him from ever getting to Silesia. 
So say critics, Ilctzow and others ; perhaps looking too fixedly 
on one side of the question. Certain it is, Bevern marched 
in peace to Silesia ; found it by no means the better place it 
had promised to be. 

Prince Karl, Daun there as second, but Karl now the 
dominant hand, was on the heels of Bevern, march after 
march. Prince Karl cut athwart him by one cunning march* 
in Liegnite Country; barring him from Schweidnit?*, the chief 
stronghold of Silesia, and to appearance from Breslao, the 
chief city, too* Bevern, who did not want for soldiership* 
when reduced to his shifts, now made a beautiful manoeuvre, 



CH. ix.] FRIEDRICH MAHCHES FOE SILESIA 295 

I3th Nov. 1757] 

say the critics ; strudk-out leftwards, namely, and crossed the 
Oder, as if making for Glogau, quite beyond Prince KarPs 
sphere of possibility, but turned to right, not to left, when 
across, and got in upon Breslau from the other or east side 
of the River. Cunning manoeuvre, if you will, and folio we<J 
by cunning manoeuvres : but the result is, Prince Karl has 
got Sehweidnitz to rear, stands between Breslau and it ; can 
besiege Sehweidnitz when he likes, and no relief to it pos- 
sible that will not cost a battle. A battle, thinks Friedrich, 
is what Bevern ought to have tried at first ; a well-fought 
battle might have settled everything, and there was no other 
good likelihood in such an expedition : but now, by detaching 
reinforcements to this garrison and that, he has weakened 
himself beyond right power of fighting. 1 Sehweidnitz is 
liable to siege; Breslau, with its poor walls and multitudinous 
population, can stand no siege worth mentioning ; the Silesian 
strong places, not to speak of nieal-nmgazines, are like to go 
a bad road. Quite dominant, this Prince Karl ; placarding 
and proclaiming in all places, according to the new * Im- 
perial Patent, 12 That Silesia is her Imperial Majesty V again ! 
Which seems to be fast becoming the fact ; unless contradicted 
better. Quick ! 

Bevern has now, October 1st, no manoeuvre left but to 
draw out of Breslau; post himself on the southern side of it, 
IE a safe angle there, marshy Lohe in front, broad Oder to 
rear, Breslau at his right-hand with bread ; and there in- 
trenching himself by the best methods, wait slowly, in a 
sitting posture, events which are extensively on the gallop at 
present. One fancies, Had Winterfeld been still there! It 
is as brave an Army, 80,000 or more, as ever wore steel. 
Surely something could have been clone with it ; -something 
better than sit watching the events on full gallop all round ! 
Bevern was a loyal, considerably skilful and valiant man ; in 



Frtdfrit* tv, 141, 159, 

s In Mftikn*GuchieAu {iv. 832, 833), Copy of it* * Absolved from all prior 
by Primmn M*j<*ty*s attack on us* We * etc. tic. (*aiit Sept 1757 '). 



296 SEVEN-YEARS WAR RISES [BOOK xvin. 

[iath"i4th Nov. 1757 

the Battle of Lobositz, and elsewhere, we have seen him brave 
as a lion ; but perlflips in the other kind of bravery wanted 
here, he Well, his case was horribly difficult ; full of intri- 
cacy. And he sat, no doubt in a very wretched state, con- 
sulting the oracles, with events (which are themselves oracular) 
going at such a pace. 

Schweidnitz was besieged October 26th. Nadasti, with 
20,000, was set to do it; Prince Karl, with 60,000, ready 
to protect him ; Prince Severn asking the oracles : what a 
bit of news for Friedrich ; breaking suddenly the eff ulgency 
of Rossbach with a bar of ominous black ! Friedrich, still 
in the thick of pure Saxon business, makes instant arrange- 
ment for Silesia as well : Prince Henri, with such and such 
corps, to maintain the Saale, and guard Saxony ; Marshal 
Keith, with such and such, to step-over into Bohemia, and 
raise contributions at least, and tread on the tail of the big 
Silesian snake : all this Friedrich settles within a week ; 
takes certain corps of his own, effective about 13,000; and 
on November 18th marches from Leipzig. Round by 
Torgau, by Miihlberg, Grossenhayn; by Bautzen, Weissen- 
berg, across the Queiss, across the Sober; and so, with long 
marches, strides continually forward, all hearts willing, and 
all limbs, though in this sad winter weather, towards relief 
of Schweidnitz. 

At Grossenhayn, fifth day of the march, Friedrich learnt* 
that Schweidnitz is gone. November 12th-14th, Schweidnitz 
went by capitulation; contrary to everybody** hope or fear; 
certainly a very short defence for such a fortress* Fault 
of the Commandant, was everybody's first thought Not 
probably the best of Commandants, mid others gradually; 
but his garrison had Saxons in it; one day * 180 of them 
in a lump threw-down their arms, in the trenches, and went 
over to the Enemy/ Owing to whatsoever* the place is 
gone. Such towers, such curtains, star-ramparts ; such an 
opulence of cannons, stores, munitions, a 30,0001 of bard 
cash, one item, AH ii gone, after a fortnight's What 



CH.IX.] FRIEDBICH MARCHES FOR SILESIA 297 

i4th-aad Nov. 1757] 

a piece of news, as heard by Friedrich, coming at his utmost 
towards the scene itself! As seen by Bevern, too, in his 
questioning mood, it was an event of very oracular nature. 

On Monday 14th Schweidnitz fell; Karl, with Nadasti 
reunited to him, was now 80,000 odd ; and lost no time. 
On Tuesday next, November 2&d, 1757, * at three in the 
morning,' long hours before daybreak, Karl, with his 60,000, 
all learnedly arranged, comes rolling over upon hapless Bevern : 
with no end of cannonading and storm of war: Battle of 
Breslau, they call it ; ruinous to Bevern. Of which we shall 
attempt no description : except to say, that Karl had five 
bridges on the Lohe, came across the Lohe by five Bridges ; 
and that Bevern stood to his arms, steady as the rocks, to 
prevent his getting over, and to entertain him when over; 
that there were five principal attacks, renewed and re-renewed 
as long as needful, with torrents of shot, of death and tumult ; 
over six or eight miles of country, for the space of fifteen 
hours. Battle comparable only to Malplaquet, said the 
Austrians ; such a hurricane of artillery, strongly-entrenched 
enemy and loud doomsday of war. Did not end till nine 
at night ; Austrians victorious, more or less, in four of their 
attacks or separate enterprises ; that is to say, masters of the 
Lohe, and of the outmost Prussian villages and posts in front 
of the Prussian centre and right wing; victorious in that 
northern part; -but plainly unvictorious in the south-east 
or Prussian left wing, farthest oft* from Brcslau, and under 
Ziethenk command, where they were driven across the Lohe 
again, and lost prisoners and cannons, or a cannon. 1 

Some of BcvernV people, grounding on this latter circum- 
stance, and that they still held the Battlefield, or most part 
of it, wrote themselves victorious ; -though in a dim brief 
manner, as if conscious of the contrary. Which indeed wan 
the fact* At the council of war, which he summoned that 
evening, there were proposals of night-attack, and other fierce 
measures ; but Bevern ? rejecting the plan for a night-attack 

1 in Seyfarth, Tiwcc Account* ; &tyla$*n t il 19$, 23 1 234 et seq. 



398 SEVEN-YEARS WAR RISES [BOOKXVIIL 

[24th Nov. 1757 

on the Austrian camp as too dubious, did, in the dark hours, 
through the silent streets of Breslau, withdraw himself across 
the Oder, instead ; leaving 80 cannon, and 8,000 killed and 
wounded ; an evidently beaten man and Army. And indeed 
did straightway disappear personally altogether, as no longer 
equal to events. Ilode out, namely, to reconnoitre in the 
grey of his second sad morning, on this new Bank of the 
Oder; saw little except grey mist; but rode into a Croat 
outpost, only one poor groom attending him ; and was there 
made prisoner: intentionally, thought mankind; inten- 
tionally, thinks Friedrich, who was very angry with the 
poor man. 1 

The poor man was carried to Vienna, if readers care to 
know ; but being a near Cousin there (second -cousin, no less, 
to the late Empress-Mother), was by the high now-reigning 
Em press- Queen received in a charmingly gracious manner, and 
sent home again without ransom* * To Stettin! 1 beckoned 
Friedrich sternly from the distance, and would not see him at 
all : * To Stettin, I say, your official post in time of peace ! 
Command me the invalid Garrison there ; you are lit for 
nothing better ! 1 I will add one other thing, which un- 
happily will seem strange to readers: that there came no 
whisper of complaint from Bevern ; mere silence, and loyal 
industry with his poor means, from Bevern ; and that he 
proved heroically useful in Stettin two years hence, against 
the Swedes, against the Russians in the Siege-of-CoIberg 
time ; and gained Friedrich's favour again, with other good 
results. Which I observe was a common method with 
Prussian Generals and soldiers, when, unjustly or justly, they 
fell into trouble of this kind ; and a much better one than 
that of complaining in the Newspapers, and demanding 
Commissions of Inquiry, presided over by dmo# mid the 
Fourth-Estate, now is, 



1 Frewss, ft, loa. More exact in Kwtzen, />*r Tiy ww ttxtktH 

1857, an excellent exact little Compilation! from manifeM well ttwIId$ f 

pp. !66-it% date *i*4th Koverober. 1 



CH. ix.J FHIEDRtCtt MARCHES FOR SILESIA 299 

24th Nov. 1757] 

Beveni being with the Croats, the Prussian Army falls to 
General Kyau, as next in rank ; who (directly in the teeth of 
fierce orders that are speeding hither for Bevern and him) 
marches away, leaving Brcslau to its fate ; and making towards 
Glogau, as the one sure point in this wreck of things. And 
Prince Karl, that same day, goes upon Breslau ; which is in 
no case to resist and be bombarded : so that poor old General 
Lestwitz, the Prussian Commandant, always thought to be a 
valiant old gentleman, but who had been wounded in the late 
Action, and was blamably discouraged, took the terms 
offered, and surrendered without firing a gun. Garrison and 
he to march out, in * Free Withdrawal " ; these are the terms : 
Garrison was 4,000 and odd, mostly Silesian recruits ; but there 
marched hardly 500 out with poor Lestwitz ; the Silesian 
recruits, persuaded by conceivable methods, that they were to 
be prisoners of war, and that, in short, Austria was now come 
to be King again, and might make inquiry into men^s conduct, 
found it safer to take service with Austria, to vanish into 
holes in Breslau or where they could ; and, for instance, one 
regiment (or bafUlion, let us hide the name of it), on march- 
ing through the Gate, consisted only of nine chief officers and 
four men, 1 

There were lost 98 pieces of cannon ; endless magazines 
and stores of war. A Breslau scandalously gone ; a Breslau 
preaching day after next (27th, which was Sunday), in certain 
of its churches, especially Cardinal Schaffgotsch in the Bom 
Insel doing it, Thanksgiving Sermons, as per order, with 
unction real or official, * That our ancient sovereigns are 
restored to us ** ; which Sermons, except in the SehafFgotneh 
case, Prince Karl and the high Catholic world all there in 
gala, were * sparsely attended, 1 * say my authors. The 
Austrian** are at the top of their pride ; and consider full 
surely that Silesia i*t UUMW, though Friedrich were here twice 
over* * What is Friedrich ? We beat him at Kolin* Hw 

1 Muller, Stkfakt M teutktn (Berlin, 1857, professedly a mere abridgment 

and Aluidnvt of Kut*tn\ unituffxetl lite It), p. 12 (with name and particulars). 



300 SEVEN-YEARS WAR RISES [BOOKXVIII. 

[26th Nov. 1757 

Prussians at Zittau, at Moys, at Breslau In the new Mal- 
plaquet, were we beaten by them ? Hnh ! ' and snort (in 
the Austrian messrooms), and snap their fingers at Friedrich 
and his coming. 

It wasatG^jiit^^cene of poor WinterfeWs death) that 
FriedricfiT^onNovember 23d, the tenth day of his march,' 
first got rumour of the Breslau Malplaquet : 6 endless cannon- 
ading heard thereabouts all yesterday ! "* said rumour from the 
east, more and more steadily, as Friedrich hastened forward ; 
and that it was a victory for Severn.' Till, at Naumburg 
on the Queiss, he gets the actual tidings : Severn gone to the 
Croats, Breslau going, Kyau marching vague ; and what kind 
of victory it was. 

Ever from Grossenhayn onwards there had been message 
on message, more and more rigorous, precise and indignant, 

* Do this, do that ; your Dilection shall answer it with your 
head ! ' not one message of which reached his Dilection, till 
Dilection and Fate (such the gallop of events) had done the 
contrary . and now Dilection and his head have made a finish 
of it. 'No, 1 answers Friedrich to himself; *not till we arc 
all finished ! * and pushes-on, he too, like a kind of Fate. 
'What does or can he mean, then? 1 say the Aastrwus, with 
scornful astonishment, and think his head must be turning : 

* Will he beat us out of Silesia with his Potsdam Guard- 
Parade, then ? ' * Potsdamsche Wmht-Parade * ; so they denomi- 
nate his small Army ; and are very mirthful in their me&srooins. 
c I will attack them, if they stood on the Zobteubcrg, if they 
stood on the steeples of Breslau ! ' said Friedrieh ; and tramped 
diligently forward. Day after day, as the real tiding** arrives 
his outlook in Silesia is becoming darker and darker; a 
sternly dark march this altogether. Prince Karl ha* thrown a 
garrison into liegnitz on Ifriedrich's road ; Prince Karl Ha* 
encamped with Breslau at his back ; has above 80,000 \vh*u 
fully gathered ; and reigns supreme in those D.-trkt*!' 
march there seldom was : all black save a light that hura.s in 
one heart, refusing to be quenched till death* 



CH. IX.] FRIEDRICH MARCHES FOR SILESIA 301 

3d Dec. 1757] 

Friedrich sends orders that Kyaxi shall be put in arrest ; 
that Ziethen shall be general of the Severn wreck, shall bring 
it round by Glogau, and rendezvous with Friedrich at a place 
and day, Parch witz, 2d of December coming; and be 
steady, my old Ziethen. Friedrich brushes past the Liegnitz 
Garrison, leaves Liegnitz and it a trifle to the right ; arrives 
at Parch witz November 8th ; and there rests, or at least his 
weary troops do, till Ziethen come up ; the King not very 
restful, with so many things to prearrange ; a life or death 
crisis now nigh. Well, it is but death ; and death has been 
fronted before now! We who are after the event, on the 
safe sunny side of it, can form small image of the horrors and 
the inward dubieties to him who is passing through it ; and 
how Hope is needed to shine heroically eternal in some hearts. 
Fire of Hope, that does not issue in mere blazings, mad 
audacities and chaotic despair, but advances with its eyes 
open, measured ly, counting its steps, to the wrestling-place, 
this is a godlike thing ; much available to mankind in all the 
battles they have ; battles of steel, or of whatever sort. 

Friedrich, at Parchwitz, assembled his Captains, and spoke 
to them ; it was the night after Ziethen came in, night of 
December 3d, 1757 ; and Ziethen, no doubt, was there: for 
it is an authentic meeting, this at Parchwite, and the words 
were taken down. 



Speech to his Generate (Pardtawite, 
3d December 1 757) * 

* It is not unknown to you, intiw Haren^ what disasters 
have befallen here, while we were busy with the French and 
Reichs Array. Schweidnitz is gone ; Duke of Bevern beate ; 
Breskn gone, and all our war-stores there ; good part of 
Silesia gone ; and, in fact* my embarrassments would be at the 
insuperable pitch, hitd not I boundless trust in you, and jour 
qualities* which have been so often manifested, as soldiers 
1 From JWw f I 140 2451 (slightly abridged)* 



300 SEVEN-YEARS WAR RISES [BOOK xvm. 

[a6th Nov. 1757 

Prussians at Zittau, at Moys, at Breslau in the new Mai- 
plaquet, were we beaten by them ? Hnh ! ' and snort (in 
the Austrian messroorns), and snap their fingers at Friedrich 
and his coming. 

It wasa^tG^lJ^t^scene of poor Winterfeld's death) that 
Friedric^P^aNovember 23d, the tenth day of his inarch,' 
first got rumour of the Breslau Malplaquet : * endless cannon- 
ading heard thereabouts all yesterday ! ' said rumour from the 
east, more and more steadily, as Friedrich hastened forward ; 
and that it was * a victory for Bevern. 1 Till, at Naumburg 
on the Queiss, he gets the actual tidings : Bevern gone to the 
Croats, Breslau going, Kyau marching vague ; and what kind 
of victory it was. 

Ever from Grossenhayn onwards there had been message 
on message, more and more rigorous, precise and indignant, 
* Do this, do that ; your Dilection shall answer it with your 
head ! ' not one message of which reached his Dilection, till 
Dilection and Fate (such the gallop of events) had done the 
contrary . and now Dilection and his head have made a finish 
of it. < No,' answers Friedrich to himself; 'not till we are 
all finished ! ' and pushes-on, he too, like a kind of Fate. 
'What does or can he mean, then? 1 say the Austrian**, with 
scornful astonishment, and think his head mut be turning : 
( Will he beat us out of Silesia with his Potsdam Guard - 
Parade, then ? * * Potsdamsche Wackt-Parade * ;~so they denomi- 
nate his small Army ; and are very mirthful in their inesHroomn. 
'I will attack them, if they stood on the ZobUmberg, if they 
stood on the steeples of Breslau ! "* said Friedrich ; ami tramped 
diligently forward. Day after day, as the real tidixigH arrive, 
his outlook in Silesia is becoming darker and darker; a 
sternly dark march this altogether. Prince Karl has thrown u 
garrison into Liegnite on Friedrich^ road ; Prince Karl lien 
encamped with Breslau at his back ; has above 80,000 ulwu 
fully gathered; and reigns supreme in those Dwkw 

march there seldom was ; all black save a light that burim in 
one heart, refusing to be quenched till death* 



CR IX.] FRIEDRICH MARCHES FOR SILESIA 301 

3d Dec. 1757] 

Friedrich sends orders that Kyau shall be put In arrest ; 
that Ziethen shall be general of the Bevern wreck, shall bring 
it round by Glogau, and rendezvous with Friedrich at a place 
and day, Parch witz, 2d of December coming; and be 
steady, my old Ziethen. Friedrich brashes past the Liegnitz 
Garrison, leaves Liegnitz and it a trifle to the right ; arrives 
at Parchwitz November S8th ; and there rests, or at least his 
weary troops do, till Ziethen come up ; the King not very 
restful, with so many things to prearrange ; a life or death 
crisis now nigh. Well, it is but death ; and death has been 
fronted before now! We who are after the event, on the 
safe sunny side of it, can form small image of the horrors and 
the inward dubieties to him who is passing through it ; and 
how Hope is needed to shine heroically eternal in some hearts. 
Fire of Hope, that does not issue in mere blazings, mad 
audacities and chaotic despair, but advances with its eyes 
open, measuredly, counting its steps, to the wrestling-place, 
this is a godlike thing ; much available to mankind in all the 
battles they have ; battles of steel, or of whatever sort. 

Friedrich, at Parch witz, assembled his Captains, and spoke 
to them ; it was the night after Ziethen came in, night of 
December 3d, 1757 ; and Ziethen, no doubt, was there: for 
it is an authentic meeting, this at Parchwitz, and the words 
were taken down* 



Fricdrich'* Speech to fm Oenerafo (Parehwitz, 

3d December 1757) 1 

* It is not unknown to you, mdne JJmm, what disasters 
have befallen here, while we were busy with the French arid 
Ileichs Army. Schweidnitz is gone ; Duke of Bevern beate ; 
Breslau gone, and all our war-stores there ; good part of 

Silesia gone : and, in fact, mj embarrassments would be at the 

insuperable pitch, had not 1 boundless trust in you, and your 

qualities, which have been so often manifested) as soldiers 

1 from #rff0ttr, i, 240*342 (slightly abridged). 



302 SEVEN-YEARS WAR RISES [BOOK xvm. 

[3d -5th Dec. 1757 

and sons of your Country. Hardly one among you but has 
distinguished himself by some nobly memorable action : all 
these services to the State and me 1 know well, and will never 
forget. 

6 1 flatter myself, therefore, that in this case too nothing 
will be wanting which the State has a right to expect of your 
valour. The hour is at hand. I should think 1 had done 
nothing, if I left the Austrians in possession of Silesia, Let 
me apprise you, then : I intend, in spite of the Rules of Art, 
to attack Prince Karl's Army, which is nearly thrice our 
strength, wherever I find it. The question is not of his num- 
bers, or the strength of his position : all this, by courage, by 
the skill of our methods, we will try to make good. This 
step I must risk, or everything is lost. We must beat the 
enemy, or perish all of us before his batteries. So I rend the 
case ; so I will act in it. 

6 Make this my determination known to all Officers of the 
Army ; prepare the men for what work is now to ensue, and 
say that I hold myself entitled to demand exact fulfilment of 
orders. For you, when I reflect that you are Prussians, can 
I think that you will act unworthily? But if there should be 
one or another who dreads to share all dangers with me, lie,"* 
continued his Majesty, with an interrogative look, find then 
pausing for answer, 'can have his Discharge this evening, 
and shall not suffer the least reproach from me.* -Modest 
strong bass murmur; meaning * No, by the Eternal I 1 if you 
looked into the eyes and faces of the group. Never will 
Retzow Junior forget that scene, and how efiulgeutly eloquent 
the veteran physiognomies were. 

* Hah, I knew it, 1 said the King, with his most radiant 
smile, * none of you would desert me ! I dqwwl on your 
help, then; and on victory as sure.' -The speech witulsup 
with a specific passage: *The Cavalry regiment Unit tlcw not 
on the instant, on order given, dash full jihni^e into the 
enemy, I will, directly after the Battle, unhonws, and ttmke it 
a Garrison regiment The Infantry battalion which, meet 



CH. IX.J FRIEDRICH MARCHES FOR SILESIA 803 

3<!-5th Dec. 1757] 

with what it may, shows the least sign of hesitating, loses 
its colours and its sabres, and I cut the trimmings from 
its uniform ! Now good-night. Gentlemen * shortly we have 
either beaten the Enemy, or we never see one another 
again."* 

An excellent temper in this Army ; a rough vein of 
heroism in it, steady to the death ; and plenty of hope in 
it too, hope in Vater Fritz. * Never mind,' the soldiers used 
to say, in John Duke of Marlborough^s time, * Corporal John 
will get us through it I 1 That same evening Friedrich rode 
into the Camp, where the regiments he had were now all 
gathered, out of their cantonments, to march on the morrow. 
First regiment he came upon was the Life-Guard Cuirassiers : 
the men, in their accustomed way, gave him good-evening, 
which he cheerily returned. Some of the more veteran sort 
asked, ruggedly confidential/4s well as loyal : ' What is thy 
news, then, so late ? ' * Good news, children (Kinder) : 
tomorrow you will beat the Austrians tightly 1 "* * That we 
will, by - ! ' answered they.* But think only where they 
stand yonder, and how they have entrenched themselves?* 
said Friedrich. * And if they had the Devil in front and all 
round them, we will knock them out; only thou lead us on I * 
* Well, I will see what you can do : now lay you down, 
and sleep sound ; and good sleep to you ! * * Good-night, 
Fritz ! * answer all ; l as Fritz ambles on to the next regiment, 
to which, as to every one, he will have some word. 

Was it the famous Pommcrn regiment, this that he next 
spoke to, -who answered London's summons to them once 
(as shall be noticed by and by) in a way ineffable, though 
unforgettable ? Mantcufel of Foot ; yes, no other ! 2 They 
have their own opinion of their capacities against an enemy, 
and do not want for a good conceit of themselves. *Well, 
children, how think you it will be tomorrow ? They are 
twice as strong as we. 1 * Never thou uiiad that; there axe 



Mtiltef* p* 31 (fruiu AW/iif.'faM'M, of" whom iVi/W); Frtuss, etc., etc* 
Arrhenholu, H. 61 ; and Kattn p, 35. 



804 SEVEN-YEARS WAR RISES [BOOKXVIII. 

[3d5th Dec. 1757 

no Pommerners among them ; thou knowest what the 
Pommeruers can do ! ' Friedrich : * Yea, truly, that do I ; 
otherwise I durst not risk the battle. Now good sleep to 
you ! tomorrow, then, we shall either have beaten the Enemy 
or else be all dead. 1 * Yea, 1 answered the whole regiment ; 
6 dead, or else the Enemy beaten ' : and so went to deep 
sleep, preface to a deeper for many of them, -as beseems 
brave men. In this world it much beseems the brave man, 
uncertain about so many things, to be certain of himself for 
one thing. 

These snatches of Camp Dialogue, much more the Speech 
preserved to us by Retzow Junior, appear to be true; 
though as to the dates, the circumstances, there has been 
debating. 1 Other Anecdotes, dubious or more, still flout 
about in quantity ; of which let us give only one ; that of 
the Deserter (which has merit as a myth), * What made 
thee desert, then ?' * Hm, alas, your Majesty, we were got 
so down in the world, and had such a time of it ! " * Well, 
try it one day more ; and if we cannot mend matters, thou 
and I will both desert. 1 

A learned Doctor, one of the most recent on those matters, 
is astonished why the Histories of Friedrich should be such 
dreary reading, and Friedrich himself so prosaic* barren an 
object ; and lays the blame upon the Age, insensible to real 
greatness ; led away by claptrap Napoleouisms, regardless of 
expense. Upon which Smelfungus takes him up, with a 
twitch : 

*To my sad mind, Herr Doctor, it seems ascribable rather to the 

Dryasdust of these Ag-e% especially to the Prussian Dryandujtt^ ittmg 
comfortable in his Academies, waving sublimely hit long as he 

tramples human Heroisms into unintelligible piptelny and eon- 

tinents of sand and cinders, with the Doctors all applauding , 

'Had the sacred Poet or man of real Human Genius, at M work, 
for the thousand yeaw last pant, instead of idly fiddling far way from 
Ms work,* which surely in definable as being very mahily. That of 
interpreting human Heroisms; of painfully extricating, aud extorting 

1 Kutcen, pp. 175-181, 



CH. ix.J FBIEDRICH MARCHES FOR SILESIA 305 

3d-5th Dec. 1757] 

from the circumambient cliaos of muddy babble^ rumour and mendacity, 
some not inconceivable human and divine Image of thein, more and more 
clear, complete and credible for mankind (poor mankind dumbly looking- 
up to him for guidance, as to what it shall think of God and of Men in 
this Scene of Things), I calculate, we should by this time have had a 
different Friedrich of it ; O Heavens, a different world of it, in so many 
respects ! 

'My esteemed Herr Doctor, it is too painful a subject. Godlike 
fabulous Achilles, and the old Greek Kings of men, one perceives, after 
study, to be dim enough Grazier Sovereigns, "living among infinite dung," 
till their sacred Poet extricated them. And our ww-sacred all-desecrat- 
ing Dryasdust, Herr Doctor, I must say, it fills me with despair ! 
Authentic human Heroisms, not fabulous a whit, but true to the bone, 
and by all appearance very much nobler than those of-godlike Achilles 
and pious ^Eneas ever could have been,-left in this manner, trodden 
under foot of man and beast ; man and beast alike insensible that there 
is anything but common mud under foot, and grateful to anybody that 
will assure them there is nothing. Oh Doctor, oh Doctor ! And the 
results of it You need not go exclusively < to France " to look at them. 
They are too visible in the so-called cs Social Hierarchies," and sublime 
gilt Doggeries, sacred and secular, of all modern Countries ! Let us 
be silent, my friend/ 

e Prussian Dryasdust,* he says elsewhere, 'does make a terrible job of 
it ; especially when ho attempts to weep through his pipeclay, or rise 
with his long 1 ears into the moral sublime. As to the German People, 
I find that they dimly have not wanted Hensibility to Friedrich ; that 
their multitudes of Anecdotes, ntill circulating among them in print and 
mvd wee, are proof of this. Thereby they have at least made a Myth of 
Friedrich *s History, and given Home rhythmus, life and cheerful human 
substantiality to hit* work and him. Accept these Anecdotes as the Epic 
they could not write of him, but were longing to hear from somebody 
who could. Who has not yet appeared among mankind, nor will for 
gome time. Alas, my friend, on piercing 1 through the bewildering 
nimbus of babble, malignity, mendacity, which veils sevenfold the Face 
of Friedrich from us, and getting to ee Home glimpses of the Face itself, 
one is sorrowfully Ktruck dumb once more. What a Hiiicidal set of 
creatures ; commanding at* with one voice, That there Khali be no Heroism 
more among them ; that all shall be Doggery and C lommonplace hence- 
forth. " Achf mein Iwber *V/wr, you don't know that damned brood V 
Well, well. "Solomon's Temple," 1 the Moslem Hay, "had to be built 
under the chirping of ten thousand 8parrown. M Ten thousand of them ; 
committee of the whole houK6* unanimously of the opposite view j and 
could not quite hinder It, That too Is something I * 

VOL. VL 



306 SEVEN-YEARS WAR RISES [BOOKXvm. 

[4th Dec. 1757 

More to our immediate purpose is this other thing : That 
the Austrians have been in Council of War ; arid, on delibera- 
tion, have decided to come out of their defences ; to quit 
their strong Camp, which lies so eligibly, ahead of Breslau 
and arear of Lissa and of Schweidnite Water yonder; to 
cross Schweidnitz Water, leave Lissa behind them ; and meet 
this offensively aggressive Friedrich in pitched fight. Several 
had voted, No, why stir ? Daun especially, and other* with 
emphasis. < No need of fighting at all,' said Daun : we 
can defend Schweidnitz Water ; ruin him before he ever get 
across." < Defend ? Be assaulted by an Army like bin ? " 
urges Lucchesi, the other Chief General : * It is totally un- 
worthy of us ! We have gained the game ; all the honours 
ours ; let us have done with it Give him battle, since he 
fortunately wishes it ; we finish him, and gloriously finish the 
War too I ' So argued Lucchesi, with vivacity, persistency, 
to his own ill luck, but evidently with approval from Prince 
Karl. Everybody sees, this is the way to Prince Karl"*H favour 
at present. * Have not I reconquered Silesia ? * thinks Prince 
Karl to himself ; and beams applause on the high course, not 
the low prudent one. 1 In a word, the Austriatm docide on 
stepping out to meet Friedrich in open battle : it was the 
first time they ever did so ; and it was likewise the lost* 

Sunday December 4th, at four in the morning, Frietlridh 
has marched from Parehwite, straight towards the Austrian 
Camp ; 2 he hears, one can fancy with what pleasure, that the 
Austrians are advancing towards him, and will not need to 
be forced in their strong position. His march is in four 
columns, Friedrich in the vanguard ; quarters to be Neumarkt, 
a little Town about fourteen miles oE Within ome miles 
of Neumarkt, early in the afternoon, he learn* that them are 
a thousand Croats in the place, the Austrian Bakery at work 
there, and engineer people marking-out an Austrian ('iimp* 
* On the Height beyond Neumarkt, that will be ? * think* 
1 Kutzen, pp. 45-48. t MUHn, p, 34 



CH. ix.] FRIEDRICH MARCHES FOR SILESIA 307 

4th Dec. 1757] 

Friedrich ; for he knows this ground, having often done 
reviews here ; to Breslau all the way on both hands, not a 
rood of it but is familiar to him. Which was a singular 
advantage, say the critics ; and a point the Austrian Council 
of War should have taken more thought of. 

Friedrich, before entering Neumarkt, sends a regiment to 
ride quietly round it on both sides, and to seize that Height 
he knows of. Height once seized, or ready for seizing, he 
bursts the barrier of Neumarkt ; dashes-in upon the thousand 
Croats ; flings-out the Croats in extreme hurry, musketry and 
sabre acting on them ; they find their Height beset, their 
retreat cut-off, and that they must vanish. Of the 1,000 
Croats, '569 were taken prisoners, and ISO slain,"* in this 
unexpected sweeping-out of Neumarkt. Better still, in Neu- 
markt is found the Austrian Bakery, set-up and in full 
work ; delivers you 80,000 bread-rations hot-and-hot, which 
little expected to go such a road. On the Height, the 
Austrian stakes and engineer-tools were found sticking in the 
ground ; so hasty had the flight been. 

How Prince Karl came to expose his Bakery, his staff of 
life so far ahead of him ? Prince Karl, it is clear, was a 
little puffed-up with high thoughts at this time. The 
capture of Schweidnite, the late * Malplaquet "* (poorish Auti- 
Bevern Malplaquet), capture of Brealau, and the low and lost 
condition of Friedricbfa Silesian affairs, had more or less 
turned everybody's head, everybody's except Feldmatscha.il 
Daun's alone : and witty mess-tables, we already said, were 
in the daily habit of mocking at Friedrieli's march towards 
them with aggressive views, and called his insignificant little 
Army the * Potsdam Guard-Parade.'* 1 That was the common 
triumphant humour ; natural iy shared-iu by Prince Karl ; the 
ready way to flutter him being to sing in that tune. Nobody 
otherwise can explain, and nobody in anywise can justify, 
Prince KarP ignorance of Friodrich <t advance, his almost 
voluntary losing of Ids taft-of-life in that manner. 



308 SEVEN-YEARS WAE RISES [BOOKXVIII. 

[5th Dec, 1757 

Prince Karl's soldiers have each (in the cold form) three- 
days provision in their haversacks : they have come across the 
Weistritz River (more commonly called Schweidnite Water), 
which was also the height of contemptuous imprudence ; and 
lie encamped, this night, in long line, not ill-chosen (once 
the River is behind), perpendicular to Fricdrich's march, 
some ten miles ahead of him. Since crossing, they had 
learned with surprise, How their Bakery and Croats had been 
snapt-up ; that Friedrich was not at a distance, but near ; 
and that arrangements could not be made too soon ! Their 
position intersects the Great Road at right angles, as we hint; 
and has villages, swamps, woody knolls ; especially, on each 
wing, good defences. Their right wing leans on Nypem and 
its impassable peatbogs, a Village two or three miles north 
from the Great Road; their centre is close behind another 
Village called Leuthen, about as far south from it : length of 
their bivouac is about five miles ; which will become six or so, 
had Nadasti once taken post, who is to form the left wing, 
and go down as far as Sagschiitz, southward of l^uthen.* 
Seven battalions are in this Village of Leu then, eight in 
Nypern, all the Villages secured ; woocb, scraggy abatis, 
redoubts, not forgotten : their cannon are numerous, though 
of light calibre, Friedrich has at least 71 heavy pieces; and 
10 of them are formidably heavy,-~brouglit from the walls of 
Glogau, with terrible labour to Ziethen ; but with excellent 
effect, on this occasion and henceforth. They got the name 
of * Boomers, Bellowers (Die Brummr)J those Ten. Friedrich 
was to great straits about artillery ; and Retssow Senior re- 
commended this hauling-up of the Ten Bellowem* which 
became celebrated in the years coming* And now we are 
on the Battle-ground, and most look into the Battle itoelf, 
if we can, 

* Fkn, end of vol. 



CHAP.X.] BATTLE OF LEUTHEN 309 

5th Dec. 1757] 



CHAPTER X 

BATTLE OF LEUTHEN 

FROM Neumarkt, on Monday, long before day, the 
Prussians, all but a small party left there to guard the 
Bakery and Army Properties, are out again ; in four columns; 
towards what may lie ahead. Friedrich, as usual in such 
cases, for obvious reasons, rides with the vanguard. To 
Borne, the first Village on the Highway, is some seven or 
eight miles. The air is damp, the dim incipiences of dawn 
struggling among haze ; a little way on this side Borne, we 
come on ranks of cavalry drawn across the Highway, stretch- 
ing right and left into the dim void : Austrian Army this, 
then ? Push up to it ; see what it is, at least. 

It proves to be poor General Nostitz, with his three Saxon 
regiments of dragoons, famous since Kolin-day, and a couple 
of Hussar regiments, standing here as outpost ; who ought 
to have been more alert ; but they could not see through the 
dark, and so, instead of catching, are caught. The Prussians 
fall upon them, front and flank, tumble them into immediate 
wreck ; drive the whole outpost at full gallop home, through 
Borne, upon Nypem and the right wing, without news except 
of this symbolical sort. Saxon regiments are quite ruined, 
*S40 of them prisoners'* (poor Nostite himself not prisoner, 
but wounded to death 1 ); and the ground clear in this 
quarter. 

Friedrich, on the farther side of Borne, calls halt, till the 
main body arrive; rides forward, himself and staff 1 , to the 
highest* of a range or suite of knolls, some furlongs ahead; 
sees there in full view, far and wide, the Austrian^ drawn-up 
before him. From Nypem to SagKchute yonder; miles in 
length ; and HO distinct, while the light mended and the trasses 
faded, * that you could have counted them 1 (through your 
1 Died in Brcilan, the twelfth day after (Scyfarth, ii 362), 



310 SEVEN-YEARS WAR RISES [BOOKXVIII. 

[5th Dec. 1757 

glasses), * man by man. 1 A highly interesting sight to 
Friedrich ; who continues there in the profoundest study, and 
calls-up some horse regiments of the vanguard to maintain 
this Height and the range of Heights running south from it. 
And there, I think, the King is mainly to be found, looking 
now at the Austrians, now at his own people, for some three 
hours to come. His plan of Battle is soon clear to him : 
Nypern, with its bogs and scrags, on the Austrian right wing, 
is tortuous impossible ground, as he well remembers, no good 
prospect for us there : better ground for us on their left 
yonder, at Leuthen, even at Sagschiitz farther south, whither 
they are stretching themselves. Attempt their left wing ; 
try our * Oblique Order ' upon that, with all the skill that is 
in us ; perhaps we can do it rightly this time, and prosper 
accordingly ! That is Friedrich's plan of action. The four 
columns once got to Borne shall fall into two ; turn to the 
right, and go southward, ever southward : they are to 
become our two Lines of Battle, were they once got to the 
right point southward. Well opposite Sagschiitz, that will 
be the point for facing to left, and marching up, in 
6 Oblique Order," with the utmost faculty they have ! * 

< The Oblique Order, Schrage Stellung* let the hasty reader pause to 
understand,, 'is an old plan practised by Epaminondas, and revived by 
Friedrich, who has tried it in almost all his Battles more or less, from 
Hohenfriedberg forward to Prag, Kolin, RosJbach ; but never could,, in 
all points, get it rightly done till now,, at Leuthen, in the highest time 
of need. "It is a particular manoeuvre/' says Archenholtz, rather 
sergeant- wise, " which indeed other troops are now" (1793) "in the habit 
of imitating ; but which, up to this present time, none but Prussian 
troops can execute with the precision and velocity indispensable to it. 
You divide your line into many pieces ; you can push these forward stair- 
wise, so that they shall halt close to one another," obliquely, to either 
hand ; " and so, on a minimum of ground, bring your mass of men to the 
required point at the required angle. Friedrich invented this mode of 
getting into position ; by its close ranking, by its depth, and the manner 
of movement used, it had some resemblance to the Macedonian Phalanx/' 
chiefly in the latter point, I should guess ; for when arrived at its 

* See Sketch of Plan, end of vol. 



CHAP, x.] BATTLE OF LEUTHEN 311 

5th Dec % 1757] 

place, it is no deeper than common. " Forming itself in this way, a 
mass of troops takes-up in proportion very little ground ; and it shows in 
the distance, hy reason of the mixed uniforms and standards, a totally 
chaotic mass of men heaped on one another/* going in rapid mazes this 
way and that. "But it needs only that the Commander lift his finger; 
instantly this living coil of knotted intricacies develops itself in perfect 
order, and with a speed like that of mountain rivers when the ice breaks," 
is upon its Enemy/ * 

f Your Enemy is ranked as here, in long line, three or two to one. 
You march towards him, but keep him uncertain as to how you will 
attack ; then do on a sudden march up, not parallel to him, but oblique, 
at an angle of 45, swift, vehement, in overpowering numbers, on the 
wing you have chosen. Roll that wing together, ruined, in upon its 
own line, you may roll the whole five miles of line into disorder and 
ruin, and always be in overpowering number at the point of dispute. 
Provided, only, you are swift enough about it, sharp enough ! But 
extraordinary swiftness, sharpness, precision is the indispensable con- 
dition ; by no means try it otherwise ; none but Prussians, drilled by 
an Old Dessauer, capable of doing it. - This is the Schrage Ordnung, 
about which there has been such commentating and controversying 
among military people : whether Friedrich invented it, whether Caesar 
did it, how Epaminondas, how Alexander at Arbela ; how * Which 
shall not in the least concern us on this occasion. 

The four columns rustled themselves into two, and turned 
southward on the two sides of Borne ; southward henceforth, 
for about two hours; as if straight towards the Magic 
Mountain, the Zobtenberg, far off, which is conspicuous over 
all that region. Their steadiness, their swiftness and exacti- 
tude were unsurpassable. 'It was a beautiful sight/ says 
Tempelhof, an eyewitness : 4 The heads of the columns were 
constantly on the same level, and at the distance necessary 
for forming ; all flowed on exact, as if in a review. And you 
could read in the eyes of our brave troops the noble temper 
they were in/ 2 I know not at what point of their course, or 
for how long, but it was- from the column nearest him, which 
is to be first line, that the King heard, borne on the winds 
amid their field-music, as they marched there, the sound of 
Psalms, many- voiced melody of a Church Hymn, well known 
1 Archenboltz, i. 209. 2 Tempelhof, i. 288, 287. 



