Book: History of Friedrich II of Prussia V 20

T >> Thomas Carlyle >> History of Friedrich II of Prussia V 20




The vital element in Ferdinand's Adventure was the Siege of Cassel;
all had to fail, when this, by defect of means, under the best of
management, declared itself a failure. Siege Captain was a Graf von
Lippe-Buckeburg, Ferdinand's Ordnance-Master, who is supposed to be
"the best Artillery Officer in the world,"--and is a man of great
mark in military and other circles. He is Son and Successor of that
fantastic Lippe-Buckeburg, by whom Friedrich was introduced to
Free-Masonry long since. He has himself a good deal of the fantast
again, but with a better basis of solidity beneath it. A man of
excellent knowledge and faculty in various departments; strict as
steel, in regard to discipline, to practice and conduct of all
kinds; a most punctilious, silently supercilious gentleman, of
polite but privately irrefragable turn of mind. A tall, lean, dusky
figure; much seen to by neighbors, as he stalks loftily through
this puddle of a world, on terms of his own. Concerning whom there
circulates in military circles this Anecdote, among many others;--
which is set down as a fact; and may be, whether quite believable
or not, a symbol of all the rest, and of a man not unimportant in
these Wars. "Two years ago, on King Friedrich's birthday, 24th
January, 1759, the Count had a select dinner-party in his tent in
Ferdinand's Camp, in honor of the occasion. Dinner was well over,
and wine handsomely flowing, when somebody at last thought of
asking, 'What is it, then, Herr Graf, that whistling kind of noise
we hear every now and then overhead?' 'That is nothing,' said the
Graf, in his calm, dusky way: 'that is only my Artillery-people
practising; I have bidden them hit the pole of our tent if they
can: unhappily there is not the slightest danger. Push the bottles
on.'" [Archenholtz, ii. 356; Zimmermann, Einsamkeit, italic> iii. 461; &c.] Lippe-Buckeburg was Siege-Captain at Cassel;
Commandant besieged was Comte de Broglio, the Marshal's younger
Brother, formerly in the Diplomatic line;--whom we saw once, five
years ago, at the Pirna Barrier, fly into fine frenzy, and kick
vainly against the pricks. Friedrich says once, to D'Argens or
somebody: "I hope we shall soon have Cassel, and M. le Comte de
Broglio prisoner" (deserves it for his fine frenzies, at Pirna and
since);--but that comfort was denied us.

Some careless Books say, Friedrich had at first good hopes of this
Enterprise; and "had himself lent 7,000 men to it:" which is the
fact, but not the whole fact. Friedrich had approved, and even
advised this plan of Ferdinand's, and had agreed to send 7,000 men
to co-operate at Langensalza,--which, so far out in Thuringen, and
pointing as if to the Reichsfolk, is itself an eye-sorrow to
Friedrich. The issue we have seen. His 7,000 went accordingly,
under a General Syburg; met the Ferdinand people (General Sporken
head of these, and Walpole's "Conway" one of them); found the
Unstrut in flood, but crossed nevertheless; dashed in upon the
French and Saxons there, and made a brilliant thing of it at
Langensalza. [ Bericht von der bey Langensalza am 15
Februar 1761 vorgefallenen Action in Seyfarth,
Beylagen, iii. 75; Tempelhof, v. 22-27.]
Which done, Syburg instantly withdrew, leaving Sporken and his
Conways to complete the Adventure; and, for his part, set himself
with his whole might "to raising contributions, recruits, horses,
proviants, over Thuringen;" "which," says Tempelhof, "had been his
grand errand there, and in which he succeeded wonderfully."

Towards the end of Ferdinand's Affair, Cassel Siege now evidently
like to fail, Friedrich organized a small Expedition for his own
behoof: expedition into Voigtland, or Frankenland, against the
intrusive Reichs-people, who have not now a Broglio or Langensalza
to look across to, but are mischievous upon our outposts on the
edge of the Voigtland yonder. The expedition lasted only ten days
(APRIL 1st it left quarters; APRIL 11th was home again); a sharp,
swift and very pretty expedition; [Tempelhof, v. 48-57.] of which
we can here say only that it was beautifully impressive on the
Reichs gentlemen, and sent their Croateries and them home again, to
Bamberg, to Eger, quite over the horizon, in a considerably
flurried state. After which there was no Small-War farther, and
everybody rested in cantonment, making ready till the Great
should come.

