Book: History of Friedrich II of Prussia V 20

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All these things the English Public, considerably sullen about the
Cabinet-Council event of October 3d, ascribed to the real owner of
them. The Public said: "These are, all of them, Pitt's bolts, not
yours,--launched, or lying ready for launching, from that Olympian
battery which, in the East and in the West, had already smitten
down all Lallys and Montcalms; and had force already massed there,
rendering your Havanas and Manillas easy for you. For which,
indeed, you do not seem to care much; rather seem to be embarrassed
with them, in your eagerness for Peace and a lazy life!"--Manilla
was a beautiful work; [A JOURNAL OF THE PROCEEDINGS QF HIS
MAJESTY'S FORCES IN THE EXPEDITION TO MANILLA ( London
Gazette, April 19th, 1763; Gentleman's
Magazine, xxxiii. 171 et seq.). Written by Colonel or
BrigadiecGeneral Draper (suggester, contriver and performer of the
Enterprise; an excellent Indian Officer, of great merit with his
pen as well,--Bully JUNIUS'S Correspondent afterwards).] but the
Manilla Ransom; a million sterling, half of it in bills,--which the
Spaniards, on no pretext at all but the disagreeableness, refused
to pay! Havana, though victorious, cost a good many men:
was thought to be but badly managed. "What to do with it?" said
Bute, at the Peace: "Give us Florida in lieu of it",--which proved
of little benefit to Bute. Enough, enough of Bute and his
performances.

Pitt being gone, Friedrich's English Subsidy lags: this time
Friedrich concludes it is cut off;--silent on the subject; no words
will express one's thoughts on it. Not till April 9th has poor
Mitchell the sad errand of announcing formally That such are our
pressures, Portuguese War and other, we cannot afford it farther.
Answered by I know not what kind of glance from Friedrich;
answered, I find, by words few or none from the forsaken King:
"Good; that too was wanting," thought the proud soul: "Keep your
coin, since you so need it; I have still copper, and my sword!"
The alloy this Year became as 3 to 1:--what other remedy?

From the same cause, I doubt not, this Year, for the first time in
human memory, came that complete abeyance of the Gift-moneys
(DOUCEUR-GELDER), which are become a standing expectation, quasi-
right, and necessary item of support to every Prussian Officer,
from a Lieutenant upwards: not a word, in the least official, said
of them this Year; still less a penny of them actually forthcoming
to a wornout expectant Army. One of the greatest sins charged upon
Friedrich by Prussian or Prussian-Military public opinion: not to
be excused at all;--Prussian-Military and even Prussian-Civil
opinion having a strange persuasion that this King has boundless
supply of money, and only out of perversity refuses it for objects
of moment. In the Army as elsewhere much ha8 gone awry;
[See Mollendorf's two or three LETTERS (Preuss, iv. 407-411).] many
rivets loose after such a climbing of the Alps as there has been,
through dense and rare.

It will surprise everybody that Friedrich, with his copper and
other resources, actually raised his additional 60,000; and has for
himself 70,000 to recover Schweidnitz, and bring Silesia to its old
state; 40,000 for Prince Henri and Saxony, with a 10,000 of margin
for Sweden and accidental sundries. This is strange, but it is
true. [Stenzel, v. 297, 286; Tempelhof, vi. 2, 10, 63.] And has not
been done without strivings and contrivings, hard requisitions on
the places liable; and has involved not a little of severity and
difficulty,--especially a great deal of haggling with the
collecting parties, or at least with Prince Henri, who presides in
Saxony, and is apt to complain and mourn over the undoable, rather
than proceed to do it. The King's Correspondence with Henri, this
Winter, is curious enough; like a Dialogue between Hope on its
feet, and Despair taking to its bed. "You know there are Two
Doctors in MOLIERE," says Friedrich to him once; "a Doctor
TANT-MIEUX (So much the Better) and a Doctor TANT-PIS (So much the
Worse): these two cannot be expected to agree!"--Instead of
infinite arithmetical details, here is part of a Letter of
Friedrich's to D'Argens; and a Passage, one of many, with Prince
Henri;--which command a view into the interior that concerns us.

THE KING TO D'ARGENS (at Berlin).

"BRESLAU, 18th January, 1762.