312 SEVEN-YEARS WAR RISES [BOOKXVlii. 

[5th Dec. 1757 

to Mm ; which had broken-out, band accompanying, among 
those otherwise silent men. The fact is very certain, very 
strange to me : details not very precise, except that here, as 
specimen, is a verse of their Hymn : 

e Grant that with zeal and skill, this day, I do 
What me to do behoves, what thou command'st me to ; 
Grant that I do it sharp, at point of moment fit, 
And when I do it, grant me good success in it.' 



( Gieb doss ich thu' mit Fleiss wa$ mir 
Womu mieh dein Befehl in memem Stands f&hret, 
Gieb dass ich's thue bald, xu der Zeit da ich's soil; 
Und wenn Ms thu' y so gieb dass es gerathe wohl.' l 

One has heard the voice of waters, one has paused in the 
mountains at the voice of far-off Covenanter psalms ; but a 
voice like this, breaking the commanded silences, one has not 
heard, * Shall we order that to cease, your Majesty ? 4 By 
no means,' said the King ; whose hard heart seems to have 
been touched by it, as might well be. Indeed there is in him, 
in those grim days, a tone as of trust in the Eternal, as of 
real religious piety and faith, scarcely noticeable elsewhere in 
his History. His religion, and he had in withered forms a 
good deal of it, if we will look well, being almost always in a 
strictly voiceless state, nay, ultra-voiceless, or voiced the 
wrong way, as is too well known. * By no mean** ! ' answered 
he : and a moment after, said to some one, Kitithcn probably : 
* With men like these, don't you think I shall have victory 
this day ! 7 

The loss of their Saxon Forepost proved more important to 
the Austrians than it seemed ; not computable in prisoners, 
or killed and wounded. The Height named Belitniberg, 
c Borne Rise " (so we might call it, which has got; its Pillar of 
memorial since, with gilt Victory atop ") ; .whttru Frtadrich 



' Powt * {Prussian SternhoW-and-Hopkiiui}, * p, 6% ' ; cited 
in Freuss, IL 107. 
s Not til! i$54(Kwtzen l pp, 194, 195). 



CHAP.X.] BATTLE OF LEUTHEN 313 

5th Dec. 1757] 

now is and where the Austrians are not, is at once a screen 
and a point of vision to Friedrich. By loss of their Nostitz 
Forepost, they had lost view of Friedrich, and never could 
recover view of him ; could not for hours learn distinctly 
what he was about; and when he did come in sight again, 
it was in a most unexpected place ! On the farther side of 
Borne, edge of the big expanse of open country there, Fried- 
rich has halted ; ridden with his adjutants to the top of * the 
Scheuberg (Shy-hill), as the Books call it, though it is more 
properly a blunt Knoll or c Rise, 1 the nearest of a Chain of 
Knolls, or swells in the ground, which runs from north to 
south on that part. 

Except the Zobtenberg, rising blue and massive, on the 
southern horizon (famous mythologic Mountain, reminding 
you of an Arthurs Seat in shape too, only bigger and solitary), 
this Country, for many miles round, has nothing that could 
be called a Hill ; it is definable as a bare wide- waving cham- 
paign, with slight bumps on it, or slow heavings and sinkings. 
Country mostly under culture, though it is of sandy quality ; 
one or two sluggish brooks in it ; and rccdy meres or mires, 
drained in our day. It is dotted with Hamlets of the usual 
kind; and has patches of scraggy fir. Your horizon, even 
where bare, is limited, owing to the wavy heavings of the 
ground ; windmills and church-belfries are your only resource^ 
and even these, from about Leu then and the Austrian position, 
leave the Borne quarter mostly invisible to you. Leuthen 
Belfry, the same which may have stood a hundred years before 
this Battle, ends in a small tile-roof, open only at the gables ; 
* Leuthen Belfry,* says a recent Tourist, *is of small resource 
for a view. To south you can see some distance, Sagsehiite, 
Lobetintss and other Hamlets, amid scraggy fir-patches, and 
meadows, once miry pools ; but to north you are soon shut-in 
by a swell or slow rise, with two windmills upon it 1 (im- 
portant to readers at present); 'and to eastward 1 (Brcslau 
side and Lissa Hide), * or to westward ' (Friedridf s side), * one 
hag no view, except of the old warped rafters and their old 



814 SEVEN-YEARS WAR RISES [BOOKXVlil. 

[5th Dec. 1757 

mouldy tiles within few inches ; or, if by audacious efforts at 
each end, to the risk of your neck, you get a transient peep^ 
it is stopt, far short of Borne, by the slow irregular heavings^ 
with or without fir about them.'' l 

In short, Friedrich keeps possession of that Borne ridge 
of Knolls, escorted by Cavalry in good numbers ; twinkling 
about in an enigmatic way : * Prussian right wing yonder,"" 
think the Austrians ; * whitherward, or what can they mean ?"* 
and keeps his own columns and the Austrian lines in view ; 
himself and his movements invisible, or worse, to the Austrian 
Generals from any spyglass or conjecture they can employ. 

The Austrian Generals are in windmills, on church-belfries^ 
here, there ; diligently scanning the abstruse phenomenon, of 
which so little can be seen. Daun, who had always been 
against this adventure, thinks it probable the vanished Prus- 
sians are retiring southward : for Bohemia and our Magazines 
probably. * These good people are smuggling off (Die ffutcn 
Leute pascJien ab)S said he : * let them go in peace, 1 2 Daun, 
that morning, in his reconnoiterings, had asked of a peasant, 
* What is that, then? 1 (meaning the top of a Village-steeple 
in the distance, but thought by the peasant to be moaning 
something nearer hand). *That is the Hill our King chases 
the Austrians over, when he is reviewing here ! * Which 
Daun reported at headquarters with a grin. 8 

Lucchesi, on the other hand, scanning those Borne Hills, 
and the cavalry of Friedridbus escort twinkling hither and 
thither on them, becomes convinced to a moral certainty* 
That yonder is the Prussian Vanguard, probable extremity of 
left wing ; and that he, Lucchesi, here at Nypern, in to be 
attacked* * Attacked, you ? ' said one Monbwt, French 
Agent or Emissary here: * unless they were unifRfK, it is 
impossible!' But Lucchesi saw it too well. 

He sends to siiy that such is the evident fact, and that he, 
Lucchesi, is not equal to it, but must have large rtnuforcemeut 

1 Tourist's Note, fonts tne 

1 M tiller, p. 36, Nicolai, iv, 34* 



CHAP.X.] BATTLE OF LEUTHEN 315 

5th Dec. 1757] 

of Horse to his right wing. ' Tush ! ' answer Prince Karl 
and Daun ; and return only argument, verbal consolation, to 
distressed Lucchesi. Lucchesi sends a second message, more 
passionately pressing, to the like effect; also with the like 
return. Upon which he sends a third message, quite pas- 
sionate : * If Cavalry do not come, I will not be responsible 
for the issue ! ' And now Daun does collect the required 
reinforcement ; ' all the reserve of Horse, and a great many 
from the left wing"*; and, Daun himself heading them, goes 
off at a swift trot ; to look into Lucchesi and his distresses, 
three or four miles to right, five or six from where the danger 
lies. Now is Friedriclr's golden moment. 

Wending always south, on their western or invisible side 
of those Knolls, Friedrieh's people have got to about the level, 
or latitude as we might call it, of Nadastfs left. To Radax- 
dorf, namely, to Lobetintz, or still farther south, and perhaps 
a mile to west of Nadasti. Fricdrich has mounted to Lobe- 
tinte Windmill ; and judges that the time is come. Daun 
and Cavalry once got to support their right wing, and our 
south latitude being now sufficient, Fried rich, swift as Prussian 
manoeuvring can do it, falls with all his strength upon their 
left wing. Forms in oblique order, horse, foot, artillery, 
all perfect in their paces ; and comes streaming over the 
Knolls at Sagschute, suddenly like a fire-deluge on Nadasti, 
who had charge there, and was expecting no such adventure ! 
How Friedrieh did the forming in oblique order was at that 
time a mystery known only to Fried rieli and his Prussians : 
but soldiers of all countries, gathering the secret from him, 
now understand it, and can learnedly explain it to such as 
are curious. Will readers take a touch more of the l)rill~ 
Serf cant? 

*You go stair-wise (en Mtdon)J says he: * first battalion 
starts, second .stands immovable till the first have done fifty 
steps ; at the fifty-first, second battalion also steps along ; 
third waiting for ifa fifty-first stop. First battalion * (right- 
most battalion or leftmost, as the case mav be ; rightmost in 



316 SEVEN-YEARS WAB RISES [BOOKXVIII. 

[Sth^Dec. 1757 

this Leuthen case) 4 doing fifty steps before the next stirs, and 
each battalion in succession punctually doing the same ' : 
march along on these terms, or halt at either end ? while 
you advance at the other, it is evident you will swing your- 
self out of the parallel position into any degree of obliquity. 
And furthermore, merely by halting and facing half-round at 
the due intervals, you shove yourself to right or to left as 
required (always to right in this Leuthen case) : and so, 
provided you can march as a pair of compasses would, -you 
will, in the given number of minutes, impinge upon your 
Enemy's extremity at the required angle, and overlap him to 
the required length : whereupon, At him, in flank, in front, 
and rear, and see if he can stand it ! < A beautiful manoeuvre,"* 
says Captain Archenholtz ; ' devised by Friedrich," 1 by Priedrich 
inheriting Epaminondas and the Old Dessauer ; * and which 
perhaps only Friedrich's men, to this day, could do with the 
requisite perfection,"* 

Nadasti, a skilful War-Captain, especially with Horn*, was 
beautifully posted about Sagsehuttf ; his extreme left foldod-up 

en jpotence there (elbow of it at Sagschiite, fore-arm of it 
running to Gohlau eastward); potence ending in firwood 
Knolls with Croat musketeers, in ditches, ponds, difficult 
ground, especially towards Gohlau. He has a strong battery, 
14 pieces, on the Height to rear of him, at the angle or elbow 
of his potence ; strong abatis, well manned in front to right- 
wards : upon this, and upon the Croat** in the II r wood, the 
Prussians intend their attack. General Wedell in there, 
Prince Moritx as chief, with six battalions, and their buttoncm, 
battery of 10 Brummers and another ; Zusthen &!HO ami Horse: 
coming-on in swift fire-Hood, and at an tingle of forty- five 
degrees. Most unexpected, strange to behold ! From Houth* 
west yonder ; about one o'clock of the day* 

Nadasti, though astonished at the Priuwian firodelugis 
stands to his arms; makes, in front, vigorous defence; and 
even takes, in some sort, the initiative, -that i% diuth&i-out 



CHAP.X.] BATTLE OF LEUTHEN 317 

5th Dec. 1757] 

his Cavalry on Ziethen, before Ziethen has charged. Zietheifs 
Horse, who are rightmost of the Prussians, and are bare to 
the right, ground offering no bush, no brook there (though 
Ziethen, foreseeing such defect, has a clump of infantry near 
by to mend it), reel back under this first shock, coming 
downhill upon them ; and would have fared badly, had not 
the clump of infantry instantly opened fire on the Nadasti 
visitors, and poured it in such floods upon them, that they, in 
their turn, had to reel back. Back they, well out of range ; 
and leave Ziethen free for a counter-attack shortly, on 
easier terms, which was successful to him. For, during that 
first tussle of his, the Prussian Infantry, to left of Ziethen, 
has attacked the Sagschiitz Firwood ; clears that of Croats ; 
attacks Nadasti's line, breaks it, their Brurnmer battery 
potently assisting, and the rage of Wedell and everybody 
being extreme. So that, in spite of the fine ground, Nadasti 
is in a bad way, on the extreme left or outmost point of his 
potence, or tactical 'knee. Round the kneepan or angle of 
his potence, where is the abatis, he fares still worse. Abatis, 
beswept by those ten Brummcrs and other Batteries, till 
bullet and bayonet can act on it, speedily gives way. * They 
were mere Wurtembergers, these ; and could not stand P cried 
the Austrians apologetically, at a great rate, afterwards ; as 
if anybody could well have stood. 

Indisputably the Wurtembergers and the abatis are gone ; 
and the Brandenburgers, storming after them, storm Nadastfs 
interior battery of 14 pieces; and Nadastfs affairs are 
rapidly getting desperate in this quarter. Figure Prince 
KarPs scouts, galloping madly to recall that Daim Cavalry ! 
Austrian Battalions, plenty of them, rash clown to help 
Nadasti ; but they are met by the crowding fugitives, the 
chasing Prussians; are themselves thrown into disorder^ and 
can do no good whatever* They arrive on the ground 
flurried, blown; have not the least time to take breath and 
order : the fewest of them ever got fairly ranked, none of 
them ever stood above one push : all goes rolling wildly back 



318 SEVEN-YEARS WAR RISES [BOOKXVIIL 

[5th Dec. 1757 

upon the centre about Leuthen. Chaos come on us ; and 
all for mere lack of time : could Nadasti but once stretch 
out one minute into twenty ! But he cannot. Nadasti does 
not himself lose head ; skilfully covers the retreat, trying to 
rally once and again. Not for the first few furlongs, till 
the ditches, till the firwood, quagmires are all done, could 
Ziethen, now on the open ground, fairly hew in ; ' take whole 
battalions prisoners * ; drive the crowd in an altogether stormy 
manner ; and wholly confound the matter in this part 

Prince Karl, his messengers flying madly, has straggled as 
man seldom did to put himself in some posture about Leuthet^ 
to get-up some defences there. Leuthen itself, the church- 
yard of it especially, is on the defensive. Men are bringing 
cannon to the windmills, to the swelling ground on the north 
side of Leuthen ; they dig ditches, build batteries, could 
they but make Time halt, and Friedrich with him, for one 
quarter of an hour ! But they cannot. By the extreme of 
diligence, the Austrians have in some measure swung them- 
selves into a new position, or imperfect Line round Leu then 
as a centre, Lucchesi, voluntarily or by order, swinging 
southwards on the one hand; Nadasti swinging north .words 
by compulsion ; new Line at an angle say of 75 to the old 
one. And here, for an hour more, there wa stiff fighting, 
the stiffest of the clay ; -of which, take one direct glimpse, 
from the Austrian side, furnished by a Young Gentleman 
famous afterwards : 

Leuthen, let us premise,, is a long Hamlet of the utmai littery sort; 
with two row% in some parts three, of farmhouiseH, baniH, atttl*vtall ; 
with Church, or even with two Churcheft, a Protentaut mid a Catholic;; 
goes from east to went above a mile in length* With the* wrwks of 
Nadasti tumbling into it pell-mell from the Houth-eant, anti I4t<wha*i 
desperately endeavouring to swing- round from the northwtt; not quite 
incoherently,, and the PriiHsian firestorm for accompaniment* Ix*uthtn is 
probably the mot chaotic place in the Planet Earth during* that hour 
or (from half-past two to half-past three) while tha agony butted* At 
one o'clock Nadattti wax attacked ; at two he h tumbling in msd-caraor 



CHAP.X.] BATTLE OF LEUTHEN 319 

5th Dec. 1757] 

towards Leuthen : I guess the date of this Excerpt, or testimony by a 
Notable Eyewitness, may be half-past two ; crisis of the agony just about 
to begin : and before four it was all finished again. Eyewitness is the 
young Prince de Ligne, now Captain in an Austrian regiment of Foot ; 
and standing here in this perilous posture, having been called in as part 
of the Reserve. He says : 

' Cry had risen for the Reserve,' in which was my regiment, ( and that 
it must come on as fast as possible,' to Leuthen, west of us yonder. 
' We ran what we could run. Our Lieutenant-Colonel fell killed almost 
at the first ; beyond this we lost our Major, and indeed all the Officers 
but three, three only, and about eleven or twelve of the Volunteer or 
Cadet kind. We had crossed two successive ditches, which lay in an 
orchard to left of the first houses in Leuthen ; and were beginning to 
form in front of the Village. But there was no standing of it. Besides 
a general cannonade such as can hardly be imagined, there was a rain of 
case-shot upon this Battalion, of which I, as there was no Colonel left, 
had to take command ; and a third Battalion of the Royal Prussian Foot- 
guards, which had already made several of our regiments pass that kind 
of muster, gave, at a distance of eighty paces, the liveliest fire on us, It 
titood as if on the parade-ground, that third Battalion, and waited for us, 
without stirring. 

'The Austrian regiment Audlau, at our right hand, could not get 
itself formed properly by reason of the houses ; it was standing thirty 
deep, and sometimes its shot hit us on the back. On my left the 
Austrian regiment Merci ran its ways ; and I was glad of that, in com- 
parison. By no method or effort could I get the dragoons of Bathyarii, 
who stood fifty yards in rear of me, to cut-in, a little, and help me out,' 
no good cutting hereabouts, think the dragoons of Bathyuni. f My 
soldiers, who were still tired with running and had no cannon (these 
either from necessity or choice they had left behind), were got scattered, 
fewer in number, and were fighting mainly out of sullenneufi* More our 
honour, than the notion of doing ^ood in the affair, prevented us from 
running off. An Ensign of the regiment Arberg helped me a while to 
form, from his and- my own fragments, a kind of line ; but he was shot- 
down. Two Officers of the Grenadiers brought me what they still had. 
Some Hungarians, too, were luckily got together. But at hint, aa, with 
all helps and the remnant* of my own brave Battalion, I had come down 
to at most 200, I draw bark to the Height where the Windmill iH/ 1 - 
where many have drawn buck, and are Bland lug in sheltered places, a 
hundred deep, say our Books. 

Stiff fighting at Leuthen ; especially furious till Leuthen 

1 Kutzcn, p, 103 (from * Prince de Ligiu-Vi AW/7, " l * $3 German Transaction 1 )* 



320 SEVEN-YEARS WAR RISES [BOOKXVIII. 

[5th Dec. 1757 

Churchyard, a place with high stone walls, was got. Leuthen 
Village, we observe, was crammed with Austrians spitting fire 
from every coign of vantage; Church and Churchyard especially 
are a citadel of death. Cannon playing from the Windmill 
Heights, too ; moments are inestimable. The Prussian 
Commander (name charitably hidden) at Leuthen Church- 
yard seems to hesitate in the murderous fire-deluge : Major 
Mollendorf, namable from that day forward, growling, *No 
time this for study, 1 dashes-out himself, i Ein cmdrer Mann 
(Follow me, whoever is a man) 1 * smashes-in the Church- 
Gate of the place, nine muskets blazing on him through it ; 
smashes, after a desperate struggle, the Austrians clean out of 
it, and conquers the citadel. 1 

The Austrians, on confused terms, made stiff dispute in 
this second position for about an hour. The Prussian 
Reserve was ordered up by Friedrich; the Prussian left 
wing, which had stood 6 refused,' about Itadaxdorf, till now : 
at one time nearly all the Prussians were in fire. Friedrich 
is here, is there, wherever the press was greatest ; * Piince 
Ferdinand,' whom we now and then find named, as a diligent 
little fellow, and ascertain to be here in this and other Battles 
of Friedrich's, * Prince Ferdinand at one time pointed his 
cannon on the Bush or Fir-Clump of lladaxdorf;~an aide- 
de-camp came to him with message : * You arc firing on the 
King ; the King is yonder P At which Ferdinand "* (his dear 
little Brother) erschrack? or almost fainted with terror.* 

Stiff dispute; and had the Austrians possessed the Prussian 
dexterity in manoeuvring, and a Friedrich been among them, 
perhaps ? But on their own term*, there wiut from the 
first little hope in it. * Behind the Windmills they are a 
hundred men deep*; by and by, your Windmill*, riddled to 
pieces, have to be abandoned ; the Prussian left wing rushing 
on with bayonets, will not all of you have to go? Lucchem, 
with his abundant Cavalry, seeing this latter movement 
and the Prussian flank bare m that part, will do a stroke 
* MUIler, p. 42. a Kitten, p* no. 



CHAP.X.] BATTLE OF LEUTHEN 321 

5th Dec. 1757] 

upon them ; and this proved properly the finale of the 
matter, final to both Lucchesi and it. 

The Prussian flank was to appearance bare in that leftward 
quarter ; but only to appearance : Driesen with the left wing 
of Horse is in a Hollow hard by ; strictly charged by Fried- 
rich to protect said flank, and take nothing else in hand. 
Driesen lets Lucchesi gallop by, in this career of his ; then 
emerges, ranked, and comes storming-in upon Lucchesfs back, 
entirely confounding his astonished Cavalry and their 
career. Astonished Cavalry, bullet-storm on this side of 
them, edge of sword on that, taking wing in all directions 
(or all except to west and south) quite over the horizon ; 
Lucchesi himself gets killed, crosses a still wider horizon, 
poor man. He began the ruin, and he ends it. For now 
Driesen takes the bared Austrians in flank, in rear ; and all 
goes tumbling here too, and in a few minutes is a general 
deluge rearward towards Saara and Lissa side. 

At Saara the Austrians, sun just sinking, made a third 
attempt to stand ; but it was hopelessly faint this time ; 
went all asunder at the first push ; and flowed then, torrent- 
wise, towards all its Bridges over the Schweidintz Water, 
towards Breslau by every method. There are four Bridges, 
Stabelwitss below Lissa ; GoklKchmieclen, Hermarmsdorf, 
above ; and the main one at Lissa itself, a standing Bridge 
on the Highroad (also of wood);* and by this the chief 
torrent flows; Prussian horse pursuing vigorously; Prussian 
Infantry dravra~up at Saara, resting some minutes, after such 
a day's work. 1 

Truly a memorable bit of work ; no filter done for a 

hundred yearn, or for hundreds of yeans; and the results of it 
manifold* immediate and remote. About 10,000 Austrians 
are left on the field, 8,000 of them slain ; prisoners already 

* Archenholtz, L 209 ; Seyfarth, Beyla^en* IL 243-252 (by an eyewitness. 
Intelligent succinct Account of the Battle and previous March ; &. 252-272, of 
the Sieges &c. following) ; Frews, ii. 1 12, &<x j Tempelhof, L 276. 
VOt, VI. X 



322 SEVEN-YEARS WAR RISES [BOOK xvm. 

[5th Bee. 1757 

12,000, in a short time 21,000; flags 51, cannon 116; 
< Conquest of Silesia ' gone to water; Prince Karl and Austria 
fallen from their high hopes in one day* The Prussians lost 
in killed l^l^l, in wounded 5,118; 85 had been taken 
prisoners about Sagschutz and Gohlau, in the first ntrtiggle 
there. 1 There and at Leuthen Village had been the two 
tough passages; about an hour each; in three hours the 
Battle was done, * Mdne Herren? said Pricclrich that night 
at parole, 'after such a spell of work, you deserve rout* This 
day will bring the renown of your name, and of the Nation 1 *, 
to the latest posterity.' 

High and low had shone this day ; especially these four : 
Ziethen, Driesen, Keteow, and above all Mori to of ItoaMiui. 
Riding up the line, as night fell, Fried rich, in pa&sing MoriU 
and the right wing, drew bridle for an inatant : * I congra- 
tulate you on the Victory, Herr Feldmarachall ! ' cried he 
cheerily, and with emphasis on the last word* Moritz* still 
very busy, answered slightly ; and Eriedrich repented louder, 
c Dotft you hear that I congratulate you., Herr FMmar&chattr 
a glad sound to Morite> who ever since Kolin had |OK| 
rather in the shadow, * You have helped me, and performed 
every order, as none ever did before in any battle* 1 added the 
grateful King, 

Riding up the line, all now grown dusky, Friedrich 
6 Any battalion a mind to follow me to UHHA?* Tttroe 
battalions volunteering, follow him; three are {iktity* At 
Saara, on the Great Koad, tilings are fallen utUrty dark. 
* Landlord, bring a lantepi, and cseort* lAticili'irci of tlie 
poor Tavern at Saara escorts obediently ; lanUrn in Itii riglit 
haitdj left hand holding by the KJnpftf 8ilntip4t*iithi*f, - Eing 
(Excellency or General, m the landlord thiuLi him) wi^liin^ 
to speak with the man. Will the roadur In lh*ir 

Dialogue, which is dullish, but to in mi 

authentic form, with Nicolai as voucher?* Liku 
old hoxse-Hhoe^ ploughed-up on the 

1 Katten, pp. n3 125* iu. 



CHAP.X-I BATTLE OF LEO Til EN 323 

5th Dec. 1757] 

worth of rusty old iron; now little other than a curve of 
brown rust : but it galloped at the Battle of Leuthcn ; that 

is something ! 

King* 'Oorno near; catch me by the stirrup-leather' (Landlord with 
lantarn does so). *\Ve are on the Brctdau Great Road, that goes 
through LisHa, aren't we?* 

Landlord, Yea, Excel loir/." 

King. * Who are you ?* 

landlord* * Your Kxcellenz, I am the Kriltechmcr* (Silesian for Land- 
lord) * at Maura.' 

King. * You have had a groat deal to suffer, I mtppoAfl/ 

landlord* *Xr/i, your KxcoHtmz, had not 1 ! For the last eight-and- 
forty houn*, ftitico tha Atwiriatw cam acroiw Schweidnita Water, my poor 
Itotisci Ism IKMMI crammed to tlia cloor with tltem, so many Bervanbi they 
have ; and tiucn a bullying and tumbling : they have driven me half 
mad ; and 1 am clean plundered out* 

King* f 1 am orry indtHMl to hear that ! Were there Generalu too In 
your house? What said tlu*y ? Toll me, then.* 

tandfard. 'With pltnNurt, your Kxcellenx. Well; yeHtorday noon y I 
had I s riiM* Karl in my parlour, and his Adjutant* and people all crowding 
nhotit* Such ii qm*hitoning and hothcring 1 HundmlK came danlnng in, 
mill otbor liutuIri'dH ^i*r4i WMt out: in aud out they wont all night; no 
Hoottcr was no gnms than Uni came. I had to Iu*ip a roaring fir in the 
I%ifflti all night; o nmtiy OiliccrH crowding tt> it to warm themMolveK, 
And they talked itttd lal*til^i! ihh mid that Ou would Miy t That our 
King wiw corning <u then, " wlUt Inn i'otadam Cimiwl-Fttrada" Anotlsw 
** (Jiir A, tin durtMi't com ! lit! mill run for It; wii will lt him 
run.** But wow my dt'light ify ur King ttw |itiifl thm their f<wlnrie 
prettily thN uftertifKtn ! * 

f When got ywi rid *if ywir high gut*tM?* 

* AUmit niw thix morning tli<\ I*ritu' gct ic Iwtm ; and not 
Itntuf iiV-r llir% Iwi cumw |;s^i nicalii, with a Hwarm of OfRww ; all going 
full #ptf*i) A*r Lsi"**i *H full of ^rag^iitK *Iii*ii they 1*1111111 ; utiil now they 
tti*r^ ftff,, wronjf niili* i^fi*tiii3t ! I MW hw it Ami avur iiftw htm, 

tin* lw*tl *if them niii^ Ifl^ljriiTiiI nut tiriail i!mti);h t ".m linwr iinti 
Iwfrtre it *tjjiU<t. WM*'!I a |"li"ii!ill* *n* 4 h n w 
nil jiniiilt*1 : 4iiir Kiujj intHt li:ivp givvn Ilirin a 
TJuil ift tt'lii'il liiivi f,*tit, Jiy tlii4r it their lying, *- for, 

yifiir Kii*i*ilitii/^ thif^i* |ii*w|iiii *tiiid |ii *'<>ar King ww fwala*fi !y lili 
own tiniipraU^ all hi** Jir^t innl Iifl Idm ** ; what I uivi*f 

Ili tliia will 



SEVEN-YEARS WAR RISES [uoOKXvm. 

[Sth Dec. 1757 

12,000, in a short time 21,000; flags SI, camion 116; 

* Conquest of Silesia' gone to water; Prince Karl and Austria 
fallen from their high hopes in one day. The Prussians lost 
in killed 1,141, in wounded 5,113; 85 had been taken 
prisoners about Sagschute and Gohlau, in the first struggle 
there. 1 There and at Leuthen Village had been the "two 
tough passages ; about an hour each ; in three hours the 
Battle was done. * Meme HerrenJ said Friedrich that night 
at parole, c after such a spell of work, you deserve rest. This 
day will bring the renown of your name, and of the Nation's, 
to the latest posterity.' 

High and low had shone this day ; especially these four : 
Ziethen, Driesen, Retzow, and above all Moritz of Dessau, 
Riding up the line, as night fell, Friedrich, in passing Monte 
and the right wing, drew bridle for an instant : * I congra- 
tulate you on the Victory, Herr Feldmarschall ! "* cried he 
cheerily, and with emphasis on the last word Moritz, still 
very busy, answered slightly ; and Friedrich repealed lander, 
'Don't you hear that I congratulate you, Herr FMrnanchtiUT 
a glad sound to Moritz, who ever since Kolin hod tttood 
rather in the shadow* * You have helped me, and performed 
every order, as none ever did before in any buttle, 1 added the 
grateful King* 

Riding up the line, all now grown clunky, Friodrich 
*Any battalion a mind to follow me to Liana?* Three 
battalions volunteering, follow him ; three ure pknty* At 
Saora, on the Great Komi, things are fallen utterly 

* Landlord, bring a limtepi, and escort.* I-iuullord of tlit 
poor Tavern at Baara escorts obediently; lantern iit his right 
hand, left hand holding by the King'* Ktimip*!enUter, 
(Excellency or Genera!, as the landlord tliinb him) 

to speak with the nmn. Will the tttmtitt to their 

Dialogue, which m dullfoh, but singular to iti mi 

authentic form, with Nieolai m voucher?* Uke 
old horse-shoe, ptougheci-up on the fk*kl 

pp. n8 9 $* iis* 



CHAP.X.] BATTLE OF LEUTHEN 

5th Dec. 1757] 

worth of rusty old ironi now little other than a curve of 
brown rust : but it galloped at the Battle of Leuthen ; that 
is something ! 

King. e Come near ; catch me by the stirrup-leather ' (Landlord with 
lantern does so). 'We are on the Breslau Great Road, that goes 
through Lissa, aren't we ? * 

Landlord. f Yea, Excellenz.' 

King. e Who are you ? ' 

Landlord. 'Your Excellenz, I am the Kr&tschmer* (Silesian for Land- 
lord) f at Saara/ 

King. c You have had a great deal to suffer, I suppose/ 

Landlord. 6 Ach, your Excellenz, had not I ! For the last eight-and- 
forty hours, since the Austrians came across Schweidnitz Water, my poor 
house has heen crammed to the door with them, so many servants they 
have ; and such a bullying and tumbling : they have driven me half 
mad ; and I am clean plundered out/ 

King. * I am sorry indeed to hear that ! Were there Generals too in 
your house ? What said they ? Tell me, then/ 

Landlord. ( With pleasure, your Excellenz. Well ; yesterday noon, I 
had Prince Karl in my parlour, and his Adjutants and people all crowding 
about. Such a questioning and bothering 1 Hundreds came dashing in, 
and other hundreds were sent out : in and out they went all night ; no 
sooner was one gone, than ten came. I had to keep a roaring fire in the 
kitchen all night ; so many Officers crowding to it to warm themselves. 
And they talked and babbled this and that. One would say, That our 
Bang was coming on, then, ee with his Potsdam Guard-Parade/' Another 
answers, " Oach, he daren't come 1 He will run for it ; we will let him 
run/' But now my delight is, our King has paid them their fooleries 
so prettily this afternoon ! * 

King. ' When got you rid of your high guests ?' 

Landlord. ' About nine this morning the Prince got to horse ; and not 
long after three, he came past again, with a swarm of Officers ; all going 
full speed for Lissa. So full of bragging when they came ; and now they 
were off, wrong side foremost ! I saw how it was. And ever after hiin, 
the flood of them ran, Highroad not broad enough, an hour and more 
before it ended. Such a pell-mell, such a welter, cavalry and musketeers 
all jumbled : our King must have given them a dreadful lathering. 
That is what they have got by their bragging and their lying, - for, 
your Excellenz, these people said too, c ' Our King was forsaken by his 
own Generals, all his first people had gone and left him " ; what I never 
in this world will believe/ 



324 SEVEN-YEARS WAR RISES [BOOK xvm. 

f5th Dee* 1757 
King (not liking even rumour of that kind). 'There you are right; 

never can such a thing 1 be believed of my Army/ 
Landlord (whom this *w^ has transfixed). ( Mdn Gott, you are our 

gnlidigster Kftnig (most gracious King) yourself 1 Pardon, panl<m, if, in 

my stupidity, I have ' 

King. 'No, you are an honest man ; probably a Protestant ?* 
Landlord. *Joa, joa, Ihr Mqfetfflt, I am of your Majat/i creed 1 ' 

Crack-crack I At this point the Dialogue is cut short by 
sudden musket-shots from the woody fields to right ; crackle 
of about twelve shots in all ; which hurt nothing but some 
horse's feet, had heen aimed at the light, and too low, 

Instantly the light is blown out, and there is a hunting-out; 
of Croats ; Lissa or environs not evacuated yet, it .seems ; 
and the King's Entrance takes place under volleyinga and 
cannonadings. 

King rides directly to the Schloss, which is atill a fine 
handsome house, off the one street of that poor Villages 
north side of street ; well railed off, and its old ditches and 
defences now trimmed into flower-plots. The Sell lews is full 
of Austrian Officers, bustling about, intending to quarter, 
when the King enters* They, and the forces fchoy still Intel in 
Lissa, could easily have taken him: but how could titty 
know? Friedrich was surprised; but had to put tin* h<.st 
face on it. 1 6 Bon *swr, MesMeunt!** said IKS with n ttim\ 
stepping in: 'Is there still room left, think you? 1 * The 
Austrian^ bowing to the dust, make way imwtitly to the 
divinity that hedges a King of this sort ; mutdy wcort htm 
to the best room (such the popular Account) ; iwid f<*r twin in 
make off, they and thcira, towards the ttrttltfi*, which liw n 
little farther east, at tine end of the Vi tinge* 

Wefstrite or Schweuinite Water is a higginh iimikly strtmm 
in that part; gushing and eddying; not yctiwlt 1 ^ v<\**tt }v 
mills and their weira Sonu firing thew wm fmut C*ranii in 
the lower hoiwen of the Village, and t!*v hrul ft ttt 

the further Briclge-eiid ; but they to gti 



1 In Katfen(|i^ 121, aoo ct scij. } xpUmAtion of llw tftif tiraiitwkitwn, it*.-! 
ftonrce of tho 



CHAP.X.] BATTLE OF LEUTHEN 825 

5th Dec. 1757] 

vanish in the night ; muddy Weistritz singing hoarse adieu 
to their cannon and them. Prussian grenadiers plunged 
indignant into the houses; made short work of the musketries 
there. In few minutes every Croat and Austrian was across, 
or silenced otherwise too well ; Prussian cannon now going 
in the rear of them, and continuing to go, such had been 
the order, Hill the powder you have is done.' Fire of 
musketry and occasional cannon lasts all night, from the Lissa 
or Prussian side of the River, *lest they burn this Bridge, or 
attempt some mischief. 1 A thing far from their thoughts, in 
present circumstances. 

The Prussian Host at Saara, hearing these noises, took to 
its arms again; and marched after the King. Thick darkness; 
silence ; tramp, tramp : a Prussian grenadier broke-out, 
with solemn tenor voice again, into Church-Music ; a known 
Church-Hymn, of the homely Te-Deum kind ; in which five- 
and-twenty thousand other voices, and all the regimental 
bands, soon join : 

* Nun dariket alle Gott c Now thank God, one and all, 

Hit Herzen, Mund und Hdnden y With heart, with voice, with hands-a^ 
Der grosse Dinge thut Who wonders great hath done 

An uns und alien Enden.' l To us and to all lands-a.' 

And thus they advance; melodious, far-sounding, through 
the hollow Night, once more in a highly remarkable manner. 
A pious people, of right Teutsch stuff, tender though stout ; 
and, except perhaps Oliver CromwelFs handful of Ironsides, 
probably the most perfect soldiers ever seen hitherto. 
Arriving at the end of Lissa, and finding all safe as it 
should be there, they make their bivouac, their parallelogram 
of two lines, miles long across the fields, left wing resting 
on Lissa, right on Guckerwitz ; and, having, I should think, 
at least tobacco to depend on, with abundant stick-fires, 
and healthy joyful hearts, pass the night in a thankful, 
comfortable manner. 

1 Mtiller, p. 48. 



826 SEVEN-YEARS WAR RISES [BOOKXVin. 

tSth Dec. 1757 

Leuthen was the most complete of all Friedrich's victories ; 
two hours more of daylight, as Friedrich himself says, and it 
would have been the most decisive of this century* 1 As it 
was, the rain of this big Army, 80,000 against 80,000,* was 
as good as total; and a world of Austrian hopes suddenly 
collapsed ; and all their Silesian Apparatus, making sure of 
Silesia beyond an if> was tumbled into wreck, -by this one 
stroke it had got, smiting the corner-stone of it as if with 
unexpected lightning. On the morrow after Leuthen, Fried- 
rich laid siege to Breslau; Karl had left a garrison of 17,000 
in it, and a stout Captain, one Sprecher, determined on 
defence : such interests hung on Breslau, such iinmcnifck*H of 
stores were in it, had there been nothing else. Fried rich, 
pushing with all his strength, in spite of bad weather and 
of Sprechcr's industrious defence, got it in twelve days.* 1 
Sprecher had posted placards on the gallows and up ami 
down, terrifically proclaiming that any man eowidxul of 
mentioning surrender should be instantly hanged : but FtitHt* 
rich's bombardment was strong, his a&saulU continual ; anil 
the ditches were threatening to freeze. On tho Kcventh day 
of the siege, a Laboratorium blew-up ; on the imttl^ it 
Powder-magazine, carrying a lump of the rampart, away 
with it* Sprecher had to capitulate : PristworH of War, wt 
17,000; our cannons, ammunitions (most opubnt:, i 
what we took from Bevern lately); these, we and 
altogether, alas, it is all yours again* 

liegnitz Garrison, seeing no hope* to withdraw 

on leave. 4 Schwctdnit/* cannot be btwgttt till Sprinj? <*<ww ; 
except Sehwiidnitai, Maria Theresa, the hi#h Ki***riiin t lw 
no foot of ground in Hilcvia, which she tlicmglit; to lit* 
again- Gone utterly, PntcHii and all; Schwt'uhtit/, nloiw* 
waiting till Spring. To the lively joy of Silvia in ; 

1 (Kuvrts dt />////!>, iv. 167, 

s '$9,30owa* lite Amti'an slirngili i!s* lUiik 1 (triht tin? <i;iifiiirt 

of Schweidnitx and Licgnit*); Prwisri, ii ioo((fom tlw Mt/<t*$***t) t 
s 7th-i9th December: Di&rium etc. of it in tt ||| 

1 1 6th December; //*/<&* 6VjvjV4/* iv, tot 6. 