The Prussian wounded are all in Leipzig this Winter; a crowded
stirring Town; young Archenholtz, among many others, going about in
convalescent state,--not attending Gellert's course, that I hear
of,--but noticing vividly to right and left. Much difficulty about
the contributions, Archenholtz observes;--of course an ever-
increasing difficulty, here as everywhere, in regard to finance!
From Archenholtz chiefly, I present the following particulars;
which, though in loose form, and without date, except the general
one of Winter 1760-1761, to any of them, are to be held
substantially correct.

... "'It is impossible to pay that Contribution,' exclaim the
Leipzigers: 'you said, long since, it was to be 75,000 pounds on us
by the year; and this year you rise to 160,000 pounds; more than
double!'--'Perhaps that is because you favored the Reichsfolk while
here?' answer the Prussians, if they answer anything: 'It is the
King's order. Pay it you must.'--'Cannot; simply impossible.'
'Possible, we tell you, and also certain; we will burn your Leipzig
if you don't!' And they actually, these Collector fellows, a stony-
hearted set, who had a percentage of their own on the sums levied,
got soldiers drawn out more than once pitch-link in hand, as if for
immediate burning: hut the Leipzigers thought to themselves, 'King
Friedrich is not a Soltikof!' and openly laughed at those pitch-
links. Whereupon about a hundred of their Chief Merchants were
thrown into prison,--one hundred or so, riddled down in a day or
two to Seventeen; which latter Seventeen, as they stood out, were
detained a good many days, how many is not said, but only that they
were amazingly firm. Black-hole for lodging, bread-and-water for
diet, straw for bed: nothing would avail on the Seventeen:
'Impossible,' they answered always; each unit of them, in sight of
the other sixteen, was upon his honor, and could not think of
flinching. 'You shall go for soldiers, then;--possibly you will
prefer that, you fine powdered velvet gentlemen? Up then, and
march; here are your firelocks, your seventeen knapsacks: to the
road with us; to Magdeburg, there to get on drill!' Upon which the
Seventeen, horror-struck at such quasi-ACTUAL possibility, gave in.

"Magnanimous Gotzkowsky, who had come to Leipzig on business at the
time [which will give us a date for this by and by], and been
solemnly applied to by Deputation of the Rath, pleaded with his
usual zealous fidelity on their behalf; got various alleviations,
abatements; gave bills:--'Never was seen such magnanimity!' said
the Leipzig Town-Council solemnly, as that of Berlin, in October
last, had done." [Archenholtz, ii. 187-192.]

Of course the difficulties, financial and other, are increasing
every Winter;--not on Friedrich's side only. Here, for instance,
from the Duchy of Gottingen, are some items in the French Account
current, this Winter, which are also furnished by Archenholtz:--

"For bed-ticking, 13,000 webs; of shirts ready-made, 18,000;
shoes," I forget in what quantity; but "from the poor little Town
of Duderstadt 600 pairs,--liability to instant flogging if they are
not honest shoes; flogging, and the whole shoemaker guild summoned
out to see it." Hardy women the same Duderstadt has had to produce:
300 of them, "each with basket on back, who are carrying cannon-
balls from the foundry at Lauterberg to Gottingen, the road being
bad." [Archenholtz, ii. 237.] "These French are in such necessity,"
continues Archenholtz, "they spare neither friend nor foe.
The Frankish Circle, for example, pleads piteously in Reichs Diet
that it has already smarted by this War to the length of 2,230,000
pounds, and entreats the Kaiser to bid Most Christian Majesty cease
HIS exactions,--but without the least result." Result! If Most
Christian Majesty and his Pompadour will continue this War, is it
he, or is it you, that can furnish the Magazines?
"Magazine-furnishings, over all Hessen and this part of Hanover,
are enormous. Recruits too, native Hessian, native Hanoverian, you
shall furnish,--and 'We will hang them, and do, if caught
deserting' [to their own side]!"

