History of Friedrich II of Prussia V 13
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"SATURDAY NIGHT, 25th NOVEMBER, 1741, brightest of moonshiny
nights, our dispositions are all made: Several attacks, three if I
remember; one of them false, under some Polastron, Gaisson, from
the south side; a couple of them true, from the northwest and the
southeast sides, under Maurice with his French, and Rutowsky with
his Saxons, these two. And there is great marching 'on the side of
the Karl-Thor (Charles-Gate),' where Rutowsky is; and by Count
Maurice 'behind the Wischerad;'--and shortly after midnight the
grand game begins. That French-Polastron attack, false, though with
dreadful cannonade from the south, attracts poor Ogilvy with almost
all his forces to that quarter; while the couple of Saxon Captains
(Rutowsky not at once successful, Maurice with his French
completely so) break in upon Ogilvy from rearward, on the right
flank and on the left; and ruin the poor man. Military readers will
find the whole detail of it well given in Espagnac. Looser account
is to be had in the Book they call Mauvillon's." [ Derniere
Guerre de Boheme, i. 252-264. Saxe's own Account
(Letter to Chevalier de Folard) is in Espagnac, i. 89 et seqq.]
One thing I remember always: the bright moonlight; steeples of Prag
towering serene in silvery silence, and on a sudden the wreaths of
volcanic fire breaking out all round them. The opposition was but
trifling, null in some places, poor Ogilvy being nothing of a
wizard, and his garrison very small. It fell chiefly on Rutowsky;
who met it with creditable vigor, till relieved by the others.
Comte Maurice, too, did a shifty thing. Circling round by the
outside of the Wischerad, by rural roads in the bright moonshine,
he had got to the Wall at last, hollow slope and sheer wall; and
was putting-to his scaling-ladders,--when, by ill luck, they proved
too short! Ten feet or so; hopelessly too short. Casting his head
round, Maurice notices the Gallows hard by: "There, see you, are a
few short ladders: MES ENFANS, bring me these, and we will splice
with rope!" Supplemented by the gallows, Maurice soon gets in, cuts
down the one poor sentry; rushes to the Market-place, finds all his
Brothers rushing, embraces them with "VICTOIRE!" and "You see I am
eldest; bound to be foremost of you!"
"No point in all the War made a finer blaze in the French
imagination, or figured better in the French gazettes, than this of
the Scalade of Prag, 25th November, 1741. And surely it was
important to get hold of Prag; nevertheless, intrinsically it is no
great thing, but an opportune small thing, done by the Comte de
Saxe, in spite of such contradiction as we saw."
It was while news of this exploit was posting towards Berlin, but
not yet arrived there, that Friedrich, passing through the
apartment, intimated to Hyndford, "Milord, all is divulged, our
Klein-Schnellendorf mystery public as the house-tops;" and vanished
with a shrug of the shoulders,--thinking doubtless to himself,
"What is OUR next move to be, in consequence?" Treaty with Kur-
Baiern (November 4th) he had already signed in consequence,
expressly declaring for Kur-Baiern, and the French intentions
towards him. This news from Prag--Prag handsomely captured, if
Vienna had been foolishly neglected--put him upon a new Adventure,
of which in following Chapters we shall hear more.
THE FRENCH SAFE IN PRAG; KAISERWAHL JUST COMING ON.
Grand-Duke Franz, with that respectable amount of Army under him,
ought surely to have advanced on Prag, and done some stroke of war
for relief of it, while time yet was. Grand-Duke Franz, his Brother
Karl with him and his old Tutor Neipperg, both of whom are thought
to have some skill in war, did advance accordingly. But then withal
there was risk at Prag; and he always paused again, and waited to
consider. From Frating, on the 16th, [Espagnac, i. 87.] he had got
to Neuhaus, quite across Mahren into Bohemian ground, and there
joined with Lobkowitz and what Bohemian force there was; by this
time an Army which you would have called much stronger than the
French. Forward, therefore! Yes; but with pauses, with
considerations. Pause of two days at Neuhaus; thence to Tabor
(famed Zisca's Tabor), a safe post, where again pause three days.