... "You have lifted the political veil which covered horrors and
perfidies meditated and ready to burst out [Bute's dismal
procedures, I believe; who is ravenous for Peace, and would fain
force Friedrich along with him on terms altogether disgraceful and
inadmissible [See D'Argens's Letter (to which this is Answer),
OEuvres de Frederic, xix. 281, 282.]]: you
judge correctly of the whole situation I am in, of the abysses
which surround me; and, as I see by what you say, of the kind of
hope that still remains to me. It will not be till the month of
February [Turks, probably, and Tartar Khan; great things coming
then!] that we can speak of that; and that is the term I
contemplate for deciding whether I shall hold to CATO [Cato,--and
the little Glass Tube I have!] or to CAESAR'S COMMENTARIES," and
the best fight one can make.

"The School of patience I am at is hard, long-continued, cruel, nay
barbarous. I have not been able to escape my lot: all that human
foresight could suggest has been employed, and nothing has
succeeded. If Fortune continues to pursue me, doubtless I shall
sink; it is only she that can extricate me from the situation I am
in. I escape out of it by looking at the Universe on the great
scale, like an observer from some distant Planet; all then seems to
me so infinitely small, and I could almost pity my enemies for
giving themselves such trouble about so very little. What would
become of us without philosophy, without this reasonable contempt
of things frivolous, transient and fugitive, about which the greedy
and ambitious make such a pother, fancying them to be solid!
This is to become wise by stripes, you will tell me; well, if one
do become wise, what matters it how?--I read a great deal; I devour
my Books, and that brings me useful alleviation. But for my Books,
I think hypochondria would have had me in bedlam before now.
In fine, dear Marquis, we live in troublous times and in desperate
situations:--I have all the properties of a Stage-Hero; always in
danger, always on the point of perishing. One must hope the
conclusion will come; and if the end of the piece be lucky, we will
forget the rest. Patience then, MON CHER, till February 20th [By
which time, what far other veritable star-of-day will have risen on
me!]. ADIEU, MON CHER.--F." [ OEuvres de Frederic, italic> xix. 282, 283.]

TIFF OF QUARREL BETWEEN KING AND HENRI (March-April, 1762).

In the Spring months Prince Henri is at Hof in Voigtland, on the
extreme right of his long line of "Quarters behind the Mulda;"
busy enough, watching the Austrians and Reich; levying the severe
contributions; speeding all he can the manifold preparatives;--
conscious to himself of the greatest vigilance and diligence, but
wrapt in despondency and black acidulent humors; a "Doctor SO MUCH
THE WORSE," who is not a comforting Correspondent. From Hof,
towards the middle of March, he becomes specially gloomy and
acidulous; sends a series of Complaints; also of News, not
important, but all rather in YOUR favor, my dearest Brother, than
in mine, if you will please to observe! As thus:--

HENRI (at Hof, 10th-13th March). ... "Sadly off here, my dearest
Brother.! Of our '1,284 head of commissariat horses,' only 180 are
come in; of our '287 drivers,' not one. Will be impossible to open
Campaign at that rate."--"Grenadier Battalions ROTHENBURG and GRANT
demand to have picked men to complete them [of CANTONIST, or sure
Prussian sort]. ... I find [NOTA BENE, Reader!] there are eight
Austrian regiments going to Silesia [off my hands, and upon YOURS,
in a sense], eight instead of four that I spoke of: intending,
probably, for Glatz, to replace Czernichef [a Czernichef off for
home lately, in a most miraculous way; as readers shall hear!]--to
replace Czernichef, and the blank he has left there? Eight of them:
Your Majesty can have no difficulty; but I will detach Platen or
somebody, if you order it; though I am myself perilously ill off
here, so scattered into parts, not capable of speedy junction like
your Majesty."

FRIEDRICH (14th-16th March). "Commissariat horses, drivers?
I arranged and provided where everything was to be got. But if my
orders are not executed, nor the requisitions brought in, of course
there is failure. I am despatching Adjutant von Anhalt to Saxony a
second time, to enforce matters. If I could be for three weeks in
Saxony, myself, I believe I could put all on its right footing;
but, as I must not stir two steps from here, I will send you
Anhalt, with orders to the Generals, to compel them to their duty."
[Schoning, iii. 301, 302.] "As to Grenadier Battalions GRANT and
ROTHENBURG, it is absurd." (Henri falls silent for about a week,
brooding his gloom;--not aware that still worse is coming.)
King continues:--

KING (22d March). "Eight regiments, you said? Here, by enclosed
List, are seventeen of them, names and particulars all given",
which is rather a different view of the account against Silesia!
Seventeen of them, going, not for Glatz, I should say, but to
strengthen our Enemies hereabouts.

