Book: History of Friedrich II of Prussia V 20

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




And this is, more minutely than need have been, in authentic form
only too diffuse, the once world-famous Warkotsch Tragedy or
Wellnigh-Tragic Melodrama; which is still interesting and a matter
of study, of pathos and minute controversy, to the patriot and
antiquary in Prussian Countries, though here we might have been
briefer about it. It would, indeed, have "finished the War at
once;" and on terms delightful to Austria and its Generals near by.
But so would any unit of the million balls and bullets which have
whistled round that same Royal Head, and have, every unit of them,
missed like Warkotsch! Particular Heads, royal and other, meant for
use in the scheme of things, are not to be hit on any terms till
the use is had.

Friedrich settled in Breslau for the Winter, December 9th.
From Colberg bad news meet him in Breslau; bad and ever worse:
Colberg, not Warkotsch, is the interesting matter there, for a
fortnight coming,--till Colberg end, it also irremediable.
The Russian hope on Colberg is, long since, limited to that of
famine. We said the conveyance of Supplies, across such a Hundred
Miles of wilderness, from Stettin thither, with Russians and the
Winter gainsaying, was the difficulty. Our short Note continues:--

"In fact, it is the impossibility: trial after trial goes on, in a
strenuous manner, but without success. October 13th, Green Kleist
tries; October 22d, Knobloch and even Platen try. For the next two
months there is trial on trial made (Hussar Kleist, Knobloch,
Thadden, Platen), not without furious fencing, struggling; but with
no success. There are, in wait at the proper places, 15,000
Russians waylaying. Winter comes early, and unusually severe:
such marchings, such endeavorings and endurances,--without success!
For darkness, cold, grim difficulty, fierce resistance to it, one
reads few things like this of Colberg. 'The snow lies ell-deep,'
says Archenholtz; 'snow-tempests, sleet, frost: a country wasted
and hungered out; wants fuel-wood; has not even salt. The soldier's
bread is a block of ice; impracticable to human teeth till you thaw
it,--which is only possible by night.' The Russian ships disappear
(17th October); November 2d, Butturlin, leaving reinforcements
without stint, vanishes towards Poland. The day before Butturlin
went, there had been solemn summons upon Eugen, 'Surrender
honorably, we once more bid you; never will we leave this ground,
till Colberg is ours!' 'Vain to propose it!' answers Eugen, as
before. The Russians too are clearly in great misery of want;
though with better roads open for them; and Romanzow's obstinacy
is extreme.

"Night of November 14th-15th, Eugen, his horse-fodder being
entirely done, and Heyde's magazines worn almost out, is obliged to
glide mysteriously, circuitously from his Camp, and go to try the
task himself. The most difficult of marches, gloriously executed;
which avails to deliver Eugen, and lightens the pressure on Heyde's
small store. Eugen, in a way Tempelhof cannot enough admire, gets
clear away. Joins with Platen, collects Provision; tries to send
Provision in, but without effect. By the King's order, is to try it
himself in a collective form. Had Heyde food, he would care little.

"Romanzow, who is now in Eugen's old Camp, summons the Veteran;
they say, it is 'for the twenty-fifth time,'--not yet quite the
last. Heyde consults his people: 'KAMERADEN, what think you should
I do?' 'THUN SIE'S DURCHAUS NICHT, HERR OBRIST, Do not a whit of
it, Herr Colonel: we will defend ourselves as long as we have bread
and powder.' [Seyfarth, iii. 28; Archenholtz, ii. 304.] It is grim
frost; Heyde pours water on his walls. Romanzow tries storm;
the walls are glass; the garrison has powder, though on half
rations as to bread: storm is of no effect. By the King's order,
Eugen tries again. December 6th, starts; has again a march of the
most consummate kind; December 12th, gets to the Russian
intrenchment; storms a Russian redoubt, and fights inexpressibly;
hut it will not do. Withdraws; leaves Colberg to its fate.
Next morning, Heyde gets his twenty-sixth summons; reflects on it
two days; and then (December 16th), his biscuit done, decides to
'march out, with music playing, arms shouldered and the honors of
war."' [Tempelhof, v. 351-377; Archenholtz, ii. 294-307; especially
the Seyfarth Beylagen above cited.] Adieu to
the old Hero; who, we hope, will not stay long in Russian prison.

