History of Friedrich II of Prussia V 1x

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Prepared by D.R. Thompson

Carlyle's "History of Friedrich II of Prussia"

Book XVII

THE SEVEN-YEARS WAR: FIRST CAMPAIGN.

1756-1757.

Chapter I.

WHAT FRIEDRICH 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 beginning?" 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," "audacious," 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
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 "Public Opinion"! Tragically howling
round a man; who has to stand silent the while; and scan, wisely
under pain of death, the altogether inarticulate, 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's incurable sorrow
at loss of Silesia, and her inextinguishable 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 Heroisms; and in fact, the behest of gods and men?"
Ten years ago, 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 Bruhl, 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 remember on that occasion,
with English Villiers shedding pious tears. But what is very
remarkable withal is a thing since discovered: [INFRA, next Note
(p. 276).] That Harrach, magnanimous signature hardly yet dry, did
then straightway, by order of his Court, very privately inquire of
Bruhl, "There is Peace, you see; what they call Peace:--but our
TREATY OF WARSAW, for Partition of this magnanimous man, stands all
the same; does n't it?" To which, according to the Documents,
Bruhl, hardly escaped from the pangs of death, and still in a very
pale-yellow condition, 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, Bruhl has ever since
rather held back; would not re-engage 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 FRIEDRICH DISCOVERED THE MYSTERY. CONCERNING MENZEL
AND WEINGARTEN.

Friedrich has been aware of this mystery, at least wide 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 "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
Mahlzahn'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 Bruhl's ANSWERS,--the principal of which
were subsequently printed in their best arrangement and liveliest
point of vision [In Friedrich's Manifestoes, chiefly in MEMOIRE
RAISONNE SUR LA CONDUITE DES COURS DE VIENNE ET DE SAXE (compiled
from the MENZEL ORIGINALS, 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 Gesammelte Nachrichten
und Urkunden, --which is a "Collection" of such
(2 vols., 113 Nos. small 8vo, no Place, 1757, my Copy of it).]--are
by no means a luminous set of Documents 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 Winterfeld
convinced himself that there was weight in the affair, he imparted
it to Friedrich: 'Scheme of partitioning, your Majesty, of picking
quarrel, then overwhelming 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 Winterfeld authority to
prosecute it to the bottom, in Dresden or wherever the secret may
lie. Who thereupon charged Mahlzahn, the Prussian Minister at
Dresden, to find some proper Menzel, and bestir himself.
How Mahlzahn 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-Fair, 1753. Three persons are
cognizant of it, Winterfeld, Mahlzahn, Friedrich; three, and no
more. Probably the abstrusest study; and the most intense, going on
in the world at that epoch. [Rotzow, Charakteristik des
Siebenjahrigen Krieges (Berlin, 1802), i. 23.]

"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 'madly in love' with some Chambermaid or
quasi-chambermaid (let us call her Chambermaid), 'Daughter of the
Castellan at Charlottenburg.' Winterfeld, through the due channels,
applied to this Chambermaid, '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!' Chambermaid, 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 to be seriously suspected June, 1756
(Weingarten Junior, let us still say, for there was a Senior of
unstained fidelity); 'June 15th,' Excellency Peubla pointedly
demands him from Friedrich and the Berlin Police:
'Weingarten Junior, my SECOND Secretar, fugitive and traitor;
hidden somewhere!' ["BERLIN, 22d JUNE: Every research making for
Mr. Weingatten,--in vain hitherto" ( Gentleman's Magazine,
xxvi., i. e. for 1756, p. 363).] Excellency Peubla is
answered, 24th June: '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.' [ Helden-Geschichte, italic> iii. 713.] So that Excellency Peubla had nothing for it but
to compose himself; to honor 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. [Retzow, i. 37.] 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 Gross-Furst PETER, Russian
Heir-Apparent! [Cogniazzo, i. 225.]

"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 Documents: "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?" For Friedrich's
demeanor, 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 clamor of rage and logic from uninformed mankind.
Clamorous rage and logic, which has now sunk irresuscitably dead;--
nothing of it much worth mentioning to modern readers, scarcely
even its HIC 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 respective 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:
[Now printed in OEuvres de Frederic, iv.
40-42.] 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 Bruhl, by a
grateful Austria, directly on signing the Peace of Dresden:
"Our Partition-Treaty stands all the same, does it not?"--and in
what humor Bruhl 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 Documents. And if the reader will possess
himself of these two facts, and understand that they are of a
germinative, most vital quality, indestructible by the times and
the chances; and have been growing and developing themselves, day
and night ever since, in a truly wonderful manner,--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 overwhelm 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 seed-grain 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'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; [MEMOIRE RAISONNE
(in Gesammelte Nachrichten ), i. 459.] 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 study Menzel), is Bruhl himself
hagridden, 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! ["MONTREZ-MOI DES
VERTUS, PAS DES CULOTTES (Have you no virtues then to show me;
nothing but pain of breeches)!" exclaimed an impatient French
Traveller, led about in Bruhl's Palace one day: Archenholtz,
Geschichte des Siebenjahrigen Krieges,
i. 63.] 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 rumors to
that end, and continually besieging with them the empty Czarish
mind. Bruhl has many Conduits, "the Sieur de Funck," "the Sieur
Gross" 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 Bruhl's 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
vanished 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 Funck added, "that it was expected good use could be made
of such a story with her Czarish Majesty."--To which Count Bruhl
replies, 23d July, "That he has instructed the Sieur Gross, 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:--
"I am bidden signify to your Excellency that it is greatly
wished, in order to favor certain views, you would have the
goodness to cause arrive in Petersburg, by different channels, the
following intelligence: '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 [L'ON, 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 advantage 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,
1756: "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
[L'ON, 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 ARTIFICIEUSE,"
--UN PEU, nothing to speak of)! [MEMOIRE RAISONNE (in
Gesammelte Nachrichten ), i. 424-425; and ib. 472.]

Fancy a poor fat Czarina, of many appetites, of little judgment,
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
rumors, no ray of direct daylight visiting the poor Sovereign
Woman; who is lazy, not malignant 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 neighbor? 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. [Retzow, i. 34.] 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, 14th-15th MAY, 1753, "There was Meeting of the
Russian Senate, with deliberation held for these two days; and for
issue this conclusion come to:--

"That it should be, and hereby is, settled as a fundamental maxim
of the Russia Empire, Not only to oppose any farther aggrandizement
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." [MEMOIRE RAISONNE (in Gesammelte
Nachrichten ), i. 421.] Leg of mutton to be actually
gone into. With what an enthusiasm of "Hear, hear!" from Bruhl and
kindred parties; especially from Bruhl,--who, however, dare not yet
bite, except hypothetically, such his terrors and tremors. Or, look
again (same Senate,

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