I add only one other item from Archenholtz: "Mice being busy in
these Hanover Magazines, it is decided to have cats, and a
requisition goes out accordingly [cipher not given]: cats do
execution for a time, but cannot stand the confinement," are averse
to the solitary system, and object (think with what vocality!):
"upon which Hanover has to send foxes and weasels." [Ib. ii. 240]
These guardian animals, and the 300 women laden with cannon-balls
from the forge, are the most peculiar items in the French Account
current, and the last I will mention.

Difficulty, quasi-impossibility, on the French side, there
evidently is, perhaps more than on any other. But Choiseul has many
arts;--and his Official existence, were there nothing more, demands
that he do the impossible now if ever. This Spring (26th March,
1761), to the surprise and joy of mankind, there came formal
Proposal, issuing from Choiseul, to which Maria Theresa and the
Czarina had to put their signatures; regretting that the British-
Prussian Proposal of last Year had, by ill accident, fallen to the
ground, and now repeating it themselves (real "Congress at
Augsburg," and all things fair and handsome) to Britannic and
Prussian Majesties. Who answered (April 3d) as before, "Nothing
with more willingness, we!" [The "Declaration" (of France &c.),
with the Answer or "Counter-Declaration," in Seyfarth,
Beylagen, iii. 12-16.]

And there actually did ensue, at Paris, a vivid Negotiating all
Summer; which ended, not quite in nothing, but in less, if we might
say so. Considerably less, for some of us. We shall have to look
what end it had, and Mauduit will look!--Most people, Pitt probably
among the others, came to think that Choiseul, though his France is
in beggary, had no real view from the first, except to throw powder
in the eyes of France and mankind, to ascertain for himself on what
terms those English would make Peace, and to get Spain drawn into
his quarrel. A Choiseul with many arts. But we will leave him and
his Peace-Proposals, and the other rumors and futilities of this
Year. They are part of the sound and smoke which fill all Years;
and which vanish into next to nothing, oftenest into pure nothing,
when the Years have waited a little. Friedrich's finances, copper
and other, were got completed; his Armies too were once more put on
a passable footing;--and this Year will have its realities withal.

Gotzkowsky, in regard to those Leipzig Finance difficulties, yields
me a date, which is supplementary to some of the Archenholtz
details. I find it was "January 20th, 1761,"--precisely while the
Saldern Interview, and subsequent wreck of Hubertsburg, went on,
--that "Gotzkowsky arrived in Leipzig," [Rodenbeck, ii. 77.] and
got those unfortunate Seventeen out of ward, and the
contributions settled.

And withal, at Paris, in the same hours, there went on a thing
worth noting. That January day, while Icilius was busy on the
Schloss of Hubertsburg, poor old Marechal de Belleisle,--mark him,
reader!--"in the Rue de Lille at Paris," lay sunk in putrid fever;
and on the fourth day after, "January 26th, 1761," the last of the
grand old Frenchmen died. "He had been reported dead three days
before," says Barbier: "the public wished it so; they laid the
blame on him of this apparent" (let a cautious man write it,
"apparent) derangement in our affairs,"--instead of thanking him
for all he had done and suffered (loss of so much, including
reputation and an only Son) to repair and stay the same. "He was in
his 77th year. Many people say, 'We must wait three months, to see
if we shall not regret him,'"--even him! [Barbier, iv. 373;
i. 154.] So generous are Nations.

Marechal Duc de Belleisle was very wealthy: in Vernon Country,
Normandy, he had estates and chateaux to the value of about 24,000
pounds annually. All these, having first accurately settled for his
own debts, he, in his grand old way, childless, forlorn, but
loftily polite to the last, bequeathed to the King. His splendid
Paris Mansion he expressly left "to serve in perpetuity as a
residence for the Secretary of State in the Department of War:"
a magnificent Town-House it is, "HOTEL MAGNIFIQUE, at the end of
the Pont-Royal,"--which, I notice farther, is in our time called
"Hotel de CHOISEUL-PRASLIN,"--a house latterly become horrible in
men's memory, if my guess is right.