"What a Place of Arms for us!" thinks Romanzow;--"though, indeed,
for Campaign 1762, at this late time of year, it will not so much
avail us." No;--and for 1763, who knows if you will need it then!

Six weeks ago, Prince Henri and Daun had finished their Saxon
Campaign in a much more harmless manner. NOVEMBER 5th, Daun, after
infinite rallying, marshalling, rearranging, and counselling with
Loudon, who has sat so long quiescent on the Heights at Kunzendorf,
ready to aid and reinforce, did at length (nothing of "rashness"
chargeable on Daun) make "a general attack on Prince Henri's
outposts", in the Meissen or Mulda-Elbe Country, "from Rosswein all
across to Siebeneichen;" simultaneous attack, 15 miles wide, or I
know not how wide, but done with vigor; and, after a stiff struggle
in the small way, drove them all in;--in, all of them, more or
less;--and then did nothing farther whatever. Henri had to contract
his quarters, and stand alertly on his guard: but nothing came.
"Shall have to winter in straiter quarters, behind the Mulda, not
astride of it as formerly; that is all." And so the Campaign in
Saxony had ended, "without, in the whole course of it", say the
Books, "either party gaining any essential advantage over the
other." [Seyfarth, iii. 54; Tempelhof, v. 275 et seq. (ibid. pp.
263-280 for the Campaign at large, in all breadth of detail).]



Chapter X.

FRIEDRICH IN BRESLAU; HAS NEWS FROM PETERSBURG.

Since December 9th, Friedrich is in Breslau, in some remainder of
his ruined Palace there; and is represented to us, in Books, as
sitting amid ruins; no prospect ahead of him but ruin.
Withdrawn from Society; looking fixedly on the gloomiest future.
Sees hardly anybody; speaks, except it be on business, nothing.
"One day," I have read somewhere, "General Lentulus dined with him;
and there was not a word uttered at all." The Anecdote-Books have
Dialogues with Ziethen; Ziethen still trusting in Divine
Providence; King trusting only in the iron Destinies, and the stern
refuge of Death with honor: Dialogues evidently symbolical only.
In fact, this is not, or is not altogether, the King's common
humor. He has his two Nephews with him (the elder, old enough to
learn soldiering, is to be of next Campaign under him); he is not
without society when he likes,--never without employment whether he
like or not; and, in the blackest murk of despondencies, has his
Turk and other Illusions, which seem to be brighter this Year than
ever. [LETTERS to Henri: in SCHONING, iii. (SOEPIUS).]

For certain, the King is making all preparation, as if victory
might still crown him: though of practical hope he, doubtless often
enough, has little or none. England seems about deserting him;
a most sad and unexpected change has befallen there: great Pitt
thrown out; perverse small Butes come in, whose notions and
procedures differ far from Pitt's! At home here, the Russians are
in Pommern and the Neumark; Austrians have Saxony, all but a poor
strip beyond the Mulda; Silesia, all but a fraction on the Oder:
Friedrich has with himself 30,000; with Prince Henri, 25,000;
under Eugen of Wurtemberg, against the Swedes, 5,000; in all his
Dominions, 60,000 fighting men. To make head against so many
enemies, he calculates that 60,000 more must be raised this Winter.
And where are these to come from; England and its help having also
fallen into such dubiety? Next Year, it is calculated by everybody,
Friedrich himself hardly excepted (in bad moments), must be the
finis of this long agonistic tragedy. On the other hand, Austria
herself is in sore difficulties as to cash; discharges 20,000 men,
--trusting she may have enough besides to finish Friedrich.
France is bankrupt, starving, passionate for Peace; English Bute
nothing like so ill to treat with as Pitt: to Austria no more
subsidies from France. The War is waxing feeble, not on Friedrich's
side only, like a flame short of fuel. This Year it must go out;
Austria will have to kill Friedrich this Year, if at all.