From Tabor is broad highway to Prag, only sixty miles off now:--
screwing their resolution to the sticking-point, Grand-Duke and
Consorts advance at length with fixed determination, all Friday,
all Saturday (November 24th, 25th), part of Sunday too, not
thinking it shall be only PART; and their light troops are almost
within sight of Prag, when--they learn that Prag is scaladed the
night before, and quite settled; that there is nothing except
destruction to be looked for in Prag! Back again, therefore, to the
Tabor-and-Budweis land. They strike into that boggy broken country
about Budweis, some 120 miles south of Prag; and will there wait
the signs of the times.
Grand-Duke Franz had seen war, under Seckendorf, under Wallis and
otherwise, in the disastrous Turk Countries; but, though willing
enough, was never much of a soldier: as to Neipperg, among his own
men especially, the one cry is, He ought to go about his business
out of Austrian Armies, as an imbecile and even a traitor. "Is it
conceivable that Friedrich could have beaten us, in that manner,
except by buying Neipperg in the first place? Neipperg and the
generality of them, in that luckless Silesian Business? Glogau
scaladed with the loss of half a dozen men; Brieg gone within a
week; Neisse ditto: and Mollwitz, above all, where, in spite of
Romer and such Horse-charging as was never seen, we had to melt,
dissolve, and roll away in the glitter of the evening sun.!"
The common notion is, they are traitors, partial-traitors, one and
all. [ Guerre de Boheme, saepius.] Poor
Neipperg he has seen hard service, had ugly work to do: it was he
that gave away Belgrade to the Turks (so interpreting his orders),
and the Grand Vizier, calling him Dog of a Giaour: spat in his
face, not far from hanging him; and the Kaiser and Vienna people,
on his coming home, threw him into prison, and were near cutting
off his head. And again, after such sleety marchings through the
Mountains, he has had to dissolve at Mollwitz; float away in
military deluge in the manner we saw. And now, next winter, here is
he lodged among the upland bogs at Budweis, escorted by mere
curses. What a life is the soldier's, like other men's; what a
master is the world! Aulic Cabinet is not all-wise; but may readily
be wiser than the vulgar, and, with a Maria Theresa at his head, it
is incapable of truculent impiety like that. Neipperg, guilty of
not being a Eugene, is not hanged as a traitor; but placed quietly
as Commandant in Luxemburg, spends there the afternoon of his life,
in a more commodious manner. Friedrich had, of late, rather admired
his movements on the Neisse River; and found him a stiff article to
deal with.
The French, now with Prag for their place of arms, stretched
themselves as far as Pisek, some seventy miles southwestward;
occupied Pisek, Pilsen and other Towns and posts, on the southwest
side, some seventy miles from Prag; looking towards the Bavarian
Passes and homeward succors that might come: the Saxons, a while
after, got as far as Teutschbrod, eighty miles on the southeastward
or Moravian hand. Behind these outposts, Prag may be considered to
hang on Silesia, and have Friedrich for security. This, in front or
as forecourt of Friedrich's Silesia, this inconsiderable section,
was all of Bohemian Country the French and Confederates ever held,
and they did not hold this long. As for Karl Albert, he had his new
pleasant Dream of Sovereignty at Prag; Titular of Upper Austria,
and now of Bohmen as well; and enjoyed his Feast of the Barmecide,
and glorious repose in the captured Metropolis, after difficulty
overcome. December 7th, he was homaged (a good few of the Nobility attending, for which they smarted afterwards), with much processioning, blaring and TE-DEUM-ing: on the 19th he rolled off, home to Munchen; there to await still higher Romish-Imperial glories, which it is hoped are now at hand.
A day or two after the Capture of Prag, Marechal de Belleisle,
partially cured of his rheumatisms, had hastened to appear in that
City; and for above four weeks he continued there, settling,
arranging, ordering all things, in the most consummate manner, with
that fine military head of his. About Christmas time, arrived
Marechal de Broglio, his unfortunate successor or substitute;
to whom he made everything over; and hastened off for Frankfurt,
where the final crisis of KAISERWAHL is now at hand, and the
topstone of his work is to be brought out with shouting.