And thus vanishes, in sour dark clouds, the once great Belleisle.
Grandiose, something almost of great in him, of sublime,--alas,
yes, of too sublime; and of unfortunate beyond proportion, paying
the debt of many foregoers! He too is a notability gone out, the
last of his kind. Twenty years ago, he crossed the OEil-de-Boeuf
with Papers, just setting out to cut Teutschland in Four; and in
the Rue de Lille, No. 54, with that grandiose Enterprise drawing to
its issue in universal defeat, disgrace, discontent and preparation
for the General Overturn (CULBUTE GENERALE of 1789)) he closes his
weary old eyes. Choiseul. succeeds him as War-Minister;
War-Minister and Prime-Minister both in one;--and by many arts of
legerdemain, and another real spasm of effort upon Hanover to do
the impossible there, is leading France with winged steps the
same road.

Since March 17th, Friedrich was no longer in Leipzig. He left at
that time, for Meissen Country, and the Hill Cantonments,--
organized there his little Expedition into Voigtland, for behoof of
the Reichsfolk;--and did not return. Continued, mostly in Meissen
Country, as the fittest for his many businesses, Army-regulatings
and other. Till the Campaign come, we will remember of him nothing,
but this little Note, and pleasant little Gift, to his CHERE MAMAN,
the day after his arrival in those parts:--


TO MADAM CAMAS (at Magdeburg, with the Queen).

"MEISSEN, 20th March, 1761.

"I send you, my dear Mamma, a little Trifle, by way of keepsake and
memento [Snuffbox of Meissen Porcelain, with the figure of a Dog on
the lid]. You may use the Box for your rouge, for your patches, or
you may put snuff in it, or BONBONS or pills: but whatever use you
turn it to, think always, when you see this Dog, the Symbol of
Fidelity, that he who sends it outstrips, in respect of fidelity
and attachment to MAMAN, all the dogs in the world; and that his
devotion to you has nothing whatever in common with the fragility
of the material which is manufactured hereabouts.

"I have ordered Porcelain here for all the world, for Schonhausen
[for your Mistress, my poor uncomplaining Wife], for my Sisters-in-
law; in fact, I am rich in this brittle material only. And I hope
the receivers will accept it as current money: for, the truth is,
we are poor as can be, good Mamma; I have nothing left but honor,
my coat, my sword, and porcelain.

"Farewell, my beloved Mamma. If Heaven will, I shall one day see
you again face to face; and repeat to you, by word of mouth, what I
have already said and written; but, turn it and re-turn it as I
may, I shall never, except very incompletely, express what the
feelings of my heart to you are.--F." [Given in Rodenbeck, ii. 79;
omitted, for I know not what reason, in OEuvres de
Frederic, xviii. 145: cited partly in Preuss,
ii. 282.]

------

It was during this Winter, if ever it was, that Friedrich received
the following Letter from an aspiring Young Lady, just coming out,
age seventeen,--in a remote sphere of things. In "Sleepy Hollow"
namely, or the Court of Mirow in Mecklenburg-Strelitz, where we
once visited with Friedrich almost thirty years ago. The poor
collapsed Duke has ceased making dressing-gowns there; and this is
his Niece, Princess Charlotte, Sister to the now reigning Duke.

This Letter, in the translated form, and the glorious results it
had for some of us, are familiar to all English readers for the
last hundred years. Of Friedrich's Answer to it, if he sent one, we
have no trace whatever. Which is a pity, more or less;--though, in
truth, the Answer could only have been some polite formality; the
Letter itself being a mere breath of sentimental wind, absolutely
without significance to Friedrich or anybody else,--except always
to the Young Lady herself, to whom it brought a Royal Husband and
Queenship of England, within a year. Signature, presumably, this
Letter once had; date of place, of day, year, or even century
(except by implication), there never was any: but judicious
persons, scanning on the spot, have found that the "Victory" spoken
of can only have meant Torgau; and that the aspiring Young Lady,
hitherto a School Girl, not so much as "confirmed" till a month or
two ago, age seventeen in May last, can only have I written it, at
Mirow, in the Winter subsequent. [Ludwig Giesebrecht,--DER
FURSTENHOF IN MIROW WUHREND DER JAHRE 1708-1761, in
Programm des vereinigten Koniglichen und Stadt-Gymnasiums italic> for 1863 (Stettin, 1863), pp. 26-29,--enters into a minute
criticism.] Certain it is, in September NEXT, September, 1761,
directly after George III.'s Wedding, there appeared in the English
Newspapers, what doubtless had been much handed about in society
before, the following "TRANSLATION OF A LETTER, SAID TO HAVE BEEN
WRITTEN BY PRINCESS CHARLOTTE OF MECKLENBERG TO THE KING OF
PRUSSIA, ON ONE OF HIS VICTORIES,"--without farther commentary or
remark of any kind; everybody then understanding, as everybody
still. So notable a Document ought to be given in the Original as
well (or in what passes for such), and with some approach to the
necessary preliminaries of time and place: [From
Gentleman's Magazine (for October, 1761, xxxi. 447) we
take, verbatim, the TRANSLATION; from PREUSS (ii. 186) the
"ORIGINAL," who does not say where he got it,--whether from an old
German Newspaper or not.]--