CHAP.X.] BATTLE OF LEUTHEN 327 

5th-a6th Dec, 1757] 

to the thrice-lively sorrow and alarm of certain individuals, 
leading Catholic Ecclesiastics mainly, who had misread the 
signs of the times in late months ! There is one Schaffgotsch, 
Archbishop or head-man of them, especially, who is now in a 
had way. Never was such royal favour; never such in- 
gratitude, say the Books at wearisome length. Schaffgotsch 
wrus a showy man of quality, nephew of the quondam Austrian 
Governor, whom Fried rich, across a good deal of Papal and 
other opposition, got pushed into the Catholic Primacy, and 
took ome pains to make comfortable there, Order of the 
Black Ragle, guest at Potsdam, and the like; having a kind 
of fancy for the airy Schaflgotsch, OH well as judging him 
suitable for this Sitcsian High- Priesthood, with his moderate 
idea and quality ways, which I have heard were a little 
dissolute withal To the whole of which Schaffgotsch proved 
signally traitorous and ingrate; and had plucked-off the 
Black Kttgle (say the Hooks, nearly breathless over such a 
sacrilege) on some public occasion, prior to l^uthen, and 
trampled it under his feet, the unworthy follow. Sclwttgotselfs 
pathetic I <etter to Fried rich, in this new days posterior to 
Oitthen, and Friedrich'H contemptuous inexorable answer, we 
could gw\ but do not: why should wo? () King, I know 
your difficulties and what epoch it i*. But, of a truth* your 
airy dUsolute St*ha%obeli t its a grateful 'Archhhhup and 
Grand- Vicar/ i>s ahmwt uglier to we (ban n* a Traitor tm- 
gwtt'ful for it; and sball go to the Devil iu bin own way ! 
Tht-v would not have him in Austria; h was not well 
mvived at Komi 1 ; happily died before long. 1 Friedrieh wan 
not cruet to SdmfFgotwh or the otlt'Tri, contemptuously mild 
rnthrr; but he knew hrwt'torUi nhnt to exjwTt of them, and 
bnn^nl tlm urul ihnt in hli Sih^inn lui'thodn iu 



Of I'rini'tf Karl let IH mid n word. On the morrow 
n (*!ijt(<uii IVinw dtt (*i#n* aiul tiki l*njm i 



828 SEVEN-YEARS WAB RISES [BOOKXVIII. 

[5tha6th Pec. X7S7 

could find little or no Army ; they stept across to Grabschen, 
a village on the safe side of the Lohe, and there found Karl 
and Daxm : * rather silent, both ; one of them looking, ** Who 
would have thought it !" the other, Didn't I tell you ?"' 
and knowing nothing, they either, where the Army was* 
Army was, in fact, as yet nowhere. i Croat fellows, in this 
Farmstead of ours,' says De Ligne, 'had fallen to shooting 
pigeons.' The night had been unusually daxk ; the Austrian 
Army had squatted into woods, into office-houses, farm- 
villages, over a wide space of country ; and only as the claj 
rose, began to dribble-in. By count, they are still 50,000 ; 
but heart-broken, beaten as men seldom were. * What sound 
is that?' men asked yesterday at Brieg, forty miles off; and 
nobody could say, except that it was some huge Battle, fateful 
of Silesia and the world. Breslau had it louder; Brenlitu 
was still more anxious. * What w all that ? ' asked some- 
body (might be Deblin the Shoemaker, for anything I know) 
of an Austrian sentry there : * That ? That is the Prunaiiuw 
giving us such a beating as we never had. 1 What XHJWH for 
Deblin the Shoemaker, if he is still above ground ! - 

( Prince Karl, gathering" Ms distracted fragments* put I7fl00 Into 
Breslau by way of ample garrifton there ; and with tho rent rttn<Ut->oJf 
circuitously for Schwcidnitz ; thence for LamiHhut* anil dawn this Moun- 
tain^ home to KdniffBfrriite, aolf and Army in the moat wrwkiHl f<w- 
dition. Chased bj Ztathen ; 2itlian ** ittekiiiK alwiji to tin* hm*k* of 
them,* 1 as Friedrich eagerly enjotna mi him ; or HomeUm** it w, ^'iitiiiig 
on the breeches of them '* : for about a fortnight to com*, 1 5d*inthin tt<k 
2^000 pritioner*; BO end of bn|fgftfe% of m^tmn hll In th* tilffkult 
wild weather even for $iettie, ntlll mwii for Ktrl^ among th SiltsJiiM- 
Bohemian HiH-rofttis; heavy rairn, deep rniids, then miiielwi with 

cutting snovbliiBtD : "An Army not m little dilnpiikteil/ 1 IVktw 

Karl, nlmo^t with m hit* eyw; "Army wtthcmt Iit*tw f *iiliiiii| 

clothai ; In ctondition truly ad aiu! pitiahie ; tutl km m rln^ mr 

the enemy, tn encamp, though without tent*." s IHd not gii to liiiiil^- 

1 Eleven Royal Aoti^mphs: In Bliiwerifka, Lift {\\, ^4^111), 

a feeble incorrect of thim. 

s Kttt s p. f 34 <* Prince Karl tu th Kl.wf, 



CHAP, x.] BATTLE OF LEUTHEN 329 

5th-a0th Dec. 17573 

grlitz, and safe shelter^ for tea days more* Counted^ at Koiiigsgrte in 
the Christmas time, t37,000 rank and file, <e 22,000 of whom are gone to 
hospital/* by the Doctor's report. 

* Universal astonishment^ indignation, even incredulity, is the humour 
at Vienna ; the high Kaiserinn herself, kept in the dark for some time, 
becomes dimly aware; and by Kaiser Franz's own advice she relieves 
Prince Karl from hie military employments, and appoints Daun instead. 
Prince Karl withdrew to IUB Government of the Netherlands; and with 
the aid of generous liquora, and what natural magnanimity he had, pent 
a nofcwIoHH life thenceforth ; Sword laid entirely on the nhelf ; and 
immortal Glory, as of Alexander and the like, quite making 1 iUt exit from 
the Hcwno, convivial or other, "The firat General in the world/' no he 
used to be ten years ago, in Austria, in England, Holland, the thrlca- 
greataHt of General* ; but now he hiw tried Friedrioh in Five pitched 
Battle* (Csuutlau, Hohenfriedherg^ Bohr, then Prt% than Leuthen) ;*~ 
been bitten every time, tinder every form of oircumntance ; arid nowj at 
Iitmthen, the fifth beating it such, no publics, however ignorant, can 
fttand ifc farther, The Ignorant public change* It long-eared dulogie* 
into contumeliou*ly horrid shrieks of condemnation ; in which one w 
itili farther from joining* "That orottitmg of the Rhine," nayii PHtnlrich, 
f * a htlfa chm ; but flatty rent blew him into dangttroutt 8lf*coticeit ; 
t)Cttiieit f he wan ill-obayacl, an other* of UH havo !HH*II/ >I Adiou to him, 
poor radfawnl noul I-- ii*I good liquor to him, -at h*imt if ha can take ifc 
in 



The astonishment of all m<n, wisct and imp!t% at this 
of tin* scent* of things mid turning of the 
theatre lx>ttom uppennoht* wiwt naturally 
in gaz<*ttiwr and (tiplomatic circle* ; and 
this fuhmmtion willing or unwilling, of Frl!rlch, in Home 
most wwential |Xttnt# of htm, ros It* a high pitch. Bettor 
soldier, it In ctt*iir f hiw not twtii ln*nrti of in thu tno<Ii;m 

constancy $ rouragt* ii}ii ik rir to fiitc? : nevftrnl tttrnr 
of it h* f ro;-"pity te aiicii a liar withal, and 

of common hom*Hty ; thought thu linifik* stort^ in 

^ or think Itwui nt*t imrttnrtUibh*. Mililary jtid^i*?* 
of most variotH 4|iinlitv\ iliiwn to thi'* day, pronounce l*inithtn 

t IH *s^nttally ttr iitii^l Ituttl^ nf thi* ffittitry ; and iiicti'ttl 

1 * rrttii'c ile L%]ts** *il/^i^ ?r ft/jdtfM |itcfli% I7%| |, jH* 
il U-*i, 



380 SEVEN-YEARS WAR RISES [BQOKXVin. 

[5th-a6th Dec, 1757 

one of the prettiest feats ever done by man in his Fighting 
Capacity, Napoleon, for instance, who had run over these 
Battles of Friedrich (apparently somewhat in haste* but 
always with a word upon them which is worth gathering 
from such a source), speaks thus of Leuthen ; 6 This Battle is 
a masterpiece of movements, of manoeuvres, and of resolution ; 
enough to immortalise Priedrich, and rank him among the 
greatest Generals, Manifests, in the highest degree, both his 
moral qualities and his military* 1 1 

How the English Walpoles, in Parliament and out of it ; 
how the Prussian Sukers, D'Argenses, the Gazetteer and 
vague public, may have spoken and written at that time: 
when the matter was fresh and on everybody's tongue, -judge 
still by two small symptoms which we have to show : 

1. A Letter of Friednclis to D'Argms (Dfirgoy, near Brenlau, I Oth 
December 1757). 'Your friendship ficduccH you, mtm cher; I am hut a 
paltry knave (polw&on) in comparison with *' Alexander," and not worthy 
to tie the shoe-latchets of "Caesar" ! Necenfiity, who w tlui mother of 
industry, has made me act, and have recourse to dowjuirati* ronwdwH in 
evils of a like nature. 

'We have got here* (this day, by capitulation of Bwslau) 'from 
fourteen to fifteen thousand prisoners: no that. In nil, I hnv< jthov 
tvrenby-tliree thousand of the Queen'0 trooptt lit my hand*, ftftwt 
Generals, and above seven hundred Officers* *Tis a plaster int my 
wounds,, but it la far enough from healing thorn* 

* I am now about marching to the Mountain rtyfUm, tc w*ttl tht^ rhutii 
of quarters there ; and if you will como, you will find th* rnl^ fn*t* ami 
Hiife. I wag sorry at the Abbe* tra8on > 1 ' -paltry De Priwl^, of whom t* 
heard enough already,* 

2*. A Potttry-ApQthco*i*tf$Wfdrich~"* t r\ww m thi* 

piere/ uayn ono of my ('Orn^pond^nt^, th amiable SmHfux^us ill *tn 
whom rmdew ara a|wdiitrcl with, 'a uriiull (Iniia Mutf, not if 
shape; declaruix 1 itsolf, in on ohmuire cornar, to It0 mili at Wmr^ 



brink); which exhibit*, all round it> a dill^at PtU)r*M \|iit!fwwt,i if 



4 Montholon, M/mffinsttc* A Afatafon, vii, Jii Tliw Mn|t4'*rtt Xuwwiir^ 

/ Frmiritlt* ami these brief Uits nf Critklwi, aie i^Ifai^iif, f*Miifi|* 

though the frail evidently of slight study, am! d* credit to still 

more than to FiidbtfcL O^wi A /V^/AiV, i, 17, 



CHAP.X.] BATTLE OF LEUTHEN 331 

5th-26th Dec. 1757] 

Friedrich, hastily got-up to meet tlie general enthusiasm of English 
mankind. Worth, while it lasts unbroken, a moment's inspection from 
you in hurrying along. 

f Front side, when you take our Mug by the handle for drinking from 
it, offers a poor well-meant China Portrait, labelled KING OP PRUSSIA : 
Copy of Friedrich's Portrait by Pesne, twenty years too young for the 
time, smiling out nobly upon you; upon whom there descends with 
rapidity a small Genius (more like a Cupid who had hastily forgotten his 
bow, and goes headforemost on another errand) to drop a wreath on this 
deserving head; wreath far too small for ever getting on (owing to 
distance, let us hope), though the artless Painter makes no sign; and 
indeed both Genius and wreath, as he gives them, look almost like a big 
insect, which the King will be apt to treat harshly if he notice it. On 
the opposite side, again, separated from Friedrich's back by the handle, 
is an enormous image of Fame, with wings filling half the Mug, with two 
trumpets going at once (a bass, probably, and a treble), who flies with 
great ease ; and between her eager face and the unexpectant one of 
Friedrich (who is 180 off, and knows nothing of it) stands a circular 
Trophy, or Imbroglio of drums, pikes, muskets, cannons, field-flags and 
the like ; very slightly tied together, the knot, if there is one, being 
hidden by some fantastic bit of scroll or escutcheon, with a Fame and 
one trumpet scratched on it ; and high out of the Imbroglio rise three 
standards inscribed with Names, which we perceive are intended to be 
names of Friedrich's Victories; standards notable at this day, with 
Names which I will punctually give you. 

' Standard first, which flies to the westward or leftward, has c ' Reisberg " 
(no such place on this distracted globe, but meaning Severn's Reicheriberg , 
perhaps), fc Reisberg," ce Prague," "Collin." Middle standard curves 
beautifully round its staff, and gives us to read, (( Welham " (non-extant, 
too ; may mean Welmina or Lobositz), "Rossbach" (very good), "Breslau" 
(poor Severn's, thought a victory in Worcester at this time !). Standard 
third, which flies to eastward or right hand, has ee Neumark" (that is, 
Neumarkt and the Austrian Bread-ovens, 4th December); ""Lissa" (not 
yet Leuthen in English nomenclature); and "Breslau" again, which 
means the capture of Breslau City this time, and is a real success, 
7th-19th December; giving us the approximate date, Christmas 1757, 
to this hasty Mug. A Mug got-up for temporary English enthusiasm, 
and the accidental instruction of posterity. It is of tolerable China; 
holds a good pint, ( e To the Protestant Hero, with all the honours " ; 
and offers, in little, a curious eyehole into the then England, with its 
then lights and notions, which is now so deep-hidden from us, under 
volcanic ashes, French Revolutions, and the wrecks of a Hundred very 
decadent Years/ 



332 SEVEN-YEAES WAB BISES [BOOKXVHL 



CHAPTER XI 

WINTEB IN BRESLAU: THIRD CAMPAIGN OPENS 

FEIEDEICH, during those grand victories, Is suffering sadly 
in health, * coTHgue depm# Jvmt jour$, neither sleep nor appe- 
tite ' ; < eight months of mere anguishes and agitations do 
wear one down. 1 He is tired too, he says, of the mere 
business-talk, coarse and rugged, which has been his allot- 
ment lately ; longs for some humanly-roofed kind of lodging, 
and a little talk that shall have flavour in it 1 The troops 
once all in their Winter-quarters, he sits-down in Breslau 
as his own wintering-place : place of relaxation, of rest, or 
at least of changed labour, no man needing it more. There 
for some three months he had a tolerable time ; perhaps, 
by contrast, almost a delightful Readers must imagine 
it; we have no details allowed us, nor any, time for them 
even if we had. 

There come various visitors, various gaieties, *,Kiog\H Birth* 
day (January S4th) ; quality Balls, c at which Uoyal Majesty 
sometimes deigned to show himself/ A lively Br^ltm* in 
comparison. Sister Amelia paid a beautiful visit of a fort* 
night or more: Sister Amelia, and along with h<r, two 
married Cousins (once Margravines of Kchwcdt)* whose Hu.s* 
bands, little Brother Ferdinand, and Kitgen of Wurtt*nilit*rg, 
are wintering here. The Marquis d n Argon*, how cxqimiMy 
treated we shall see, is a principal figure; !**xcc!l<*acy 
Mitchell, deep in very important bunine** just HOW* i* 
another. Reader cle Catt (lie who oitet*, in n Diitrh Hivitr- 
Boat, got into conversation with the simfly gin{ii*iii4ii iit 
black wig) made his new appenramxs thin Wintvr, 
now, since I)e Friulen is <> * Hhouhl you kmmtt MM* 

again? 1 Friediich, * Hardly, in thai cln^i; 

1 Letters of" his to Prince Heari (Dcel*i a6lfci lc, : i 

, v, taj). 



CHAP. XL] WINTER IN BRESLAU 

Jan.-April 1758] 

your Majesty looks thinner.' * That I can believe, with the 
cursed life I have been leading ! * 1 There came also, day not 
given, a Captain Guichard ( c Major Quintus Icilius ' that is 
to be) with his new Book on the Art Military of the 
Ancients, Memoires Militaires sur les Grecs et les Romcdns ; 2 
which cannot but be welcome to Friedrich. A solid account 
of that matter, by the first man who ever understood both 
War and Greek. Far preferable to Folard's, a man without 
Greek at all, and with military ideas not a little fantastic 
here and there. Of Captain Guichard, were his Book once 
read, and himself a little known, there will be more to say. 
For the present, fancy him retained as supernumerary : and 
in regard to Friedrich's Winter generally, accept the following 
small hints, small but direct : 



Frledrich to IfArgens (three different times) 

1 On the road to Leuthen ' (Torgau, 15th November 1757). * * I 
have been obliged to have the Abbe arrested' (Be Prades, of whom 
enough, long since); 'he has been playing the spy, and I have many 
evident proofs of it. That is very infamous and very ungrateful. 
I have made a prodigious quantity of verses (prodigieusement de vers). 
If I live, I will show them you in Winter-quarters : If I perish, 
they are bequeathed to you, and I have ordered that they be put 
into your hand.' 

' Adieu, my dear Marquis. I fancy you to be in bed : don't rot there; 
and remember you have promised to join me in Winter-quarters' : 
on this latter point Friedrich is very urgent, amiably eager ; prepared to 
wrap the poor Marquis in cotton, and carry him and lodge him, like 
glass with care. 3 For example : 

2. While settling the Winter-quarters (' Striegau, 26th December 1757: 
Siege of Breslau done ten days ago). * * * What a pleasure to hear 
you are coming ! Your travelling you can do in your own way. I have 
chosen a party of Light Horse (J'dger), who will appear at Berlin to 
conduct you. You can make short journeys : the first to Frankfurt, the 
second to Crossen, the third to Grunberg, fourth to Glogau, fifth to 

1 Rodenbeck, i. 285. 

2 i La Haye, 2 tomes, 4to, 1757 (Nicolai, Anekdoten^ ' 734). 
8 CEuvres de FrMric^ xix. 43. 



SEVEN-YEARS WAR RISES [BOOKXVIIL 

(Jan .-April x8 

itej sixth to Breslau. I have directed that horses be ordered tor 
you, that your rooms be warmed everywhere, and good fowls ready ou 
all roads. Your apartment in this House* (Royal House in Brenlau, 
which the King has built for himself years ago) f i carpeted, hermetically 
shut. You shall suffer nothing from draughts or from noise.' * -Lucky 
Marquis ; what a Landlord ! Came accordingly ; stayed till deep in 
April, waiting latterly for weather, I perceive ; long after the King 
himself was off. Thus : 

3. Friedrich on the field again for five weeks pa$& (* Mftmterberg, 2#d 
April 1768'). e Adieu, dear Marquis; Infancy you are now in Berlin 
again. Go to Charlottenburg whenever and how you like ; take <mre of 
yourself; and be ready for the beginning of October next ! As to me, 
mon cher, I am off to fight windmills and ostriches (Autruehes), that is, 
Russians and Austrians (Autnchiens). Adieu., mon chcr.' 

There circulated in the Newspapers, this Winter, some- 
thing of what was called a Letter from Friedrieh to Maria 
Theresa, formally proposing Peace, after these magnificent 
successes. And certainly, of all things in the Earth, Fried- 
rich would have best liked Peace, this year, last year, and 
for the next five years : * Go home, then, good neighbours ; 
don't break into my house, don't cut my poor throat,, and we 
will be friends again!' Friedrieh, it appears, had actually, 
finding or making opportunity, sent some polite I*eiU<t\ of 
pacific tenor, in his light clever way, to that adclnw? ; -. not 
without momentary hopes of perhaps getting goctd from it* 1 
And the ICai.serinn herself, Austria^ high Mother, did* tluvy 
say 3 after such a Ixjuthen coming ou the buck of wteh ft 
Rossbach, feel discouraged ; but the Poiiipiwlaur (not KrnwVrt 
Mother, whatever she might be to Fma) wiwt of fur other 
mind : * Do not speak of it, ma Ilehiel Doubltt or fjuita, tliiil, 
is our game; can we yield for a filth* ilMttck ? Nt*vrr !"" 

France dtsnusseM its IFArgeiiKoiu * Wind Arum** ur* 
of lib; flying home on us, like drugglttl ptni!tn% 
Khine ! " suiiinions the famed iitlknslct to in* 



* GSuvrtt di /*r/J/nV, xi*. 48. ^ /^J, ^, ^ 

a la /VVWIT, ii. ijci (Pritrdrtch** filter mmtly givitRS'-lw^icf a I'mtw f 

I/jbkowitz, prlstiner at Lcuthcn, on 

v, 124 (for tixt ptrwntra fecltogl. 



CHAP. XL] WINTER IN BRESLAU 

Jan,-April 1758] 

and give things an eagle-quality ; l France engages to pay its 
subsidies better (France now the general paying party, Austria, 
Sweden, Russia itself, all looking to France, would she were 
as punctual as England used to be I), in a word, engages 
to be magnanimous extremely, and will hear of nothing but 
persistence. ( Shall not we reap, then, where there is such 
a harvest standing white to us ? ' Kaunitz admits that there 
never will again be such a chance. Peace, it is clear enough, 
will not be got of these people by any Letter, or human 
device whatever, except simply by uttermost, more or less 
miraculous fighting for it. Friedrich is profoundly aware of 
this fact; is busy completing his Army: 145,000 for the 
field, this Year, 53,000 the Silesian part, c a good many of 
them Austrian deserters'; 2 and is closing an important Sub- 
sidy Treaty with England, of which more anon. 

And if this is the mood in France and Austria, think what 
Russia's will be ! The Czarina is not dead of dropsy, as 
some had expected, but, on the contrary, alive, and fiercer 
than ever ; furious against Apraxin, and determined that 
Fermor, his successor, shall defy Winter, and begin work at 
once. She has indignantly dismissed Apraxin (to be tried 
by Court-Martial, he) ; dismisses Bestuchef the Chancellor ; 
appoints a new General, Fermor by name ; orders Fermor to 
go and lose not a moment, now in the depth of Winter since 
it was not done in the crown of Summer, and take possession 
of East Preussen in her name. 

Which Fermor does; 16th January, crosses the border 
again, 31,000 in all, without opposition except from the 
frost ; plants himself up and down, only two poor Prussian 
battalions there; who retire with their effects, especially 
*with seven wagons of money.' January Sd, Fermor enters 
Konigsberg; publishes no end of proclamations, manifestos, 
rescripts, to inform the poor people, trembling at the Cossack 
atrocities of last Year, That his august Sovereign Elizabeth 
of All the Russias has now become Proprietress of East 
1 <26th Feb. 1758* (Barbier, iv. 258). 2 Stenzel, v. 155. 



836 SEVEN-YEARS WAE KISES [BOOK xvin. 

Qan.-April 1758 

Preussen, which shall be perfectly protected and exquisitely 
well-governed henceforth ; and that all men of official or 
social position have, accordingly, to come and take the oath 
to her, with the due alacrity and punctuality, at their peril/ 

No man is willing for the operation, most men shudder at 
it; but who can help them? Surely it was an unblessed 
operation. Poor souls, one pities them; for at heart they 
were, and continued, loyal to their own King; thoroughly 
abhorrent of becoming Russian, as Czarish Majesty has 
thoroughly resolved they shall. Some few absconded, leaving 
their property as spoil ; the rest swore, with mental reserva- 
tion, with shifts, such as they could devise: for example, 
some were observed to swear with gloves on ; the right hand, 
which they held up, was a mere right jfetf with a stuffed glove 
at the end of it, so help me Beelzebub (or whoever is th 
recording Angel here)! 1 And thus does Preussen, with 
astonishment, as by the spell of a Czarina Circe, find itndf 
changed suddenly to Russian : and does not recover the old 
human form till four years hence, when, again suddenly, m 
we shall see, the Circe and her wancl chance to get broken* 

Friedrich could not mend or prevent this had Business ; 
but was so disgusted with it, he never set foot in Eiwt !V*,msi*n 
again, never could bear to behold it, after such a tmngfomm* 
tion into temporary Russian shape. I cannot say he abhorm! 
this constrained Oath as I should have done ; on the contrary, 
in the first spurt of indignation, he not only prottwtwl aloud! 
but made reprisals,-' Swear me those Sttxonft, flint!" 
he ; and some poor magistrates of towns, iincl official 
had to make a figure of swearing (if not Allegiance nlt,o#i*tiwr, 
allegiance for the time being), In the same wl fnMhitm, till 
one's humour cooled again. 9 East Pmi&wi, Iot in thw way, 
held by its King as iwfons <>r wore piwkiitately 
ever; still loved I'Viudrich, say the Hooka; but it h UUKM*'* 
for the present, and the mwehief w clone, itwlf, 



i v, I479; Frewt^ ii 145, III, $? iv. 477 <tt 

* Frettss^ IL 163 1 Oalli given In v. ljf 



CHAP, xi.] WINTER IN BRESLAU 837 

Jan.ApriI 1758] 

Circe Cmrina cherishing it as her own, had a much peaceabler 
time : in secret it even sent moneys, recruits, numerous young 
volunteers to Fricdrich ; much more, hopes and prayers. But 
his disgust with the late transformation by enchantment was 
inexpiable. 

It was May or June, as had been anticipated, before the 
Russian main Army made its practical appearance in those 
parts. Fermor had, in the interim, seized Thorn, seized 
Elbing (* No offence, magnanimous Polaeks, it is only for a 
time P), -and would fain have had Dantzig too, but Dantzig 
wouldn't. Not till June 16th did the unwieldy mass (on 
paper 104,000, and in effect* and exclusive of CoRHack rabble, 
about 75,000) get on way ; and begin slowly staggering west- 
ward. Very slowly, and amid incendiary fire and horrid cruelty, 
as heretofore ;-&nd in August coming we shall bo sure to hear 
of it 

Lehwald was just finishing with the Swedenhad got them 
all bottli'd-up in Stralsund again, about, New-year's turns when 
thane Russian** eronsed into Pnmssen. We said nothing of the 
Swedish so-culled Campaign of last Yar;~- and nuked are 
bound to be nearly silent of that and of all the other*. Five 
Campaigns of them, or at U'ast Four and a half; such 
Campaign* $ were ww*r made hi'fore or since* Of Campaign 
1 7IS7, the feature ia $ that of this whole * Swedish 

Divimon,* fw the laughing cnlUtt lt which 

*put to flight by Five Ifcrlin F<Mti!lIoiiii^;'-~tttbstAiitiall ( y a 
truth* iw foltowii : 



*HI^ht cif 12tl4*1lli 17W p|r0ng f <Ud 

; f RiVUffi lMrtiiitIiir| Iwifeweftii tlinlr 

t tiicl our* ; iwl^ hut frairttniw of MiUU* to 

Hn* f Ihii llfwj 

on lti ; 

In a l*ii*')* amount Mil IKi^HiO/t In all for llii jwior 

A nrriflil f Hl f imi In l lli w 

*^ wt f i^lwti^r Iwl fit! M iHiirlt i tttyXxtf, 

Hit* ttiirilsmt of 



$38 SEVEN-YEARS WAR RISES [BOOKXVIII. 

[Jan, -April 1758 

during that operation ; and they now sent out a Detachment of 200 
grenadiers and 100 dragoons towards Zehdeniek., another little Town, 
some forty miles farther south, there to wring-out the remaining sum. 
The Detachment marched by night, not courting notice ; hut people had 
heard of its coming ; and five Prussian Postillion*, bifty fellows, old 
hussars it may he, at any rate skilful on the trumpet, and furniihecl with 
hussar jackets and an old pistol each, determined to do something for 
their Country. The Swedish Detachment had not marched many mikfy 
when, a fter or before some flourishes of martial trumpetingthere 
verily fell on the Swedish flank, out of a clump of dark wood, five fthotn* 
and wounded one man. To the astonishment and panic of the other 
Two hundred and ninety-nine; who made instant retreat, under new 
shots and trumpet-tones, as if it were from five whole hussar regiments ; 
retreat double-quick, to Trent/low ; alarm waxing by the speed ; alarm 
spreading at Prentzlow itself: so that the whole Division got to ib* fotit, 
recrossed the Peene ; and Uckermark had nothing more to pay, for that 
bout! This is not a fable, such as go in the NewnpapWH/ addu my 
Authority, 'but an accurate fact': 1 probably, in our day, the alone 
memorable one of that e Swedish War/ 

'The French/ says another of my Notes, * who did thft KulHt<!ym# all 
round (who paid even the Russian Subsidy, though iu Au*tria*H natm)t 
had always an idea that the ftwedow, 22,000 stout men, this yenr, 400o 
of them cavalry, might be made to cooperate with the Iltwmiitf ; with 
them or with somebody; and do something efwtlve In tlw way of 
destroying" Friedrich* And bem<Ie4 their itulwhlkw atut hrihhipt, tho 
French took incredible pains with this vhw ; inctWMantly wmtnvmg", 
correspondencing, and running 1 to and fro foatwetit* tho partic* ; 8 hut had 
not, even from the Ruttsiaus and (taaritth Maj^ty t mur.h of a r*Mu!t Mt 
from the Sweden had absolutely none at all* By Frwnt'h iiichwtry mid 
jfiagitation, the Swedish Army wm geiiandly kej)t*up to about ^0,OCK> ; 
the 8<>I<licrH were expert with their %!ttig'4m>!f? l krn*w il*ir ist*td- 
exerclse well ; had fiue artillery, md wra stout haniy fi*llnwg ; but tliu 
guidance of them was wonderful. **T!w*y hud no ^ 



* iv. 764, $07 ; ArchcnholU, L itfa 

For example: M. Ic Marcjuls *Ir M*ttiilml*if C 
tmftoyt far k Km dt firaiue 2 fArmh ^W*/*M'w 17 57- 1761 {'wUh Itif 

Swedish Army,* yr^, stiul sometime* with the Rtiri^ian, "! mmirimn, mi liw 

French Ct*ats anlcntty fr^rtifylng igalsiHt Pitt and Ii-i I)rn^n ih^r: A t i ri| 
Intelligent* iru!u*trtntH ( ^Innnmi nun; still Ammlim to frail, II i*tr w*tr j4|rr| t 
J /^rfr (cvifientfy I'asi",| t 1777, 3 voll. Kvo, Ttifti lik**wni? vrty inH- 

liUnt, is a M*mUet,a Moriai^n^ a C*4titiif>ittfi j t A , ftuttH 

m 1757 f tc. etc In a 4ml nf tkic faculty m 

iiini! wi'iei from stnil. 



CHAP. XI.] WINTER IN BRESLAU 339 

Jan. -April 1758] 

says one Observer, ec no field-bakery, no magazines, no pontoons, no light 
troops; and," among the Higher Officers, ee no subordination." 1 Were, 
in short, commanded by nobody in particular. Commanded by Senator 
Committee-men in Stockholm ; and, on the field, by Generals anxious to 
avoid responsibility ; who, instead of acting, held continual Councils of 
War. The history of their Campaigns, year after year, is, in summary, 
this : 

' Late in the season (always late, War-Offices at home, and Captaincies 
here, being in such a state), they emerge from Stralsund, an impregnable 
place of their own, where the men, I observe, have had to live on dried 
fishy substances, instead of natural boiled oatmeal; 2 and have died 
extensively in consequence : they march from Stralsund, a forty or 
thirty miles, till they reach the Swedish-Pommem boundary, Peene 
River; a muddy sullen stream, flowing through quagmire meadows, 
which are miles broad, on each shore : River unfordable everywhere ; 
only to be crossed in four or five places, where paved causeways are. 
The Swedes, with deliberation, cross Peene; after some time, capture 
the bits of Redoubts, and the one or two poor Prussian Towns upon it ; 
Anklam Redoubt, Peenemunde (Peenemouth) Redoubt ; and rove forward 
into Prussian Pommern, or over into the Uckerinark, for fifty, for a 
hundred miles ; exacting contributions ; foraging what they can ; making 
the poor country-people very miserable, and themselves not happy, 
their soldiers ef growing yearly more plunderous," says Archenholtz, 
" till at length they got, though much shyer of murder, to resemble 
Cossacks," in regard to other pleas of the crown. 

* There is generally some fractional regiment or two of Prussian force, 
left under some select General Manteuffel, Colonel Belling ; who hangs 
diligently on the skirts of them, exploding by all opportunities. There 
have been Country Militias voluntarily got on foot, for the occasion ; five 
or six small regiments of them ; officered by Prussian Veterans of the 
Squirearchy in those parts ; who do excellent service. The Governor of 
Stettin, Bevern, our old Silesian friend, strikes-out now and then, always 
vigilant, prompt and effective, on a chance offering. This, through 
Summer, is what opposition can be made : and the Swedes, without 
magazines, scout-service, or the like military appliances, but willing 
enough to fight' (when they can see), tf and living on their shifts, will 
rove inward, perhaps 100 miles ; say south-westward, say south-eastward ' 
(towards Ruppin, which we used to know), *they love to keep Mecklen- 
burg usually on their flank, which is a friendly Country. Small fights 

1 Archenholtz, L 158. 

2 Montalembert, i. 32-37, 335, 394 etc. (that of the demand for Norse fo 
which interested me, I cannot find again). 



340 SEVEN-YEARS WAR RISES [BOOKXvm. 

Qan.-April 1758 

befall them, usually beatings; never anything considerable. That is 
their success through Summer. 

e Then, in Autumn, some remnant more of Prussian regulars arrive, 
disposable now for that service ; upon which the Swedes are driven over 
Peene again (quite sure to be driven, when the River with its quagmires 
freezes); lose Anklam Redoubt, Peenemiinde Redoubt; lose Demmin, 
Wollin; are followed into Swedish Pommern, offcenest to the gates of 
Stralsund, and are locked up there, there and in Rugen adjoining, till a 
new season arrive.' This year (1757-8), Lehwald, on turning the key of 
Stralsund., might have done a fine feat ; frost having come suddenly, and 
welded Rugen to the mainland. ' What is to hinder you from starving 
them into surrender ? ' signifies Friedrich, hastily : ' Besiege me Stral- 
sund ! ' Which Lehwald did ; but should have been quicker about it ; 
or the thaw came too soon, and admitted ships with provision again. 
Upon which Lehwald resigned, to a General Graf von Dohna ; and went 
home, as grown too old : and Dohna kept* them bottled there till the 
usual Russian Advent (deep in June) ; by which time, what with limited 
stockfish diet, what with sore labour (breaking of the ice, whenever frost 
reappeared) and other hardship, more than half of them had died. 
f Every new season there was a new General tried ; but without the least 
improvement. There was mockery enough, complaint enough ; indignant 
laughter in Stockholm itself; and the Dalecarlians thought of revolting : 
but the Senator Committee-men held firm, ballasted by French gold, for 
four years. 

'The Prussian Militias are a fine trait of the matter; about fifteen 
regiments in different parts; about five in Pommern, which set the 
example ; which were suddenly raised last Autumn by the St&nde them- 
selves, drilled in Stettin continually, while the Swedes were under way, 
and which stood ready for some action, under veterans of the squirearchy, 
when the Swedes arrived. They were kept up through the War. The 
St&nde even raised a little fleet, 1 river fleet and coast fleet, twelve gun- 
boats, with a powerful carronade in each, and effective men and captain ; 
a great check on plundering and coast-mischief, till the Swedes, who are 
naval, at last made an effort and destroyed them all.' 

Friedrich was very sensible of these procedures on the part 
of his Stande ; and perhaps readers are not prepared for such, 
or for others of the like, which we could produce elsewhere, 
in a Country without Constitution to speak of. Friedrich 
raises no new taxes, except upon himself exclusively, and 
these to the very blood : Friedrich gets no Life-and-Fortune 
1 Archenholtz, i. no. 



CHAP. XI.] WINTER IN BRESLAU 341 

nth April 1758] 

Addresses of the vocal or printed sort, but only of the acted. 
Very much the preferable kind, where possible, to all parties 
concerned. These poor militias and flotillas one cheerfully 
puts on record ; cheerfully nothing else, in regard to such a 
Swedish War ; nor shall we henceforth insult the human 
memory by another word upon it that is not indispensable. 

Of the English Subsidy 

One of Friedrich's most important affairs, at present, 
vitally connected with his Army and its furnishings, which is 
the all-important, was his Subsidy Treaty with England. 
It is the third treaty he has signed with England in regard 
to this War ; the second in regard to subsidy for it ; and it 
is the first that takes real practical effect. It had cost 
difficulty in adjusting, not a little correspondence and 
management from Mitchell ; for the King is very shy about 
subsidy, though grim necessity prescribes it as inevitable; 
and his pride, and his reflections on the last Subsidy Treaty, 
* One Million sterling, Army of Observation, and Fleet in the 
Baltic,' instead of which came Zero and Kloster-Zeven, have 
made him very sensitive. However, all difficulties are got 
over ; Plenipotentiary Knyphausen, Pitt, Britannic Majesty 
and everybody striving to be rational and practical ; and at 
London, llth April 1758, Subsidy Treaty, admirably brief 
and to the point, is finished: 1 'That Friedrich shall have 
Four Million Thalers, that is, 670,0002. ; payable in London 
to his order, in October, this Year; which sum Friedrich 
engages to spend wholly in maintenance and increase of his 
Army for behoof of the common object; neither party to 
dream of making the least shadow of peace or truce without 
the other.' Of Baltic Fleet, there is nothing said ; nor, in 
regard to that, was anything done, this year or afterwards ; 
highly important as it would have been to Friedrich, with 
the Navies so-called of both Sweden and Russia doing their 
1 In four short Articles ; given in Helden-GescUchte y v. 16-17. 



342 SEVEN-YEARS WAR RJLSJKS [BOOKXvm. 

[nth April 1758 

worst upon him. * Why not spare me a small English 
squadron, and blow these away?"* Nor was the why ever 
made clear to him ; the private why being, that Czarish 
Majesty had, last year, intimated to Britannic, *Any such 
step on your part will annihilate the now old friendship of 
Russia and England, and be taken as a direct declaration of 
War P which Britannic Majesty, for commercial and mis- 
cellaneous reasons, hoped always might be avoided. Be silent, 
therefore, on that of Baltic Fleet. 

In all the spoken or covenanted points the Treaty was 
accurately kept : 670,000?., two-thirds of a million very 
nearly, will, in punctual promptitude, come to Friedrich^s 
hand, were October here. And in regard to Ferdinand (a 
point left silent, this too), Friedrich's expectations were ex- 
ceeded, not the contrary, so long as Pitt endured. This is 
the Third English-Prussian Treaty of the Seven-Years War, 
as we said above; and it is the First that took practical 
effect : this was followed by three others, year after year, of 
precisely the same tenor, which were likewise practical and 
punctually kept, the last of them, *12th December 1760,"* 
had reference to Subsidy for 1761 : and before another 
came, Pitt was out. So that, in all, Friedrich had Four 
Subsidies; 670,0007. + 4 = 2,680,0002. of English money 
altogether: and it is computed by some, there was never 
as much good fighting otherwise had out of all the 
800,000,OOOZ. we have funded in that peculiar line of 
enterprise. 1 

Pitt had no difficulty with his Parliament, or with his 
Public, in regard to this Subsidy; the contrary rather. 

1 First Treaty, i6th January 1756 (is in Helden-Geschichte, iii. 681), c We will 
oppose by arms any foreign Armament entering Germany' ; Second Treaty, nth 
January 1757 (never published till 1802), is in Scholl, iii. 30-32: *one million 
subsidy 3 a Fleet etc.* (not k&pt at all) ; after which, 

Third Treaty (the first really issuing in subsidy and performance) is nth April 
1758 (given in Helden-GescHichte, v. 17) ; Fourth (really second) , 7th December 
1758 (/. v. 752); Fifth (third], 9th November 1759; Sixth (fourth), xath 
December 1760. See Pmtss, ii. 124 n. 



CHAP, xi.] WINTER IN BRESLAU 

Jan.-April 1758] 

Seldom, if ever, was England in such a heat of enthusiasm 
about any Foreign Man as about Friedrich in these months 
since Rossbach and what had followed. Celebrating this 
Protestant Hero,' authentic new Champion of Christendom ; 
toasting him, with all the honours, out of its Worcester and 
other Mugs, very high indeed. Take these Three Clippings 
from the old Newspapers, omitting all else; and rekindle 
these, by good inspection and consideration, into feeble 
symbolic lamps of an old illumination, now fallen so extinct. 

No. 1. Reverend Mr. Whitfield and the Protestant Hero. ( Monday 
January 2d/ 1758, 'was observed as a Day of Thanksgiving, at the 
Chapel in Tottenham-Court Road ' (brand-new Chapel, still standing and 
acting, though now in a dingier manner), c by Mr. \Vhitiield's people, 
for the signal Victories gained by the King of Prussia over his Enemies. 1 
__ Why rage the Heathen; why do the people imagine a vain thing? 
Sinful beings we, perilously sunk in sin against the Most High : but 
they, do they think that, by earthly propping and hoisting, their unblessed 
Chimera, with his Three Hats, can sweep away the Eternal Stars !"' In 
this strain, I suppose: Protestant Hero and Heaven's long-suffering 
Patiences and Mercies in raising-up such a one for a backsliding genera- 
tion ; doubtless with much unction by Mr. Whitfield. 

No. 2. King of Prussia's Birthday (Tuesday January 24th). ( This 
being the Birthday of the King of Prussia, who then entered into the 
forty-seventh year of his age, the same was observed with illuminations 
and other demonstrations of joy' ; throughout the Cities of London and 
Westminster, * great rejoicings and illuminations/ it appears, 2 now 
shining so feebly at a century's distance ! No. 3 is still more curious ; 
and has deserved from us a little special inquiring into. 

No. 3. Miss Barbara Wyndham's Subsidy. f March 13th, 1758/ 
while Pitt and Knyphausen are busy on the Subsidy Treaty, still not out 
with it, the Newspapers suddenly announce, 

'Miss Bab. Wyndham, of Salisbury, sister of Henry Wyndham, Esq., 
of that City, a maiden lady of ample fortune, has ordered her banker to 
prepare the sum of 1,OOQ/. to be immediately remitted, in her own name, 

1 GentUmarfs Magazine, xxviii. (for I75^) P* 4 1 * 

2 Ib. p. 43 ; and vol. xxix. p. 42, for next year's birthday, and p. 8 1 for 
another kind of celebration. 



344 SEVEN-YEARS WAR RISES [BOOKXVIII. 

[Jan. -April 1758 

as a present to the King of Prussia/ L Doubtless to the King of Prussia's 
surprise, and that of London Society, which would not want for commen- 
taries on such a thing ! 

Before long, the Subsidy Treaty being now out, and the Wyndham 
topic new again, London Society reads, in the same Newspaper, a Docu- 
mentary Piece, calculated to help in its commentaries. There is good 
likelihood of guess, though no certainty now attainable, that the f English 
Lady* referred to may be Miss Bab. herself; of whose long-vanished 
biography, and brisk, airy, nomadic ways, we catch hereby a faint 
shadow, momentary, but conceivable, and sufficient for us : 

6 To the Authors of the London Chronicle* 

( The following Account, which is a real fact, will serve to show with 
what punctuality and exactness the King of Prussia attends to the most 
minute affairs, and how open he is to applications from all persons. 