Whether Austria's and the world's prophecy would have been
fulfilled? Nobody can say what miraculous sudden shifts, and
outbursts of fiery enterprise, may still lie in this man.
Friedrich is difficult to kill, grows terribly elastic when you
compress him into a corner. Or Destiny, perhaps, may have tried him
sufficiently; and be satisfied? Destiny does send him a wonderful
star-of-day, bursting out on the sudden, as will be seen!--
Meanwhile here is the English calamity; worse than any Schweidnitz,
Colberg or other that has befallen in this blackest, of the night.


THE PITT CATASTROPHE: HOW THE PEACE-NEGOTIATION WENT OFF BY EXPLOSION;
HOW PITT WITHDREW (3d October, 1761),
AND THERE CAME A SPANISH WAR NEVERTHELESS.

In St. James's Street, "in the Duke of Cumberland's late lodgings,"
on the 2d of October, 1761, there was held one of the most
remarkable Cabinet-Councils known in English History: it is the
last of Pitt's Cabinet-Councils for a long time,--might as well
have been his last of all;--and is of the highest importance to
Friedrich through Pitt. We spoke of the Choiseul Peace-Negotiation;
of an offer indirectly from King Carlos, "Could not I mediate a
little?"--offer which exploded said Negotiation, and produced the
Bourbon Family Compact and an additional War instead. Let us now
look, slightly for a few moments, into that matter and
its sequences.

It was JULY 15th, when Bussy, along with something in his own
French sphere, presented this beautiful Spanish Appendix,--
"apprehensive that War may break out again with Spain, when we Two
have got settled." By the same opportunity came a Note from him,
which was reckoned important too: "That the Empress Queen would and
did, whatever might become of the Congress of Augsburg, approve of
this Separate Peace between France and England,--England merely
undertaking to leave the King of Prussia altogether to himself in
future with her Imperial Majesty and her Allies." "Never, Sir!"
answered Pitt, with emphasis, to this latter Proposition; and to
the former about Spain's interfering, or whispering of
interference, he answered--by at once returning the Paper, as a
thing non-extant, or which it was charitable to consider so.
"Totally inadmissible, Sir; mention it no more!"--and at once
called upon the Spanish Ambassador to disavow such impertineuce
imputed to his Master. Fancy the colloquies, the agitated
consultations thereupon, between Bussy and this Don, in view
suddenly of breakers ahead!

In about a week (July 23d), Bussy had an Interview with Pitt
himself on this high Spanish matter; and got some utterances out of
him which are memorable to Bussy and us. "It is my duty to declare
to you, Sir, in the name of his Majesty," said Pitt, "that his
Majesty will not suffer the disputes with Spain to be blended, in
any manner whatever, in the Negotiation of Peace between the Two
Crowns. To which I must add, that it will be considered as an
affront to his Majesty's dignity, and as a thing incompatible with
the sincerity of the Negotiation, to make farther mention of such a
circumstance." [In THACKERAY, ii. 554;--Pitt next day putting it in
writing, "word for word," at Bussy's request.] Bussy did not go at
once, after this deliverance; but was unable, by his arguments and
pleadings, by all his oil and fire joined together, to produce the
least improvement on it: "Time enough to treat of all that, Sir,
when the Tower of London is taken sword in hand!" [Beatson, ii.
434. Archenholtz (ii. 245) has heard of this expression, in a
slightly incorrect way.] was Pitt's last word. An expression which
went over the world; and went especially to King Carlos, as fast as
it could fly, or as his Choiseul could speed it: and, in about
three weeks: produced--it and what had gone before it, by the
united industry of Choiseul and Carlos, finally produced--the famed
BOURBON FAMILY COMPACT (August 15th, 1761), and a variety of other
weighty results, which lay in embryo therein.