Marechal de Broglio had an unquiet Winter of it in his new command;
and did not extend his quarters, but the contrary.
BROGLIO HAS A BIVOUAC OF PISEK; KHEVENHULLER LOOKS IN
UPON THE DONAU CONQUESTS.
Grand-Duke Franz edged himself at last a little out of that Tabor-
Budweis region, and began looking Prag-ward again;--hung about, for
some time, with his Hungarian light-troops scouring the country;
but still keeping Prag respectfully to right, at seventy miles
distance. December 28th, to Broglio's alarm, he tried a night-
attack on Pisek, the chief French outpost, which lies France-ward
too, and might be vital. But he found the French (Broglio having
got warning) unexpectedly ready for him at Pisek,--drawn up in the
dark streets there, with torrents of musketry ready for his
Pandours and him;--and entirely failed of Pisek. Upon which he
turned eastward to the Budweis-Tabor fastnesses again; left Brother
Karl as Commander in those parts (who soon leaves Lobkowitz as
Substitute, Vienna in the idle winter-time being preferable);--
left Brother Karl, and proceeded in person, south, towards the
Donau Countries, to see how Khevenhuller might be prospering, who
is in the field there, as we shall hear.
Of Pisek and the night-skirmish at Pisek, glorious to France, think
all the Gazettes, I should have said nothing, were it not that
Marechal Broglio, finding what a narrow miss he had made,
established a night-watch there, or bivouac, for six weeks to come;
such as never was before or since: Cavalry and Infantry, in
quantity, bivouacking there, in the environs of Pisek, on the grim
Bohemian snow or snow-slush, in the depth of winter, nightly for
six weeks, without whisper of an enemy at any time; whereby the
Marechal did save Pisek (if Pisek was ever again in danger), but
froze horse and man to the edge of destruction or into it; so that
the "Bivouac of Pisek" became proverbial in French Messrooms, for a
generation coming. [ Guerre de Boheme, ii. 23,
&c.] And one hears in the mind a clangorous nasal eloquence from
antique gesticulative mustachio-figures, witty and indignant,--who
are now gone to silence again, and their fruitless bivouacs, and
frosty and fiery toils, tumbling pell-mell after them. This of
Pisek was but one of the many unwise hysterical things poor Broglio
did, in that difficult position; which, indeed, was too difficult
for any mortal, and for Broglio beyond the average.
One other thing we note: Graf von Khevenhuller, solid Austrian man,
issued from Vienna, December 31st, last day of the Year, with an
Army of only some 15,000, but with an excellent military head of
his own, to look into those Conquests on the Donau. Which he finds,
as he expected, to be mere conquests of stubble, capable of being
swept home again at a very rapid rate. "Khevenhuller, here as
always, was consummate in his choice of posts," says Lloyd;
[General Lloyd, History of Seven-Years War,
&c. (incidentally, somewhere).]--discovered where the ARTERIES of
the business lay, and how to handle the same. By choice of posts,
by silent energy and military skill, Khevenhuller very rapidly
sweeps Segur back; and shuts him up in Linz. There Segur, since the
first days of January, is strenuously barricading himself;
"wedging beams from house to house, across the streets;"--and hopes
to get provision, the Donau and the Bavarian streams being still
open behind him; and to hold out a little. It will be better if he
do,--especially for poor Karl Albert and his poor Bavaria!
Khevenhuller has also detached through the Tyrol a General von
Barenklau (BEAR'S-CLAW, much heard of henceforth in these Wars),
who has 12,000 regulars; and much Hussar-folk under bloody
Mentzel:-across the Tyrol, we say; to fall in upon Bavaria and
Munchen itself; which they are too like doing with effect.
Ought not Karl Albert to be upon the road again? What a thing, were
the Kaiser Elect taken prisoner by Pandours!