' An English Lady being possessed of actions* (shares) 'in the Embden 
Company, and having occasion to raise money on them, repaired to 
Antwerp ' (some two years ago, as will be seen), ( and made application 
for that purpose to a Director of the Company, established there by the 
King of Prussia for the managing all affairs relative thereto. This 
person,' Van Erthorn the name of him, 'very willingly entered into 
treaty with her ; but the sum he offered to lend being far short of what 
the actions would bring, and he also insisting on forfeiture of her right 
in them, if not redeemed in twelve months, she broke-off with him, 
and had recourse to some merchants at Antwerp, who were inclinable to 
treat with her on much more equitable terms. The proceeding neces- 
sarily brought the parties before this Director for receiving his sanction, 
which was essential to the solidity of the agreement ; and he, finding he 
was like to lose the advantage he had flattered himself with, disputed the 
authenticity of the actions, and thereby threw her into such discredit, as 
to render all attempts to raise money on them ineffectual. Upon this 
the Lady wrote a Letter by the common post to his Majesty of Prussia, 
accompanied with a Memorial complaining of the treatment she had 
received from the Director ; and she likewise enclosed the actions them- 
selves in another letter to a friend at Berlin. By the return of the post, 
his Majesty condescended to answer her Letter; and the actions were 
returned authenticated ; which so restored her credit, that in a few hours 
all difficulties were removed relating to the transaction she had in hand ; 
and it is more than probable the Director has felt his Majesty's resentment 
for his ill-behaviour. The Lady's Letter was as follows : 

1 London Chronicle > March 1 4th- 1 6th, 1758; Lkytfs Evening Post * t etc. etc. 

2 London Chronicle, of I3th-I5th April 1758, 



CHAP. XI.] WINTER IN BRESLAU 845 

Jan.-April 1758] 

' " Antwerp, 19th February 1756. 

* " SIR, Having had the happiness to pay my court to your Majesty 
during a pretty long residence at Berlin " (say in Voltaire's time ; Miss 
Barbara's " Embden Company," I observe, was the first of the two, date 
1750 ; that of 1753 is not hers), fe and to receive such marks of favour 
from their Majesties the Queens " (a Barbara capable of shining in the 
Royal soirees at Montbijou, of talking to, or of, your Voltaires and lions, 
and investing moneys in the new Embden Company) "as I shall ever 
retain a grateful sense of, I presume to flatter myself that your Majesty 
will not be offended at the respectful liberty 1 have taken in laying before 
you my complaints against one Van Erthorn, a Director of the Embden 
China Company, whose bad behaviour to me, as set forth in my Memorial, 
hath forced me to make a very long and expensive stay at this place ; 
and, as the considerable interest I have in that Company may farther 
subject me to his caprices, I cannot forbear laying my grievances at the 
foot of your Majesty's throne; most respectfully supplicating your 
Majesty that you would be graciously pleased to give orders that this 
Director shall not act towards me for the future as he hath done 
hitherto. 

e "I hope for this favour from your Majesty's sovereign equity; and I 
shall never cease offering up my ardent prayers for the prosperity of 
your glorious reign ; having the honour to be, with the most respectful 
zeal, Sir, your Majesty's most humble, most obedient, and most devoted 

* * 4t " 

servant, 

The King of Prussia's Answer 

' "Potsdam, 26th February 1756. 

'" MADAM, I received the letter of the 19th instant, which you 
thought proper to write to me ; and was not a little displeased to hear of 
the bad behaviour of one of the Directors of the Asiatic Company of 
Embden towards you, of which you were forced to complain. I shall 
direct your grievances to be examined, and have just now despatched my 
orders for that purpose to Lenz, my President of the Chamber of East 
Friesland," Chief Judge in those parts. 1 You may assure yourself the 
strictest justice shall be done you that the case will admit God keep 
you in his holy protection. FBIEDRICH." ' 

Whether this refers to Miss Barbara or not, there is no affirming. 
But the interesting point is, Friedrich did receive and accept Miss 
Barbara's 1,000?. The Prussian account, which calls her 'an English 

1 Seyfarth, il 139. 



346 SEVEN-YEARS WAR RISES [BOOKXvm. 

(Jan. -April 1758 

JungfraU) Lady Salisbury, who actually sent a sum of money/ 1 would 
not itself be satisfactory : but, by good chance, there is still living, in 
Salisbury City, a very aged Gentleman, well known for his worth, and 
intelligence on such matters,, who, being inquired of, makes reply at 
once : That the First Earl of Malmesbury (who was of his acquaintance, 
and had many anecdotes and reminiscences of Friedrich, all noted down, 
it was understood, with diplomatic exactitude, but never yet published 
or become accessible) did, as e I well remember, among other things, men- 
tion the King's telling him that he,' the King, ( had received a Thousand 
Pounds from Miss Wyndham ; with a part of which he had bought the 
Flute then in his hand/ 2 Which latter circumstance, too, is curious. 
For, at all times, however straitened Friedrich' s Exchequer might be, it 
was his known habit, during this War, to have always, before the current 
year ended, the ways and means completely settled and provided for the 
year coming ; so that everything could be at once paid in money (good 
money or bad, good still up to this date) ; and nothing was observed to 
fall short, so much as the customary liberality of his gifts to those about 
him. I infer, therefore : Friedrich had decided to lay-out this 1,000/. in 
what he would call luxuries, chiefly gifts, and, among other things, had 
said to himself, ' I will have a new flute, too !' Probably one of his last: 
for I understand he had, by this time (Malmesbury' s time, 1772), ceased 
much playing, and ceased altogether not long after. 3 

James Harris, First Earl of Malmesbury, was Resident at Berlin 1772 : 
that is all the date we have for the King's saying, e And with part of it 
I bought this Flute ! ' Date of Lord Malmesbury's mention of it at 
Salisbury, we have none, likeliest there might be various dates; a 
thing mentioned more than once, and not improvable by dating. The 
Wyndhams still live in the Close of Salisbury ; a respected and well-known 
Family ; record of them (none of Barbara there, or elsewhere except 
here) to be found in the County Histories. 4 I only know farther, 
Barbara died May 1765, ' aged and wealthy,' and c with the bulk of her 
fortune endowed a Charity, to be called (t Wyndham College," ' 5 which 

1 Preuss, ii. 124, whose reference is merely * Gentleman's Magazine for 1758.* 
Both in the Annual Register of that Year (i. 86), and in the Gentleman's Maga- 
zine, pp. 142, 177, the above Paragraph and Letters are copied from the News- 
papers, but without the smallest commentary (there or elsewhere), or any mention 
of a ' Lady Salisbury.' 

2 Letter from John Fowler, Esq., 'Salisbury, 2d April i86o/ to a Friend of 
mine (penes me] : of Barbara's identity, or otherwise, with the Antwerp-Embden 
Lady, Mr, F. can say nothing. 3 Preuss, i. 371-373. 

4 Britton's Beauties of England and Wales, xv. part ii. p. 118; Hoare's 
Salisbury (mistaken, p. 815) ; etc. 

5 Annual Register (for 1765), viii. 86. 



CHAP. XL] WINTER IN BRESLAU 347 

I5th March-i6th April 1758] 

I hope still flourishes. Enough on this small Wyndham matter ; which 
is nearly altogether English, but in which Friedrich too has his inde- 
feasible property. 



Friedrich 9 as indeed Pitfs People and Others have done, takes the 
Field uncommonly early : Friedrich goes upon Schweidnitz, 
as the Preface to whatever his Campaign may be 

While this Subsidy Treaty is getting settled in England, 
Duke Ferdinand has his French in full cackle of universal 
flight ; and before the signing of it (April llth), every feather 
of them is over the Rhine ; Duke Ferdinand busy preparing to 
follow. Glorious news, day after day, coming in, for Pitt, for 
Miss Barbara and for all English souls, Royal Highness of 
Cumberland hardly excepted ! The ' Descent on Rochefort, 
last Autumn, had a good deal disappointed Pitt and England; 
an expensively elaborate Expedition, military and naval; 
which could not * descend ' at all, when it got to the point ; 
but merely went groping about, on the muddy shores of 
the Charente, holding councils of war yonder ; * cannonaded 
the Isle of Aix for two hours ' ; and returned home without 
result of any kind. Courts-martial following on it, as too usual. 
This was an unsuccessful first-stroke for Pitt. Indeed, he 
never did much succeed in those Descents on the French 
Coast, though never again so ill as this time. Those are a 
kind of things that require an exactitude as of clockwork, in 
all their parts : and Pitt's Generalcies and War-Offices, we 
know whether they were of the Prussian type or of the 
Swedish ! A very grievous hindrance to Pitt ; which he 
will not believe to be quite incurable. Against which he, 
for his part, stands up, in grim earnest, and with his whole 
strength ; and is now, and at all times, doing what in him 
lies to abate or remedy it : successfully, to an unexpected 
degree, within the next four years. From America, he has 
decided to recall Lord Loudon, as a cunctatory haggling 
mortal, the reverse of a General ; how very different from his 



848 SEVEN-YEARS WAR RISES [BOOKXVIII. 

[i5th March-i6th April 1758 

Austrian Cousin. 1 < Abercrombie may be better/ hopes he ; 
was better, still not good. But already in the gloomy 
imbroglio over yonder, Pitt discerns that one Amherst (the 
son of people unimportant at the hustings) has military 
talent : and in this puddle of a Rochefort Futility, he has got 
his eye on a young Officer named Wolfe, who was Quarter- 
master of the Expedition ; a young man likewise destitute of 
Parliamentary connection, but who may be worth something. 
Both of whom will be heard of ! In a four-years determined 
effort of this kind, things do improve ; and it was wonderful, 
to what amount, out of these chaotic War-Offices little better 
than the Swedish, and ignorant G-eneralcies fully worse than 
the Swedish, Pitt got heroic successes and work really done. 

On Pitt, amid confused clouds, there is bright dawn 
rising ; and Friedrich too, for the last month in Breslau, has 
a cheerful prospect on that Western side of his horizon. Here 
is one of his Postscripts, thrown-off in Autograph, which 
Duke Ferdinand will read with pleasure : <I congratulate you, 
man cfier, with my whole heart I May you fleur-de-lys every 
French skin of them ; cutting-out on their ' what shall we 
say (leur imprimant sur le cul) ! ' the Initials of the Peace of 
Westphalia, and packing them across the Rhine, 1 tatooed in 
that latest extremity of fashion 1 2 

Friedrich, grounding partly on those Rhine aspects, has his 
own scheme laid for Campaign 1758. It is the old scheme 

1 Cousins certainly enough : their Progenitors were Brothers, of that House, 
about 1568, when Matthew, the cadet, went 'into Livonia/ into foreign 
Soldiering (Papa having fallen Prisoner 'at the Battle of Langside, 1568, and 
the Family prospects being low) ; from this Matthew comes, through a series of 
Livonian Soldiers, the famed Austrian Loudon. Douglas, Peerage of Scotland, 
p. 425 ; etc. etc. Vie de Loudon (ill-informed on that point and some others) 
says, the first Livonian Loudon came from Ayrshire, 'in the fourteenth century ! ' 

3 Friedrich to Duke Ferdinand, 'Griissau, I9th March 1758': in Knesebeck, 
Herzog Ferdinand, i. 64. Herzog Ferdinand wahrend des *]-jahrigen JZrieges 
('from the English and Prussian Archives') is the full Title of Knesebeck's Book ; 
Letters altogether ; not very intelligently edited, but well worth reading by every 
student, military and civil : 2 voll. 8vo, Hanover, 1857. 



CHAP. XL] WINTER IN BRESLAU 349 

i6th April 1758] 

tried twice already: to go home upon your enemy swiftly, 
with your utmost collective strength, and try to strike into 
the heart of him before he is aware. Friedrich has twice 
tried this ; the second time with success, respectable though 
far short of complete. Weakened as now, but with Ferdinand 
likely to find the French in employment, he means to try it 
again ; and is busy preparing at Neisse and elsewhere, though 
keeping it a dead secret for the time. There is, in fact, no 
other hopeful plan for him, if this prove feasible at all. 
Double your velocity, you double your momentum. One^s 
weight is given, weight growing less and less ; but not, or 
not in the same way and degree, one's velocity, one's rightness 
of aim. Weight given : it is only by doubling or trebling 
his velocity that a man can make his momentum double or 
treble, as needed ! Friedrich means to try it, readers will see 
how, were the Fort of Schweidnitz once had; for which 
object Friedrich watches the weather like a very D'Argens, 
eager that the frost would go. Recapture of Schweidnitz, the 
last speck of Austrianism wiped away there ; that is evidently 
the preface to whatsoever dayswork may be ahead. 

March 15th, frost being now off, Friedrich quits Breslau 
and D'Argens, his Headquarter thenceforth Kloster-Griissau, 
near Landshut, troops all getting cantoned thereabout, to 
keep Bohemia quiet, and goes at once upon Schweidnitz. 
With the top of the morning, so to speak ; means to have 
Schweidnitz before campaigning usually can begin, or common 
labourers take their tools in this trade. The Austrian Com- 
mandant has been greatly strengthening the works ; he had, 
at first, some 8,000 of garrison ; but the three-months 
blockade has been tight upon him and them ; and it is hoped 
the thing can be done. 

April Ist-%d> Siege-material being got to the ground, 
and Siege Division and Covering Army all in their places, 
in spite of the heavy rains, we open our first parallel, Austrian 
Commandant not noticing till it is nearly done. April 8th, 
we have our batteries built ; and burst out, at our best rate, 



350 SEVEN-YEARS WAR RISES [BOOKXVIll. 

[i6th April 1758 

into cannonade; aiming a good deal at *Fort No. V called 
also ' Galgen or Gallows Fort,' which we esteem the principal. 
Cannonade continues day after day, prospers tolerably on 
Gallows Fort, though the wet weather, and hardship to the 
troops, are grievous circumstances, and make Friedrich doubly 
urgent. * Try it by storm 1 ' counsels Balbi, who is Engineer, 
Night of April I5th-~L6th storm takes place ; with such vigour 
and such cunning, that the Gallows Fort is got for almost 
nothing (loss of ten men) ; and few hours after, Austria 
beat the chamade. 1 Fifty-one new Austrian guns for one 
item, and about 7,OOOZ. of money. Prisoners of War the 
Garrison, 8,000 gone to 4,900 ; with such stores as we can 
guess, of ours and theirs added : Balbi was Prussian Engineer- 
in-Chief, Treskau Captain of the Siege ; other particulars I 
spare the reader. 

Unfortunate Schweidnitz underwent four Sieges, four cap- 
tures or recaptures, in this War ; upon all of which we must 
be quite summary, only the results of them important to us. 
For the curious in sieges, especially for the scientifically 
curious, there is, by a Captain Tielcke, excellent account of 
all these Schweidnitz Sieges, and of others ; Artillery-Captain 
Tielcke, in the Saxon or Saxon-Russian service ; whom perhaps 
we shall transiently fall in with, on a different field, in the 
course of this Year, 



CHAPTER XII 
SIEGE OF OLMUTZ 

FouauET, on the first movement towards Schweidnitz, had 
been detached from Landshut to sweep certain Croat Parties 
out of Glatz; Ziethen, with a similar view, into Troppau 

1 Tempelhof, ii. 21-25: Helden-GescUchte, v. 109-123: above all, Tielcke, 
BeytrdgQ zur Kricgs-Kunst und zur GescUchU des JKrieges von 1756 bis 1763 
(6 voll. 4to, Freyberg, 1775-1786), iv. 43-76. Volume iv. is wholly devoted to 
Schweidnitz and its successive Sieges. 



CHAP. XII.] SIEGE OF OLMUTZ 351 

igth-25th April 1758] 

Country ; both which errands were at once perfectly done. 
Daun lies behind the Bohemian Frontier (betimes in the field 
he too * arrived ab Konigsgratz March 13th ') ; and is, with all 
diligence, perfecting his new levies ; entrenching himself on 
all points, as man seldom did ; 6 felling whole forests,' they 
say, building abatis within abatis ; not doubting, especially 
on these Ziethen-Fouquet symptoms, but Friedrich's Campaign 
is to be an Invasion of Bohemia again. c Which he shall not 
do gratis ! ' hopes Daun ; and, indeed, judges say the entrance 
would hardly have been possible on that side, had Friedrich 
tried it ; which he did not. 

Schweidnitz being done, and Daun deep in the Bohemian 
problem, Friedrich, in an unintelligible manner, breaks-out 
from Griissau and the Landshut region (April 19th-5th), not 
straight southward, as Daun had been expecting, but straight 
south-eastward through Neisse, Jagerndorf : all gone, or all 
but Ziethen and Fouquet gone, that way; meaning who 
shall say what, when news of it comes to Daun ? In two 
divisions, from 30 to 40,000 strong ; through Jagerndorf, ever 
onward through Troppau, and not till then turning south- 
ward : * indubitable march of that cunning Enemy ; rapidly 
proceeding, his 40,000 and he, along those elevated upland 
countries, watershed of the Black Sea and the Baltic, bleakly 
illumined by the April sun ; a march into the mists of the 
future tense, which do not yet clear themselves to Daun. 
Seeing the march turn southward at Troppau, a light breaks 
on Daun : * Ha ! coming round upon Bohemia from the east, 
then ? ' That is Daun's opinion, for some time yet ; and he 
immediately starts that way, to save a fine magazine he has at 
Leutomischl over there. Daun, from Skalitz near Konigsgratz 
where he is, has but some eighty miles to inarch, for the 
King's hundred-and-fifty ; and arrives in those parts few days 
after the King; posts himself at Leutomischl, veiled in 
Pandours. Not for two weeks more does he ascertain it to 
have been a march upon the Olmutz Country, and the intricate 
* See Plan, p. 394. 



352 SEVEN-YEARS WAR RISES [BOOKXVIIL 

[igth-25th April 1758 

forks of the Morawa River ; with a view of besieging Olmiitz, 
by this wily Enemy ! Upon which Daun did strive to bestir 
himself thitherward, at last; and, though very slow and 
hesitative, his measures otherwise were unexceptionable, and 
turned-out luckier than had been expected by some people. 

Olmiitz is an ancient pleasant little City, in the Plains of 
Mahren, romantic, indistinct to the English mind ; with 
Domes, with Steeples eminent beyond its size, population 
little above 10,000 souls; has its Prince- Archbishop and 
ecclesiastic outfittings, with whom Friedrich has lodged in 
his time. City which trades in leather, and Russian and 
Moldavian droves of oxen. Memorable to the Slavic popula- 
tions for its grand Czech Library, which was carried away by 
the Swedes, happily into thick night; 1 also for that poor 
little Wenzel of theirs (last heir of the Bohemian Czech 
royalties, whom no reader has the least memory of) being 
killed on the streets here ; uncertain, to this day, by whom, 
though for whose benefit that dagger-stroke ended is certain 
enough ; 2 poor little WenzePs dust lies under that highest 
Dome, of the old Cathedral yonder, if anybody thought of 
such a thing in hot practical times. Poor Lafayette, too, 
lodged here in prison, when the Austrians seized him. City 
trades in leather and live stock, we said ; has much to do with 
artillery, much with ecclesiastry ; and Friedrich besieged it, 
for seven weeks, in the hot summer days of 1758, to no 
purpose. Friedrich has been in Olmiitz more than once 
before ; his Schwerin once took it in a single day, and it was 
his for months, in the old Moravian-Foray time: but the 
place is changed now ; become an arsenal or military storehouse 
of Austria ; strongly fortified, and with a Captain in it, who 
distinguishes himself by valiant skill and activity on this 
occasion. 

Friedrich's Olmiitz Enterprise, the rather as it was un- 

1 To Stralsund (1645), ' and has not since been heard of.* 
3 Suprk, vol. i. p. 120. 



CHAP. XIL] SIEGE OF OLMUTZ 853 

3?th April-xsth May 1758] 

successful, has not wanted critics. And certainly, according 
to the ordinary rules of cautious prudence, could these have 
been Friedrich's in his present situation, it was not to be 
called a prudent Enterprise. But had Friedrich's arrange- 
ments been punctually fulfilled, and Olmutz been got in fair 
time, as was possible or probable, the thing might have been 
done very well. Duke Ferdinand, in these early May days, is 
practically making preparations to follow the French across 
the Rhine ; no fear of French Armies interfering with us this 
year. Dohna has the Swedes locked in Stralsund (capable of 
being starved, had not the thaw come) ; and in Hinter- 
Pommern he has General Platen, with a tolerable Detach- 
ment, watching Fermor and his Russians ; Dohna, with Platen, 
may entertain the Russians for a little, when they get on way, 
which we know will be at a slow pace, and late in the 
season. Prince Henri commands in Saxony, say with 30,000 ; 
King's vicegerent and other self there, * Do your wisest and 
promptest ; hold no councils of war ! ' Prince Henri, altogether 
on the aggressive as yet, is waiting what Reichs Army there 
may be ; has already had Mayer and Free Corps careering 
about in Franken Country once and again, tearing-up the 
incipiencies and preparations, with the usual emphasis ; and 
is himself intending to follow thither, in a still more impressive 
manner. Friedrich^s calculation is, Prince Henri will have 
his hands free for a good few weeks yet. Which proved true 
enough, so far as that went. 

And now, supposing Olmutz ours, and Vienna itself open 
to our insults, does not, by rapid suction, every armed Austrian 
flow thitherward ; Germany all drained of them : in which 
case, what is to hinder Prince Henri from stepping into 
Bohmen, by the Metal Mountains ; capturing Prag ; getting 
into junction with us here, and tumbling Austria at a rate 
that will astonish her ! Her, and her miscellaneous tagraggery 
of Confederates, one and all. Konigsberg, Stralsund, Bamberg ; 
Russians, Swedes, Reichsfolk, here, in Mahren, will be the 
crown of the game for all these. Prosper in Mahren, all these 

VOL. vi. z 



854 SEVEN-YEARS WAR RISES [BOOICXVIII. 

[lath May 175! 

are lamed ; one right stroke at the heart, the limbs become 
manageable quantities ! This was Friedrich's program ; and 
had not imperfections of execution, beyond what was looked 
for, and also a good deal of plain ill-luck, intervened, this 
bold stroke for Mahren might have turned-out far otherwise 
than it did. 

The march thither (started from Neisse April &7th) was 
beautiful : Friedrich with vanguard and first division ; Keith 
with rearguard and second, always at a day's distance ; split 
into proper columns, for convenience of road and quarter 
in the hungry countries ; threading those silent mountain 
villages, and upper streamlets of Oder and Morawa : Ziethen 
waving intrusive Croateries far off ; Fouquet, in thousands of 
wagons, shoving- on from Neisse, * in four sections, 1 with the 
due intervals, under the due escorts, the immensity of stores 
and siege-furniture, through Jagerndorf, through Troppau, 
and onwards; 1 punctual everybody; besiegers and siege- 
materials ready on their ground by the set day. Daun too 
had made speed to save his Magazine. Daun was at Leuto- 
mischl. May 5th 3 a forty miles to west of the Morawa, 
few days after Friedrich had arrived in those countries by 
the eastern or left bank, by Troppau, G-ibau, Littau, Asch- 
meritz, Prossnitz ; and a week before Friedrich had finished 
his reconnoiterings, campings, and taken position to his mind. 
Camps, four or more (shrank in the end to three), on both 
banks of the River ; a matter of abstruse study ; so that it 
was May 1 2th before Friedrich first took view of Olmiitz 
itself, and could fairly begin his Problem, Daun, with his 
best Tolpatcheries 5 still unable to guess what it was. 

Of the Siege I propose to say little, though the accounts 
of it are ample, useful to the Artillerist and Engineer. If 
the reader can be made to conceive it as a blazing loud- 
sounding fact, on which, and on Friedrich in it, the eyes of 
all Europe were fixed for some weeks, it may rest now in 

1 Table of his routes and stages in Tempelhof, ii, 46. 



CHAP. XIL] SIEGE OF OLMUTZ 855 

I2th-27th May 1758] 

impressive indistinctness to us. Keith is Captain of the 
Siege, whom all praise for his punctual firmness of progress ; 
Balbi, as before, is Engineer, against whom goes the criticism, 
Keith's first of all, that he < opened his first parallel 800 
yards too far off,' which much increased the labour, and the 
expenditure of useless gunpowder, shot having no effect at 
such a distance. There were various criticisms : some real, 
as this ; some imaginary, as that Friedrich grudged gun- 
powder, the fact being that he had it not, except after 
carriage from Neisse, say a hundred and twenty miles off, 
Troppau, his last Silesian Town, or safe place (his for the 
moment), is eighty miles ; and was obliged to waste none 
of it. 

Friedrich is not thought to shine in the sieging line as he 
does in the fighting ; which has some truth in it, though not 
very much. When Friedrich laid himself to engineering, I 
observe, he did it well : see Neisse, Graudenz, Magdeburg. 
His Balbi went wrong with the parallels, on this occasion ; 
many things went wrong : but the truly grievous thing was 
his distance from Silesia and the supplies. A hundred and 
twenty miles of hill-carriage, eighty of them disputable, for 
every shot of ammunition and for every loaf of bread ; this 
was hard to stand : and perhaps no War-apparatus but a 
Prussian, with a Friedrich for sole chief-manager, could have 
stood it so long. Friedrich did stand it, in a wonderfully 
tolerable manner ; and was continuing to stand it, and make 
fair progress; and it is not doubted he would have got 
Olmiitz, had not there another fact come on him, which 
proved to be of unmanageable nature. The actual loss, 
namely, of one Convoy, after so many had come safe, and 
when, as appears, there was now only one wanted and no 
more ! Let us attend to this a little. 

Had Daun, at Olmiitz, been as a Duke of Cumberland 
relieving Tournay, rushing into fight at Fontenoy, like a 
Hanover White-Horse, neck clothed with thunder, and head 
destitute of knowledge, -how lucky had it been for Friedrich ! 



356 SEVEN- YEARS WAR RISES [BOOKXVIIL 

iath-27th May 1758 

But Daun knows his trade better. Daun, though superior in 
strength,, sits on his Magazine, clear not to fight. By no art 
of manoeuvring, had Friedrich much tried it, or hoped it, this 
time, could Daun have been brought to give battle. As 
Fabius Cunctator he is here in his right place ; taking im- 
pregnable positions, no man with better skill in that branch 
of business ; pushing out parties on the Troppau road ; and 
patiently waiting till this dangerous Enemy, with such 
endless shifts in him, come in sight perhaps of his last 
cartridge, or perhaps make some stumble on the way towards 
that consummation. Daun is aware of FriedricVs surprising 
qualities. Bos against Leo, Daun feels these procedures to 
be altogether feline (felis-leo-nme) ; such stealthy glidings 
about, deceptive motions, appearances ; then such a rapidity 
of spring upon you, and with such a set of claws, destructive 
to bovine or rhinoceros nature : in regard to all which, Bos, 
if he will prosper, surely cannot be too cautious. It was 
remarked of Daun, that he was scrupulously careful ; never, 
in the most impregnable situations, neglecting the least pre- 
caution, but punctiliously fortifying himself to the last item, 
even to a ridiculous extent, say Retzow and the critics. It 
was the one resource of Daun : truly a solid stubborn patience 
is in the man ; stubborn courage too, of bovine-rhinoceros 
type; stupid, if you will, but doing at all times honestly 
his best and his wisest without flurry; which character is 
often of surprising value in War ; capable of much mischief, 
now and then, to quicker people. Rhinoceros Daun did play 
his Leo a bad prank more than once; and this of barring 
him out from Olmiitz was one of them, perhaps the worst 
after Kolin. 

Daun's management of this Olmiitz business is by no 
means reckoned brilliant, even in the Fabius line ; but, on 
the contrary, inert, dim-minded, inconclusive ; and in reality, 
till almost the very last, he had been of little help to the 
besieged. For near three weeks (till May $3d) Daun sat at 
Leutomischl, immovable on his bread-basket there, forty or 



CHAP, xii.] SIEGE OF OLMUTZ 357 

aSth May-a6th June 1758] 

more miles from Olmiitz ; and did not see that a siege was 
meant. May 7th-28th, Balbi opened his first parallel, in 
that mistaken way ; four days before which, Baun does move 
inwards a march or so, to Zwittau, to Gewitsch (still thirty 
miles to west of Olmiitz) ; still thinking of Bohemia, not of 
any siege; still hanging by the mountains and the bread- 
basket. And there, about Gewitsch, siege or no siege, Daun 
sits down again ; pretty much immovable, through the five 
weeks of bombardment ; and, except that Loudon and the 
Light Horse are very diligent to do a mischief, * attempting 
our convoys, more than once, to no purpose, and alarming 
some of our outposts almost every night, but every night 
beaten-off, 1 does, in a manner, nothing ; sits quiet, behind 
his impenetrable veil of Pandours, and lets the bombardment 
take its course. Had not express order come from Vienna on 
him, it is thought Daun would have sat till Olmiitz was 
taken ; and would then have gone back to Leutomischl and 
impregnable posts in the Hills. On express order, he But 
gather, first, these poor sparks in elucidation : 

'The e( destructive sallies" and the like., at Olmiitz, were principally 
an affair of the gazetteers and the imagination : but it is certain, Olmiitz 
this time was excellently well defended ; the Commandant, a vigorous 
skilful man, prompt to seize advantages j and Garrison and Townsfolk 
zealously helping : so that Friedrich's progress was unusually slow. 
Friedrich's feelings, all this while, and Balbfs (who "spent his first 
1,220 shots entirely in vain," beginning so far off), may be judged of, 
the sound of him to Balbi sometimes stern enough ! As when (June 9th) 
he personally visits Balbi's parallels (top of the Tafelberg yonder) ; and 
inquires, Cf When do you calculate to get done, then ? " West side of 
Olmiitz and of the River (east side lies mostly under water), there is the 
bombarding ; seventy-one heavy guns ; Keith, in his expertest manner, 
doing all the captaincies : Keith has about 8,000 of foot and horse, busy 
and vigilant, with their faces to the east. In a ring of four camps, or 
principally three (Prossnitz, Littau, and Neustaclt, which is across the 
Biver), all looking westward or north-westward, some ten or twenty 
miles from Keith, Friedrich. (headquarters oftenest Prossnitz, the chief 
camp) stands facing Daun ; who lies concentric to him, at the distance of 
another ten or twenty miles, in good part still thirty or forty miles from 
Olmiitz, veiled mostly under a cloud of Pandours, 



358 SEVEN-YEARS WAR RISES [BOOK XVIIL 

[28th May-26th June 1758 

*0f Friedrich's impatiences we hear little, though they must liave 
been great. Prince Henri is ready for Prag ; many things are ready, 
were Olmutz but done ! May 22d, Prince Henri had followed Mayer in 
person, with a stronger corps, to root-out the Reichsfolk, and is now in 
Bamberg City and Country. And is even in Baireuth itself, where was 
lately the Camp of the new Reichs General, Serene Highness of Zwei- 
briick, and his nascent Reichs Army ; who are off bodily to Bohemia, 
"to Eger and the Circle of Saatz/' a week before. 1 Fancy that visit of 
Henri's to a poor Wilhelmina ; the last sight she ever had of a Brother, 
or of the old Prussian uniforms, clearing her of Zweibriicks and sorrowful 
guests ! Our poor Wilhelmina, alas, she is sunk in sickness this year 
more than ever ; journeying towards death, in fact ; and is probably the 
most pungent, sacredly tragic, of Friedrich's sorrows, now and onwards. 
June 12th, Friedrich's pouting Brother, the Prince of Prussia, died ; this 
also he had to hear in Camp at Olmutz. ce What did he die of?" said 
Friedrich to the Messenger, a Major Something. ef Of chagrin," said 

the Major, " Aus Gram" Friedrich made no answer. 

f On the last night of May, by beautiful management, military and 
other, Duke Ferdinand is across the Rhine ; again chasing the French 
before him ; who, as they are far more numerous, cannot surely but 
make some stand : so that a Battle there may be expected soon, let 
us hope, a Victory ; as indeed it beautifully proved to be, three weeks 
after. 2 On the other hand, Fermor and his Russians are astir; con- 
tinually wending towards Brandenburg, in their voluminous manner, 
since June 16th, though at a slow rate. How desirable the Siege of 
Olmiitz were done ! * 

On express from Vienna, Daun did bestir himself; cautiously 
got on foot again; detached, across the River, an expert 
Hussar General ( * Be busy all ye Loudons, St. Ignons, 
Ziskowitzes, doubly now ! ') expert Hussar General, one 
item of whose force is 1,100 chosen grenadiers; and himself 
cautiously stept southward and eastward, nearer the Siege 
Lines. The Hussar General's meaning seemed to be some 
mischief on our Camp of Neustadt and the outposts there; 
but in reality it was to throw his 1,100 into Olmutz (useful 
to the Commandant); which, by ingenious manoeuvring, 

1 Helden-GescUchte, v. 206-209, Wilhelmina's pretty Letter to Friedrich 
(' Baireuth, roth May ') ; Friedrich 's Answer (' Olmiitz, June 1758 ') : in CEuvres 
de Frt&ric, xxvii. I. 313-315. 

2 Battle of Crefeld, 23d June. 



CHAP. XIL] SIEGE OF OLMUTZ 359 

a6thjune 1758] 

and guidance from the peasants ( through bushy woods and 
bypaths ' on that east side of the River, the expert Hussar 
General, though Ziethen was sent over to handle him, and 
did perfectly manage, and would not quit for Ziethen till 
he saw it finished. Which done, Daun keeps stepping still 
farther southward, nearer the Siege Lines ; and, at Prossnitz, 
morning of June d, Friedrich, with his own eyes, sees Daun 
taking post on the opposite heights ; says to somebody near 
him, ' Voild les Autrichiens^ Us apprennent a marcher, There 
are the Austrians ; they are learning to march, though ! ' 
getting on their feet like infants in a certain stage ( c marcher "* 
having that meaning too, though I know not that the King 
intended it) ; they have learned a great many things, since 
your Majesty first met them. Friedrich took Daun to be, 
now at last, meaning Battle for Olmutz, and made some 
slight arrangements accordingly ; but that is not Daun's 
intention at all ; as Friedrich will find to his cost, in few 
days. That very day, Daun has vanished again, still in the 
southerly direction, again under veil of Pandours. 

Meanwhile, in spite of all things, the Siege makes progress ; 
6 June 22d, BalbFs sap had got to their glacis, and was 
pushing forward there,"* June d, day when Daun made 
momentary appearance, and the reinforcement stole in: 
within a fortnight more, Balbi promises the thing shall be 
done. But supplies are indispensable : one other convoy from 
Troppau, and let it be a big one, * between 3 and 4,000 
wagons,' meal, money, iron, powder; Friedrich hopes this 
one, if he can get it home, will suffice. Colonel Mosel is to 
bring this Convoy ; a resolute expert Officer, with perhaps 
7,000 foot and horse : surely sufficient escort : but, as Daun 
is astir, and his Loudons, Ziskowitzes and light people are 
gliding about, Friedrich orders Ziethen to meet this important 
Convoy, with some thousands of new force, and take charge of 
bringing it in. Mosel was to leave Troppau June $6th; 
Ziethen pushes-out to meet him from the Olmutz end, on the 
second day after ; and, one hopes, all is now safe on that head. 



360 SEVEN-YEARS WAR RISES [BOOKXVIIL 

[26th June 1758 

The driving of 3,000 four-horse wagons, under escort, 
ninety miles of road, is such an enterprise as cannot readily 
be conceived by sedentary pacific readers ; much more the 
attack of such I Military science, constraining chaos into the 
cosmic state, has nowhere such a problem. There are twelve 
thousand horses, for one thing, to be shod, geared, kept road- 
worthy and regular ; say six thousand country wagoners, thick- 
soled peasants : then, hanging to the skirts of these, in mis- 
cellaneous crazy vehicles and weak teams, equine and asinine, 
are one or two thousand sutler people, male and female, not 
of select quality, though on them, too, we keep a sharp eye. 
The series covers many miles, as many as twenty English 
miles (says Tempelhof), unless in favourable points you 
compress them into five, going four wagons abreast for 
defence's sake. Defence, or escort, goes in three bulks or 
brigades; vanguard, middle, rearguard, with sparse pickets 
intervening; wider than five miles, you cannot get the 
parts to support one another. An enemy breaking-in upon 
you, at some difficult point of road, woody hollow or the like, 
and opening cannon, musketry and hussar exercise on such 
an object, must make a confused transaction of it ! Some 
commanders, for the road has hitherto been mainly pacific, 
divide their train into parts, say four parts ; moving with 
their partial escorts, with an interval of one day between 
each two : this has its obvious advantages, but depends, of 
course, on the road being little infested, so that your partial 
escort will suffice to repel attacks. Toiling forward, at their 
diligent slow rate, I find these trains from Troppau take 
about six days (from Neisse to Olmiitz they take eleven, 
but the first five are peaceable 1 ); can't be hurried beyond 
that pace, if you would save your laggards, your irregulars, 
and prevent what we may call raggery in your rearward 
parts ; the skirts of your procession get torn by the bushes, 
if you go faster. This time Colonel Mosel will have to 
mend his pace, however, and to go in the lump withal ; 
1 Tempelhof, ii 48. 



CHAP, xii.] SIEGE OF OLMUTZ 361 

8th June 1758] 

the case being critical, as Mosel knows, and more than he 
yet knows. 

Daun, who has friends everywhere, and no lack of spies in 
this country, generally hears of the convoys. He has heard, 
in particular, of this important one, in good time. Hitherto 
Daun had not attempted much upon convoys, nor anything 
with success : King's posted corps and other precautions are 
of such a kind, not even Loudon, when he tried his best, 
could do any good ; and common wandering hussar parties 
are as likely to get a mischief as to do one, on such service. 
Cautious Daun had been busy enough keeping his own Camp 
safe, and flinging a word of news or encouragement, at the 
most a trifle of reinforcement, into Olmiitz when possible. 
But now it becomes evident there must be one of two things : 
this convoy seized, or else a battle risked ; and that in defect 
of both these, the inevitable third thing is, Olmutz will straight- 
way go. 

Major-General Loudon, the best partisan soldier extant, 
and ripening for better things, has usually a force of 
perhaps 10,000 under him, four regiments of them regular 
grenadiers; and has been active on the convoys, though 
hitherto unsuccessful. Let an active Loudon, with increased 
force, try this, their vitally important convoy, from the west 
side of the River; an active Ziskowitz cooperating on the 
east side, where the road itself is ; and do their uttermost ! 
That is Daun's plan, now in course of execution. Daun, 
instead of meaning battle, that day when Friedrich saw him, 
was cautiously stealing past, intending to cross the River 
farther down ; and himself support the operation. Daun 
has crossed accordingly, and has doubled-up northward again 
to the fit point; Ziskowitz is in the fit point, in the due 
force, on this east side too. Loudon, on the west side, goes 
by Muglitz, Hof ; * making a long deep bend far to westward 
and hillward of all the Prussian posted corps and precautions, 
and altogether hidden from them; London aims to be in 
* See Plan, p. 394. 



362 SEVEN-YEAKS WAR RISES [BOOKXVIIL 

[30th June 1758 

Troppau neighbourhood, ' Giintersdorf, near Bautsch,' by 
the proper day, and pay Mosel an unexpected visit in the 
passage there. 

Colonel Mosel, marshalling his endless Trains with every 
excellent precaution, and the cleverest dispositions (say the 
Books), against the known and the unknown, had got upon 
the road, and creaked forward, many- wheeled, out of Troppau, 
Monday 26th June. 1 The roads, worn by the much travelling 
and wet weather, were utterly bad; the pace was perhaps 
quicker than usual; the much-jolting Train got greatly into a 
jumble: Mosel, to bring-up the laggards, made the morrow a 
rest-day ; did get about two-thirds of his laggards marshalled 
again; ordered the others to return, as impossible. They 
say, had it not been for this rest-day, which seemed of no 
consequence, Loudon would not have been at Giintersdorf in 
time, nor have attempted as he did at Giintersdorf and after- 
wards. At break of day (Wednesday 8th), Mosel is again 
on the road ; heavily jumbling forward from his quarters in 
Bautsch. Few miles on, towards Giintersdorf, he discovers 
Loudon posted ahead in the defiles. What a sight for Mosel, 
in his character of Wagoner up with the dawn ! But Mosel 
managed the defiles and Loudon this time ; halted his train, 
dashed up into the woody heights and difficult grounds; 
stormed Loudon^s cannon from him, smote Loudon in a valiant 
tempestuous manner ; and sent him travelling again, for the 
present. 

Loudon, I conjecture, would have struggled farther, had 
not he known that there would be a better chance again not 
very many miles ahead. Loudon has studied this Convoy; 
knows of Ziethen coming to it with so many; of Ziskowitz 
coming to him, Loudon, with so many ; that Ziethen cannot 
send for more (roads being all beset by our industry yesterday), 
that Ziskowitz can, should it be needful ; and that at 
Domstadtl there is a defile, or confused woody hollow, of 
unequalled quality ! Mosel jumbles on all day with his 
1 Tempelhof, u. 89-94. 