[TO HIS MAJESTY THE KING OF PRUSSIA (in Leipzig, or Somewhere.
or Somewhere).

MIROW IN MECHLENBURG-STRELITZ, Winter of 1760-1761.]

"Sire!--Ich weiss nicht, ob ich uber Ewr. Majestat letzteren Sieg
frohlich odor traurig sein soll, weil eben der gluckliche Sieg, der
neue Lorbeern um Dero Scheitel geflochten hat, uber mein Vaterland
Jammer und Elend verbreitet. Ich weiss, Sire, in diesem unserm
lasterhaft verfeinerten Zeitalter werde ich verlacht werden, dass
mein Herz uber das Ungluck des Landes trauert, dass ich die
Drangsale des Krieges beweine, und von ganzer Seele die Ruckkehr
des Friedens wunsche. Selbst Sie, Sire, werden vielleicht denken,
es schicke sich besser fur mich, mich in der Kunst zu gefallen zu
uben, oder mich nur um hausliche Angelegenheiten zu bekummern.
Allein dem seye wie ihm wolle, so fuhlt mein Herz zu sehr fur diese
Unglucklichen, um eine dringende Furbitte fur dieselben zuruck
zu halten.

"Seit wenigen Jahren hatte dieses Land die angenehmste Gestalt
gewonnen. Man traf keine verodete Stellen an. Alles war angebaut.
Das Landvolk sah vergnugt aus, und in den Stadten herrschte
Wohlstand und Freude. Aber welch' eine Veranderung gegen eine so
angenehme Scene! Ich bin in partheischen Beschreibungen nicht
erfahren, noch weniger kann ich die Grauel der Verwilstung mit
erdichteten Schilderungen schrecklicher darstellen. Allein gewiss
selbst Krieger, welche ein edles Herz und Gefuhl besitzen, wurden
durch den Anblick dieser Scenen zu Thranen bewegt werden. Das ganze
Land, mein werthes Vaterland, liegt da gleich einer Wuste. Der
Ackerbau und die Viehzucht haben aufgehort. Der Bauer und der Hirt
sind Soldaten worden, und in den Stadten sieht man nur Greise,
Weiber, und Kinder, vielleicht noch hie und da einen jungen Mann,
der aber durch empfangene Wunden ein Kruppel ist und den ihn
umgebenden kleinen Knaben die Geschichte einer jeden Wunde mit
einem so pathetischen Heldenton erzahlt, dassihr Herz schon der
Trommel folgt, ehe sie recht gehen konnen. Was aber das Elend auf
den hochsten Gipfel bringt, sind die immer abwechselnden
Vorruckungen und Zuruckziehungen beider Armeen, da selbst die, so
sich unsre Freunde nennen, beim Abzuge alles mitnehmen und
verheeren, und wenn sie wieder kommen, gleich viel wieder herbei
geschafft haben wollen. Von Dero Gerechtigkeit, Sire, hoffen wir
Hulfe in dieser aussersten Noth. An Sie, Sire, mogen auch Frauen,
ja selbst Kinder ihre Klagen bringen. Sie, die sich auch zur
niedrigsten Klasse gutigst herablassen, und dadurch, wenn es
moglich ist, noch grosser werden, als selbst durch ihre Siege,
werden die meinigen nicht unerhort lassen und, zur Ehre Dero
eigenen Ruhmes, Bedruckungen und Drangsalen abhelfen, welche wider
alle Menschenliebe und wider alle gute Kriegszucht streiten.
Ich bin &c."