Pitt, in the interim, had been intensely prosecuting, in Spain and
everywhere, his inquiry into the Bussy phenomenon of July 15th;
which he, from the first glimpse of it, took to mean a mystery of
treachery in the pretended Peace-Negotiation, on the part of
Choiseul and Catholic Majesty;--though other long heads, and Pitt's
Ambassador at Madrid investigating on the spot, considered it an
inadvertence mainly, and of no practical meaning. On getting
knowledge of the Bourbon Family Compact, Pitt perceived that his
suspicion was a certainty;--and likewise that the one clear course
was, To declare War on the Spanish Bourbon too, and go into him at
once: "We are ready; fleets, soldiers, in the East, in the West;
he not ready anywhere. Since he wants War, let him have it, without
loss of a moment!" That is Pitt's clear view of the case; but it is
by no means Bute and Company's,--who discern in it, rather, a means
of finishing another operation they have long been secretly busy
upon, by their Mauduits and otherwise; and are clear against
getting into a new War with Spain or anybody: "Have not we enough
of Wars? " say they.

Since September 18th, there had been three Cabinet-Councils held on
this great Spanish question: "Mystery of treachery, meaning War
from Spain? Or awkward Inadvertence only, practically meaning
little or nothing?" Pitt, surer of his course every time, every
time meets the same contradiction. Council of October 2d was the
third of the series, and proved to be the last.

"Twelve Seventy-fours sent instantly to Cadiz", had been Pitt's
proposal, on the first emergence of the Bussy phenomenon. Here are
his words, October 2d, when it is about to get consummated:
"This is now the time for humbling the whole House of Bourbon:
and if this opportunity is let slip, we shall never find another!
Their united power, if suffered to gather strength, will baffle our
most vigorous efforts, and possibly plunge us in the gulf of ruin.
We must not allow them a moment to breathe. Self-preservation bids
us crush them before they can combine or recollect themselves."--
"No evidence that Spain means war; too many wars on our hands;
let us at least wait!" urge all the others,--all but one, or one
and A HALF, of whom presently. Whereupon Pitt: "If these views are
to be followed, this is the last time I can sit at this Board.
I was called to the Administration of Affairs by the voice of the
People: to them I have always considered myself as accountable for
my conduct; and therefore cannot remain in a situation which makes
me responsible for measures I am no longer allowed to guide."
[Beatson, ii. 438.]

Carteret Granville, President of said Council for ten years past,
[Came in "17th June, 1751",--died "2d January, 1763."] now an old
red-nosed man of seventy-two, snappishly took him up,--it is the
last public thing poor Carteret did in this world,--in the
following terms: "I find the Gentleman is determined to leave us;
nor can I say I am sorry for it, since otherwise he would have
certainly compelled us to leave him [Has ruled us, may not I say,
with a rod of iron!] But if he be resolved to assume the office of
exclusively advising his Majesty and directing the operations of
the War, to what purpose are we called to this Council? When he
talks of being responsible to the People, he talks the language of
the House of Commons; forgets that, at this Board, he is only
responsible to the King. However, though he may possibly have
convinced himself of his infallibility, still it remains that we
should be equally convinced, before we can resign our
understandings to his direction, or join with him in the measure he
proposes." [BIOG. BRITANNICA (Kippis's; London, 1784), iii. 278.
See Thackeray, i. 589-592.]

Who, besides Temple (Pitt's Brother-in-law) confirmatory of Pitt,
Bute negatory, and Newcastle SILENT, the other beautiful gentlemen
were, I will not ask; but poor old Carteret,--the wine perhaps sour
on his stomach (old age too, with German memories of his own,
"A biggish Life once mine, all futile for want of this same
Kingship like Pitt's!")--I am sorry old Carteret should have ended
so! He made the above Answer; and Pitt resigned next day.
[Thackeray, i. 592 n. "October 5th" (ACCEPTANCE of the resignation,
I suppose?) is the date commonly given.] "The Nation was
thunderstruck, alarmed and indignant," says Walpole: [
Memoirs of the Reign of George the Third, i. 82 et
seq.] yes, no wonder;--but, except a great deal of noisy jargoning
in Parliament and out of it, the Nation gained nothing for itself
by its indignant, thunderstricken and other feelings. Its Pitt is
irrecoverable; and it may long look for another such.
These beautiful recalcitrants of the Cabinet-Council had,
themselves, within three months (think under what noises and
hootings from a non-admiring Nation), to declare War on Spain,
["2d January, 1762," the English; "18th January," the Spaniard
(ANNUAL REGISTER for 1762, p. 50; or better, Beatson, ii. 443).]
NOT on better terms than when Pitt advised; and, except for the
"readiness" in which Pitt had left all things, might have fared
indifferently in it.