CHAP, xn.] SIEGE OF OLMUTZ 863 

3oth June 1758] 

Train, none molesting ; at night gets to his appointed 
quarters. Village of Neudorfl ; l and there finds Ziethen : a 
glad meeting, we may fancy, but an anxious one, with 
Domstadtl ahead on the morrow. Loudon concerts with 
Ziskowitz this day ; calls-in all reinforcements possible, and 
takes his measures. Thursday morning Ziethen finds the 
Train in such a state, hardly half of it come up, he has 
to spend the whole day, Mosel and he, in rearranging it : 
Friday morning, June 30th, they get under way again; 
Friday, the catastrophe is waiting them. 

The Pass of Domstadtl, lapped in the dim Moravian 
distance, is not known to me or to my readers ; nor indeed 
could the human pen or intellect, aided by ocular inspection, 
or whatever helps, give the least image of what now took 
place there, rendering Domstadtl a memorable locality ever 
since. Understand that Ziethen and Mosel, with their waste 
slow deluge of wagons, come jumbling in, with anxiety, with 
precautions, precautions doubled, now that the woody 
intricacies about Domstadtl rise in sight. * Pooh, it is as 
we thought : there go Austrian cannon-salvoes, horse- charges, 
volleying musketries, as our first wagons enter the Pass ; and 
there will be a job ! ' Indecipherable to mankind far off, or 
even near. Of which only this feature and that can be laid 
hold of, as discernible, by the most industrious man. Escort, 
in three main bodies, vanguard, middle, rearguard, marches on 
each side ; infantry on the left, cavalry on the right, as the 
ground is leveller there. Length of the Train in statute miles, 
as it jumbles along at this point, is not given ; but we know 
it was many miles ; that horses and wagoners were in panic 
hardly restrainable ; and we dimly descry, here especially, 
human drill-sergeantcy doing the impossible to keep chaos 
plugged down. The poor wagoner, cannon playing ahead, 
whirls homeward with his vehicle, if your eye quit him, 
still better, and handier, cuts his traces, mounts in a good 

1 The /, or <?/, is a diminutive in these Names : (Neudorfl} ' New-Thorp/*/, 
(Domstadtl} * Cathedral-Town/^/ and the like. 



364 SEVEN-YEARS WAR RISES [BOOKXVIII. 

[30th June 1758 

moments and is off at heavy-footed gallop,, leaving his wagon. 
Seldom had human drill-sergeantcy such a problem. 

The Prussian Vanguard, one Krockow its commander, 
repulsed that first Austrian attack ; swept the Pass clear for 
some minutes ; got their section of the carriages, or some 
part of it, 250 in all, hurried through; then halted on the 
safe side, to wait what Ziethen would do with the remainder. 
Ziethen does his best and bravest, as everybody does ; keeps 
his wagon-chaos plugged down ; ranks it in square mass, as 
a wagon-fortress (Wagenburg) ; ranks himself and everybody, 
his cannon, his platoon musketry, to the best advantage 
round it ; furiously shoots-out in all manner of ways, against 
the furious Loudon on this flank, and the furious Ziskowitz 
on that ; takes hills, loses them ; repels and is repelled (wagon- 
chaos ever harder to keep plugged) ; finally perceives himself 
to be beaten ; that the wagon-chaos has got unplugged (fancy 
it!) and that he, Ziethen, must retreat; back foremost if 
possible. He did retreat, fighting all the way to Troppau ; 
and the Convoy is a ruin and a prey. 

Krockow, with the 25 0, has got under way again; hearing 
the powder-wagons start into the air (fired by the enemy), 
and hearing the cannon and musketry take a northerly course, 
and die away in that ominous direction. These 250 were 
all the carriages that came in: happily, by Ziethen^s prudence, 
the money, a large sum, had been lodged in the vanmost of 
these. The rest of the Convoy, ball, powder, bread, was of 
little value to Loudon, but beyond value to Friedrich at this 
moment; and it has gone to annihilation and the belly of 
Chaos and the Croats. Among the tragic wrecks of this 
Convoy there is one that still goes to our heart. A longish, 
almost straight row of young Prussian recruits stretched 
among the slain, what are these ? These were 700 recruits 
coming-up from their cantons to the Wars; hardly yet six 
months in training : see how they have fought to the death, 
poor lads, and have honourably^ on the sudden, got manu- 
mitted from the toils of life. Seven hundred of them stood 



CHAP. XIL] SIEGE OF OLMUTZ 865 

ist July 1758]! 

to arms,, this morning; some sixty-five will get back to 
Troppau ; that is the invoice account. They lie there, with 
their blond young cheeks and light hair ; beautiful in death ; 
could not have done better, though the sacred poet has 
said nothing of them hitherto, nor need, till times mend 
with us and him. Adieu, my noble young Brothers ; so 
brave, so modest, no Spartan nor no Roman more ; may the 
silence be blessed to you ! 

Contrary to some current notions, it is comfortably evident 
that there was a considerable fire of loyalty in the Prussians 
towards their King, during this War ; loyalty kept well under 
cover, not wasting itself in harangues or noisy froth ; but 
coming out, among all ranks of men, in practical attempts to 
be of help in this high struggle, which was their own as well 
as his. The Stande, landed Gentry, of Pommern and other 
places, we heard of their poor little Navy of twelve gunboats, 
which were all taken by the Swedes. Militia Regiments too, 
which did good service at Colberg, as may transiently appear 
by and by : in the gentry or upper classes, a respectable 
zeal for their King. Then, among the peasantry or lower 
class Here are Seven Hundred who stood well where he 
planted them. And their Mothers Be Spartan also, ye 
Mothers ! In peaceable times, Tempelhof tells us the Prussian 
Mother is usually proud of having her son in this King's 
service : a country wife will say to you : * I have three of 
them, all in the regiment, 1 Billerbeck, Itzenplitz, or whatever 
be the Canton regiment; c the eldest is ten inches' (stands 
five feet ten), * the second is eleven, the third eight, for indeed 
he is yet young.' 

Daun, on the day of this Domstadtl business, and by way 
of masking it, feeling how vital it was, made various extensive 
movements, across the River by several Bridges ; then hither, 
thither, on the farther side of Olmutz, mazing up and down : 
Friedrich observing him, till he should ripen to something 
definite, followed his bombarding the while ; perhaps having 



366 SEVEN- YEARS WAR RISES [BOOK xvm. 

[2d-8thjuly 1758 

hopes of wager of battle ensuing. Of the disaster at Dom- 
stadtl Friedrich could know nothing, Loudon having closed 
the roads. Daun by no means ripens into battle : news of 
the disaster reached Friedrich next day (Saturday July 1st), 
who ' immediately assembled his Generals, and spoke a few 
inspiring words to them,' such as we may fancy. Friedrich 
perceives that Olmiitz is over; that his Third Campaign, 
third lunge upon the Enemy's heart, has prospered worse, 
thus far, than either of the others ; that he must straightway 
end this of Olmiitz, without any success whatever, and try the 
remaining methods and resources. No word of complaint, they 
say, is heard from Friedrich in such cases; face always hopeful, 
tone cheery. A man in Friedrich's position needs a good deal 
of Stoicism, Greek or other. 

That Saturday night the Prussian bombardment is quite 
uncommonly furious, long continuing ; no night yet like it : 
the Prussians are shooting-off their superfluous ammunition 
this night ; do not quite end till Sunday is in. On Sunday 
itself, packings, preparations all completed ; and * Keith, with 
above 4,000 wagons, safe on the road since 2 A.M.' the 
Prussians softly vanish in long smooth streams, with music 
playing, unmolested by Daun; and leaving nothing, it is 
boasted, but five or three mortars, which kept playing to 
the last, and one cannon, to which something had happened. 

Of the retreat there could be much said, instructive to 
military men who were studious; extremely fine retreat, say 
all judges ; of which my readers crave only the outlines, the 
results. Daun, it was thought, should have ruined Friedrich 
in this retreat ; but he did nothing of harm to him. In fact, 
for a week he could not comprehend the phenomenon at all, 
and did not stir from his place, which was on the other, or 
wrong, side of the River. Daun had never doubted but the 
retreat would be to Silesia; and he had made his detach- 
ments, and laid himself out for doing something upon it, in 
that direction : but, lo, what roads are these, what motions 



CHAP. XII.] SIEGE OF OLMUTZ 367 

2d-i4th July 1758] 

whitherward ? In about a week it becomes manifest that the 
retreat, which goes on various roads, sometimes three at once, 
has converged on Leutomischl ; straight for Bohemia instead 
of Silesia ; and that Daun is fallen seven days behind it ; 
incapable now to do anything. Not even the Magazine at 
Leutomischl could be got away, nor could even the whole of 
it be burnt. 

Keith and the baggage once safe in Leutomischl (July 
8th), all goes in deliberate long column ; Friedrich ahead to 
open the passages. July 14th, after five more marches, 
Friedrich bursts-up Konigsgratz; scattering any opposition 
there is; and sits-down there, in a position considered, he 
knows well how inexpugnable ; to live on the Country, and 
survey events. The 4,000 baggage- wagons came in about 
entire. Fouquet had the first division of them, and a 
secondary charge of the whole ; an extremely strict, almost 
pedantic man, and of very fiery temper: 'H, cToti venex-nousf 
asked he sharply, of Retzow senior, who had broken through 
his order, one day, to avert great mischief : * How come you 
here, Mon General ? ' * By the Highway, your Excellency ! ' 
answered Retzow in a grave stiff tone. 1 

Keith himself takes the rear-guard, the most ticklish post 
of all, and manages it well, and with success, as his wont is. 
Under sickness at the time, but with his usual vigilance, 
prudence, energy; qualities apt to be successful in War. 
Some brushes of Croat fighting he had from Loudon; but 
they did not amount to anything. It was at Holitz, within 
a march of Konigsgratz, that Loudon made his chief attempt ; 
a vehement, well-intended thing; which looked well at one 
time. But Keith heard the cannonading ahead ; huraed-up 
with new cavalry, new sagacity and fire of energy ; dashed-out 
horse-charges, seized hill-tops, of a vital nature ; and quickly 
ended the affair. A man fiery enough, and prompt with his 
stroke when wanted, though commonly so quiet. *Tell 
Monsieur,' some General who seemed too stupid or too 
1 Retzow, i. 302. 



368 SEVEN-YEARS WAR RISES [BOOKXVIII. 

[i4th July-ad Aug. 1758 

languid on this occasion, 'Tell Monsieur from me,' said 
Keith to his Aide-de-Camp, <he may be a very pretty thing, 
but he is not a man (qu'U peut gtre une bonne chose, mais qu'il 
rfest pas un homme) ' ! l The excellent vernacular Keith ; 
still a fine breadth of accent in him, one perceives i He is 
now past sixty ; troubled with asthma ; and I doubt not may 
be, occasionally, thinking it near time to end his campaigns. 
And in fact, he is about ending them; sooner than he or 
anybody had expected. 

Daun, picking his steps and positions, latterly with three- 
fold precaution, got into Konigsgratz neighbourhood, a week 
after Friedrich ; and looked-down with enigmatic wonder upon 
Eriedrich's new settlement there. Forage abundant all round, 
and the corn-harvest growing white ; here, strange to say, has 
Friedrich got planted in the inside of those innumerable Daun 
redoubts, and < woods of abatis'; and might make a very 
pretty ' Bohemian Campaign ' of it, after all, were Daun the 
only adversary he had ! Judges are of opinion, that Daun, 
with all his superiority of number, could not have disrooted 
Friedrich this season. 2 Daun did try him by the Pandour 
methods, 6 1,000 Croats stealing-in upon Konigsgratz at one 
in the morning,' and the like ; but these availed nothing. By 
the one effectual method, that of beating him in battle, Daun 
never would have tried. What did disroot Friedrich, then ? 

Take the following dates, and small hints of phenomena 

in other parts of the big Theatre of War. 'Konitz*' is a 
little Polish Town, midway between Dantzig and Friedrich's 
Dominions : 

'Konitz, 16th June 1758. This day Feldmarschall Fermor arrives in 
his principal Camp here. For many weeks past he has been dribbling 

1 Varnhagen, Leben des etc. Jakob von Keitk t p, 227. 

2 Tempelhof, iL 170-176, 185 ; who, unluckily, in soldier fashion, here as 
too often elsewhere, does not give us the Arithmetical Numbers of each, but 
counts by 'Battalions' and ' Squadrons/ which, except in time of Peace, are a 
totally uncertain quantity : guess vaguely, 75,ooo against 30,000. 



CHAP, xii.] SIEGE OF OLMUTZ 869 

I4th July-ad Aug. 1758] 

across the Weichsel hitherward, into various small Camps, with Cossack 
Parties flying about, under check of General Platen. But now, being 
all across, and reunited, Fermor shoots-out Cossack Parties of quite 
other weight and atrocity ; and is ready to begin business, still a little 
uncertain how. His Cossacks, under their Demikows, Romanzows, 
capable of no good fighting, but of endless incendiary mischief in the 
neighbourhood ; shoot far ahead into Prussian territory : Platen, Hordt 
with his Free-Corps, are beautifully sharp upon them ; but many beat- 
ings avail little. ' ( They burn the town of Driesen " (Hordt having been 
hard upon them there); "town of Ratzebuhr, and nineteen villages 
around" ; burn poor old women and men, one poor old clergyman especi- 
ally, wind him well in straw-roping, then set fire, and leave him ; and 
are worse than fiends or hyaenas. Not to be checked by Platen's best 
diligence; not, in the end, by Platen and Dohna together. Dohna 
(18th June) has risen from Stralsund in check of them, leaving the 
unfortunate Swedes to come out ' (shrunk to about 7,000, so unsalutary 
their stockfish diet there),' these hyana Cossacks being the far more 
pressing thing. Dohna is diligent, gives them many slaps and checks ; 
Dohna cannot cut the taproot of them in two; that is to say, fight 
Fermor and beat him : other effectual check there can be none. 1 

* Tschopau (in Saxony), 21^ June. Prince Henry has quitted Bamberg 
Country ; and is home again, carefully posted, at Tschopau and up and 
down, on the southern side of Saxony ; with his eye well on the Passes 
of the Metal Mountains, where now, in the turn things at Olmutz have 
taken, his clear fate is to be invaded, not to invade. The Reichs Army, 
fairly afoot in the Circle of Saatz, counts itself 35,000; add 15,000 
Austrians of a solid quality, there is a Reichs Army of 50,000 in all, this 
Year. And will certainly invade Saxony, though it is in no hurry; 
does not stir till August come, and will find Prince Henri elaborately on 
his guard, and little to be made of him, though he is as one to two. 

' Crefeld (Rhine Country), 23d June. Duke Ferdinand, after skilful 
shoving and advancing, some forty or fifty miles, on his new or French 
side of the Rhine, finds the French drawn-up at Crefeld (June 23d) ; 
47,000 of them verms 33,000 : in altogether intricate ground ; canal- 
ditches, osier-thickets, farm-villages, peat-bogs. Ground defensible 
against the world, had the 47,000 had a Captain ; but reasonably safe to 
attack, with nothing but a Clermont acting that character. Ferdinand, 
I can perceive, knew his Clermont; and took liberties with him. 
Divided himself into three attacks : one in front, one on Clermont's right 
flank, both of which cannonaded, as if in earnest, but did not prevent 
Clermont going to dinner. One attack on front, one on right flank ; 
then there was a third, seemingly on left flank, but which winded itself 

1 HtUtH-Gisckkfot, v. 149 et seq. ; Tempelhof, ii. 135, etc. 
VOL. VI. 2 A 



8*70 SEVEN-YEARS WAR RISES [BOOK xvnt 

[I4th July-sd Aug. 1758 

round (perilously imprudent, had there been a Captain, instead of a 
Clermont deepish in wine by this time), and burst-in upon Clement's 
rear; jingling his wine-glasses and decanters, think at what a rate; 
scattering his 47,000 and him to the road again, with a loss of men, 
which was counted to 4,000 (4,000 against 1,700), and of honour what- 
ever was still to lose ! x 

Ferdinand, it was hoped, would now be able to maintain himself, and 
push forward, on this French side of the Rhine : and had Wesel been 
his (as some of us know it is not !), perhaps he might. At any rate, 
veteran Belleisle took Ms measures : dismissal of Clermont Prince of 
the Blood, and appointment of Contades, a man of some skill ; recall of 
Soubise and his 24,000 from their Austrian intentions ; these and other 
strenuous measures, and prevented such consummation, A gallant 
young Comte de Gisors, only son of Belleisle, perished in that disgrace- 
ful Crefeld : unfortunate old man, what a business that of " cutting 
Germany in four " has been to you, first and last ! 

'Louisburg (North America), July 8th. Landing of General Amhersf s 
people at Louisburg in Cape Breton; with a view of besieging that 
important place. Which has now become extremely difficult; the 
garrison, and their defences, military, naval, being in full readiness for 
such an event Landing was done by Brigadier Wolfe ; under the eye 
of Amherst and Admiral Boscawen from rearward, and under abundant 
fire of batteries and musketries playing on it ahead : in one of the 
surfiest seas (but we have waited four days, and it hardly mends), tossing 
us about like corks ; so that ' f many of the boats were broken " ; and 
Wolfe and people cf had to leap out, breast-deep," and make fight for 
themselves, the faster the better, under very intricate circumstances ! 
Which was victoriously done, by Wolfe and his people; really in a 
rather handsome manner, that morning. As were all the subsequent 
Siege-operations, on land and on water, by them and the others : till 
(August 8th) the Siege ended : in complete surrender, positively for 
the last time (Pitt fully intends) ; no Austrian Netherlands now to put 
one on revoking it ! * 2 

( These are pretty victories, cheering to Pitt and Friedrich : but the 
difficult point still is that of Fermor. Whose Cossacks, and their devil- 
like ravagings, are hideous to think of: unrestrainable by Dohna, 
unless he could cut the root of them ; which he cannot June %Ith * 
(while Colonel Mosel, with Ms 3,000 wagons, still only one stage from 
Troppau, was so busy), c slow Ffermor rose from Konitz ; began hitching 
southward, southward gradually to Posen, a considerably stronger 

1 Mauvillon, 1 297-309; Westphalen, i. 588-604; Tempelhof, etc., etc. 

2 General Amherst's Diary of the Siege (in Gentlem&ris Magazine, xxviii 
384-89). 



CHAP, xil.] SIEGE OF OLMUTZ 371 

I4th July-ad Aug. 1758] 

Polish Town; on the edge both of Brandenburg and of Silesia; and 
has been sitting there, almost ever since our entrance into Bohemia ; his 
Cossacks burning and wasting to great distances in both Countries ; no 
deciding which of them he meant to invade with his main Army. Sits 
there almost a month, enigmatic to Dohna, enigmatic to Friedrich : till 
Friedrich decides at last that he cannot be suffered longer, whichever of 
them he mean ; and rises for Silesia (August 2d). Precisely about which 
day Fermor had decided for Brandenburg, and rolled over thither, 
towards Ciistrin and the Frankfurt-on-Oder Country, heralded by fire and 
murder, as usual/ 

Eriedrich's march to Landshut is, again, much admired. 
Daun had beset the three great roads, the two likeliest 
especially, with abundant Pandours, and his best Loudons and 
St. Ignons : Friedrich, making himself enigmatic to Daun, 
struck into the third road by Skalitz, Nachod; circuitous, 
steep, but lying Glatz-ward, handy for support of various 
kinds. He was attempted, once or more, by Pandours, but 
used them badly ; fell-in with Daunts old abatis (well wind- 
dried now), in different places, and burnt them in passing. 
And in five days was in Kloster-Grussau, safe on his own side 
of the Mountains again. One point only we will note, in 
these Pandour turmoilings. From Skalitz, the first stage of 
his march, he answers a Letter of Brother Henri's : 

To Prince Henri (at Tschopau in Saxony). 'What you write to me 
of my Sister of Baireuth * (that she has been in extremity, cannot yet 
write, and must not be told of the Prince of Prussia's death lest it kill 
her) c makes me tremble ! Next to our Mother, she is what I have the 
most tenderly loved in this world. She is a Sister who has my heart 
and all my confidence ; and whose character is of price beyond all the 
crowns in this universe. From my tenderest years, I was brought-up 
with her : you can conceive how there reigns between us that indissoluble 
bond of mutual affection and attachment for life, which in all other cases, 
were it only from disparity of ages, is impossible. Would to Heaven I 
might die before her ; and that this terror itself don't take away my 
life without my actually losing her I' 1 * * 

At Grussau (August 9th) he writes to his dear Wilhelmina herself: 
* you, the dearest of my family, you whom I have most at heart of all 

1 (Euvres de Frtderic, xxvi. 179, 'Klenny, near Skalitz, 3d August 1758}' 
Henri's Letter is dated ' Camp of Tschopau, 28th July' (#. 177). 



37S SEVEN-YEARS WAR RISES [BOOKXVIII. 

[8th Aug. 1758 

in this world., for the sake of whatever is most precious to you, pre- 
serve yourself, and let me have at least the consolation of shedding my 
tears in your bosom. ! Fear nothing for us, and* O King, she is dying, 
and I believe knows it, though you will hope to the last! There is 
something piercingly tragical in those final Letters of Friedrich to his 
Wilhelmina, written from such scenes of wreck and storm, and in 
Wilhelmina's beautiful ever-loving quiet Answers, dictated when she 
could no longer write. 1 

Friedrich had last left Griissau April 18th; he has 
returned to it August 8th: after sixteen weeks of a very 
eventful absence. In G-riissau he stayed two whole days ; 
busy enough he, probably, though his people were resting ! 
August 10th, he draws-up, for Prince Henri, Bunder seal of 
the most absolute secrecy,' and with admirable business-like 
strictness, brevity and clearness, forgetting nothing useful, 
remembering nothing useless, a Paper of Directions in case of 
a certain event : * I march tomorrow against the Russians : as 
,' the events of War may lead to all sorts of accidents, and it 
' may easily happen to me to be killed, I have thought it my 
f duty to let you know what my plans were,' and what you are 
to do in that event, ' the rather as you are Guardian of our 
Nephew' (late Prince of Prussia's Son) *with an unlimited 
authority.' Oath from all the armies the instant I am killed : 
rapid, active, as ever ; the enemy not to notice that there is any 
change in the command. I intend to 'beat the Russians 
utterly ' (a plate couture, ( splay-seam'), c if it be possible ' ; 
then to etc. : gives you his * itinerary,' too, or probable 
address, till 'the S5th' (notably enough); in short, forgets 
nothing useful, nor remembers anything that is not, in spite 
of his hurry. 2 For Minister Finck also there went a Paper ; 
seal not needing to be opened for the moment. 

1 'July 18th' is the last by her hand, and f almost illegible '; still extant, it 
seems, though withheld from us. Was received at Grtissau here, and answered 
at some length ((Euvres, xxvii. r. 316), according to the specimen just given. 
Two more of hers follow, and Four of the King's (ib. 317-322). Nearly mean- 
ingless, as printed there, without commentary for the unprepared reader. 

a ' Disposition Testamenfaire* (so they have labelled it); given in (Euwes, 
iv, {Apjendict} 261-262. Friedrich's Testament proper is already made, and all 



CHAP. XIIL] BATTLE OF ZORNDORF 873 

aoth-asth Aug. 1758] 

With Margraf Karl, and Fouquet under him, who are to 
guard Silesia, he leaves in two Divisions about Half the late 
Olmiitz Army : added to the other force, this will make 
about 40,000 for that service. 1 Keith has the chief com- 
mand here; but is ordered to Breslau, in the mean time, 
for a little rest and recovery of health. Friday llth August, 
Friedrich himself, with the other Half, pushes-off towards 
Fermor and the Cossack demons ; through Liegnitz, through 
Hohenfriedberg Country, straight for Frankfurt, with his 
best speed. 



CHAPTER XIII 

BATTLE OF ZOBNDORF 

SUNDAY 20th August, Friedrich, with his small Army, 
hardly above 15,000 I should guess, arrived at Frankfurt- 
on-Oder: c his Majesty,' it seems, * lodged in the Lebus 
Suburb, in the house of a Clergyman's Widow; and was 
observed to go often out of doors, and listen to the cannon- 
ading, which was going on at Custrin.' 2 From Landshut 
hither, he has come in nine days ; the swiftest marching ; a 
fiery spur of indignation being upon all his men and him, 
for the last two days fierier than ever, longing all to have 
a blow at those incendiary Russian gentlemen. Five days 
ago, the Russians, attempting blindly on the Garrison of 
Ciistrin, had burnt, nothing of the Garrison at all, but 
the poor little Town altogether. Which has filled every- 
body with lamentation and horror. And, listen yonder, 
they are still busy on the solitary Garrison of Ciistrin ; 

in order, years ago ( f lith January 1752'): of this there followed Two new 
Redactions (new editions with slight improvements, * 7th November 1768, 'and 
* 8th January 1769* the finally valid one) ; and various Supplements, or summary 
Enforcements (as here), at different times of crisis : see Prenss^ iv. 277, 401, and 
(Euvrts d* FrJdtric, vi. p. 13 (of Preface), for some confused account of that 
matter. 

1 Stcnzel, v. 163. a Rodenbeck, i. 347. 



374 SEVEN-YEARS WAR RISES [BOOK xvm. 

[2oth-25th Aug. 1758 

audible enough to Friedrich from his northern or Lebus 
Suburb, which lies nearest the place, at a distance of some 
twenty miles. 

Of Farmer's redhot savagery on Ciistrin, it is lamentably 
necessary we should say something : to say much would be a 
waste of record ; as the thing itself was a waste of powder. 
A thing hideous to think of; without the least profit to 
Fermor, but with total ruin to all the inhabitants, and to 
the many strangers who had sought refuge there. One in- 
terior circumstance is memorable and lucky to us. Artillery- 
Captain Tielcke happened to be with these people; had come 
in the train of c two Saxon Princes, serving as volunteers ' ; 
and, with a singular lucidity, and faithful good sense, not 
scientific alone, he illuminates these black Russian matters for 
such as have to do with them. 

Tielcke's Book of Contributions to the Art of War x is still 
in repute with Soldiers, especially in the Artillery line ; and 
indeed shows a sound geometrical head, and contains bits of 
excellent Historical reading interspersed among the scientific 
parts. This Tielcke, it appears, was a common foot-soldier, 
one of those Pirna 14,000 made Prussian against their will; 
but Tielcke had a milkmaid for sweetheart in those regions, 
who, good soul, gave him her generous farewell, a suit of her 
clothes, perhaps a pair of her pails; and in that guise he 
walked out of bondage. Clear away ; to Warsaw, to favour 
with the King and others (being of real merit, an excellent, 
studious, modest little man) ; and here he now reappears, in 
a higher capacity; as articulate Eye-witness of the Custrin 
Business and the Zorndorf, among much other Russian dark- 
ness, which shall remain comfortably blank to us. 

Up to Custrin, the Journal of the Operations of the 
Russian Army, which I could give from day to day, 2 is of 

1 Beytrdge zur Kriegs-Knnst und (zur) Geschickte des Krieges von 1756 bis 
1763 (six thin vols. 4to, with many Plates); cited above. 

2 f Tagebuch beyder, etc. (Diary of both Armies from the beginning of the 
Campaign till Zorndorf), in Tielcke, ii. 1-75; Tempelhof, ii. 136, 216-224; 
Helden-Geschuhte, v. ; etc. etc. 



CHAP, xill.] BATTLE OF ZORNDORF 375 

20th-25th Aug. 1758] 

no interest except to the Nether Powers of this Universe ; 
the Russian Operations hitherto having consisted in slow 
marches, sluttish cookeries, cantoonings, bivouackings, with 
destruction of a poor innocent Country, and arson, theft and 
murder done on the great scale by inhuman vagabonds, Cos- 
sacks so-called, not tempered on this occasion by the mercy of 
Calmucks. The regular Russian Army, it appears, partici- 
pates in the common horror of mankind against such a 
method of making war ; but neither Feldmarschall Fermor, 
nor General Demikof (properly Themicoud, a Swiss, deserving 
little thanks from us, who has taken in hand to command 
these Missionaries of the Pit), can help the results above 
described. Which are justly characterised as abominable, to 
gods and men ; and not fit to be recorded in human Annals ; 
execration, and, if it were possible, oblivion, being the human 
resource with them. The Russian Officers, it seems, despise 
this Cossack rabble incredibly; for their fighting qualities 
withal are close on zero, though their talent for arson and 
murder is so considerable. And contrariwise, the Cossacks, 
for their part, have no objection to plunder, or even, if 
obstreperous, to kill, any regular Officer they may meet 
unescorted in a good place. Their talent for arson is great. 
They do uncountable damage to the Army itself; provoking 
all the Country people to destroy by fire what could be eaten 
or used, the foraging, food and equipments of horse and 
man ; so that horse and man have to be fed by victual 
carted hundreds of miles out of Poland ; and the Russian 
Army sticks, as it were, tethered with a welter of broken 
porridge-pots and rent mealbags hung to every foot it has. 

East Preussen is quiet from the storms of War ; holds its 
tongue well, and hopes better days : but the Russians them- 
selves are little the better for it, a country so lately burned 
bare ; they are merely flung so many scores of miles forward, 
farther from home and their real resources, before they can 
begin work. They have no port on the Baltic : poor block- 



876 SEVEN-YEARS WAR RISES [BOOKXVIII. 

[aoth-25th Aug. 1758 

heads, they are aware how desirable, for instance, Dantzig 
would be; to help feeding them out of ships; but the 
Dantzigers won't. Colberg, a poor little place, with only 
700 militia people in it, would be of immense service to 
them as a sea-haven : but even this they have not yet tried 
to get ; and after trying, they will find it a job. * Why not 
unite with the Swedes and take Stettin (the finest harbour 
in the Baltic), which would bring Russia, by ships, to your 
very hand ? ' This is what Montalembert is urgent upon, 
year after year, to the point of wearying everybody; but 
he can get no official soul to pay heed to him, the diffi- 
culties are so considerable. * Swedes, what are they ? ' say 
the Russians : f Russians what ? ' say the Swedes. * Sweden 
would be so handy for the Artilleries,' urges Montalembert ; 
6 Russians for the Soldiery, or covering and fighting part.' 
6 Can't be done ! ' Officially shakes its head and Mon- 
talembert is obliged to be silent. 

The Russians have got into the Neumark of Brandenburg, 
on those bad terms ; and are clearly aware that, without 
some Fortress as a Place of Arms, they are an overgrown 
Incompetency and Monstrosity in the field of War; doing 
much destruction, most of which proves ^^destructive before 
long. But how help it ? If the carrying of meal so far be 
difficult, what will the carrying of siege-furniture be? A 
flat impossibility. Fermor, aware of these facts, remembers 
what happened at Oczakow, long ago, in our presence, and 
Keith's and Miinnich's, if the reader have not quite forgot. 
Munnich, on that occasion, took Oczakow without any siege- 
furniture whatever, by boldly marching up to it ; nothing but 
audacity and good luck on his side, Fermor determines to 
try Ciistrin in the like way, if peradventure Prussian soldiery 
be like Turk ? 

Fermor rose from Posen August Sd, almost three weeks 
ago; making daily for the Neumark and those unfortunate 
3der Countries ; nobody but Dohna to oppose him, Dohna 
n the ratio of perhaps one against four. Dohna naturally 



CHAP. XIIL] BATTLE OF ZORNDORF 377 

aoth-asth Aug. 1758] 

laid hold of Frankfurt and the Oder Bridge, so that Fermor 
could not cross there ; whereupon Fermor, as the next-best 
thing, struck northward for the Warta (black Polish stream, 
last big branch of Oder); crossed this, at his ease, by Lands- 
berg Bridge, August 10th; 1 and after a day or two of 
readjustment in Landsberg, made for Custrin Country (his 
next headquarter is at Gross Kamin *) ; hoping in some 
accidental or miraculous way to cross Oder thereabouts, or 
even get hold of Custrin as a Place of Arms. If per- 
adventure he can take Custrin without proper siege-artillery, 
in the Oczakow or Anti-Turk way? Fermor has been 
busy upon Custrin since August 15th; in what fashion we 
partly heard, and will now, from authentic sources, see a little 
for ourselves. 

The Castle of Custrin, built by good Johann of Custrin, and f roofed 
with copper,' in the Reformation times, we know it from of old, and 
Friedrich has since had some knowledge of it. Custrin itself is a rugged 
little Town, with some moorland traffic, and is still a place of great 
military strength, the garrison of those parts. Its rough pavements, its 
heavy stone battlements and barriers, give it a gnarled obstinate aspect, 
stern enough place of exile for a Crown-Prince fallen into such dis- 
favour with Papa ! A rugged, compact, by no means handsome little 
Town, at the meeting of the Warta and the Oder ; stands naturally 
among sedges, willows and drained mire, except that human industry 
is pleasantly busy upon it, and has long been. So that the neighbour- 
hood is populous beyond expectation ; studded with rough cottages in 
whitewash ; hamlets in a paved condition ; and comfortable signs of 
labour victoriously wrestling with the wilderness. Custrin, an arsenal 
and garrison, begirt with two rivers, and with awful bulwarks, and 
bastions cased in stone, ( perhaps too high/ say the learned, is likely 
to be impregnable to Russian engineering on those terms. Here, with 
brevity, is the catastrophe of Custrin. 

Tuesday I5th August 1758, At two in the morning, several thousand 
Russians, grenadiers, under Quartermaster General Stoffeln, whom the 
readers of Mannstein know from old Oczakow times, are astir ; pushing 
along from Gross Kamin, through the scraggy firwoods, and flat peat 
countries ; intending a stroke on Custrin, if perhaps they can get it : * 

1 Tempelhof, ii. 216. * Plan at p. 394. 

2 Tempelhof, ii. 217 ; biat Tielcke, ii. 69 et ieq., the real somrce. 



378 SEVEN-YEARS WAS RISES [BOOKXVin. 

[ aoth -25th Aug. 1758 

not the slightest chance to get Ciistrin ; Prussian soldiership and 
Turkish being- two quite different things ! The pickeering and manoeuvr- 
ing of Stoffeln shall not detain us. Stoffeln came along by the Lands- 
berg road (course of the now Konigsberg-Custrm Railway) ; and drove-in 
the Prussian out-parties,, who at first took him for Cossacks. Stoffeln 
set himself down on the north side of the place ; planted cannon in 
certain clay-pits thereabouts, and about nine o'clock began firing shells 
and incendiary grenadoes at a great rate. Tielcke saw everything; 
and had the honour to take luncheon, that evening, with certain chief 
Officers, sitting on the ground, after all was over, and only a few shots 
from the Garrison still dropping. 1 

At the third grenado, which, it seems, fell into a straw magazine, 
Ciistrin took fire ; could not be quenched again, so much dry wood in 
it, so much disorder too, the very soldiers some of them disorderly (a 
bad deserter set) ; so that it soon flamed aloft, from side to side one sea 
of flame : and man, woman and child, every soul (except the Garrison, 
which sat enclosed in strong stone), had to fly across the River, under 
penalty of death by fire. Of Ciistrin, by five in the evening, there was 
nothing left but the black ashes ; the Garrison standing unharmed, and 
the Church, School-house and some stone edifices in a charred skeleton 
condition. f No life was lost, except that of one child in arms.' All 
Neumark had lodged its valuables in this place of strength ; all are fled 
now in horror and terror across the Oder, by the Bridge, before it also 
unquenchably takes fire, at the western or non-Russian end of the place. 
Such a day as was seldom seen in human experience ; Fermor responsible 
for it, happily not we. 

Fermor, in the evening, said to his Artillery People : ' Why have you 
ceased to fire grenadoes ? ' ' Excellency, the Town is out ; nothing now 
but ashes and stone/ f Never mind ; give them the rest, one every 
quarter of an hour. We shall not need the grenadoes again. The 
cannon-balls we shall; them, therefore, do not waste/ On the morrow 
morning, after this performance on the Town, Fermor sends a Trumpeter : 
' Surrender, or else ! ' rather in the tremendous style. c Or else ? * 
answers the Commandant, pointing to the ashes, to the black incon- 
sumable stones ; and is deaf to this ex-postfacto Trumpeter. The Russians 
say they sent one yesterday morning, not eov-postfacto, but he was killed 
in the pickeerings, and never heard of again. A mile or so to rear 
of Ciistrin, on the westward or Berlin side of the River, Mes Dohna 
for the last four days; expecting that the Laws of Nature will hold 
good, and Ciistrin prove tenable against such sieging. So stands it on 
Friedrich's arrival. 



Tielcke, ii. 75 n. 



CHAP.XIIL] BATTLE OF ZORNDORF 379 

aoth-25th Aug. 1758] 

We left Friedrich In the Lebus Suburb of Frankfurt, 
Sunday August 52 Oth, listening to the distant cannonade. 
Next morning, he is here himself; at Donna's Camp of 
Gorgast, taking survey of affairs ; came early, under rapid 
small escort, leaving his Army to follow; scorn and con- 
temptuous indignation the humour of him, they say; reso- 
lution to be swiftly home upon that surprising Russian 
armament, and teach it new manners. The black skeleton 
of Custrin stares hideously across the River ; ' Clistrin Siege ' 
so-called still going-on; had better make despatch now, 
and take itself away ! He greatly despises Russian soldier- 
ship : ' Pooh, pooh, 1 he would answer, if Keith from experi- 
ence said, 'Your Majesty does not do it justice'; and 
Keith has been known to hint, * If the trial ever come, your 
Majesty will alter that opinion."' A day or two hence, amid 
these hideous Russian fire-traceries, the Hussars bring him 
a dozen of Cossacks they have made prisoners : Friedrich 
looks at the dirty green vagabonds ; says to one of his Staff : 
' And this is the kind of Doggery I have to bother with ! ' 
The sight of the poor country-people, and their tears of joy 
and of sorrow on his reappearance among them, much affected 
him. Taking inspection of Dohna, he finds Dohna wonder- 
fully clean, pipe-clayed, complete : * You are very fine indeed, 
you; I bring you a set of fellows, rough as grasteufeln 
( c grass-devils,' I never know whether insects or birds) ; < but 
they can bite,' hope you can ! 

Tuesday August d, at five in the morning our Army 
has all arrived, the Frankfurt people just come in ; 30,000 
of us now in Camp at Gorgast. Friedrich orders straight- 
way that a certain Russian Redoubt on the other side of the 
River, at Schaumburg, a mile or two down stream, be well 
cannonaded into ruin, as if he took it for some incipiency 
of a Russian Bridge, or were himself minded to cross here, 
under cover of Custrin. Friedrich's intention very certainly 
is to cross, here or not just here ; and that same night, 
after some hours of rest to the Frankfurt people, night of 



380 SEVEN-YEARS WAR RISES [BOOKXVIIL 

[aoth-asth Aug. 1758 

Tuesday- Wednesday, Friedricfa, having persuaded the Russians 
that his crossing-place will be their Redoubt at Schaumburg, 
marches ten or twelve miles down the River, silently his 
30,000 and he, till opposite the Village of G-iistebiese ; 
rapidly makes his Bridges there, unmolested: Fermor, with 
his eye on the cannonaded Redoubt only, has expected no 
such matter; and is much astonished when he hears of it, 
twenty hours after. Friedrich, across with the vanguard, at 
an early hour of Wednesday, gets upon the knoll at Giiste- 
biese for a view : and all Giistebiese, hearing of him, hurries 
out, with low-voiced tremulous blessings, irrepressible tears : 
6 God reward your Majesty, that have come to us!"* and 
there is a hustling and a struggling, among the women 
especially, to kiss the skirts of his coat. Poor souls: one 
could have stood tremendous cheers; but this is a thing I 
forgive Friedrich for being visibly affected with. 