"MAY IT PLEASE YOUR MAJESTY,
"I am at a loss whether I shall congratulate or condole with you on
your late victory; since the same success that has covered you with
laurels has overspread the Couutry of MecklenburgH with desolation.
I know, Sire, that it seems unbecoming my sex, in this age of
vicious refinement, to feel for one's Country, to lament the
horrors of war, or wish for the return of peace. I know you may
think it more properly my province to study the art of pleasing, or
to turn my thoughts to subjects of a more domestic nature:
but, however unbecoming it may be in me, I can't resist the desire
of interceding for this unhappy people.

"It was but a very few years ago that this territory wore the most
pleasing appearance. The Country was cultivated, the peasant looked
cheerful, and the towns abounded with riches and festivity. What an
alteration at present from such a charming scene! I am not expert
at description, nor can my fancy add any horrors to the picture;
but sure even conquerors themselves would weep at the hideous
prospect now before me. The whole Country, my dear Country, lies
one frightful waste, presenting only objects to excite terror, pity
and despair. The business of the husbandman and the shepherd are
quite discontinued; the husbandman and the shepherd are become
soldiers themselves, and help to ravage the soil they formerly
occupied. The towns are inhabited only by old men, women and
children; perhaps here and there a warrior, by wounds and loss of
limbs rendered unfit for service, left at his door; his little
children hang round him, ask a history of every wound, and grow
themselves soldiers before they find strength for the field.
But this were nothing, did we not feel the alternate insolence of
either army, as it happens to advance or retreat. It is impossible
to express the confusion, even those who call themselves our
friends create. Even those from whom we might expect redress,
oppress us with new calamities. From your justice, therefore, it is
that we hope relief; to you even children and women may complain,
whose humanity stoops to the meanest petition, and whose power is
capable of repressing the greatest injustice.

"I am, Sire, &c."


It is remarked that this Young Lady, so amiably melodious in tone,
though she might address to King Friedrich, seems to be writing to
the wind; and that she gives nothing of fact or picture in regard
to Mecklenburg, especially to Mecklenburg-STRELITZ, but what is
taken from her own beautiful young brain. All operatic, vague,
imaginary,--some of it expressly untrue. [In Mecklenburg-SCHWERIN,
which had always to smart sore for its Duke and the line he took,
the Swedes, this year, as usual (but, TILL Torgau, with more hope
than usual), had been trying for winter-quarters: and had by the
Prussians, as usual, been hunted out,--Eugen of Wurtemberg speeding
thither, directly after Torgau; Rostock his winter-quarters;--who,
doubtless with all rigor, is levying contributions for Prussian
behoof. But as to Mecklenburg-Strelitz,--see, for example, in
SCHONING, iii. 30 &c., an indirect but altogether conclusive proof
of the perfectly amicable footing now and always subsisting there;
Friedrich reluctant to intrude even with a small request or
solicitation, on Eugen's behalf, at this time.] So that latterly
there have been doubts as to its authenticity altogether.
["Boll, Geschichte Mecklenburgs mit besonderer
Berucksichtigung der Culturgeschichte (Neubrandenburg,
1856), ii. 303-305;"--cited by Giesebrecht, who himself takes the
opposite view.] And in fact the Piece has a good deal the air of
some School-Exercise, Model of Letter-writing, Patriotic Aspiration
or the like;--thrown off, shall we say, by the young Parson of
Mirow (Charlotte's late Tutor), with Charlotte there to SIGN; or by
some Patriotic Schoolmaster elsewhere, anywhere, in a moment of
enthusiasm, and without any Charlotte but a hypothetic one?
Certainly it is difficult to fancy how a modest, rational,
practical young person like Charlotte can have thought of so airy a
feat of archery into the blue! Charlotte herself never disavowed
it, that I heard of; and to Colonel Grahame the Ex-Jacobite,
hunting about among potential Queens of England, for behoof of Bute
and of a certain Young King and King's Mother, the Letter did seem
abundantly unquestionable and adorable. Perhaps authentic, after
all;--and certainly small matter whether or not.

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