To Spain and France the results of the Family Compact (we may as
well give them at once, though they extend over the whole next year
and farther, and concern Friedrich very little) were: a War on
England (chiefly on poor Portugal for England's sake); with a War
BY England in return, which cost Spain its Havana and its
Philippine Islands.

"From 1760 and before, the Spanish Carlos, his orthodox mind
perhaps shocked at Pombal and the Anti-Jesuit procedures, had
forbidden trade with Portugal; had been drawing out dangerous
'militia forces on the Frontier;' and afflicting and frightening
the poor Country. But on the actual arrival of War with England,
Choiseul and he, as the first feasibility discernible, make Demand
(three times over, 16th March-18th April, 1762, each time more
stringently) on poor Portuguese Majesty: 'Give up your
objectionable Heretic Ally, and join with us against him; will you,
or will you not?' To which the Portuguese Majesty, whose very title
is Most Faithful, answered always: 'You surprise me! I cannot;
how can I? He is my Ally, and has always kept faith with me!
For certain, No!' [ London Gazette, 5th May,
1762, &c. (in Gentleman's Magazine for 1762,
xxxii. 205, 321, 411).] So that there is English reinforcement got
ready, men, money; an English General, Lord Tyrawley, General and
Ambassador; with a 5 or 6,000 horse and foot, and many volunteer
officers besides, for the Portuguese behoof. [List of all this in
Beatson, ii. 491, iii. 323;--"did not get to sea till 12th May,
1762" ( Gentleman's Magazine for 1762,
p. 239).] In short, every encouragement to poor Portugal:
'Pull, and we will help you by tracing.'

"The poor Portuguese pulled very badly: were disgusting to
Tyrawley, he to them; and cried passionately, 'Get us another
General;'--upon which, by some wise person's counsel, that singular
Artillery Gentleman, the Graf von der Lippe Buckeburg, who gave the
dinner in his Tent with cannon firing at the pole of it, was
appointed; and Tyrawley came home in a huff. [Varnhagen van Ense,
GRAF WILHELM ZUR LIPPE (Berlin, 1845), in Vermischte
Schriften, i. 1-118: pp. 33-54, his Portuguese
operations.] Which was probably a favorable circumstance.
Buckeburg understands War, whether Tyrawley do or not.
Duke Ferdinand has agreed to dispense with his Ordnance-Master;
nay I have heard the Ordnance-Master, a man of sharp speeoh on
occasion, was as good as idle; and had gone home to Buckeburg, this
Winter: indignant at the many imperfections he saw, and perhaps too
frankly expressing that feeling now and then. What he thought of
the Portuguese Army in comparison is not on record; but, may be
judged of by this circumstance, That on dining with the chief
Portuguese military man, he found his Portuguese captains and
lieutenants waiting as valets behind the chairs. [VARNHAGEN (gives
no date anywhere).]

"The improvements he made are said to have been many;--and
Portuguese Majesty, in bidding farewell, gave him a park of
Miniature Gold Cannon by way of gracious symbol. But, so far as the
facts show, he seems to have got from his Portuguese Army next to
no service whatever: and, but for the English and the ill weather,
would have fared badly against his French and Spaniards,--42,000 of
them, advancing in Three Divisions, by the Douro and the Tagus,
against Oporto and Lisbon.

"His War has only these three dates of event. 1. May 9th, The
northmost of the Three Divisions [ANNUAL REGISTER for 1762, p. 30.]
crosses the Portuguese Frontier on the Douro; summons Miranda, a
chief Town of theirs; takes it, before their first battery is
built; takes Braganza, takes Monte Corvo; and within a week is
master of the Douro, in that part, 'Will be at Oporto directly!'
shriek all the Wine people (no resistance anywhere, except by
peasants organized by English Officers in some parts); upon which
Seventy-fours were sent.