Friedrich leaves his baggage on the other side of the Oder, 
and the Bridge guarded ; our friend Hordt, with his Free- 
Corps, doing it. Friedrich marches forward some ten miles 
that night ; eastward, straight for Gross Kamin, as if to take 
the Russians in rear; encamps at a place called Klossow, 
spreading himself obliquely towards the Mutzel (black sluggish 
tributary of the Oder in those parts), meaning to reach Neu 
Damm on the Mutzel tomorrow, there almost within wind of 
the Russians, and be ready for crossing on them. It was at 
Klossow (3d August, evening), that the Hussars brought-in 
their dozen or two of Cossacks, and he had his first sight of 
Russian soldiery ; by no means a favourable one, < Ugh, only 
look ! ' As we are now approaching Zorndorf, and the 
monstrous tug of Battle which fell out there, readers will 
be glad of the following : 

'From Damm on the Mutzel,, where Friedrich intends crossing- it 
tomorrow night, south to Gross Kamin, not far from the Warta, where 
Fermor's headquarter lately was, may be about five miles. From Custrin, 
Kamin lies north-east about eight or ten miles : 2/orndorf, the most 
considerable Village in this tract, lies, little dreaming of the sad glory 



CHAP.XIIL] BATTLE OF ZORNDORF 881 

aoth-25th Aug. 1758] , , . w in 

coming to it, pretty much in the centre between big Warta and smaller 
Mutzel. The Country is by nature a peat wilderness, far and wide ; but 
it has been tamed extensively; grows crops, green pastures; is elsewhere 
covered with wood (Scotch fir, scraggy in size, but evidently under forest 
management) ; perhaps half the country is in Fir tracts, what they call 
ffeiden (Heaths); the cultivated spaces lying like light-green islands with 
black-green channels and expanses of circumambient Fir. The Drewitz 
Heath, the Massin or Zicher Heath, and others about Zorndorf, will 
become notable to us. The Country is now much drier than in Friedrich's 
time ; the human spade doing its duty everywhere : so that much of the 
Battle-ground has become irrecognisable, when compared with the old 
marshy descriptions given of it. Zorndorf, a rough substantial Hamlet, 
has nothing of boggy now visible near by ; lies east to west, a firm broad 
highway leading through : a sea of forest before it, to south ; to north, 
good dry barley-grounds or rye-grounds, sensibly rising for half a mile, 
then waving about in various slow slight changes of level towards Quart- 
schen, Zicher, etc. : forming an irregular cleared "island, "altogether of 
perhaps four miles by three, with unlimited circumambiences of wood. 
It was here, on this island as we call it, that the Battle, which has made 
Zorndorf famous, was fought. 

e Zorndorf (or even the open ground half a mile to north of it, which 
will be more important to us) is probably not 50 feet above the level of 
the Mutzel, nor 100 above Warta and Oder, six miles off ; but it is the 
crown of the Country ; the ground dropping there from every way, in 
lazy dull waves or swells ; towards Tamsel and Gross Kamin on south- 
east; towards Birken-Busch, Quartschen, Darmutzel 1 on north-west; 
as well as towards Damm and its Bridge north-east, where Friedrich will 
soon be, and towards Custrin south-west, where he lately was, each a 
five or six miles from Zorndorf. 

e Such is the poor moorland tract of Country ; Zorndorf the centre of 
it, -where the Battle is likely to be : Zorndorf and environs a bare 
quasi-island among these woods ; extensive bald crown of the landscape, 
girt with a frizzle of firwoods all round. Boggy pools there are, especially 
on the western side (all drained in our time). Mutzel, or north side, is 
of course the lowest in level : and accordingly,' what is much to be 
marked by readers here, 'from the south, or Zorndorf side, at t wide 
intervals, there saunter along, in a slow obscure manner, Three miserable 
continuous Leakages, or oozy Threads of Water, all making for Quarts 
schen, to north or north-west, there to disembogue into the Mutzel. 
Each of these has its little Hollow ; of which the westernmost, called 
Zabern Hollow (Zabemgrund\ is the most considerable, and the most 
important to us her: Galgengrund (Gallows-Hollow) is also worth 

1 Dar of the Mutzel, whatever ' JDar* may be. 



382 SEVEN-YEARS WAR RISES [BOOK xvin. 

[2oth-25th Aug. 1758 

naming in tMs Battle ; the third Leakage, though without importance, 
invites us to name it, Hosebruch, quasi $foc&m#-quagmire, because you 
can use no stockings there, except with manifest disadvantage/ Take 
this other concluding trait : 

* * ( Inexpressible fringe of marsh, two or three miles broad, mostly 
bottomless, woven with sluggish creeks and stagnant pools, borders the 
Warta for many miles towards Landsberg ; Custrin-Landsberg Causeway 
the alone sure footing in it ; after which, the country rises insensibly, 
but most beneficially, and is mainly drier till you get to the Miitzel again, 
and find the same fringe of mud lace-work again. Zorndorf we called 
the crown of it. Tamsel, Wilkersdorf, Klein Kamin, Gross Kamin, and 
other places known to us, lie on the dry turf-fuel country, but looking 
over close upon the hem of that marsh-fringe, and no doubt getting 
peats, wild-ducks, pike-fishes, eels, and snatches of summer pasture and 
cow-hay out of it/ 

Thursday August 4th, Friedrich is again speeding on; 
occupying Darmtitzel and other crossing places of the Miitzel; 1 
by no means himself crossing there ; on the contrary, care- 
fully breaking all the Bridges before he go (< No retreat for 
those Russian vagabonds, only death or surrender for them ! ') 
himself not intending to cross till he be up at Damm, 
Neu Damm, well eastward of his Russians, and have got them 
all pinfolded between Miitzel and Oder in that way. In the 
evening, he reaches Damm and the Mill of Damm, some 
three or four miles higher up the Miitzel ; and there pushes 
partly across at once. That is to say, his vanguard at once, 
and takes a defensive position; his Artillery and other 
Divisions by degrees, in the silent night hours ; and, before 
daybreak tomorrow, every soul will be across, and the bridge 
broken again; and Fermor had better have his accounts 
settled. 

Fermor's roving Cossack clouds seldom bring him in 
intelligence ; but only return stained with charcoal grime 
and red murder : up to late last night, he had not known 
where Friedrich was at all ; had idly thought him busy with 
the Schaumburg Redoubt, on the other side of Oder, fencing 

1 Mitchell to Holderness, *Ddrm/tzel, 24th August 1758' (Memoirs and 
Papers, i. 425 ; /. ii. 40-47, Mitchell's Private Journal). 



CHAP.xm.J BATTLE OF ZORNDORF 

25th Aug. 1758] 

and precautioning: but now (night of the $3d), these Cossacks 
do come- in with news, < Indisputable to our poor minds, the 
Prussians are at Klossow yonder, captured a dozen green 
vagabonds of us, and have sent us galloping ! "* which news, 
with the night closing-in on him, was astonishing, thrice and 
four times important to Fermor. 

Instantly he raises the siege of Ciistrin, any siege there 
was ; gets his immense baggage-train shoved-off that night 
to Klein Kamin, Landsberg way ; summons the force from 
Landsberg to join him without loss of a moment ; and in 
the mean while pitches himself in long bivouac in the Drewitz 
Wood or Fir- Heath, with the quaggy Zaberngrund in front. 
Quaggy Zaberngrund, do readers remember it ; one of those 
* Three continuous Leakages,' very important to Fermor and 
us at present ? This is the safest place Fermor can find for 
himself; scraggy firs around, good quagmires and Zabern 
Hollow in front ; looking to the east, waiting what a new 
day will bring. That was Fermor^s posture, while Friedrich 
quitted Klossow in the dawn of the S4th. Be busy, ye 
Cossack doggeries ; return with news, not with mere grime 
and marks of blood on your mouths 1 

Evening of the S4th, Cossacks report that Friedrich has 
got to Damm Mill ; has hold of the Bridge there ; and may 
be looked for, sure as the daylight tomorrow. Fermor is 
50,000 odd, his Landsberg forces all coming in ; one Detach- 
ment out Stettin way, which cannot come in ; Fermor finds 
that his baggage-*train is fairly on the road to Klein Kamin ; 
and that he will have to quit this bosky bivouac, and fight 
for himself in the open ground, or do worse. 

Theseus and the Minotaur over again, that is to say, 
Friedrich at Hcmdgrips with Fermor and his Russians 
(25th August 1758) 

Artless Fermor draws-out to the open ground, north of 
Zorndorf, south of Quartschen ; arranges himself in huge 



38* SEVEN-YEARS WAB RISES [BOOKXVIII. 

[asth Aug. 1758 

quadrilateral mass, with his staff-baggage ' (lighter baggage) 
in the centre, and his front, so to speak,, every where. 1 Mass, 
say two miles long by one mile broad ; but it is by no means 
regular, and has many zig-zags according to the ground, and 
narrows and droops southward on the eastern end : one of 
the most artless arrangements; but known to Fermor, and 
the readiest on this pinch of time. Miinnich devised this 
quadrilateral mode; and found it good against the Turks, 
and their deluges of raging horse and foot: Fermor could 
perhaps do better; but there is such a press of hurry. 
Fermor's western flank, or biggest breadth of quadrilateral, 
leans on that Zabem Hollow, with its fine quagmires; his 
eastern, narrowest part, droops-down on certain mud-pools 
and conveniences towards Zicher. Gallows Hollow, a slighter 
than the Zabern, runs through the centre of him ; and with 
his best people he fronts towards the Miitzel Bridges, especially 
towards Damm-Mill Bridge whence Friedrich will emerge,, 
sure as the sunrise, one knows not with what issue. Artless 
Fermor is nothing dauuted; nor are his people; but stand 
patiently under arms, regardless of future and present, to a 
degree not common in soldiering. 

Friday August 25th, by half-past three in the morning, 
Friedrich is across the Miitzel ; self and Infantry by Damm- 
Miitzel Bridge, cavalry by another Bridge (Kersten-Brugge, 
means * Christian Bridge,' in the dialect of Charlemagne's 
time, a very old arrangement of Successive Logs up there !) 
some furlongs higher up. The Bridge at Damm is perhaps 
some three miles from the nearest Russians about Zicher ; but 
Friedrich has no thought of attacking Fermor there ; he has a 
quite other program laid, and will attack Fermor precisely on 
the side opposite to there. Friedrich's intention is to sweep 
quite round this monstrous Russian quadrilateral ; to break- 
in upon it on the western flank, and hurl it back upon Miitzel 

1 Excellent Plan of him, or rather Plans, in his successive shapes, in Tielcke, 
ii. (Plates 4, 5, 6, 7, 8). Our poor Sketch at p. 394 strives to represent Mm aft 
he stood when first attacked. 



CHAP, xra.] BATTLE OF ZORNDORF 385 

25th Aug. 1758] 

and its quagmires. He has broken his two bridges after 
passing, all bridges are gone there, and the country is 
bottomless : surrender at discretion if once you are driven 
thither ! And Friedrich's own retreat, if he fail, is short and 
open to Ciistrin. * Admirable,' say the Critics, 'and alto- 
gether in Friedrich's style ! * Friedrich, adds one Critic, was 
not aware that the Russian Heavy Baggage-Train, which is 
their powderflask and breadbasket and staff of life, lies at 
Klein Kamin, within few miles on his left just now, Russians 
themselves on his right ; that the Russians could have been 
abolished from those countries without fighting at all ! l This 
is very true. Friedrich's haste is great, his humour hot ; and 
he has not heard of this Klein-Kamin fact, which in common 
times he would have done, and of which in a calmer mood he 
would, with a fine scientific gusto, have taken his advantage. 

Friedrich pours incessant southward; cavalry parallel to 
infantry and a certain distance beyond it, eastward of it ; and 
they have burnt the Bridges ; which is a curious fact ! Con- 
tinually southward, as if for Tamsel : poor old Tamsel, do 
readers recollect it at all, does Friedrich at all ? No pleasant 
dinner, or lily-and-rose complexions, there for one today 1 
Some distance short of Tamsel, Friedrich, emerging, turns 
westward ; intending what on earth ? thinks Fermor. Fried- 
rich has been mostly hidden by the woods all this while, and 
enigmatic to Fermor. Fermor does now at last see the colour 
of the facts ; and that one's chief front must change itself to 
southward, one's best leg and arm be foremost, or towards 
Zorndorf, not towards the Miitzel as hitherto. Fermor stirs- 
up his Quadrilateral, makes the required change, ' You, best or 
northern line, step across, and front southward; across to 
southward, I say ; second-best go northward in their stead ' : 
and so, with some other slight polishings, suggested by the 
ground and phenomena, we anew await this Prussian Enigma 
with our best leg foremost. The march or circular sweep of 
these Prussian lines, from Damm Bridge through the woods 
1 Retzow, 305-329. 

VOL. VI. 2 B 



386 SEVEN-YEARS WAR RISES [BOOK xvm. 

[asth Aug. 1758 

and champaign to their appointed place of action, is seven 
or eight miles ; lines when halted in battle-order will be two 
miles long or more. 

Friedrich pours steadily along, horse and foot, by the rear 
of Wilkersdorf, of Zorndorf, Russian Minotaur scrutinising 
him in that manner with dull bloodshot eyes, uncertain what 
he will do. It is eight in the morning, hot August ; wind a 
mere lull, but southernly if any. Small Hussar pickets ride 
to right of the main Army March ; to keep the Cossacks in 
check : who are roving about, all on wing ; and pert enough, 
in spite of the Hussar pickets. Desperado individuals of them 
gallop-up to the Infantry ranks, and fire-off their pistols there, 
. without reply; reply or firing, till the word come, is 
strictly forbidden. Infantry pours along, like a ploughman 
drawing his furrow, heedless of the circling crows. Crows or 
Cossacks, finding they are not regarded, set fire to Zorndorf, 
and gallop off. Zorndorf goes-up readily, mainly wood and 
straw ; rolls in big clouds of smoke far northward in upon 
the Russian Minotaur, making him still blinder in the im- 
portant moments now coming. 

Friedrich rides-up to view the Zabern Hollow : * Beyond 
expectation deep; very boggy too, with its foul leakage or 
brook: no attacking of their western flank through this 
Zabern-grund ; attack the corner of them, then ; here on 
the south-west ! ' That is Friedrich's rapid resource. The 
lines halt, accordingly ; make ready. Behind flaming Zorndorf 
stands his extreme left, which is to make the attack ; infantry 
in front ; horse to rear and farther leftwards, and under the 
command of Seidlitz in this quarter, which is an important 
circumstance. Right wing, reaching to behind Wilkersdorf, is 
to refuse itself ; whole force of centre is to push upon that 
Russian corner, to support the left in doing it ; according 
to the Leuthen or Leuctra principle, once more. May no 
mistakes occur in executing it this day ! 

The first division of the Prussian Infantry, or extreme Left, 
marches forward by the west end of flaming Zorndorf; next 



CHAP, xin.] BATTLE OF ZORNDORF 387 

25th Aug. 1758] 

division, which should stand close to right of it, or even behind 
it, in action, and follow it close into the Russian fire, has to 
march by the east end of Zorndorf ; this is a farther road, 
owing to the flames ; and not a lucky one. Second division 
could never get into fair contact with that first division again : 
that was the mistake : and it might have been fatal, but was 
not, as we shall see. First division has got clear of Zorndorf, 
in advancing towards its Russian business ; is striding for- 
ward, its left flank safe against the Zabern-grund ; steadily by 
fixed stages, against the fated Russian Corner, which is its 
point of attack. First division, second division, are clear of 
Zorndorf, though with a wide gap between them ; are steadily 
striding forward towards the Russian Corner. Two strong 
batteries, wide apart, have planted themselves ahead ; and are 
playing upon the Russian Quadrilateral, their fires crossing at 
the due Corner yonder, with terrible effect ; Russian artillery, 
which are multitudinous and all gathered down to this south- 
western corner, are responding, though with their fire spread, 
and far less effectual. The Prussian line steps on, extreme 
left perhaps in too animated a manner ; their cannon batteries 
enfilade the thick mass of Russians at a frightful rate ( c forty- 
two men of a certain regiment blown-away by a single ball,' in 
one instance *), drive the interior baggage-horses to despair : a 
very agitated Quadrilateral, under its grim canopy of cannon 
smoke, and of straw smoke, heaped on it from the Zorndorf 
side here. Manteuffel, leader of that first or leftmost division, 
sees the internal simmering ; steps forward still more briskly, 
to firing distance ; begins his platoon thunder, with the due 
steady fury, had the second division but got-up to support 
Manteuffel ! The second division is in fire too ; but not close 
to Manteuffel, where it should be. 

Fermor notices the gap, the wavering of Manteuffel unsup- 
ported ; plunges-out in immense torrent, horse and foot, into 
the gap, into ManteuffeFs flank and front ; hurls Manteuffel 
back, who has no support at hand : 6 Arah> Arah (Hurrah, 

1 Tielcke. 



388 SEVEN-YEARS WAR RISES [BOOKXVIII. 

[25th Aug. 1758 

Hurrah) ! Victory, Victory ! ' shout the Russians, plunging 
wildly forward, sweeping all before them, capturing twenty-six 
pieces of cannon, for one item. What a moment for Fried- 
rich ; looking on it from some knoll somewhere near Zorndorf, 
I suppose ; hastily bidding Seidlitz strike-in : < Seidlitz now ! ' 
The hurrahing Russians cannot keep rank at that rate of 
going, like a buffalo stampede ; but fall into heaps and gaps : 
Seidlitz, with a swiftness, with a dexterity beyond praise, has 
picked his way across that quaggy Zabern Hollow ; falls, with 
say 5,000 horse, on the flank of this big buffalo stampede; 
tumbles it into instant ruin ; which proves irretrievable, as 
the Prussian Infantry come on again, and back Seidlitz. 

In fifteen minutes more (I guess it now to be ten o'clock), 
the Russian Minotaur, this end of it, on to the Gallows 
Ground, is one wild mass. Seldom was there seen such a 
charge ; issuing in such deluges of wreck, of chaotic flight, or 
chaotic refusal to fly. The Seidlitz cavalry went sabring till, 
for very fatigue, they gave it up, and could no more. The 
Russian horse fled to Kutzdorf, Fermor with them, who saw 
no more of this Fight, and did not get back till dark ; had 
not the Bridges been burnt, and no crossing of the Miitzel 
possible, Fermor never would have come back, and here had 
been the end of Zorndorf. Luckier if it had ! But there is 
no crossing of the Miitzel, there is only drowning in the quag- 
mires there : death any way ; what can be done but die ? 

The Russian infantry stand to be sabred, in the above 
manner, as if they had been dead oxen. More remote from 
Seidlitz, they break-open the sutlers' brandy-casks, and in few 
minutes get roaring drunk. Their officers, desperate, split 
the brandy-casks ; soldiers flap-down to drink it from the 
puddles ; furiously remonstrate with their officers, and c kill a 
good many of them' (viele, says Tielcke), especially the 
foreign sort. tf A frightful blood-bath,' by all the Accounts : 
blood-bath, brandy-bath, and chief Nucleus of Chaos then 
extant aboveground. Fermor is swept away : this chaos, the 
very Prussians drawing-back from it, wearied with massacring. 



CHAP. xra.] BATTLE OF ZORNDORF 389 

25th Aug. 1758] 

lasts till about one o^clock. Up to the Gallows-ground the 
Minotaur is mere wreck and delirium : but beyond the 
Gallows-ground, the other half forms a new front to itself ; 
becomes a new Minotaur, though in reduced shape. This is 
Part First of the Battle of Zorndorf ; Friedrich, on the 
edge of great disaster at one moment, but miraculously saved, 
has still the other half to do (unlucky that he left no 
Bridges on the Miitzel), and must again change his program. 

Half of the Minotaur is gone to shreds in this manner ; 
but the attack upon it, too, is spent : what is to be done with 
the other half of the monster, which is again alive ; which still 
stands, and polypus-like has arranged a new life for itself, a 
new front against the Galgen-grund yonder? Friedrich 
brings his right wing into action. Rapidly arranges right 
wing, centre, all of the left that is disposable, with batteries, 
with cavalry ; for an attack on the opposite or south-eastern 
end of his monster. If your monster, polypus-like, come alive 
again in the tail-part, you must fell that other head of him. 
Batteries, well in advance, begin work upon the new head 
of the monster, which was once his tail ; fresh troops, long 
lines of them, pushing forward to begin platoon-volleying : 
time now, I should guess, about half-past two. Our infantry 
has not yet got within musket-range, when torrents of 
Russian Horse, Foot too following, plunge-out ; wide-flowing, 
stormfully swift ; and dash against the coming attack. Dash 
against it ; stagger it ; actually tumble it back, in the centre 
part ; take one of the batteries, and a whole battalion 
prisoners. Here again is a moment ! Friedrich, they say, 
rushed personally into this vortex ; rallied these broken bat- 
talions, again rallied and led them up; but it was to no 
purpose : they could not be made to stand, these centre 
battalions ; * some sudden panic in them, a thing unaccount- 
able,' says Tempelhof ; * they are Dohna's people, who fought 
perfectly at Jagersdorf, and often elsewhere * (they were all in 
such a finely-burnished state the other day; but have not 



SEVEN-YEARS WAR RISES [BOOKXVIII. 

[25th Aug. 1758 

biting talent, like the grass-devils) : enough, they fairly scour 
away, certain disgraceful battalions, and are not got ranked 
again till below Wilkersdorf, above a mile off ; though the 
grass-devils, on both hands of them, stand grimly steady, left 
in this ominous manner. 

What would have become of the affair one knows not, if 
it had not been that Seidlitz once more made his appearance. 
On Friedrich's order, or on his own, I do not know ; but sure 
it is, Seidlitz, with sixty-one squadrons, arriving from some dis- 
tance, breaks-in like a Deus ex machind, swift as the storm- 
wind, upon this Russian Horse-torrent ; drives it again before 
him like a mere torrent of chaff, back, ever back, to the 
shore of Acheron and the Stygian quagmires (of the Miitzel, 
namely) ; so that it did not return again ; and the Prussian 
Infantry had free field for their platoon exercise. Their rage 
against the Russians was extreme ; and that of the Russians 
corresponded. Three of these grass-devil battalions, who 
stood nearest to Dohna's runaways, were natives of this same 
burnt-out Zorndorf Country ; we may fancy the Platt-Teutsch 
hearts of them, and the sacred lightning, with a moisture to it, 
that was in their eyes. Platt-Teutsch platooning, bayonet- 
charging, on such terms no Russian or mortal Quadrilateral 
can stand it. The Russian Minotaur goes all to shreds a 
second time ; but will not run. * No quarter ! ' ' Well, 
then, none ! ' 

6 Shortly after four o'clock,' say my Accounts, * the firing,' 
regular firing, ' altogether ceased ; ammunition nearly spent, 
on both sides ; Prussians snatching cartridge-boxes of Russian 
dead ' ; and then began a tug of deadly massacring and wrest- 
ling, man to man, c with bayonets, with butts of muskets, 
with hands, even with teeth ' (in some Russian instances), 
c such as was never seen before.' The Russians, beaten to 
fragments, would not run : whither run ? Behind is Miatzel 
and the bog of Acheron ; on Miitzel is no bridge left ; * the 
shore of Mutzel is thick with men and horses, who have tried 
to cross, and lie there swallowed in the ooze ' * like a pave- 



CHAP. XIIL] BATTLE OF ZORNDORF 391 

25th Aug. 1758] 

ment,' says Tielcke. The Russians,, never was such vis 
inertice as theirs now. They stood like sacks of clay, like 
oxen already dead; not even if you shot a bullet through 
them, would they fall at once, says Archenholtz, but seemed 
.to be deliberate about it. 

Complete disorder reigned on both sides ; except that the 
Prussians could always form again when bidden, the Russians 
not. This lasted till nightfall, Russians getting themselves 
shoved away on these horrid terms, and obstinate to take no 
other. Towards dark, there appeared, on a distant knoll, 
something like a ranked body of them again, some 2,000 
foot and half as many horse ; whom Themicoud (superlative 
Swiss Cossack, usually written Demikof or Demikow) had 
picked-up and persuaded from the shore of Acheron, back to 
this knoll of vantage, and some cannon with them. Friedrich 
orders these to be dispersed again : General Forcade, with 
two battalions, taking the front of them, shall attack there ; 
you, General Rauter, bring-up those Dohna fellows again, and 
take them in flank. Forcade pushes on, Rauter too, but at 
the first taste of cannon-shot, these poor Dohna-people (such 
their now flurried, disgraced state of mind) take to flight 
again, worse than before; rush quite through Wilkersdorf 
this time, into the woods, and can hardly be got together at 
all. Scandalous to think of. No wonder Friedrich ' looked 
always askance on those regiments that had been beaten at 
Gross Jagersdorf, and to the end of his life gave them proofs 
of it * ; * very natural, if the rest were like these ! 

Of poor General Rauter, Tempelhof and the others, that 
can help it, are politely silent ; only Saxon Tielcke tells us, 
that Friedrich dismissed him, c Go, you, to some other trade ! ' 
which, on Prussian evidence too, expressed in veiled terms, 
I find to be the fact : Militair-Lexikon, obliged to have an 
article on Rauter, is very brief about it; hints nothing 
unkind; records his personal intrepidity; and says, *in 1758 

1 Retzowj and still more emphatically, Briefe eines alien Preussischen 
Officiers (Hohenzollern, 1790), i. 34, ii. 52, etc. 



392 SEVEN-YEARS WAR RISES [BOOKXVIII. 

[25th Aug. 1758 

he, on his request, had leave to withdraw, 1 poor soul, leave 
and more ! 

Forcade, left to himself, kept cannonading Themicoud. 
Themicoud responding, would not go ; stood on his knoll of 
vantage, but gathered no strength : Let him stand,' said 
Friedrich, after some time ; and Themicoud melted in the 
shades of night, gradually towards the hither shore of Acheron, 
that is, of Acheron-Miitzel, none now attempting to pave it 
farther, but simmering about at their sad leisure there. Feld- 
marschall Fermor is now got to his people again, or his people 
to him ; reunited in place and luck : such a chaos as Fermor 
never saw before or after. No regiment or battalion now is ; 
mere simmering monads, this fine Army ; officers doing their 
utmost to cobble it into something of rank, without regard to 
regiments or qualities. Darkness seldom sank on such a 
scene. 

Wild Cossack parties are scouring over all parts of the 
field; robbing the dead, murdering the wounded; doing 
arson, too, wherever possible; and even snatching at the 
Prussian cannon left rearwards, so that the Hussars have to go 
upon them again. One large mass of them plundering in the 
Hamlet of Zicher, the Hussars surrounded : the Cossacks took 
to the outhouses ; squatted, ran, called-in the aid of fire, their 
constant friend: above 400 of them were in some big barn, 
or range of straw houses ; and set-fire to it, but could not 
get out for Hussars ; the Hussars were at the outgate : Not a 
devil of you ! said the Hussars ; and the whole four hundred 
perished there, choked, burnt, or slain by the Hussars, and 
this poor Planet was at length rid of them. 1 

Friedrich sends for his tent-equipages ; and the Army 
pitches its camp in two big lines, running north and south, 
looking towards the Russian side of things ; Friedrich's tent in 
front of the first line ; a warrior King among his people, who 
have had a day's work of it. The Russian loss turns-out, when 
counted, to have been 1,529 killed, wounded and missing, 

tei v. 166. 



CHAP.xm.] BATTLE OF ZORNDORF 

a6th Aug.-ad Sept. 1758] 

7,990 of them killed; the Prussian sum-total is 11,390 
(above the Prussian third man), of whom 3,680 slain. And 
on the shores of Acheron northward yonder, there still is a 
simmering. And far and wide the country is alight with 
incendiary fires, many devils still abroad. Excellency 
Mitchell, about eight in the evening, is sent-for by the King ; 
finds various chief Generals, Seidlitz among them, on their 
various businesses there ; congratulates c on the noble victory ' 
(not so conclusive hitherto) ' which Heaven has granted your 
Majesty.' < Had it not been for him," said Friedrich, * Had 
it not been for him, things would have had a bad look by this 
time ! ' and turned his sun-eyes upon Seidlitz, with a fine 
expression in them. 1 To which Seidlitz's reply, I find, was an 
embarrassed blush, and of articulate only, ' Hm, no, ah, it was 
your Majesty's Cavalry that did their duty, but Wakenitz' 
(my second) ' does deserve promotion ! ' which Wakenitz, 
not in a too overflowing measure, got. 

Fermor, during the night-watches, having cobbled himself 
into some kind of ranks or rows, moves down well westward of 
Zabern Hollow ; to the Drewitz Heath, where he once before 
lay, and there makes his bivouac in the wood, safe under the 
fir-trees, with the Zabern ground to front of him. By the 
above reckoning, 28 or 29,000 still hang to Fermor, or float 
vaporously round him ; with Friedrich, in his two lines, are 
some 18,000 : in whole, 46,000 tired mortals sleeping 
thereabouts ; near 12,000 others have fallen into a deeper 
sleep, not liable to be disturbed ; and of the wounded on the 
field, one shudders to imagine. 

Next day, Saturday 2 6th, Fermor, again brought into some 
kind of rank, and safe beyond the quaggy Zabern ground, 
sent-out a proposal, < That there be Truce of Three Days for 
burying the dead ! ' Dohna, who happened to be General in 
command there, answers, * That it is customary for the Victor 
to take charge of burying the slain ; that such proposal is 

1 Preuss, ii. 153. Mitchell (ii. 432) mentions the Interview, nothing of 
Seidlitz. 



894 SEVEN-YEAES WAR RISES [BOOK XVIII. 

[a6th Aug.-2d Sept. 1758 

surprising, and quite inadmissible, in present circumstances.' 
Fermor, in the mean while, had drawn himself out, fronting 
his late battlefield and the morning sun ; and began cannon- 
ading across die Zabern ground ; too far off for hitting, but 
as if still intending fight: to which the Prussians replied 
with cannon, and drew-out before their tents in fighting 
order. In both armies there was question, or talk, of attack- 
ing anew ; but in both * there was want of ammunition,' want 
of real likelihood. On Fermor's side, that of ' attacking' 
could be talk only, and on Friedrich's, besides the scarcity of 
ammunition, all creatures, foot and especially horse, were so 
worn-out with yesterday's work, it was not judged practically 
expedient. A while before noon, the Prussians retired to 
their Camp again; leaving only the artillery to respond, so 
far as needful, and bow-wow across the Zabern ground, till 
the Russians lay down again. 

Friedrich's Hussars knew of the Russian Wageriburg, or 
general baggage reservoirs, at Klein Kamin, by this time. 
The Hussars had been in it, last night ; rummaging exten- 
sively, at discretion for some time; and had brought away 
much money and portable plunder. Wiiy Friedrich, who lay 
direct between Fermor and his Wagenburg, did not, this day, 
extinguish said Wagenburg, I do not know; but guess it 
may have been a fault of omission, in the great welter this 
was now grown to be to the weary mind. Beyond question, 
if one had blown-up Fermor's remaining gunpowder, and 
carried-off or burnt his meal-sacks, he must have cowered 
away all the faster towards Landsberg to seek more. Or 
perhaps Friedrich now judged it immaterial, and a question 
only of hours ? 

About midnight of Saturday-Sunday, there again rose 
bow-wowing, bellowing of Russian cannon ; not from beyond 
the Zabern ground this time, nor stationary anywhere, but 

from the south some transient part of it, and not far off; 

one ball struck a carriage near the King's tent, and shattered 
it Thick mist mantles everything, and it is difficult to 



CHAP.XIIL] BATTLE OF ZORNDORF 395 

26th Aug,-2d Sept. 1758] 

know what the Russians have on hand in their sylvan seclu- 
sions. After a time, it becomes manifest the Russians are on 
retreat ; winding round, through the southern woods, behind 
Zorndorf and the charred Villages, to Klein Kamin, Landsberg 
way. Friedrich, following now on the heel of them, finds all 
got to Klein Kamin, to breakfast there in their Wagenburg 
refectory, sharply vigilant, many Jleches (little arrow-shaped 
redoubts, so-named) and much artillery round them. Nothing 
considerable to be done upon them, now or afterwards, except 
pick-up stragglers, and distress their rear a little. The King 
himself, in the first movement, was thought to be in alarming 
peril, such a blaze of case-shot rose upon him, as he went 
reconnoitering foremost of all, 1 

And this was, at last, the end of Zorndorf Battle ; on the 
third day this. Was there ever seen such a fight of Theseus 
and the Minotaur ! Theseus, rapid, dextrous, with Heaven's 
lightning in his eyes, seizing the Minotaur ; lassoing him by 
the hinder foot, then by the right horn ; pouring steel and 
destruction into him, the very dust darkening all the air. 
Minotaur refusing to die when killed; tumbling to and fro 
upon its Theseus ; the two lugging and tugging, flinging one 
another about, and describing figures of 8 round each other 
for three days before it ended. Minotaur walking off on his 
own feet, after all. It was the bloodiest battle of the Seven- 
Years War ; one of the most furious ever fought ; such rage 
possessing the individual elements ; rage unusual in modern 
wars. Must have altered Friedrich's notion of the Russians, 
when he next comes to speak with Keith. It was not till the 
fourth day hence (August 81st), so unattackably strong was 
this position at Klein Kamin, that the Russian Minotaur 
would fairly get to its feet a second time, and slowly stagger 
off, in real earnest, Landsberg way and Konigsberg way ; 

1 Tempelhof, ii. 216-38 ; Tielcke, ii. 79-154 ; Archenholtz, i. 253-64; H Jen- 
Geschichte, v. 156-79 (with many Lists, private Letters and the like de 4s); 
etc. etc. , 



896 SEVEN-YEARS WAR RISES [BOOKXVIII. 

[26th Aug. -ad Sept. 1758 

Friedrich right glad to leave Dohna in attendance on it ; and 
hasten off (September Sd) towards Saxony and Prince Henri, 
where his presence is now become very needful. 

Fermor, walking off in this manner, not till the third 
day, nay, not conclusively till the seventh day, after Zorndorf, 
strove at first to consider himself victorious. * I passed 
the night on the field of battle' (or not far from it, for good 
reasons, Miitzel being bridgeless) : tf may not I, in the language 
of enthusiasm, be considered conqueror? Here are 6 of 
their cannon, got when I cried " Arab " prematurely. (Where 
the 103 pieces of my own are, and my $7 flags, and my 
Army-chest and sundries? Dropped somewhere; they will 
probably turn-up again ! )' thinks Fermor, or strives to 
think, and says. So that, at Petersburg, at Paris and Vienna, 
in the next three weeks, there were Te-Deums> Ambrosian 
chantings, fires-of-joy; and considerable arguing among the 
Gazetteers on both parts, till the dust settled, and facts 
appeared as they were. To the effect : * Te-Dewm, NON laud- 
amus ; alas no, we must retract ; and it was good gunpowder 
thrown after bad 1 ' 

On always homewards, but at its own pace, waited-on by 
Dohna, goes the Russian Monster : violently case-shotting if 
you prick into its rearward parts. One Palmbach, under 
Romanzow, I think, who had not taken part in the Battle, 
being out Stettin way, and unable to join till now, Palmbach, 
with a Detachment of 15,000, which was thought sufficient 
for the object, did try to make a dash on Colberg, how 
happy had we any port on the Baltic, to feed us in this 
Country! But though Colberg is the paltriest crowds-nest 
(bicoque), according to all engineers, and is defended only by 
700 militia (the Colonel of them, one Heyde, a grey old 
Half-pay, not yet renowned in the soldier world, as he here 
came to be), Palmbach, with his best diligence, could make 
nothing of it ; but, after battering, bombarding, even scalad- 
ing, and in all ways blurting and blazing at a mighty rate for 
four weeks, and wasting a great deal of gunpowder and 2,000 



CHAP, xiv.] BATTLE OF HOCHKIRCH 397 

I7th Aug.-iath Sept. 1758] 

Russian lives, withdrew on those remarkable terms. 1 And 
did then, as tail of Fermor, what Fermor and the Russian 
Monster was universally doing, make-off at a good pace, 
having nothing to live upon farther, and vanish from those 
Countries, to the relief of Dohna and mankind. 

September $d, Friedrich, leaving all that, had marched for 
Saxony ; his presence urgently required there. Daun ought 
to be far-on with the conquest of that Country ? Might have 
had it, say judges, if he had been as swift as some. At 
Zorndorf, among the Russian Prisoners were certain Generals, 
Soltikof, Czernichef, Sulkowski the Pole, proud people in their 
own eyes : no lodging for them but the cellars of Ciistrin. 
Russian Generals complained, c ls this a lodging for Field- 
Officers of rank ! ' Friedrich was not used to profane swear- 
ing, or vituperative outbursts ; but he answered to the effect : 
6 Silence, ye incendiary individuals. Is there a choice left of 
lodgings, and for you above others ! ' Upon which they lay 
silent for some days, till better suited ; in fact, till exchanged, 
and perhaps will soon turn-up on us again. 



CHAPTER XIV 
BATTLE OF HOCHKIRCH 

So soon as Friedrich quitted Bohemia and Silesia for his 
Russian Enterprise, there rose high question at Vienna, To 
what shall our Daun now turn himself ? ' A Daun, a Reichs 
Army, free for new employment ; in Saxony not much to 
oppose them, in Silesia almost nothing in comparison. * Re- 
capture of Silesia ? ' Yes truly ; that is the steady pole-star 
at Vienna. But they have no Magazines in Silesia, no Siege- 
furnitures; and the season is far spent. They decide that 
there shall be a stroke upon Dresden, and recovery of Saxony, 

i In Helden-Geschichte, v. 349-365 (^d-sist October 1758'), a complete and 
minute Journal of this First Siege of Colberg, which is interesting to read of, as 
all the Three of them are. 



398 SEVEN-YEARS WAR RISES [BOOK xvm. 

[I7th Aug;.-i2th Sept. 1758 

in Friedrich's absence. Nothing there at present but a Prince 
Henri, weak in numbers, say one to two of the Reichs Army 
by itself. Let the Reichs Army rise now, and advance through 
the Metal Mountains from south-east on Prince Henri ; let 
Daun circle round on him, through the Lausitz from north- 
east : cannot they extinguish Henri between them ; snatch 
Dresden, a weak ill-fortified place, by sudden onslaught, and 
recapture Saxony ? That will be magnanimous to our august 

Allies ; and that will be an excellent scaifolding for recapture 

of Silesia next year. And cannot Daun leave a Force in the 
Silesian vicinities, Deville with so many thousands, Harsch 
with so many, to besiege one of their Frontier Places; 
Neisse, for example ? Siege-furnitures to come from Mahren : 
Neisse is not farther from Olmiitz than Olmiitz was from it. 

That was the scheme fallen upon; now getting executed 
while Friedrich is at Zorndorf well away. And that, if 
readers fix it intelligently in their memory, will suffice to 
introduce to them the few words more that can be allowed us 
here upon it. A very few words, compressed to the utmost, 

merely as preface to Hochkirch, whither we must hasten ; 

Hochkirch being the one incident which, except to studious 
soldiers, has now and here any interest, out of the very many 
incidents which, then and there, were so intensely interesting 
to all mankind. To readers who are curious, and will take 
with them any poorest authentic Outline of the Localities con- 
cerned/ c the following condensed Note will not be unintelligible. 

Daun and the Reichs Army invade Saxony, in 
FriedricKs Absence 

'Daun, pushing-out with his best speed, along the Bohemian-Silesian 
border, had got to Zittau August Ifth; which poor City is to be his 
basis and storehouse; the greatest activity and wagoning now visible 
there,' among the burnt walls getting rebuilt. { And in the same 
days, Zweibruck and his Reichs Army are vigorously afoot ; Zweibruck 
pushing across the Metal Mountains^ the fastest he can; intending to 
plant himself in Pirna Country. Not to mention General Dombale, 

* Plan, p. 416. 



CHAP, xiv.] BATTLE OF HOCHKIRCH 399 

I7th Aug.-iath Sept. 1758] 

Zweibr lick's Austrian Second; who lias tlie Austrian 15,000 witli Mm; 
and, by way of preface, has emerged to westward^ in Zwickau-Tschopau 
Country ; calculating that Prince Henri will not "be able to attend to him 
just now. And in effect Prince Henri, intent upon Zweibriick and the 
Pirna Country, takes position in the old Prussian ground there ("head- 
quarter Gross Seidlitz," as in 1756) ; and can only leave a Detachment in 
Tschopau Country to wait upon Dombale ; who does at least shoot-out 
Croat parties, " quite across Saxony, to Halle all the way/' and entertain 
the Gazetteers, if he can do little real mischief. 

e August 19th, from Zittau, Daun, after short pause, again pushes 
forward, nothing but Ziethen attending him in the distance, till we see 
whitherward ; Margraf Karl waiting impatient, at Griissau, till Ziethen 
see. 1 Daun, soon after Zittau, shoots-out Loudon, Brandenburg way, as if 
magnanimously intending (C cooperation with the Russians'*; which would 
give Daun pleasure, could it be done without cost. Loudon does despatch 
a 500 hussars to Frankfurt' (Friedrich now gone for Custrin), c who, I 
think, carry a Letter for Fermor there ; but lose it by the way/- for the 
benefit of readers, if they will wait. f Loudon captures a poor little 
place in Brandenburg itself; bullies it into surrender, after a day (the 
very day of Zorndorf Battle, "August 25th "): place called Peitz, 
garrisoned by forty-five invalids; who go on (C free/^withdrawal/' poor- 
old souls, and leave their exiguous stock of salt-victual and military 
furnitures to Loudon. 2 Upon which Loudon whirls back out of those 
Countries; finding his skirts trodden-on by Ziethen, who now sees 
what Daun and he are at; and warns Margraf Karl* (properly Keith, 
who has now joined again, as real president or chief) ' That hither is the 
way. Margraf Karl, on the slip for some time past, starts from Grtissau 
instantly (I should guess, not above 25,000 of all arms) ; leaving Fouquet 
with perhaps 10,000 to do his utmost, when Generals Harsch and Deville 
with their 20 or 30,000 come upon Silesia and him, as indeed they are 
already doing ; already blockading Neisse, more or less, with an eye to 
besieging it so soon as possible. 

