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History of Friedrich II of Prussia V 18
T >> Thomas Carlyle >> History of Friedrich II of Prussia V 18 Pages: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30
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]: yesterday, July 3d, King sent for me in
the afternoon,--the first time he has seen anybody since the news
came:--I had the honor to remain with him some hours in his closet.
I must own to your Lordship I was most sensibly afflicted to see
him 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."
[ Papers and Memoirs, i. 253; Despatch to
Holderness, 4th July (slightly abridged);--see ib. i. 357-359
(Private Journal). Westphalen, ii. 14. See OEuvres de
Frederic, iv. 182.] 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
Sorcerer's-Sabbath, 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 recognized 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, "attended the King's
person" all through this War, sometimes in the blaze 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
Friedrich not to be met with elsewhere.
Mitchell's 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, abrupt
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. Friedrich, flashing like clear
steel upon evildoers and mendacious unjust persons and their works,
is not by nature a cruel man, then, or an unfeeling, as Rumor
reports? Reader, no, far the reverse;--and public Rumor, 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 case, 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 Silesian Philosopher, with
whom he used to converse at 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 favorite topics), "believe, lies the real
ground of 'happiness:' it is the capacity and opportunity to
accomplish great things. This the King would not allow; but said,
That I did not sufficiently take into account the natural feelings,
different in different people, which, when painful, imbittered 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, '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 (WEIL ICH MEHR
EMPFINDLICHKEIT GEHABT HABE).'" [ Fragmente zur Schilderung
des Geistes, des Charakters und der Regierung Friedrichs 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 the above fraction now derivable
from it.]
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! On the
extreme West, "July 3d," while Friedrich at Leitmeritz sat weeping
for his Mother, the French take Embden from him; "July 5th," the
Russians, Memel, on the utmost East. June 30th, 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 bombarding Memel
from land and sea. Poor Memel (garrison only 700) answered very
fiercely, "sank two of their gunboats" 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 elsewhere, south in Tilsit Country, upon old Lehwald.
[ Helden-Geschichte, iv. 407-413.]
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 Reichs 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
preparations; in vain for Austrian Officials to urge them.
Watching 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 endeavoring, 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 Furth and
Farrenbach, east side the River Regnitz, there was the Camp
pitched," says my Anonymous Friend; who gives me a cheerful
Copperplate of the thing: red pennons, blue, and bright mixed
colors; 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.
[J.F.S. (whom I named ANONYMOUS OF HAMBURG long since; who has
boiled down, with great diligence, the old Newspapers, and gives a
great many dates, notes, &c., without Index), i. 211, 224 (the
Copperplate).] It is the same ground where Mayer was careering
lately; neighboring nobility and gentry glad to come in gala, and
dance with Mayer. Hither, all through July, come contingents
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); August 10th, came the young
reigning Duke of Hildburghausen (Duke's grand-uncle is to be
Commander), on like errand; August 11th) the Reichs-Heer got on
march. Westward ho!--readers will see towards what.
A truly ELENDE, or miserable, Reichs Execution Army (as the
MISprinter 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 Furth; thinking the path of duty lay that way,--
though his Wife, one of the noble women of her age, thought very
differently. [Her Letter to Friedrich, "Berlin, 30th October,
1757," OEuvres de Frederic, xxvii. ii. 135.]
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. [In Orlich,
Furst Moritz von Anhalt Dessau (Berlin,
1842), pp. 74, 75, Prince Moritz's rather mournful Letter on the
subject, with Friedrich's sharp Answer.] 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 color, condition,
method, and military and pecuniary and other outfit, beggaring
description. Hildburghausen 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 least 8,000
Austrian troops, 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," is
mockingly called "the Hoopers, Coopers (TONNELIERS)," 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 co-operate with
Reichs-Heer in that sacred object, thanks to the zeal of Pompadour,
Prince de Soubise has got together, in Elsass, a supplementary
30,000 (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 northeastward;
join the Reichs-Heer about Erfurt, before August end; and--and we
shall see what becomes of the combined Soubise and Reichs Army
after that!
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,
"L'ARMEE DE LA DAUPHINE;" or for shortness "LA DAUPHINE" 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'Estrees; ["Reappeared unexpectedly in Paris [from D'Estree's
Army], 22d June" (four days after Kolin): got up this DAUPHINESS
ARMY, by aid of Pompadour, with Richelieu, &c.: BARBIER, iv. 227,
231. Richelieu "busy at Strasburg lately" (29th July: Collini's
VOLTAIRE, p. 191).] and intends to eclipse him by a higher style of
diligence; though D'Estrees 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 detachment leftwards, and
Embden had capitulated that day. Adieu to the Shipping Interests
there, and to other pleasant things! "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 things are gloomily
known; but the most pressing of them is that of 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 DESTIN); 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, I 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 pounds] to the Favorite [yes, even to the Pompadour] 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, 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 Jnly, 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
blows from within and without, that I feel myself in a sort
of Stupefaction.
"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. "The Russians are besieging Memel [have taken it,
ten days ago]: 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.
"I am firmly resolved on the extremest efforts to save my Country.
We shall see (QUITTE A VOIR) 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 I shall have to
reproach myself with every fault, if, by delay or by over-haste, 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
Protestant 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
forever! I am in the case of a traveller who sees himself
surrounded and ready to be assassinated by a troop of cut-throats,
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], 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 neighbor, and burn his house about him,
they very certainly, by sentence of tribunal, would be broken on
the wheel. What! and will Sovereigns, who maintain these tribunals
and these laws in their States, give such example to their
subjects? ... Happy, my dear Sister, is the obscure man, whose good
sense from youth upwards, 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 honor 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] F."
[ OEuvres de Frederic, xxvii. i. 294, 295,
296-298.]
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.
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 30,000), with every equipment complete, in
discipline, in health and in heart, such as beseems a 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; Winterfeld 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 Counsellers;--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 Prince's mind did flounder a good deal;
and his procedures succeeded extremely ill on this occasion.
Certain, too, that they were extremely ill-taken at head-quarters:
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. [ Lettres Secretes touchant
la Deniere Guerre; de Main de Maitre; divisees en deux parties italic> (Francfort et Amsterdam, 1772): this is the Prince's own
Statement, Proof in hand. By far the clearest Account is in
Schmettau's Leben (by his Son), pp. 353-384.
See also Preuss, ii. 57-61, and especially ii. 407.] We, who can
spend but a page or two on it, must carefully stand by the
essential part.
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