In fine, within a short two weeks or so, Karl Albert quits Munchen,
as no safe place for him; comes across to Mannheim to his Cousin
Philip, old Kur-Pfalz, whom we used to know, now extremely old, but
who has marriages of Grand-daughters, and other gayeties, on hand;
which a Cousin and prospective Kaiser--especially if in peril of
his life--might as well come and witness. This is the excuse Karl
Albert makes to an indulgent Public; and would fain make to
himself, but cannot. Barenklau and Khevenhuller are too
indisputable. Nay this rumor of Friedrich's "Peace with Austria,"
divulged Bargain of Klein-Schnellendorf, if this also (horrible to
think) were true--! Which Friedrich assures him it is not.
Karl Albert writes to Friedrich, and again writes; conjuring him,
for the love of God, To make some thrust, then, some inroad or
other, on those man-devouring Khevenhullers; and take them from
his, Karl Albert's, throat and his poor Country's. Which Friedrich,
on his own score, is already purposing to do.
Chapter VIII.
FRIEDRICH STARTS FOR MORAVIA, ON A NEW SCHEME HE HAS.
The Austrian Court had not kept Friedrich's secret of Klein-
Schnellendorf, hardly even for a day. It was whispered to the
Dowager Empress, or Empresses; who whispered it, or wrote it, to
some other high party; by whom again as usual:--in fact, the
Austrian Court, having once got their Neipperg safe to hand, took
no pains to keep the secret; but had probably an interest rather in
letting it filter out, to set Friedrich and his Allies at variance.
At all events, in the space of a few weeks, as we have seen, the
rumor of a Treaty between Austria and Friedrich was everywhere
rife; Friedrich, as he had engaged, everywhere denying it, and
indeed clearly perceiving that there was like to be no ground for
acknowledging it. The Austrian Court, instead of "completing the
Treaty before Newyear's-day," had broken the previous bargain;
evidently not meaning to complete; intent rather to wait upon their
Hungarian Insurrection, and the luck of War.
There is now, therefore, a new turn in the game. And for this also
Friedrich has been getting the fit card ready; and is not slow to
play it. Some time ago, November 4th,--properly November 1st,
hardly three weeks since that of Klein-Schnellendorf,--finding the
secret already out ("whispered of at Breslau, 28th October,"
casually testifies Hyndford), he had tightened his bands with
France; had, on November 4th, formally acceded to Karl Albert's
Treaty with France. [Accession agreed to, "Frankfurt, Nov. 1st,"
1741; ratified "Nov. 4th."] Glatz to be his: he will not hear of
wanting Glatz; nor of wanting elsewhere the proper Boundary for
Schlesien, "Neisse River both banks" (which Neipperg had agreed to,
in his late Sham-Bargain);--quite strict on these preliminaries.
And furthermore, Kur-Sachsen being now a Partner in that French-
Bavarian Treaty,--and a highly active one (with 21,000 in the field
for him), who is "King of Moravia" withal, and has some
considerable northern Paring of Bohemia thrown in, by way of "Road
to Moravia,"--Friedrich made, at the same time, special Treaty with
Kur-Sachsen, on the points specially mutual to them; on the
Boundary point, first of all. Which latter treaty is dated also
November 1st, and was "ratified November 8th."
Treaty otherwise not worth reading; except perhaps as it shows us
Friedrich putting, in his brief direct way, Kur-Sachsen at once
into Austria's place, in regard to Ober-Schlesien. "Boundary
between your Polish Majesty and me to be the River Neisse PLUS a
full German mile;"--which (to Belleisle's surprise) the Polish
Majesty is willing to accept; and consents, farther, Friedrich
being of succinct turn, That Commissioners go directly and put down
the boundary-stones, and so an end. "Let the Silesian matter stand
where it stood," thinks Friedrich: "since Austria will not, will
you? Put down the boundary-pillars, then!"--an interesting little
glance into Friedrich's inner man. And a Prussian Boundary
Commissioner, our friend Nussler the man, did duly appear;--whom
perhaps we shall meet,--though no Saxon one quite did. [Busching,
Beitrage, i. 339 (? NUSSLER).] It is this
boundary clause, it is Friedrich's little decision, "Put down the
pillars, then," that alone can now interest any mortal in this
Saxon Bargain; the clause itself, and the bargain itself, having
quite broken down on the Saxon side, and proved imaginary as a
covenant made in dreams. Could not be helped, in the sequel!--
Meanwhile, the preliminary diplomacies being done in this manner,
Friedrich had ordered certain of his own Forces to get in motion a
little; ordered Leopold, who has had endless nicety of management,
since the French and Saxons came into those Bohemian Circles of
his, to go upon Glatz; to lay fast hold of Glatz, for one thing.