* Meanwhile, Serene Highness of Zweibriick, the Reichsfolk and some 
Austrians with him, prefaced by Dombale more^to westward, is wending 
into Pirna Country ; and, in spite of what Prince Henri can do (Mayer 
and the Free Corps shiningly diligent, and Henri one of the watch- 
fulest of men), Zweibruck does get in ; sets Maguire with Austrians, 
upon besieging Pirna, that is to say, the Sonnenstein of Pirna ; Sd-5th 
September, gets the Sonnenstein, a thought sooner than was counted on ; 3 

1 Tempelhof, ii. 258, 260 et seq. 

2 In Helden-Geschicht6) v. 229-232 the 'Capitulation* in extenso* 

8 In Ibid. 223-228, account of this poor Siege, and of the movements before 
and after. 



400 SEVEN-YEARS WAR RISES [BOOKXVin. 

[i?th Aug. -iath Sept. 1758 

and roots Mmself there, "headquarter in Struppen" again, " bridge at 
Ober~Raden" again, all as in 1756 ; which, if nothing else can well do it, 
may give Ms Highness a momentary interest with some readers here. 
Prince Henri is at Gross Seidlitz, alive every fibre of him : but with 
Daun circling round to northward on his left, intending evidently to 
take him in flank or rear ; with Dombale already to rear, in the above 
circumstances,, on his right ; and Zweibriick himself lying here in front 
free to act, and impregnable if acted upon : what is Prince Henri to do ? 
It is for Henri's rear, not his flank, that Daun aims : August 26A, Daun, 
who had got to Gorlitz, a inarch or two from Zittau, started again at his 
best step by the Bautzen Highway towards Meissen Bridge, a 70 or 80 
miles down the Elbe : there Daun intends to cross, and to double-back 
upon Dresden and Prince Henri; who will thus find himself enclosed 
between three fires, if two were not enough, or even if one (the Daun 
one itself, or the Zweibriick itself, not to count the Dombale), in such 
strength as Prince Henri has ! 

' A lost Prince Henri, if there be not shift in him, if there be not 
help coming to him ! Prince Henri, seeing how it was, drew back from 
Gross Seidlitz ; with beautiful suddenness, one night ; unmolested : in 
the morning, Zweibriick's hussars find him posted inexpugnable on the 
Heights of Gahmig, which is nearer Dresden a good step; nearer 
Dombale ; and not so ready to be enclosed by Daun, without enclosure 
of Dresden too. Prince Henri's manoeuvring, in this difficult situation, 
is the admiration of military men : how he stuck by Gahmig ; but threw- 
out, in the vital points, little camps, " camp of Kesselsdorf " (a place 
memorable), on the west of Dresden ; and on the east, in the north 
Suburb of Dresden itself, across the River (should we have to go across 
the River for Daun's sake), a cc strong abatis " ; and neglected nothing ; 
self, and everybody under him, lively as eagles to make themselves 
dangerous, Mayer in particular distinguishing himself much. Prince 
Henri would have been a hard morsel for Daun. But beyond that, there 
is help on the road/ 

Friedrich intervening, Daun draws back; intrenches himself 
in Neighbourhood to Dresden and Pirna; Friedrich follow- 
ing him. Four Armies standing there, in dead-lock, for a 
Month; with Issue, a Flank-march on the Part of Fried- 
rich^ Army, which halts at HochTcirch (September lth 
October 10th, 1758). 

Daun, since August 26th, is striding towards Meissen 
Bridge ; without rest, day after day, at the very top of his 



CHAP. Xiv.] BATTLE OF HOCHKIRCH 401 

xyth Aug.-i2th Sept. 1758] 

speed, which I find is ' nine miles a day * ; l Bos being heavy 
of foot, at his best. September 1 st, Daun has got within 
ten miles of Meissen Bridge, when Here is news, my friends ; 
King of Prussia has beaten our poor Russians ; will soon be 
in full march this way ! King of Prussia and Margraf Karl 
both bending hitherward ; at the rate, say, of ( nineteen miles 
a day,' instead of nine : Meissen Bridge is not the thing we 
shall want ! Daun instantly calls halt, at this news ; waits, 
intrenches; and, in a day or two, finding the news true, 
hurries to rearward all he can. From the Russian side too, 
Daun has heard of Zorndorf, and the grand < Victory' of 
Fermor there ; but knows well, by this sudden reemergence 
of the Anti-Fermor, what kind of Victory it is. 

Was it here while waiting about Meissen, or where was it, 
that Daun got his Letter to Fermor answered in that singular 
way? The Letter of two weeks ago, carried by London's 
Hussars, or by whomsoever, for certain, it was retorted, or 
returned upon Daun ; not as if from the Dead-Letter Office, 
but with an Answer he little expected ! Here is what record 
I have ; very vague for a well-known little fact of sparkling 
nature : 

< A curious Letter fell into Friedrich's hands' (Bearer, I always guess, 
the Loudon Hussar-Captain with his 500, pretending to form junction 
with Fermor), ' Prussian Hussars picking it up somewhere, date, place, 
circumstances, blurred into oblivion in those poor Books ; Letter itself 
indisputable enough, and Answer following on it; Letter and Answer 
substantially to this effect: 

Dawi to Fermor ' (Probably from Zittau, by Loudon's 
Hussars) 

'"Your Excellenz does not know that wily Enemy as I do. By no 
means get into battle with such a one. Cautiously manoeuvre about; 
detain him there, till I have got my stroke in Saxony done : don't try 
fighting him. 

1 Tempelhof, ii. 261. 
VOL. VI 2 C 



402 SEVEN-YEARS WAR RISES [BOOKXVII1. 

[gth Sept. 1758 

c Answer as from Fermor (Zorndorf once done, Daun by the 
first opportunity got his Answer, duly signed "Fermor," 
but evidently in a certain King's handwriting) 

" Your Excellenz was in the right to warn me against a cunning 
Enemy, whom you knew better than I. Here have I tried fighting him, 
and got beaten. Your unfortunate FERMOR." * l 

September 9th, Friedrich and Margraf Karl, correct to their 
appointment, meet at Grossenhayn, some miles north of 
Meissen and its Bridge ; by which time Daun is clean gone 
again, back well above Dresden again, strongly posted at 
Stolpen (a place we once heard of, in General Haddick's time, 
last Year), well in contact with Daun's Pirna friends across 
the River, and out of dangerous neighbourhoods. Friedrich 
and the Margraf have followed Daun at quick step; but 
Daun would pause nowhere, till he got to Stolpen, among the 
bushy gullets and chasms. September 12th, Friedrich had 
speech of Henri, and the pleasure of dining with him in 
Dresden. Glad to meet again, under fortunate management 
on both parts ; and with much to speak and consult about. 

A day or two before, there had lain (or is said to have 
lain) a grand scheme in Daun : Zweibriick to burst-out from 
Pirna by daybreak, and attack the Camp of Gahmig in front 
(35,000 against 20,000); Daun to cross the River on 
pontoons, some hours before, under cloud of night, and be 
ready on rear and left flank of Gahmig (with as many supple- 
mental thousands as you like) : what can save Prince Henri ? 
Beautiful plan ; on which there were personal meetings and 
dinings together by Zweibriick and Daun ; but nothing done, 2 
At the eleventh hour, say the Austrian accounts, Zweibriick 



1 Miiller, ^urzgefiKsteB^chreilmngderdrdSchlssischenKi^egt^^^ *755); 
in whom, alone of all the reporters, is the story given in an intelligible form, 
This Miiller's Book is a meritoriously brief Summary, incorrect in no essential 
particular, and with all the Battle-Plans on one copperplate : Lieutenant Mullet, 
this one j not Professor Miiller alias Schottmuller by any means ! 

2 Tempelhof, ii. 262-265. 



CHAP, xiv.] BATTLE OF HOCHKIRCH 403 

gth-i2th Sept. 1758] 

sent word, c Impossible tomorrow; cannot get in my Out- 
Parties in time 1 ' and next day, here is Friedrich come, and 
a collapse of everything. Or perhaps there never seriously 
was such a plan ? Certain it is, Daun takes camp at Stolpen, 
a place known to him, one of the strongest posts in Germany; 
intrenches himself to the teeth, good rearguard towards 
Zittau and the Magazines; River and Pirna on our left 
flank ; Loudon strong and busy on our right flank, barring 
the road to Bautzen ; and obstinately sits there, a very bad 
tooth in the jaw of a certain King ; not to be extracted by 
the best kinds of forceps and the skilfulest art, for nearly a 
month to come. Four Armies, Friedrich's, Henri's, Daun's, 
Zweibriick's, all within sword-stroke of each other, the 
universal Gazetteer world is on tiptoe. But except Friedrich's 
eager shiftings and rubbings upon Stolpen (west side, north, 
and at length north-east side), all is dead-lock, and nothing 
comes of it. 

Friedrich has his food convenient from Dresden ; but a road 
to Bautzen withal is what he cannot do without ; and there 
lies the sorrow, and the aching, as this tooth knows well, and 
this jaw well ! Harsch and Deville are busy upon Neisse, 
have Neisse under blockade, perhaps upon Kosel too, for some 
time past, 1 and are carting the siege-stock to begin bombard- 
ment : a road to Silesia, before very long, Friedrich must and 
will have. Friedrich's operations on Daun in this post are 
patiently artful, and curious to look upon, but beyond 
description here: enough to say, that in the second week 
he makes his people hut themselves (weather wet and bad) ; 
and in the fourth week, finding that nothing contrivable 
would provoke Daun into fighting, he loads at Dresden 
provisions for, I think, nine days ; makes, from two or from 
three sides, a sudden spurt upon Loudon, who is Daun's 
northern outpost ; brushes Loudon hastily away ; and himself 

1 Neisse * blockaded more and more* since August 4th (Kosel still earlier, but 
only by Pandour people) ; not completely so till September soth, or even till 
October 26th : Helden-GescUchte^ v. 268-270. 



404 SEVEN-YEARS WAR RISES [BOOKXVIH. 

[ist-ioth Oct. 1758 

takes the road for Bautzen, by Daun's right flank, thrown 
bare in this manner. 1 

Road for Bautzen ; which is the road for Zittau withal, for 
Daunts breadbasket, as well as for Neisse and Harsch ! Nine- 
days provision; that is our small outfit, that and our own 
right hands ; and the waste world lies all ahead. October \st, 
Retzow, as vanguard, sweeps-out the few Croats from Bautzen, 
deposits his meal-wagons there ; occupies Hochkirch, and the 
hilly environs to east ; is to take possession of Weissenberg 
especially, and of the Stromberg Hill and other strong points : 
which Hetzow punctually does, forgetting nothing, except 
perhaps the Stromberg, not quite remembered in time; a 
thing of small consequence in Retzow^s view, since all else 
had gone right. 

Hearing of which, Daun, with astonishment, finds that he 
must quit those beautifully chasmy fastnesses of Stolpen, and 
look to his bread ; which is getting to lie under the enemy's 
feet, if Zittau road be left yonder as it is. October 5th, after 
councils of war and deliberation enough, Daun gets under 
way; 2 cautiously, favoured by a night very dark and wet, 
glides through to right of FriedricK's people, softly along 
between Bautzen and the Pirna Country ; nobody molesting 
him, so dark and wet; and after one other march in those 
bosky solitudes, sits down at Kittlitz, ahead or to east of 
Bautzen, of Hochkirch, of Retzow and all FriedricFs people ; 
and again sets to palisading and intrenching there. Kittlitz, 
near Lobau, there is Daun's new headquarter ; Lobau Water, 
with its intricate hollows, his line of defence : his posts going 
out a mile to north and to south of Kittlitz, And so sits ; 
once more blocking Zittau road, and quietly waiting what 
Eriedrich will do. 

Friedrich is at Bautzen since the 7th ; impatient enough 
to be forward, but must not till a second larger provision- 
convoy from Dresden come in, Convoy once in, Eiedrich 
hastens off, Tuesday 10th October, towards Weissenberg 

1 Tempelhof, ii 278. 



CHAP.XIV.] BATTLE OF HOCHKIRCH 405 

ioth-i4th Oct. 1758] 

Country, where Retzow is ; some ten or twelve miles to east- 
ward, Zittauward, if that chance to suit us ; Silesia- ward, as 
is sure to suit. At the c Pass of Jenkowitz, 1 short way from 
Bautzen, Pandours attempt our baggage ; need to be battered 
off, and a^ain off : which apprises Friedrich that Daun's whole 
Army is ahead in the neighbourhood somewhere. Marching 
on, Friedrich, from the knoll of Hochkirch, shoulder of the 
southern Hills, gets complete view of Daun, stretching north 
and south, at right angles to the Zittau roads and to Fried- 
rich, in the way we described ; and is a little surprised, and 
I could guess piqued, at seeing Daun in such a state of 
forwardness. c Encamp here, then ! ' he says, here, on this 
row of Heights parallel to Daun, within a mile of Daun : just 
here, I tell you ! under the very nose of Daun, who is above two 
to one of us; and see what Daun will do. Marwitz, his 
favourite Adjutant, one of those free-spoken Marwitzes, loyal, 
skilful, but liable to stiff fits, takes the liberty to remonstrate, 
argue ; says at length, He, Marwitz, dare not be concerned in 
marking-out such an encampment ; not he, for his poor part ! 
And is put under arrest ; and another Adjutant does it ; 
cannon playing on his people and him while engaged in the 
operation. 

Friedrich 's obstinate rashness, this Tuesday Evening, has 
not wanted its abundant meed of blame, rendered so 
emphatic by what befell on Saturday morning next. His 
somewhat too authoritative fixity ; a certain radiancy of self- 
confidence, dangerous to a man; his sovereign contempt of 
Daun, as an inert dark mass, who durst undertake nothing ; 
all this is undeniable, and worth our recognition in estimating 
Friedrich. One considerably extenuating circumstance does 
at last turn up, in the shape of a new piece of blame to the 
erring Friedrich; his sudden anger, namely, against the 
meritorious General Retzow ; his putting Retzow under arrest 
that Tuesday Evening : * How, General Retzow ? You have 
not taken hold of the Stromberg for me!' That is the 



406 SEVEN-YEARS WAR RISES [BOOKXVIII. 

[ioth-i4th Oct. 1758 

secret of Retzow : and on studying the ground you will find 
that the Stromberg, a blunt tabular Hill, of good height, 
detached, and towering well up over all that region, might 
have rendered Friedrich's position perfectly safe. Seize me 
the Stromberg tomorrow morning, the first thing ! ' ordered 
Friedrich. And a Detachment went accordingly ; but found 
Daun's people already there, indisposed to go ; nay, deter- 
mined not to go, and getting reinforced to unlimited amounts. 
So that the Stromberg was left standing, and remained 
Daun's ; furnished with plenty of cannon by Daun. Retzow's 
arrest, Retzow being a steady favourite of Friedrich's, was only 
of a few hours : < pardonable that oversight,' thinks Friedrich, 
though it came to cost him dear. For the rest, I find, 
Friedrich's keeping of this Camp, without the Stromberg, was 
intended to end, the third day hence: Saturday 14th, 
then, since Friday proves impossible ! ' Friedrich had settled. 
And it did end Saturday 14th, though at an earlier hour, 
and with other results than had been expected. Keith said, 
4 The Austrians deserve to be hanged if they don't attack 
us here."* 'We must hope they are more afraid of us 
than even of the gallows,' answered Friedrich. A very 
dangerous Camp; untenable without the Stromberg. Let 
us try to understand it, and Daun's position to it, in some 
slight degree. 

'Hochkirch (ffigJikirk) is an old Wendish-Saxon Village, standing 
pleasantly on its Hilltop, conspicuous for miles round on all sides, or 
on all but tlie south side, where it abuts upon other Heights., which 
gradually rise into Hills a good deal higher than it The Village hangs 
confusedly, a jumble of cottages and colegarths, on the crown and north 
slope of the Height; thatched, in part tiled, and built mostly of rough 
stone blocks, in our time, not of wood, as probably in Friedrich's. A 
solid, sluttishly comfortable-looking Village ; with pleasant hay-fields, or 
long narrow hay stripes (each villager has his stripe), reaching down to 
the northern levels. The Church is near the top ; Churchyard, and 
some little space farther, are nearly horizontal ground, till the next 
Height begins sloping up again towards the woody Hills southward. The 
view from this little esplanade atop, still better from the Church belfry, 



CHAP, xiv.] BATTLE OF HOCHKIRCH 407 

ioth-i4th Oct. 1758] 

is wide and pretty. Free on all sides except the south : pleasant Heights 
and Hollows^ of arable, of wood, or pasture j well-watered by rushing 
Brooks, all making northward, direct for Spree (the Berlin Spree), or 
else into the Lobau Water, which is the first big branch of Spree. 

' The place is still partly of Wendish speech ; the Parson has to preach 
one half of the Sunday in Wend, the other in German. Among the 
Hills to south,' well worth noting at present, e is one called Czarnabog, 
or "Devil's Hill" ; where the Wendish Devil and his Witches (equal to 
any German on his Blocksberg, or preternatural Brocken of the Harz) 
hold their annual Witches' '-Sabbath, a thing not to be contemplated with- 
out a shudder by the Wendish mind. Thereabouts, and close from 
Hochkirch southward, all is shadowy intricacy of thicket and wild wood. 
Northward too from Hochkirch, and all about, I perceive the scene was 
woodier then than now; and must have looked picturesque enough 
(had anybody been in quest of that), with the multifarious uniforms, and 
tented people sprinkled far and wide among the leafy red-and-yellow of 
October 1758.' * 

In the Village of Wuischke, precisely at the northern base 
of that shaggy Czarnabog or Devil's Hill, stand London and 
S,000 Croats and grenadiers, as the extreme left of Daun's 
position. Wnischke is nearly straight south of Hochkirch ; so 
far westward has London pushed forward with his Croats, 
hidden among the Hills ; though Daun's general position 
lies a good mile to east of Friedrich's : irregularly north 
and south, both Friedrich and Daun; the former ignorant 
what Croats and Loudonries there may be among those 
Devil's Hills to his right; the latter not ignorant Fried- 
rich's right wing, Keith in command of it, stretches to 
Hochkirch and a little farther : beyond Hochkirch, it has 
Four flank Battalions in potence form, with proper vedettes 
and pickets ; and above all, with a strong Battery of Twenty 
Guns, which it maintains on the next Height immediately 
adjoining Hochkirch, and perceptibly higher than Hoch- 
kirch. This is the finis of Keith on his right ; and, except 
those vedettes, and pickets of Free-corps people, thrown-out 
a little way ahead into the bushes, on that side, Fried- 
rich's right wing knows nothing of the shaggy elevations 
1 Tourist's, Note, September 1858. 



SEVEN-YEARS WAR RISES [BOOKXVIIL 

[ioth-i4th Oct. 175$ 

horrent with wood, which lie to southward; and merely 
intends to play its Twenty Cannon upon them, should they 
give birth to anything. This is Friedrich's posture on his 
right or south wing. 

From Hochkirch northward, or nearly so, but sprinkled 
about in all the villages and points of strength, as far up as 
Drehsa and beyond Drehsa, to near Kotitz, a less important 
village, Friedrich extends about four miles ; centre at Rodewitz, 
where his own headquarter is, above two miles north of Hoch- 
kirch. Not far from Rodewitz, but a little to left and 
ahead, stands his second and best Battery, of Thirty Guns ; 
ready to play upon Lauska, a poor village, and its roadway,"* 
should the Austrians try anything there, or from their Strom- 
berg post, which is a good mile behind Lauska. His strength, 
in these lines, some count to be only 28,000, or less. Four 
or five miles to north-east, in and behind Weissenberg 
(which we used to know last summer), lies Retzow, with 
perhaps 10 or 12,000, which will bring him up to 40,000, 
were they properly joined with him as a left wing. Daun's 
force counts 90,000 ; with Friedrich lying under his nose 
in this insolent manner. 

Daun's headquarter, as we said, is Eittlitz ; a Village some 
two miles short of Lobau, in the direction south-east of 
Friedrich; perhaps five miles to south-east of Rodewitz, 
Friedrich's lodging. It is close upon the Bautzen -Zittau 
Highway ; Zittau some twenty miles to south of it, Herrn- 
huth and the pacific Brethren about halfway thither. Kittlitz 
lies more to south than Hochkirch itself; and Damfs out- 
posts, as we saw, circle quite round among those Devil's 
Hills, and envelop Friedrich's right flank. But Daunts main 
force lies chiefly northward, and well to west, of Kittlitz; 
parallel to Friedrich, and eastward of him; with elaborate 
intrenchments ; every village, brook, bridge, height and bit 
of good ground, Stromberg to end with, punctually secured. 
Obliquely over the Stromberg, holding the Stroraberg and 

* Plan, p. 416. 



CHAP, xiv.] BATTLE OF HOCHKIRCH 409 

ioth-i4th Oct. 1758] 

certain Villages to south-east and to north-west of it, lies 
D'Ahremberg, as right wing: about 0,000 he, put into 
oblique potence ; looking into Kotitz, which is Friedrich's 
extreme left ; and in a good measure dividing Friedrich from 
the Retzow 10,000. And lastly, as reserve, in front of 
Reichenbach, eight or nine miles to east of all that, lies the 
Prince of Baden-Durlach, 25,000 or so ; barring Retzow on 
that side, and all attempts on the Silesian Road there. 
Daun's lines, not counting-in the southern outposts or DevilV 
Hill parties, are considerably longer than Friedrich's, and also 
considerably deeper. The two headquarters are about five 
miles apart: but the two fronts, divided by a brook and 
good hollow running here (one of many such, making all for 
Lobau Water), are not half a mile apart. Towards Hoch- 
kirch and the top of this brook, the opposing posts are quite 
crammed close on one another ; divided only by their hollow. 
Many brooks, each with a definite hollow, run tinkling about 
here, swift but straitened to get out; especially Lobau 
Water, which receives them all, has to take a quite meander- 
ing circling course (through Daun's quarters and beyond 
them) before it can disembogue in Spree, and decidedly set 
out for Berlin under that new name. The Landscape, 
seen from Hochkirch Village, still better from the Church- 
steeple which lifts you high above it, and commands all 
round except to the south, where Friedrich's battery-height 
quite shuts you in, and hides even those Devil's Hills beyond, 

is cheerful and pretty. Village belfries, steeples and towers ; 

airy green ridges of heights, and intricate greener valleys : now 
rather barer than you like. The Tourist tells me, in Friedrich's 
time there must have been a great deal more of wood than now. 

What actually befell at HochUrch (Saturday 14th 
October 1758) 

Friedrich, for some time, probably ever since Wednesday 
morning, when he found the Stromberg was not to be his* 



410 SEVEN-YEARS WAR RISES [BOOKXVIIL 

[i4th Oct. 1758 

had decided to be out of this bad post. In which, clearly 
enough, nothing was to be done, unless Daun would attempt 
something else than more and more intrenching and palisad- 
ing himself. Friedrich on the second day (Thursday lth) 
rode across to Weissenberg, to give Retzow his directions, 
and take view of the ground : < Saturday night, Herr Retzow, 
sooner it cannot be' (Friedrich had aimed at Friday night, 
but finds the Provision-convoy cannot possibly be up) ; Satur- 
day night, in all silence, we sweep round out of this, we 
and you ; hurl Baden-Durlach about his business ; and are 
at Schops and Reichenbach, and the Silesian Highway open, 
next morning, to us ! ' l Quietly everything is speeding on 
towards this consummation, on Friedrich's part. But on 
Daun's part there is, started, I should guess, on the very 
same Thursday, another consummation getting ready, which 
is to fall-out on Saturday morning, fifteen hours before that 
other, and entirely supersede that other ! 

Keith's opinion, that the Austrians deserve to be hanged 
if they don't attack us here, is also London's opinion and 
Lacy's, and indeed everybody's, and at length Daun's own ; 
who determines to try something here, if never before or 
after. His plan, all judges admit, was elaborate and good; 
and was well-executed too, Daun himself presiding over the 
most critical part of the execution. A plan to have ruined 
almost any Ajrmy, except this Prussian one and the Captain 
it chanced to have. A universal camisado, or surprisal of 
Friedrich in his Camp, before daylight : everybody knows 
that it took effect (Hochkirch, Saturday 14th October 1758, 
5 A.M. of a misty morning) ; nobody expects of an unassisted 
fellow-creature much light on so doubly dark a thing. But 
the truth is, there are ample accounts, exact, though very 
chaotic ; and the thing, steadily examined, till its essential 
features extricate themselves from the unessential, proves to 
be not quite so unintelligible, and nothing like so destructive, 
overwhelming and ruinous as was supposed. 

1 Tempelhof, ii. 320. 



CHAP, xiv.j BATTLE OF HOCHKIRCH 411 

I4th Oct. 1758] 

Daun's plan is very elaborate, and includes a great many 
combinations; all his 90,000 to come into it, simultaneously 
or in succession. But the first and grandly vital part, main- 
spring and father to all the rest, is this : That Daun, in 
person, after nightfall of Friday, shall, with the pick of his 
force, say 30,000 horse and foot, with all their artilleries 
and tools, silently quit his now position in front of Hochkirch, 
Friedrich's right wing. Shall sweep off, silently to south- 
ward and leftward, by Wuischke; thence westward and 
northward, by the northern base of those Devil Mountains, 
through the shaggy hollows and thick woods there, hitherto 
inhabited by Croats only, and unknown to the Prussians : 
forward, ever forward, through the night-watches that way; 
till he has fairly got to the flank of Hochkirch and Fried- 
rich : Daun to be standing there, all round from the southern 
environs of Hochkirch, westward through the woods, by 
Meschwitz, Steinddrfel, and even north to Waditz (if readers 
will consult their Map), silently enclosing Friedrich, as in the 
bag of a net, in this manner; ready every man and gun 
by about four on Saturday morning Are to wait for the 
stroke of five in Hochkirch steeple ; and there and then to 
begin business, there first ; but, on success there, the whole 
90,000 everywhere, and to draw the strings on Friedrich, 
and bag and strangle his astonished people and him. 

The difficulty has been to keep it perfectly secret from so 
vigilant a man as Friedrich : but Daun has completely suc- 
ceeded. Perhaps Friedrich's eyes have been a little dimmed 
by contempt of Daun : Daun, for the last two days especially, 
has been more diligent than ever to palisade himself on every 
point ; nothing, seemingly, on hand but felling woods, build- 
ing abatis, against some dangerous LionVspring. They say 
also, he detected a traitor in his Camp ; traitor carrying 
Letters to Friedrich under pretence of fresh eggs, one of 
the eggs blown, and a Note of Daun's Procedures substituted 
as yolk. < You are dead, sirrah,' said Daun ; < hoisted to the 
highest gallows : Are not you ? But put-in a Note of my 



412 SEVEN-YEARS WAR RISES [BOOKXVIIL 

[I4th Oct. 1758 

dictating, and your beggarly life is saved.' Retzow Junior, 
though, there is no evidence except of the circumstantial 
kind, thinks this current story may be true. 1 Certain it is, 
neither Friedrich nor any of his people had the least sus- 
picion of Daun's project, till the moment it exploded on 
them, when the clock at Hochkirch struck five. Daun, in 
the last two days, had been felling even more trees than they 
are aware of, thousands of trees in those Devil's wilder- 
nesses to Friedrich's right; and has secretly hewn himself 
roads, passable by night for men and ammunition-wagons 
there : and in front of Friedrich, especially Hochkirch way, 
Daun seems busier than ever felling wood, this Friday night ; 
numbers of people running about with axes, with lanterns 
over there, as if in the push of hurry, and making a great 
deal of noise. < Intending retreat for Zittau tomorrow ! ' 
thinks Friedrich, as the false egg-yolk had taught him ; or 
merely, "That poor precautionary fellow T supposing the 
false yolk a myth. In short, Daun has got through his 
nocturnal wildernesses with perfect success. And stands, 
dreamt-of by no enetijf, in the places appointed for his 
30,000 and him; and that poor old clock of Hochkirch, 
unweariedly grunting forward to the stroke of five, will 
strike-up something it is little expecting ! 

The Prussians have vedettes, pickets and small outposts 
of Free-corps people scattered about within their border of 
that Austrian Wood, the body of which, about Hochkirch 
as everywhere else, belongs wholly to Croats. Of cotu?se 
there are guard-parties, sentries duly vigilant, in the big 
Battery to south-east of Hochkirch, and along south-west- 
ward in that potence, or fore-arm of Four Battalions, which 
are stationed there. Four good Battalions looking south- 
ward there, with Cavalry to right ; Ziethen's Cavalry, whose 
horses stand saddled through the night, ready always for the 
nocturnal * Pandourade/ which seldom fails them. There, as 
elsewhere, are the due vigilances, watchmen, watch-fires. The 
1 Retzow, i. 347. 



CHAP.XIV.] BATTLE OF HOCHKIRCH 413 

I4th Oct. 1758] 

rest of the Prussian Army is in its blankets, wholly asleep, 
while Daun stands waiting for the stroke of five. 

That Daun, bursting-in with his chosen 80,000, will 
trample-down the sleeping Prussian potence at Hochkirch ; 
capture its big Battery to left, its Village of Hochkirch to 
rear, and do extensive ruin on the whole right wing of 
Friedrich ; rendering Friedrich everywhere an easy conquest 
to the rest of Daun's people, who stand, far and wide, duly 
posted and prepared, waiting only their signal from Hoch- 
kirch : much of this, all of it that had regard to Hoch- 
kirch Battery and Village, and the Prussians stationed there, 
Daun did execute. And readers, from the data they have 
got, must conceive the manner of it, human description of 
the next Two Hours, about Hochkirch, in the thick dark- 
ness there, and stormful sudden inroad, and stormful resist- 
ance made, being manifestly an impossible thing. Nobody 
was * massacred in his bed,' as the sympathetic gazetteers 
fancied ; nobody was killed, that I hear of, without arms in 
his hand ; but plenty of people perished, fierce of humour, on 
both sides ; and from half-past five till towards eight, there 
was a general blaze of fiery chaos pushing- out ever and anon, 
swallowed in the belly of Night again, such as was seldom 
seen in this world. Instead of confused details, and weari- 
some enumeration of particulars, which nobody would listen 
to or understand, we will give one intelligent young gentle- 
man's experience, our friend Tempelhof s, who stood in this 
part of the Prussian Line ; experience distinct and indubitable 
to us ; and which was pretty accurately symbolical, I other- 
wise see, of what befell on all points thereabouts. Faithfully 
copied, and in the essential parts not even abridged, here it is : 

Tempelhof, at that time a subaltern of artillery, was stationed with, 
a couple of 24-pounders in attendance on the Battalion Plothow, which 
with three others and some cavalry lay to the south side of Hochkirch, 
forming a kind of fore-arm or potence there to right of the big Battery, 
with their rear to Hochkirch; and keeping vedettes and Free-corps 
parties spread-out into the woods and Devil's Hills ahead. Tempelhof 
had risen about three, as usual ; had his guns and gunners ready ; and 



SEVEN-YEARS WAR RISES [BOOKXVIII. 

[I4th Oct. 1758 

was standing by tlie watch-fire,, ' expecting tlie customary Pandourade/ 
and what form it would take this morning. e Close on five o'clock ; and 
not a mouse stirring! We are not to have our Pandourade, then?* 
On a sudden, noise bursts-out; noise enough; sharp fire among the 
Free-corps people ; fire growing ever sharper., noisier, for the next half 
hour, hut nothing whatever to be seen. ' Battalion Plothow had soon 
got its clothes on, all to the spatterdashes ; and took rank to right and 
left of the fleche, and of my two guns, in front of its post : but on 
account of the thick fog everything was totally dark. I fired off my 
cannons' (shall we say straight southward?) f to learn whether there was 
anything in front of us. No answer : s Nothing there Pshaw, a mere 
crackery (Geknacker) of Pandours and our Free-corps people, after all ! ' 
But the noise grew louder, and came ever nearer; I turned my guns 
towards it* (southward, south-eastward, or perhaps a gun each way?) 
'and here we had a salvo in response, from some battalions who seemed 
to be two hundred yards or so ahead. The Battalion Plothow here- 
upon gave fire ; I too plied my cannons what I could, and had perhaps 
delivered fifteen double shots from them, when at once I tumbled to the 
ground, and lost all consciousness ' for some minutes or moments. 

Awakening with the blood running down his face, poor Tempelhof 
concluded it had been a musket-shot in the head ; but on getting to his 
hands and knees, he found the place r full of Austrian grenadiers, who 
had crept-in through our tents to rear ; and that it had been a knock 
with the butt of the musket from one of those fellows, and not a bullet,* 
that had struck Mm down. Battalion Plothow, assailed on all sides, 
resisted on all sides ; and Tempelhof saw from the ground, I suppose, 
by the embers of watchfires, and by rare flashes of musketry, for they 
did not fire much, having no room, but smashed and stabbed and cut, 
*an infantry fight which in murderous intensity surpasses imagination. 
I was taken prisoner at this turn ; but soon after got delivered by our 
cavalry again/ * 

This latter circumstance, of being delivered by the Cavalry, 
I find to be of frequent occurrence in that first act of the 
business there : the Prussian Battalion, surprised on front 
and rear, always makes murderous fight for itself ; is at last 
overwhelmed, obliged to retire, perhaps opening its way by 
bayonet-charge ; upon which our Cavalry (Ziethen\ and 
others that gathered to him) cutting-in upon the disordered 
surprisers, cut them into flight, rescue the prisoners, and for 
a time reinstate matters. The Prussian battalions do not 
1 Tempelhof, ii, 324 w. 



CHAP, xiv.] BATTLE OP HOCHKIRCH 415 

I4th Oct. 1758] 

run (nobody runs) ; but when repulsed by the endless odds, 
rally again. The big Battery is not to be had of them with- 
out fierce and dogged struggle ; and is retaken more than 
once or twice. Still fiercer, more dogged, was the struggle 
in Hochkirch Village ; especially in Hochkirch Church and 
Churchyard, whither the Battalion Margraf-Karl had flung 
themselves; the poor Village soon taking fire about them. 
Soon taking fire, and continuing to be a scene of capture and 
recapture, by the flame-light ; while Battalion Margraf-Karl 
stood with invincible stubbornness, pouring death from it ; not 
to be compulsed by the raging tide of Austrian grenadiers ; 
not by c six Austrian battalions,' by ' eight/ or by never so 
many. Stood at bay there ; levelling whole masses of them, 
till its cartridges were spent, all to one or two per man ; and 
Major Lange, the heroic Captain of it, said, ' We shall have 
to go, then, my men ; let us cut ourselves through ! ' and 
did so, in an honourably invincible manner ; some brave 
remnant actually getting through, with Lange himself 
wounded to death. 

I think it was not till towards six o'clock that the right 
wing generally became aware what the case was : * More than 
a Pandourade, yes ' ; though what it might be, in the thick 
fog which had fallen, blotting- out all vestiges of daylight, 
nobody could well say. Eallied Battalions, reinforced by this 
or the other Battalion hurrying-up from leftward, always 
charge-in upon the enemy, in Hochkirch or wherever he is 
busy ; generally push him back into the Night ; but are then 
fallen-upon on both flanks by endless new strength, and 
obliged to draw back in turn. And Ziethen's Horse, in the 
mean while, do execution ; breaking-in on the tumultuous 
victors ; new Cuirassiers, Gensdarmes dashing-up to help, so 
soon as saddled, and charging with a will : so that, on the 
whole, the enemy, variously attempting,, could make nothing 
of us on that western, or rearward side, thanks mainly to 
Ziethen and the Horse. 'Had we but waited till three 
or four of our Battalions had got up 1 ' say the Prussian 



416 SEVEN-YEARS WAR RISES [BOOKXYIII. 

[I4th Oct. 1758 

narrators. But it is thick mist ; few yards ahead you cannot 
see at all, unless it be flame ; and close at hand, all things 
and figures waver indistinct, hairy outlines of blacker 
shadows on a ground of black. 

It must have been while Lange was still fighting, perhaps 
before Lange took to the Church of Hochkirch, scarcely later 
than half-past six (but nobody thought of pulling-out his 
watch in such a business !) about six, or half-past six, when 
Keith, who Las charge of this wing, and lodges somewhere 
below or north of Hochkirch, came to understand that his 
big Battery was taken ; that here was such a Pandourade as 
had not been before ; and that, of a surety, said Battery must 
**e retaken. Keith springs on horseback ; hastily takes 
c Battalion Kannacker ' and several remnants of others ; rushes 
upwards, < leaving Hochkirch a little to right ; direct upon 
the big Battery.' Recaptures the big Battery. But is set- 
upon by overwhelming multitudes, bent to have it back ; is 
passionate for new assistance in this vital point ; but can 
get none : had been < disarted by both his Aide-de-camps,' 
says poor John Tebay, a wandering English horse-soldier, 
who attends him as mounted groom ; * asked twenty times, 
and twenty more, " Where are my Aide-de-camps ?" n but 
could get no response or reinforcement ; and at length, quite 
surrounded and overwhelmed, had to retire ; opening his way 
by the bayonet ; and before long, suddenly stopping short, 
falling dead into Tebay's arms ; shot through the heart. 
Two shots on the right side he had not regarded ; but this 
on the left side was final : Keith's fightings are suddenly all 
done. Tebay, in distraction, tried much to bring away the 
body ; but could by no present means ; distractedly c rid for 

1 'Captens Cockcey and Goudy' he calls them (Cocceji whose Father the 
Kanzler we have seen, and Gaudi whose self), who both had, in succession, 
struck into Hochkirch as the less desperate place, according to Tebay: see 
Tebay* $ Letter to Mitchell, * Crossen, October 29th ' (in Memoirs and Papers, 
ii. 501-505) ; which is probably true every word, allowing for Tebay's temper j 
but is highly Indecipherable, though not entirely so after many readings and 
.researchings. 



CHAP.XIV.] BATTLE OF HOCHKIRCH 417 

I4th Oct. 1758] 

a coach ' ; found, on return, that the Austrians had the 
ground, and the body of his master ; Hochkirch, Church and 
all, now undisputedly theirs. 

To appearance, it was this news of Keith's repulse (I know 
not whether of Keith's death as yet) that first roused Friedrich 
to a full sense of what was now going on, two miles to south 
of him. Friedrich, according to his habits, must have been 
awake and afoot when the Business first broke out ; though, 
for some considerable time, treating it as nothing but a 
common crackery of Pandours. Already, finding the 
Pandourade louder than usual, he had ordered out to it 
one battalion and the other that lay handy: but now he 
pushes forward several battalions under Franz of Brunswick 
(his youngest Brother-in-law), with Margraf Karl and Prince 
Moritz : * Swift you, to Hochkirch yonder 1 ' and himself 
springs on horseback to deal with the affair. Prince Franz 
of Brunswick, poor young fellow, cheerily coming on, near 
Hochkirch had his head shorn-off by a cannon-ball. Moritz 
of Dessau, too, * riding within twenty yards of the Austrians," 
so dark was it, he so near-sighted, got badly hit, and soon 
after, driving to Bautzen for surgery, was made prisoner by 
Pandours; 1 never fought again, 'died next year of cancer 
in the lip.' Nothing but triumphant Austrian shot and 
cannon-shot going yonder; these battalions too have to fall 
back with sore loss. 

Friedrich himself, by this time, is forward in the thick 
of the tumult, with another body of battalions; storming 
furiously along, has his horse shot under him ; storms 
through, * successfully, by the other side of Hochkirch' 
(Hochkirch to his left) : but finds, as the mist gradually 
sinks, a ring of Austrians massed ahead, on the Heights ; as 
fax as Steindorfel and farther, a general continent of Austrians 
enclosing all the south and south-west; and, in fact, that 
here is now nothing to be done. That the question of his 

3 In Archenholtz (i 289-290) his dangerous adventures on the road to Bautzen, 
in this wounded condition. 

VOL. VI, 2 D 



418 SEVEN-YEARS WAR RISES [BOOKXVIIL 

[i4th Oct. 1758 

flank is settled ; that the question now is of his front, which 
the appointed Austrian parties are now upon attacking. 
Question especially of the Heights of Drehsa, and of the 
Pass and Brook of Drehsa (rearward of his centre part), 
where his one retreat will lie, Steindorfel being now 
lost. Part first of the Affair is ended; Part second of it 
begins. 

Rapidly enough Friedrich takes his new measures. Seizes 
Drehsa Height, which will now be key of the field; despatches 
Mollendorf thither (Mollendorf our courageous Leuthen 
friend) ; who vigorously bestirs himself ; gets hold of Drehsa 
Height before the enemy can; Ziethen cooperating on the 
Heights of Kumschutz, Canitz and other points of vantage. 
And thus, in effect, Friedrich pulls-up his torn right skirt 
(as he is doing all his other skirts) into new compact front 
against the Austrians : so that, in that south-western part 
especially, the Austrians do not try it farther; but * retire 
at full gallop,' on sight of this swift seizure of the Keys by 
Mollendorf and Ziethen. Friedrich also despatches instant 
order to Retzow, to join him at his speediest. Friedrich 
everywhere rearranges himself, hither, thither, with skilful 
rapidity, in new Line of Battle ; still hopeful to dispute what 
is left of the field ; longing much that Retzow could come 
on wings. 