"2. Division Second of the 42,000 came by Beira Country, between
Tagus and Douro, by Tras-os-Montes; and laid siege to a place
called Almeida [northwest some 20 odd miles from CUIDAD RODRIGO, a
name once known to veterans of us still living], which Buckeburg
had tried to repair into strength, and furnish with a garrison.
Garrison defended itself well; but could not be relieved;--had to
surrender, August 25th: whereby it seems the Tagus is now theirs!
All the more, as Division Three is likewise got across from
Estremadura, invading Alemtejo: what is to keep these Two from
falling on Lisbon together?

"3. Against this, Buckeburg does find a recipe. Despatches
Brigadier Burgoyne with an English party upon a Town called
Valencia d'Alcantara [not Alcantara Proper, but Valencia of ditto,
not very far from Badajoz], where the vanguard of this Third
Division is, and their principal Magazine. Burgoyne and his English
did perfectly: broke into the place, stormed it sword in hand
(August 27th); kept the Magazine and it, though 'the sixteen
Portuguese Battalions' could not possibly get up in time. In manner
following (say the Old Newspapers):--

"'The garrison of Almeida, before which place the whole Spanish
Army had been assembled, surrendered to the Spaniards on the 25th
[August 25th, as we have just heard], having capitulated on
condition of not serving against Spain for six months.

"'As a counterbalance to this advantage, the Count de Lippe caused
Valencia d'Alcantara to be attacked, sword in hand, by the British
troops; who carried it, after an obstinate resistance. The loss of
the British troops, who had the principal share in this affair, is
luckily but inconsiderable: and consists in Lieutenant Burk of
Colonel Frederick's, one sergeant and three privates killed;
two sergeants, one drummer, 18 privates wounded; 10 horses killed
and 2 wounded [loss not at all considerable, in a War of such
dimensions!]. The British troops behaved upon this occasion with as
much generosity as courage; and it deserves admiration, that, in an
affair of this kind, the town and the inhabitants suffered very
little; which is owing to the good order Brigadier Burgoyne kept up
even in the heat of the action. This success would probably have
been attended with more, if circumstances, that could not well be
expected, had not retarded the march of sixteen Portuguese
battalions, and three regiments of cavalry.' [Old Newspapers (in
Gentleman's Magazine for 1762, p, 443).]

"Upon which--upon which, in fact, the War had to end. Rainy weather
came, deluges of rain; Burgoyne, with or without the sixteen
battalions of Portuguese, kept the grip he had. Valencia
d'Alcantara and its Magazine a settled business, roads round gone
all to mire,--this Third Division, and with it the 42,000 in
general, finding they had nothing to live upon, went their ways
again." NOTE, The Burgoyne, who begins in this pretty way at
Valencia d'Alcantara, is the same who ended so dismally at
Saratoga, within twenty years:--perhaps, with other War-Offices,
and training himself in something suitabler than Parliamentary
Eloquence, he might have become a kind of General, and have ended
far otherwise than there?--

"Such was the credit account on Carlos's side: By gratuitous
assault on Portugal, which had done him no offence; result zero,
and pay your expenses. On the English, or PER CONTRA side, again,
there were these three items, two of them specifically on Carlos:
FIRST, Martinique captured from the French this Spring (finished
4th February, 1762): [ Gentleman's Magazine
for 1762, p. 127.]--was to have been done in any case, Guadaloupe
and it being both on Pitt's books for some time, and only
Guadaloupe yet got. SECONDLY, King Carlos, for Family Compact and
fruitless attempt at burglary on an unoffending neighbor, Debtor:
1. To Loss of the Havana (6th June-13th August, 1762), [Ib. pp.
408-459, &c.] which might easily have issued in loss of all his
West Indies together, and total abolition of the Pope's meridian in
that Western Hemisphere; and 2. To Loss of Manilla, with his
Philippine Islands (23d September-6th October, 1762),
[ Gentleman's Magazine for 1762, xxxiii.
171-177.] which was abolition of it in the Eastern. After which,
happily for Carlos, Peace came,--Peace, and no Pitt to be severe
upon his Indies and him. Carlos's War of ten months had stood him
uncommonly high."

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