And farther eastward, Schwerin, by order, has lately gone across
the Mountains; seized Troppau, Friedenthal; nay Olmutz itself, the
Capital of Mahren,--in one day (December 27th), garrison of Olmutz
being too weak to resist, and the works in disrepair. "In Heaven's
name, what are your intentions, then?" asked the Austrians there.
"Peaceable in the extreme," answered Schwerin, "if only yours are.
And if they are NOT--!" There sits Schwerin ever since, busy
strengthening himself, and maintains the best discipline;
waiting farther orders.
"The Austrians will not complete their bargain of Klein-
Schnellendorf?" thinks this young King; "Very well; we will not
press them to completion. We will not ourselves complete, should
they now press. We will try another method, and that without loss
of time."--It was a pungent reflection with Friedrich that Karl
Albert had not pushed forward on Vienna, from Linz that time, but
had blindly turned off to the left, and thrown away his one chance.
"Cannot one still mend it; cannot one still do something of the
like?" thinks Friedrich now: "Schwerin in Olmutz; Prussian Troops
cantoned in the Highlands of Silesia, or over in Bohemia itself,
near the scene of action; the Saxons eastward as far as
Teutschbrod, still nearer; the French triumphant at Prag, and
reinforcement on the road for them: a combined movement on Vienna,
done instantly and with an impetus!" That is the thing Friedrich is
now bent upon; nor will he, like Karl Albert, be apt to neglect the
hour of tide, which is so inexorable in such operations.
At Berlin, accordingly, he has been hurrying on his work,
inspection, preparation of many kinds,--Marriage of his Brother
August Wilhelm, for one business; [6th January, 1742 (in Bielfeld,
ii. 55-69, exuberant account of the Ceremony, and of B.'s part in
it).]--and (Jannary 18th), after a stay of two months, is off
fieldward again, on this new project. To Dresden, first of all;
Saxony being an essential element; and Valori being appointed to
meet him there on the French side. It is January 20th, 1742, when
Friedrich arrives; due Opera festivities, "triple salute of all the
guns," fail not at Dresden; but his object was not these at all.
Polish Majesty is here, and certain of the warlike Bastard Brothers
home from Winter-quarters, Comte de Saxe for one; Valori also,
punctually as due; and little Graf von Bruhl, highest-dressed of
human creatures, who is factotum in this Court.
"Your Polish Majesty, by treaty and title you are King of Moravia
withal: now is the time, now or never, to become so in fact!
Forward with your Saxons:" urges Friedrich: "The Austrians and
their Lobkowitz are weak in that Country: at Iglau, just over the
Moravian border, they have formed a Magazine; seize that, snatch it
from Lobkowitz: that gives us footing and basis there. Forward with
your Saxons; Valori gives us so-many French; I myself will join
with 20,000: swift, steady, all at once; we can seize Moravia, who
knows if not Vienna itself, and for certain drive a stroke right
home into the very bowels of the Enemy!" That is Friedrich's theme
from the first hour of his arrival, and during all the four-and-
twenty that he stayed.
In one hour, Polish Majesty, who is fonder of tobacco and pastimes
than of business, declared himself convinced;--and declared also
that the time of Opera was come; whither the two Majesties had to
proceed together, and suspend business for a while. Polish Majesty
himself was very easily satisfied; but with the others, as Valori
reports it, the argument was various, long and difficult.