By this time (towards eight, if I might guess) Day has got 
the upper hand ; the Daun Austrians stand visible on their 
Ring of Heights all round, behind Hochkirch and our late 
Battery, on to westward and northward, as far as Steindorfel 
and Waditz ; extremely busy rearranging themselves into 
something of line; there being much confusion, much simmer- 
ing about in clumps and gaps, after such a tussle. In front 
of us, to eastward, the appointed Austrian parties are 
proceeding to attack: but in daylight, and with our eyes 
open, it is a thing of difficulty, and does not prosper as 
Hochkirch did. Duke D'Ahremberg, on their extreme right, 



CHAP. XIV.] BATTLE OF HOCHKIRCH 419 

I4th Oct. 1758] 

had in charge to burst-in upon our left, so soon as he saw 
Hochkirch done: D'Ahremberg does try; as do others in 
their places, near Daun; but with comparatively little success. 
D'Ahremberg, meeting something of check or hindrance where 
he tried, pauses, for a good while, till he see how others 
prosper. Their grand chance is their superiority of number ; 
and the fact that Friedrich can try nothing upon them, but 
must stand painfully on the defensive till Retzow come. To 
Friedrich, Retzow seems hugely slow about it. But the truth 
is, Baden-Durlach, with his Q 0,0 00 of Reserve, has, as per 
order, made attack on Retzow, 0,000 against 12: one 
of the feeblest attacks conceivable; but sufficient to detain 
Retzow till he get it repulsed. Retzow is diligent as Time 
and will be here. 

Meanwhile, the Austrians on front do, in a sporadic way, 
attack and again attack our batteries and posts; especially 
that big Battery of Thirty Guns, which we have to north 
of Rodewitz. The Austrians do take that Battery at last ; 
and are beginning again to be dangerous, the rather as 
D"Ahremberg seems again to be thinking of business. It is 
high time Retzow were here ! Few sights could be gladder 
to Friedrich, than the first glitter of Retzow's vanguard, 
horse, under Prince Eugen of Wiirtemberg, beautifully 
wending down from Weissenberg yonder ; skilfully posting 
themselves, at Belgern and elsewhere, as thorns in the sides 
of D'Ahremberg (sharp enough, on trial by D'Ahremberg). 
Followed, before long, by Retzow himself; serenely crossing 
Lobau Water ; and, with great celerity, and the best of skill, 
likewise posting himself, hopelessly to D'Ahremberg, who 
tries nothing farther. The sun is now shining; it is now 
ten of the day. Had Retzow come an hour sooner ; before 
we lost that big Battery and other things ! But he could 
come no sooner ; be thankful he is here at last, in such an 
overawing manner. 

Friedrich, judging that nothing now can be made of the 
affair, orders retreat. Retreat, which had been getting 



420 SEVEN-YEARS WAR RISES [BOOKXVUI. 

[i4th Oct. 1758 

schemed, I suppose, and planned in the gloom of the royal 
mind, ever since loss of that big Battery at Rodewitz. Little 
to occupy him, in this interim ; except indignant waiting, 
rigorously steady, and some languid interchange of cannon- 
shot between the parties. Retreat is to Klein-Bautzen 
neighbourhood (new headquarter Doberschutz, outposts 
Kreckwitz and Purschwitz) ; four miles or so to north-west. 
Bather a shifting of your ground, which astonishes the 
military reader ever since, than a retreating such as the 
common run of us expected. Done in the usual masterly 
manner; part after part wending off, Retzow standing 
minatory here, Mollendorf minatory there, in the softest 
quasi-rhythmic sequence; Cavalry all drawn-out between 
Belgern and Kreckwitz, baggage-wagons filing through the 
Pass of Drehsa ; not an Austrian meddling with it, less or 
more; Daun and his Austrians standing in their ring of 
five miles, gazing into it like stone statues ; their regiments 
being still in a confused state, and their Daun an extremely 
slow gentleman, 1 

And in this manner Friedrich, like a careless swimmer 

caught in the Mahlstrom, has not got swallowed in it ; but 

has made such a buffeting of it, he is here out of it again, 

without bone broken, not, we hope, without instruction 

from the adventure. He has lost 101 pieces of cannon, 

most of his tents and camp-furniture; and, what is more 

irreparable, above 8,000 of his brave people, 5,381 of them 

and 119 Officers (Keith and Moritz for two) either dead or 

captive. In men the Austrian loss, it seems, is not much 

lower, some say is rather a shade higher; by their own 

account, 325 Officers, 5,614 rank and file, killed and 

wounded, not reckoning 1,000 prisoners they lost to us, 

and at least ,000 ' who took that chance of deserting in 

the intricate dark woods. 2 

1 Tempelhof, ii. 3 19-336 ; Seyfarth, Beylag&n, ii 43^-453 J Helden*GeschuhU* 
v. 241-257 : Archenholtz, etc. etc. 
9 Tempelhof, ii. 336 ; but see Kausler, p. 576. 



CHAP. XIV,] BATTLE OF HOCHKIRCH 421 

I4th Oct. 1758] 

Friedrich, all say, took his punishment in a wonderfully 
cheerful manner. De Catt the Reader, entering to him that 
evening as usual, the King advanced, in a tragic declamatory 
attitude ; and gave him, with proper voice and gesture, an 
appropriate passage of Racine : 

c Unfin apres un an, tu me rewis, Arbate, 
Won plus comme autrefois cet Tieureux Mithridate, 
Qui, de Rome toujours balan^ant le destin, 
Tenait entre ette et moi Funivers incertain. 
Je suis vaincu ; Pompee a saisi I'avantage 
Ifune nuit qui laissait peu de place au courage ; 
Mes soldats presque nus, dans 9 * * 

Not a little to De Catt's comfort. 1 During the retreat itself, 
Retzow Junior had come, as Papa's Aide-de-camp, with a 
message to the King; found him on the heights of Klein 
Bautzen, watching the movements. Message done with, the 
King said, in a smiling tone, tf Daun has played me a slippery 
trick to-day P < I have seen it, 1 answered Retzow ; * but it 
is only a scratch, which your Majesty will soon manage to 
heal again. 1 c Glaubt Er dies^ Do you think so ? ' 6 Not only 
I, but the whole Army firmly believe it of your Majesty. 1 
'You are quite right, 1 added the King, in a confidentially 
candid way : * We will manage Daun. What I lament is, 
the number of brave men that have died this morning.' 2 On 
the morrow, he was heard to say publicly ; 6 Daun has let us 
out of check-mate ; the game is not lost yet. We will rest 
ourselves here, a few days ; then go for Silesia, and deliver 
Neisse.' The Anecdote-Books (perhaps not mythically) add 
this : * Where are all your guns, though ? * said the King to 
an Artilleryman, standing vacant on parade, next day. * Ihro 
Majestaty the Devil stole them all, last night ! ' c Hm, well, 
we must have them back from him.' 3 

Nothing immoderately depressive in Hochkirch, it appears ; 
though, alas, on the fourth day after, there came a message 

1 Rodenbeck, i. 354. 

9 Retzow, i. 359 . 8 Archenholtz, i, 299. 



SEVEN-YEARS WAR RISES [BOOKXVIII. 

[i4th Oct. 1758 

from Baireuth; which did strike one down: c My noble 
Wilhelmina dead ; died in the very hours while we were 
fighting here ! ' l Readers must conceive it : coming unex- 
pected more or less, black as sudden universal hurricane, on 
the heart of the man; a sorrow sacred, yet immeasurable, 
irremediable to him; as if the sky too were falling on his 
head, in aid of the mean earth and its ravenings : of all this 
there can nothing be said at present Friedrich's one relief 
seems to have been the necessity laid on him of perpetual 
battling with outward business ; we may fancy, in the rapid 
weeks following, how much was lying at all times in the 
background of his mind suppressed into its caves. 

Daun, it appears, was considerably elated ; spent a great 
deal of his time, so precious just at present, in writing 
despatches, in congratulating and being congratulated ; did 
an elaborate Te-Deum> or Ambrosian Song, in artillery, and 
vox humana^ which with the adjuncts, say splenetic people, 
as at Kolin, sensibly assisted Friedrich's affairs. Daun was 
by no means of braggart turn ; but the recognition of his 
matchless achievement by the gazetteer public, whether in 
exultation or in lamentation, was loud and universal ; and 
the joy, in Vienna and the cognate quarters, knew no bounds 
for the time being. Thus, among other tokens, the Holiness 
of our Lord the Pope, blessing Heaven for such success against 
the Heretic, was pleased to send him * a Consecrated Hat and 
Sword,' such as the old Popes were wont, very long ago, to 
bestow on distinguished Champions against the Heathen, 
(much jeered at, and crowed over, by a profane Friedrich 2 ): 

* the effect of which miraculous furnishings,' says Tempelhof, 

* turned out to be that the Feldmarschall never gained any 

1 On a common Business- Letter to Prince Henri, * Doberschiitz, i8th October 
1758,' is this sudden bit of Autograph : ' Grand Dieu, ma S&ur de Bareithl* 
(Schoning, Der sielcnjakrige Krieg y nach der Original- Correspondent etc. aus 
den Stoats- Arckiven: Potsdam, 1851 : i. 287.) 

2 CEuvres de Frederic ; xv. 122, 124, 126, etc. etc. : in Preuss,ii. 196, complete 
List of these poor Pieces ; which are hearty, not hypocritical, in their contemp- 
tuous hilarity, but have little other merit. 



CHAP.XIV.] BATTLE OF HOCHKIRCH 

I4th Oct. 1758] 

success more'; in fact, except that small thing on Finck 
next Year, never any, as it chanced. Daun had withdrawn 
to his old camp, on the day of Hochkirch ; leaving only a 
detachment on the field there : it was not for six or seven 
days more that he stept-out to the Kreckwitz and Purschwitz 
neighbourhood ; more within sight of his vanquished enemy, 
but nothing like vigilant enough of what might still be in 
him, after such vanquishing ! We must spare this Note, for 
the sake of a heroic kind of man, who had not too much of 
reward in the world : 

'Tebay could not recover Keith's body : Croats had the plundering of 
Keith ; other Austrians, not of Croat kind, carried the dead General into 
Hochkirch Church : Lacy's emotion on recognising him there, like a 
tragic gleam of his own youth suddenly brought back to him, as in star- 
light, piercing and sad, from twenty-years distance, is well known in 
Books. On the morrow, Sunday October 15th, Keith had honourable 
soldierVburial there, " twelve cannon " salvoing thrice, and ' f the 
whole Corps of Colloredo" with their muskets thrice; Lacy as chief 
mourner, not without tears. Four months after, by royal order, Keith's 
body was conveyed to Berlin ; reinterred in Berlin, in a still more solemn 
public manner, with all the honours, all the regrets ; and Keith sleeps 
now in the Garnison-Kirche : far from bonnie Inverugie ; the hoarse sea- 
winds and caverns of Dunottar singing vague requiem to his honourable 
line and him, in the imaginations of some few. ee My Brother leaves me 
a noble legacy," said the old Lord Marischal : <e last year he had Bohemia 
under ransom ; and his personal estate is 70 ducats " (about 25/.). 1 

e In Hochkirch Church there is still, not in the Churchyard as formerly, 
a fine, modestly impressive Monument to Keith ; modest Urn of black 
marble on a Pedestal of grey, and, in gold letters, an Inscription not 
easily surpassable in the lapidary way : * * "DuM IN PBJSUO NON PROCTTL 
HINC INCLINATAM SUORUM ACIEM MBNTE MANU VOCB ET EXEMPLO RE- 
STITUEBAT PlJGNANS UT HEBOAS DECET OcCUBUIT. D. XIV. OCTOBBIS " 
These words go through you like the clang of steel. 2 Friedrich's 

1 Varnhagen, p. 261. 

3 In Rodenbeck, i. 149. Given also (very nearly correct) in Correspondence of 
Sir Robert Murray Keith (London, 1849), i. 151. This is the junior of the two 
Diplomatic Roberts, genealogical cousins of Keith ; by this one (in 1771, not 
1776 as German Guide-books have it) the Hochkirch Monument was set up. 
A very interesting Collection of Letters, those of his ; edited with the usual 
darkness, or rather more. 



424 SEVEN-YEARS WAR RISES [BOOKXVIII. 

[22d Oct.-gth Nov. 1758 

sorrow over him ("tears/' high eulogies, "kua eoetremement") is itself a 
monument. Twenty years after, Keith had from his Master a Statue, in 
Berlin. One of Four ; to the Four most deserving : Schwerin (1771), 
Winterfeld (1777), Seidlitz (1778), Keith (when ?), l which still stand 
in the Wilhelm Platz there. 

'Hochkirch Church has been rebuilt in late years: a spacious airy 
Church, with galleries, and requisites, especially with free air, light 
and cleanliness. Capable perhaps of 1,500 sitters : half of them Wends. 
' ' Above 700 skeletons, in one heap, were dug out, in cutting the new 
foundations." The strong outer Door of the old Church, red oak, I 
should think, is still retained in that capacity ; still shows perhaps half-a 
dozen rough big qvi&si-key holes, torn through it in different parts, and 
daylight shining in, where the old bullets passed. The Keith Monument, 
perhaps four feet high, is on the flagged floor, left side of the pulpit, close 
by the wall, fe the bench where Keith's body lay has had to be cased in 
new plank*' (zinc would be better) " against the knives of tourists/" 

Old Lord Marischal, George, ' Marechal (TEcosse * as he 
always signs himself, was by this time seventy-two ; King's 
Governor of Neufchatel, for a good while past and to come 
(1754-1763). In < James/ the junior, but much the stronger 
and more solid, he has lost, as it were, a father and younger 
brother at once ; father, under beautiful conditions ; and the 
tears of the old man are natural and affecting. Ten years 
. older than his Brother; and survived him still twenty years. 
An excellent cheery old soul, he too ; honest as the sunlight, 
with a fine small vein of gaiety, and pleasant wit, 1 in him : 
what a treasure to Friedrich at Potsdam, in the coming years ; 
and how much loved by him (almost as one boy loves another), 
all readers would be surprised to discover. Some hints of him 
will perhaps be allowed us farther on. 

Sequel ofHochkirch; the Campaign ends in a Way surprising to 
an attentive Public (22d October 20th November 1758) 

There followed upon Hochkirch five weeks of rapid events ; 
such as nobody had been calculating on. To the reader, so 

1 Ficolai (Beschreibung der Residemstadtc, i. 193, 194) gives these dates foi 
the Three, and for Keith's no date. 



CHAP.XIV.] BATTLE OF HOCHKIRCH 4S5 

22(1 Oct.-gth Nov. 1758] 

weary of marchings, manoeuvrings, surprisals, campings and 
details of war, not many words, we hope, may render these 
results conceivable. 

Friedrich stayed ten days, refitting himself, in that Camp 
of Klein Bautzen, on one of the branches of the Spree. 
Daun, who had retired to his old strong place, on the 14th, 
scarcely occupying Hochkirch Field at all, came out in about 
a week ; and took a strong post near Friedrich ; not attempt- 
ing anything upon him, but watching him, now better within 
sight. Friedrich's fixed intention is, to march to Neisse all 
the same ; what probably Daun, under the shadow of his 
laurels and his new Papal Hat, may not -have considered 
possible, with the road to Neisse blocked by 80,000 men. 
Friedrich has refitted himself with the requisite new cannon 
and furnitures, from Dresden ; especially with Prince Henri 
and 6,000 foot and horse, led by Prince Henri in person; 
so Prince Henri would have it, the capricious little man ; and 
that Finck should be left in Saxony instead of him. All 
which weakens Saxony not a little. But Friedrich hopes the 
Reichs Army is a feeble article ; ill-off for provision in those 
parts, and not likely to attempt very much on the sudden. 
Accordingly : 

Fried/rich marches^ enigmatically r , not on Glogau, but on 
Reicheribach and Gorlitz ; to Daurfs Astonishment 

Sunday Evening October 2Zd, Convoy of many wagons quits Bautzen 
(Bautzen Proper, not the Village, but the Town), laden with all the 
wounded of Hochkirch ; above 3,000 by count, to carry them to 
Dresden for deliberate surgery. Keith's Tebay, I perceive, is in this 
Convoy ; not ill hurt, but willing to lie in Hospital a little, and consider. 
These poor fellows cannot get to Dresden : on the second day, a Daun 
Detachment, hussaring about in those parts, is announced ahead ; and 
(by new order from headquarters) the Convoy turns northwards for 
Hoyerswerda, (to Tebay's disgust with the Commandant; shied off/ 
says Tebay, c for twelve hussars ! ' *) and, I think, in the end, went on 

1 Second Letter from Tebay, in Mitchell, uli suprb. 



426 SEVEN-YEARS WAR RISES [BOOKXVIII. 

[aad Oct.-gth Nov. 1758 

to Glogau instead of Dresden. Which was very fortunate for Tebay and 
the others. The poor wounded being thus disposed of, Friedrich next 
night, at 10 o'clock, Monday 23d, in the softest manner, pushes-off his 
Bakery and Army Stores a little way, northward down the Spree Valley, 
on the western fork of the Spree (fork farthest from Daun) ; follows, 
himself, with the rest of the Army, next evening, down the eastern fork, 
also northward. ' Going for Glogau/ thinks Daun, when the hussars 
report about it (late on Tuesday night) : < Let him go, if he fancy that a 
road to Neisse I But, indeed,, what other shift has he/ considers Daun, 
' hut to try rallying at Glogau yonder, safe under the guns?' and is not 
in the slightest haste about this new matter. 1 

United with his baggage-column, Friedrich proceeds north-eastward ; 
crosses Spree still northward or north-eastward ; encamps there, in the 
dark hours of Tuesday ; no Daun heeding him. Before daylight, how- 
ever, Friedrich is again on foot; in several columns now, for the bad 
country-roads ahead ; and has struck straight $ow$-eastward, if Daun 
were noting him. And, in the afternoon of Wednesday, Daun is 
astonished to learn that this wily Enemy is arrived in Reichenbach 
vicinity ; sweeping-in our poor posts thereabouts ; immovably astride of 
the Silesian Highway, after all ! An astonished Daun hastens out, what 
he can, to take survey of the sudden Phenomenon. Tries it, next day 
and next, with his best Loudons and appliances ; finds that this Pheno- 
menon can actually march to Neisse ahead of him, indifferent to 
Pandours, or giving them as good as they bring; and that nothing 
but a battle and beating (could we rashly dream of such a thing, which 
we cannot) will prevent it. f Very well, then ! ' Daun strives to say. 
And lets the Phenomenon march (from Gorlitz, October 3Qth) ; Loudon 
harassing the rear of it, for some days ; not without counter harassment, 
much waste of cannonading, and ruin to several poor Lausitz Villages by 
fire, ' Prussians scandalously burn them, when we attack !' says Loudon. 
Till, at last, finding this march impregnably arranged, ' split into two 
routes,' and ready for all chances, Loudon also withdraws to more 
promising business. Poor General Retzow Senior was of this march; 
absolutely could not be excused, though fallen ill of dysentery, like to 
die; and did die, the day after he got to Schweidnitz, when the 
difficulties and excitement were over. 2 

Of FriedricK's march, onward from Gorlitz, we shall say 
nothing farther, except that the very wind of it was salvatory 
to his Silesian Fortresses and interests. That at Neisse, on 
and after November 1st, which is the third or second day 

1 Tempelhof, ii. 341-347. 2 Retzow, i. 372. 



CHAP, xiv.] BATTLE OF HOCHKIRCH 427 

gth-i6th Nov. 1758) 

of Friedrich's march, General Treskow, Commandant of 
Neisse, found the bombardment slacken more and more ('King 
of Prussia coming,' said the Austrian deserters to us) ; and 
that, on November 6th, Treskow, looking out from Neisse, 
found the Austrian trenches empty, Generals Harsch and 
Deville hurrying over the Hills homewards, pickings to be 
had of them by Treskow, and Neisse Siege a thing finished. 1 
It had lasted, in the way of blockade and half-blockade, for 
about three months ; Deville, for near one month, half- 
blockading, then Harsch (since September 30th) wholly 
blockading, with Deville under him, and an army of % 0,0 00 ; 
though the actual cannonade, very fierce, but of no effect, 
could not begin till little more than a week ago, so difficult 
the getting-up of siege-material in those parts. Kosel, under 
Commandant Lattorf, whose praises, like TreskowX were great, 
had stood four months of Pandour blockading and assault- 
ing, which also had to take itself away on advent of Friedrich. 
Of Friedrich, on his return -journey, we shall hear again 
before long; but in the mean while must industriously 
follow Daun. 

Feldmarschall Daun and the Reichs Army try some Siege of 
Dresden (9th- 16th November) 

October &Qth, Daun, seeing Neisse Siege as good as gone to water, 
decided with himself that he could still do a far more important stroke : 
capture Dresden, get hold of Saxony in Friedrich' s absence. Daun 
turned round from Reichenbach, accordingly; and, at his slow-footed 
pace, addressed himself to that new errand. Had he made better 
despatch, or even been in better luck, it is very possible he might have 
done something there. In Dresden, and in Governor Schmettau with 
his small garrison, there is no strength for a siege ; in Saxony is nothing 
but some poor remnant under Finck, much of it Free-corps and light 
people : capable of being swallowed by the Reichs Army itself, were the 
Reichs Army enterprising, or in good circumstances otherwise. It is 

1 Tageluch t etc. (* Diary of the Siege of Neisse,' 4th August, 26th October, 
6th November 1758, * I A.M. suddenly'), in Seyfarth, Beylagen> ii. 468-472? 
of Treskow's own writing ; brief and clear. Htldtn-GeuhichtCt v. 268-270, 



4S8 SEVEN-YEARS WAR RISES [BOOKXVIII. 

[gth-i6th Nov. 1758 

true tlie Russians have quitted Colberg as impossible ; and are flowing 
homewards dragged by hunger : the little Dohna Army will, therefore, 
march for Saxony ; the little Anti-Swedish Army, under Wedell, has 
likewise been mostly ordered thither ; both at their quickest For I>aun, 
all turns on despatch ; loiter a little, and Friedrich himself will be her 
again ! 

Daun, I have no doubt, stirred his slow feet the fastest he could. 
November lih, Daun was in the neighbourhood of Pirna Country again, 
had his Bridge at Pirna, for communication ; urged the Reichs Army to 
bestir itself, Now or never. Reichs Army did push-out a little against 
Finck; made him leave that perpetual Camp of Gahmig, take new 
camps, Kesselsdorf and elsewhere ; and at length made him shoot across 
Elbe, to the north-west, on a pontoon bridge below Dresden, with 
retreating room to northward, and shelter under the guns of that City. 
Reichs Army has likewise made powerful detachments for capture of 
Leipzig and the north-western towns; capture of Torgau, the Magazine 
town, first of all : summon them, with force evidently overpowering, 
< Free-withdrawal, if you don't resist ; and if you do ! 'At Torgau 
there was actual attempt made (November 12th), rather elaborate and 
dangerous-looking; under Haddick, with near 10,000 of the c Austrian- 
auxiiary 1 sort: to whom the old Commandant, judging Wedell, the 
late Anti-Swedish Wedell., to be now near, rushed out with ' 300 men 
and one big gun ' ; and made such a firing and gesticulation as was quite 
extraordinary, as if Wedell were here already : till WedelFs self did 
come in sight ; and the overpowering Reichs Detachment made its best 
speed elsewhither. 1 The other Sieges remained things of theory; the 
other Reichs Detachments hurried home, I think, without summoning 
anybody. 

Meanwhile, Daun, with the proper Artilleries at last ready, comes 
flowing forward (November Bth-Qth) ; and takes post in the Great Garden, 
or south side of Dresden ; minatory to Schmettau and that City. The 
walls, or works, are weak ; outside there is nothing but Mayer and the 
Free-corps to resist, who indeed has surpassed himself this season, and 
been extraordinarily diligent upon that lazy Reichs Army. Commandant 
Schmettau signifies to Daun, the day Daun came in sight, f lf your 
Excellenz advance farther on me, the grim Rules of War in besieged 
places will order That I burn the Suburbs, which are your defences in 
attacking me,' and actually fills the fine houses on the Southern Suburb 
with combustible matter, making due announcements, to Court and 
population, as well as to Daun. f Burn the Suburbs?' answers Daun: 
e In the name of civilised humanity, you will never think of such thing !* 

1 Tempelhof, etc. ; ' Letter from a Prussian Officer, ' in Hdctcn-Gcschuhte f 
v. 286. 



CHAP.XIV.] BATTLE OF HOCHKIRCH 429 

gth Nov. 1758] 

( That will I, your Excellenz, of a surety., and do it ! ' answers Schmettau. 
So that Dresden is full of pity, terror and speculation. The common 
rumour is, says Excellency Mitchell, who is sojourning there for the 
present, f That Briihl ' (nefarious Briihl, born to be the death of us !) 
c has persuaded Polish Majesty to sanction this enterprise of Daun's/ 
very careless, Briihl, what become of Dresden or us, so the King of 
Prussia be well hurt or spited ! 

Certain enough, November Qtk } Daun does come-on, regardless of 
Schmettau' s assurances ; so that, e about midnight/ Mayer, who c can 
hear the enemy busily building four big batteries' withal, has to report 
himself driven to the edge of those high Houses (which are filled with 
combustibles), and that some Croats are got into the upper windows. 
f Burn them, then ! ' answers Schmettau (such the dire necessity of sieged 
places) : and, ' at 3 A.M.* (three-hours notice to the poor inmates), Mayer 
does so ; hideous flames bursting-out, punctually at the stroke of 3 : 
f whole Suburb seemed on blaze ' (about a sixth part of it actually so), 
c nay, you would have said the whole Town was environed in flames.* 
Excellency Mitchell climbed a steeple : f will not describe to your Lord- 
ship the horror, the terror and confusion of this night ; wretched in- 
habitants running with their furniture ' (what of it they had got flung- 
out, between 12 o'clock and 3) f towards the Great Garden ; all Dresden, 
to appearance, girt in flames, ruins and smoke/ Such a night in 
Dresden, especially in the Pirna Suburb, as was never seen before. 1 
This was the sad beginning, or attempt at beginning, of Dresden Siege ; 
and this also was the end of it, on Daun's part at present. For four days 
more, he hung about the place, minatory, hesitative; but attempted 
nothing feasible ; and on the fifth day, * for a certain weighty reason/ 
as the Austrian Gazettes express it, he saw good to vanish into the 
Pirna Rock-Country, and be out of harm's way in the mean while ! 

The truth is. Daunts was an intricate case just now ; need- 
ing, above all things, swiftness of treatment; what, of all 
things, it could not get from Daun. His denunciations on 
that burnt Suburb were again loud ; but Schmettau continues 
deaf to all that, means 'to defend himself by the known 
rules of war and of honour' ; declares, he < will dispute from 
street to street, and only finish in the middle of Polish 
Majesty's Royal Palace. 1 Denunciation will do nothing! 

1 Mitchell, Memoirs and Papers, i. 459. In Helden-Gtschichtt, v. 295-302) 
minute account (corresponding well with Mitchell's) j #. 3 O 3'33> the certified 
details of the damage done : * 280 houses lost ' ; * 4 human lives.' 



4,30 SEVEN-YEARS WAR RISES [BOOKXVIII. 

[aoth Nov. 1758 

Daim had above 100,000 men in those parts. Rushing 
forward with sharp shot and bayonet storm, instead of logical 
denunciation, it is probable Daun might have settled his 
Schmettau. But the hour of tide was rigorous, withal; 
and such an ebb, if you missed it in hesitating ! November 
15th, Daun withdrew; the ebbing come. That same day, 
Friedrich was at Lauban in the Lausitz, within a hundred 
miles again ; speeding hitherward ; behind him a Silesia 
brushed clear, before him a Saxony to be brushed. * Reason 
weighty ' enough, think Daun and the Austrian Gazettes ! 
But such, since you have missed the tide-hour, is the inexor- 
able fact of ebb, going at that frightful rate. Daun never 
was the man to dispute facts. 

November 20th, Friedrich arrived in Dresden ; heard, next 
day, that Daun had wheeled decisively homeward from Pirna 
Country ; that the Reichs Army and he are diligently climb- 
ing the Metal Mountains ; and that there is not in Saxony, 
more than in Silesia, an enemy left. What a Sequel to 
Hochkirch! 'Neisse and Dresden both! 1 we had hoped as 
sequel, if lucky : * Neisse or Dresden ' seemed infallible. And 
we are climbing the Metal Mountains, under facts superior 
to us. 

And Campaign Third has closed in this manner ; leaving 
things much as it found them. Essentially a drawn match ; 
Contending Parties little altered in relative strength ; both 
of them, it may be presumed, considerably weaker. Friedrich 
is not triumphant, or shining in the light of bonfires, as last 
Year ; but, in the mind of judges, stands higher than ever (if 
that could help him much) ; and is not ' annihilated ' in the 
least, which is the surprising circumstance. 

Friedrich's marches, especially, have been wonderful, this 
Year. In the spring time, old Marechal de Belleisle, French 
Minister of War, consulting officially about future operations, 
heard it objected once : *But if the King of Prussia were to 
burst-in upon us there?' 'The King of Prussia is a great 



CHAP, xiv.] BATTLE OF HOCHKIRCH 431 

aoth Nov. 1758] 

soldier,' answered M. de Belleisle; <but his Army, is not a 
shuttle (navette)? to be shot about, in that way, from side 
to side of the world ! No surely ; not altogether. But the 
King of Prussia has, among other arts, an art of marching 
Armies, which Iby degrees astonishes the old Marechal. To 
* come upon us en navette? suddenly ' like a shuttle * from the 
other side of the web, became an established phrase among 
the French concerned in these unfortunate matters. 1 

'The Pitt-and-Ferdinand Campaign of 1758/ says a Note, which I 
would fain abridge, * is more palpably victorious than Friedrich's, much 
more an affair of bonfires than his ; though it too has had its rubs. Loss 
of honour at Crefeld ; loss of Louisburg and Cod-fishery : these are 
serious blows our enemy has had. But then, to temper the joy over 
Louisburg, there was, at Ticonderago, by Abercromby, on the small scale 
(all the extent of scale he had), a melancholy Platitude committed : that 
of walking into an enemy without the least reconnoitering of him, who 
proves to be chin-deep in abatis and field-works ; and kills, much at his 
ease, about 2,000 brave fellows, brought 5,000 miles for that object. 
And obliges you to walk away on the instant, and quit Ticonderago, like 
a surely like a very tragic Dignitary in Cocked-hat ! To be cashiered, 
we will hope ; at least to be laid on the shelf, and replaced by some 
Wolfe or some Amherst, fitter for the business ! Nor were the Descents 
on the French Coast much to speak of : " Great Guns got at Cherbourg," 
these truly, as exhibited in Hyde-Park, were a comfortable sight, 
especially to the simpler sort : but on the other hand, at Morlaix, on the 
part of poor old General Bligh and Company, there had been a Platitude 
equal or superior to that of Abercromby, though not so tragical in loss of 
men. "What of that?" said an enthusiastic Public, striking their 
balance, and joyfully illuminating. Here is a Clipping from Ohio 
Country, "Letter of an Officer" (distilled essence of Two Letters), 
"dated, Fort-Duqueme, 2Sth November 1758: 

' " Our small Corps under General Forbes, after much sore scrambling 
through the Wildernesses, and contending with enemies wild and tame, 
is, since the last four days, in possession of Fort Duquesne" (Pittsbwg 
henceforth): "Friday 24th, the French garrison, on our appearance, 
made-off without fighting ; took to boats down the Ohio, and vanished 
out of those Countries/' forever and a day, we will hope. "Their 
Louisiana-Canada communication is lost ; and all that prodigious tract of 
rich country," -which Mr. Washington fixed upon long ago, is ours 

1 Archenholtz, L 316 ; Montalembert, safius, for the phrase * en navette.* 



432 SEVEN-YEARS WAR RISES [BOOKXVIII. 

[aoth Nov. 1758 

again, if we can turn it to use. ' ( This day a detachment of us goes to 
Braddock's field of battle" (poor Braddock !), "to bury the bones of our 
slaughtered countrymen ; many of whom the French butchered in cold 
blood, and, to their own eternal shame and infamy, have left lying above 
ground ever since. As indeed they have done with all* those slain round 
the Fort in late weeks " ; calling themselves a civilised Nation too ! ' l 

Lower Rhine, JulyNovember 1758. 'Ferdinand's manoeuvres, after 
Crefeld, on the France-ward side of Rhine, were very pretty : but, with- 
out Wesel, and verms a Belleisle as War-Minister, and a Contades who 
was something of a General, it would not do. Belleisle made uncommon 
exertions, diligent to get his broken people drilled again ; Contades was 
wary, and counter-manoeuvred rather well. Finally, Soubise' (readers 
recollect him and his 24 or 30,000, who stood in Frankfurt Country, on 
the hither or north side of Rhine), famed Rossbach Soubise, e pushing- 
out, at Belleisle's bidding, towards Hanover, in a region vacant other- 
wise of troops, became dangerous to Ferdinand. " Making for 
Hanover?" thought Ferdinand: "Or perhaps meaning to attack my 
12,000 English that are just landed? Nay, perhaps my Rhine-Bridge 
itself, and the small Party left there ? " Ferdinand found he would have 
to return, and look after Soubise. Crossed, accordingly (August 8th), 
by his old Bridge at Rees, which he found safe, in spite of attempts 
there had been ; 2 and never recrossed during this War, Judges even 
say his first crossing had never much solidity of outlook in it; and 
though so delightful to the public, was his questionablest step. 

( On the 12,000 English,, Soubise had attempted nothing. Ferdinand 
joined his English at Soest (August 20th) ; to their great joy and his ; 3 
10 or 12,000 as a first instalment: Grand-looking fellows, said the 
Germans. And did you ever see such horses, such splendour of 
equipment, regardless of expense ? Not to mention those Bergschotten 
(Scotch Highlanders), with their bagpipes, sporrans, kilts, and exotic 
costumes and ways ; astonishing to the German mind. 4 Out of all whom 

1 Old Newspapers (in Gentleman's Magazine for 1759, pp. 41, 39). 

2 * Fight of Meer ' (Chevert, with 10,000, beaten off, and the Bridge saved, 
by Imhof, with 3,000 ; both clever soldiers ; Imhof in better luck, and favoured 
by the ground : ' 5th August 1758') : Mauvillon, i. 315. 

3 Duke of Marlborough's heavy-laden Letter to Pitt, * Koesfeld, August I5th ' : 
* Nothing but rains and uncertainties ' ; * marching, latterly, up to our middles 
in water'; have come from Embden, straight south towards Wesel Country, 
almost 150 miles (Soest still a good sixty miles to south-east of us). Chatham 
Correspondence (London, 1838), i. 334, 337. The poor Duke died in two 
months hence ; and the command devolved on Lord George Sackville, as is too 
well known. 

4 Romantic view of the Bergschotten (2,000 of them, led by the Junior of the 



CHAP. XIV.] BATTLE OF HOCHKIRCH 433 

soth Nov. 1758] 

(Bergschotten included), Ferdinand, by management, and management 

was needed, got a great deal of first-rate fighting, in the next Four 

Years. 

f Nor, in regard to Hanover, could Soubise make anything of it; 
though he did (owing to a couple of stupid fellows, General Prince von 
Ysenburg and General Oberg, detached by Ferdinand on that service) 
escape the lively treatment Ferdinand had prepared for him ; and even 
gave a kind of Beating to each of those stupid fellows, 1 one of which, 
Oberg's one, might have ruined Oberg and his Detachment altogether, 
had Soubise been alert, which he by no means was ! " Paris made such 
jeering about Rossbach and the Prince de Soubise/' says Voltaire, 2 <e and 
nobody said a word about these two Victories of his, next Year ! " For 
which there might be two reasons : one, according to Tempelhof, that 
* ' the Victories were of the so-so kind (sie waren auch darnach) " ; and 
another, that they were ascribed to Broglio, on both occasions,, how 
justly, nobody will now argue ! 

'Contades had not failed, in the mean while, to follow with the 
main Army ; and was now elaborately manoeuvring about ; intent to 
have Lippstadt, or some Fortress in those Rhine-Weser Countries. On 
the tail of that second so-so Victory by Soubise, Contades thought, Now 
would be the chance. And did try hard, but without effect. Ferdinand 
was himself attending Contades; and mistakes were not likely. 
Ferdinand, in the thick of the game (October 21st-SOth), "made a 
masterly movement" that is to say, cut Contades and his Soubise 
irretrievably asunder : no junction now possible to them ; the weaker of 
them liable to ruin, unless Contades, the stronger, would give battle ; 
which, though greatly outnumbering Ferdinand, he was cautious not to 
do. A 'nelancholic cautious man, apt to be overcautious, nicknamed 
es L'ApotMcaire" by the Parisians, from his down looks, but had good 
soldier qualities withal. Soubise and he haggled about, a short while, 

Robert Keiths above mentioned, who is a soldier as yet), in ArcTienholtz> i. 
351-353 # and in Prwss> ii. 136, of the ' uniforms with gold and silver lace, 1 
of the superb horses, * one regiment all roan horses, another all black, another 
all' etc. 

1 i. * Fight of Sandershausen ' (Broglio, as Soubise's vanguard, 12,0005 
versus Ysenburg, 7,ooo who stupidly would not withdraw till beaten: *2$d 
July 1758,' before Ferdinand had come across again). 2. Fight of Lutternberg 
(Soubise, 30,000 : versus Oberg, about 18,000, who stupidly hung-back till 
Soubise was all gathered, and then etc., still more stupidly : ' roth October I758')^ 
See Maumtton> i. 312 (or better, Archenholtz, i. 345) ; and Mauvillon, i. 327. 
Both LutternBerg and Sandershausen are in the neighbourhood of Cassel ; as 
many of those Ferdinand fights were. 

2 Histoirt de Louis XV. 

VOL. VI* 2 & 



434 SEVEN-YEAKS WAR RISES [BOOK xvm. 

[23d Nov. 1758 

not a long,, in these dangerous circumstances ; and then had to go home 
again, without result, each the way he came ; Contades himself repassing 
through Wesel, and wintering on his own side of the Rhine.' 

How Pitt is succeeding, and aiming to succeed, on the 
French Foreign Settlements: on the Guinea Coast, on the 
High Seas everywhere ; in the West Indies ; still more in the 
East, where General Lally (that fiery CTMul&%, famous 
since Fontenoy), missioned with < full-powers,' as they call 
them, is raging up and down, about Madras and neighbour- 
hood, in a violent, impetuous, more and more bankrupt 
manner: Of all this we can say nothing for the present, 
little at any time. Here are two facts of the financial sort, 
sufficiently illuminative. The much-expending, much-subsidy- 
ing Government of France cannot now borrow, except at 7 
per cent. Interest ; and the rate of Marine Insurance has risen 
to 70 per cent. 1 One way and other, here is a Pitt clearly 
progressive ; and a long-pending JerikMs-Ear Question in a 
fair way to be settled ! 

Friedrich stays in Saxony about a month, inspecting and 
adjusting; thence to Breslau, for Winter-quarters. His 
Winter is like to be a sad and silent one, this time ; with none 
of the gaieties of last Year ; the royal heart heavy enough 
with many private sorrows, were there none of public at all ! 
This is a word from him, two days after finishing Daun for 
the season : 



Friedrich to Mylord Marischal (at Colombier in Neufehatel) 

* Dresden, 23d November 1758. 

6 There is nothing left for us, mon cher Mylord, but to mingle and 
blend our weeping for the losses we have had. If my head were a 
fountain of tears, it would not suffice for the grief I feel. 

c Our Campaign is over ; and there has nothing come of it, on one side 
or the other, but the loss of a great many worthy people, the misery of 

1 Retzow, ii. 5. 



CHAP.XIV.] BATTLE OF HOCHKIRCH 435 

33d Nov. 1758] 

a great many poor soldiers crippled forever, the ruin of some Provinces, 
the ravage, pillage and conflagration of some flourishing Towns. Exploits 
these which make humanity shudder : sad fruits of the wickedness and 
ambition of certain People in Power, who sacrifice everything to their 
unbridled passions ! I wish you,, mon cher Mylord, nothing that has the 
least resemblance to my destiny ; and everything that is wanting to it.' 
'Your old friend,, till death/ F. 1 

* (Euvres de Frtdlric> xx, 273, 



END OF VOL. VI. 



Printed by T. and A. CONSTABLE, Printers to His Majesty, 
at tlie Edinburgh "University Press 




/,-, a-, 

b. b. 

c. c. 



BATTLE OF ROSSBACH. 

5 T , H NOVEMBER 1757, 

First position- of C<m\Jbwied-Arnty, 
First position, of Fruwuui f.etjnp . 
Advance i>/',/V/4y,yiVw Arnvy* 

-position, of Combined .Army. 
mt retire to Jtasfbtiffh. . 
French GxvtUry, muter -Vf frernuwt . 
March, of Comb in' 1 . Army P> aituch J*ru*si&n rear, 
Prussian tittaek led 1$' HeiMito. 

i , Ptwition- of Pruffian 6 > w/w. 



BATTLE OF LEUTHEN. 

5V DECEMBER 1757. 

a,, a. AuJstruui. Army. 

.b. b. Position, of Saxon* fbrepost, under Nostitss. 

d. Luookcjrik Cavalry, reinforced, by DC 

e. Left wiru/i under; J^cuittstL. 

f. Friedr'icfak hUL of observation,, 
a, a. Prussians Arrny about to attack . 



i. i. i. Retr"xzt> of Aiistrian* . 



it-^1 *444>'' c< -;' ^*" 



FOR THE SECOND 
AND THE 

THIRD SVLESIAN VIAR. 




Date Due 



2 * 




' 



Insi ilutc ot Technology 
Library 

PITTSIJUEGII, FA* 



30076