"Winter time; so dangerous, so precarious," answer Bruhl and Comte
de Saxe: There is this danger, this uncertainty, and then that
other;--which the King and Valori, with all their eloquence,
confute. "Impossible, for want of victual," answers Maurice at
last, driven into a corner: "Iglau, suppose we get it, will soon be
eaten; then where is our provision?"--"Provision?" answers Valori:
"There is M. de Sechelles, Head of our Commissariat in Prag; such a
Commissary never was before." "And you consent, if I take that in
hand?" urges Friedrich upon them. They are obliged to consent, on
that proviso. Friedrich undertakes Sechelles: the Enterprise cannot
now be refused. [ OEuvres de Frederic, ii. 170; Valori, i.
139; &c. &c.] "Alert, then; not a moment to be lost! Good-night;
AU REVOIR, my noble friends!"--and to-morrow many hours before
daybreak, Friedrich is off for Prag, leaving Dresden to awaken when
it can.
At Prag he renews acquaintance with his old maladroit Strasburg
friend, Marechal de Broglio, not with increase of admiration, as
would seem; declines the demonstrations and civilities of Broglio,
business being urgent: finds M. de Sechelles to be in truth the
supreme of living Commissaries (ready, in words which Friedrich
calls golden, "to make the impossible possible"): "Only march,
then, noble Saxons: swift!"--and dashes off again, next morning, to
northeastward, through Leopold's Bohemian cantonments, Glatz-ward
by degrees, to be ready with his own share of the affair; no delay
in him, for one. January 24th, after Konigsgratz and other Prussian
posts,--January 24th, which is elsewhere so notable a day,--his
route goes northeast, to Glatz, a hundred miles away, among the
intricacies of the Giant Mountains, hither side of the Silesian
Highlands; wild route for winter season, if the young King feared
any route. From Berlin, hither and farther, he may have gone well-
nigh his seven hundred miles within the week; rushing on
continually (starts, at say four in the winter morning);
doing endless business, of the ordering sort, as he speeds along.
Glatz, a southwestern mountainous Appendage to Silesia, abutting on
Moravia and Bohemia, is a small strong Country; upon which, ever
since the first Friedrich times, we have seen him fixed; claiming
it too, as expenses from the Austrians, since they will not
bargain. For he rises Sibyl-like: a year ago, you might have had
him with his 100,000 to boot, for the one Duchy of Glogau;
and now--! At Glatz or in these adjacent Bohemian parts, the Young
Dessauer has been on duty, busy enough, ever since the late Siege
of Neisse: Glatz Town the Young Dessauer soon got, when ordered;
Town, Population, Territory, all is his,--all but the high mountain
Fortress (centre of the Town of Glatzj, with its stiff-necked
Austrian Garrison shut up there, which he is wearing out by hunger.
We remember the little Note from Valori's waistcoat-pocket, "Don't
give him Glatz, if you can possibly help it!" In his latest
treaties with the French and their Allies, Friedrich has very
expressly bargained for the Country (will even pay money for it);
[ OEuvres de Frederic, ii. 85.] and is
determined to have it, when the Austrians next take to bargaining.
Of Glatz Fortress, now getting hungered out by Leopold's Prussian
Detachment, I will say farther, though Friedrich heeds these
circumstances little at present, that it stands on a scarped rock,
girt by the grim intricate Hills; and that in the Arsenal, in dusty
fabulous condition, lies a certain Drum, which readers may have
heard of. Drum is not a fable, but an antique reality fallen
flaccid; made, by express bequest, as is mythically said, from the
skin of Zisca, above 300 years ago: altogether mythic that latter
clause. Drum, Fortress, Town, Villages and Territory, all shall be
Friedrich's, had hunger done its work. [Town already, after short
scuffle, 14th January, 1742; Fortress, by hunger (no firing nor
being fired on, in the interim), 25th April following,--when the
once 2,000 of garrison, worn to about 200, pale as shadows, marched
away to Brunn; "only ten of them able for duty on arriving."
(Orlich, i. 174.)]
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