HENRI. "Hm, hah [answers only in German; dry military reports,
official merely;--thinks of writing to Chief-Clerk Eichel, who is
factotum in these spheres]. ... Artillery recruits are scarce in
the extreme; demand bounty: five thalers, shall we say?"

KING. "Seventeen regiments of them, beyond question, instead of
eight, coming on us: strange that you did n't warn me better.
I have therefore ordered your Major-General Schmettau hitherward at
once. As he has not done raising the contributions in the Lausitz,
you must send another to do it, and have them ready when General
Platen passes that way hither."--"'Five thalers bounty for
artillery men" say you? It is not to be thought of. Artillery men
can be had by conscription where you are." Henri (in silence, still
more indignant) sends military reports exclusively. March 26th,
Henri's gloom reaches the igniting point; he writes to Chief-
Clerk Eichel:--

"Monsieur, you are aware that Adjutant von Anhalt is on the way
hither. To judge by his orders, if they correspond to the Letters I
have had from the King, Adjutant von Anhalt's appearance here will
produce an embarrassment, from which I am resolved to extricate
myself by a voluntary retirement from office. My totally ruined
(ABIMEE) health, the vexations I have had, the fatigues and
troubles of war, leave in me little regret to quit the employment.
I solicit only, from your attentions and skill of management, that
my retreat be permitted to take place with the decency observed
towards those who have served the State. I have not a high opinion
of my services; but perhaps I am not mistaken in supposing that it
would be more a shame to the King than to me if he should make me
endure all manner of chagrins during my retirement." [Schoning,
iii. 307.]

Eichel sinks into profound reflection; says nothing. How is this
fire to be got under? Where is the place to trample on it, before
opening door or window, or saying a word to the King or anybody?

HENRI (same day, 26th March). "My dearest Brother,--In the List you
send me of those seventeen Austrian regiments, several, I am
informed, are still in Saxony; and by all the news that I get,
there are only eight gone towards Silesia."--"From Leipzig my
accounts are, the Reichs Army is to make a movement in advance, and
Prince Xavier with the Saxons was expected at Naumburg the 20th
ult. I know not if you have arranged with Duke Ferdinand for a
proportionate succor, in case his French also should try to
penetrate into Saxony upon me? I am, with the profoundest
attachment, your faithful and devoted servant and Brother."

KING (30th March). "Seventeen of them, you may depend; I am too
well informed to be allowed to doubt in any way. What you report of
the Reichsfolk and Saxons moving hither, thither; that seems to me
a bit of game on their part. They will try to cut one post from
you, then another, unless you assemble a corps and go in upon them.
Till you decide for this resolution, you have nothing but chicanes
and provocations to expect there. As to Duke Ferdinand of
Brunswick, I don't imagine that his Orders [from England] would
permit him what you propose [for relief of yourself]: at any rate,
you will have to write at least thrice to him,--that is to say,
waste three weeks, before he will answer No or Yes. You yourself
are in force enough for those fellows: but so long as you keep on
the defensive alone, the enemy gains time, and things will always
go a bad road." Henri's patience is already out; this same day he
is writing to the King.

HENRI (30th March). ... "You have hitherto received proofs enough
of my ways of thinking and acting to know that if in reality I was
mistaken about those eight regiments, it can only have been a piece
of ignorance on the part of my spy: meanwhile you are pleased to
make me responsible for what misfortune may come of it. I think I
have my hands full with the task laid on me of guarding 4,000
square miles of country with fewer troops than you have, and of
being opposite an enemy whose posts touch upon ours, and who is
superior in force. Your preceding Letters [from March 16th
hitherto], on which I have wished to be silent, and this last proof
of want of affection, show me too clearly to what fortune I have
sacrificed these Six Years of Campaigning."

KING (3d April: Official Orders given in Teutsch; at the tail of
which). "Spare your wrath and indignation at your servant,
Monseigneur! You, who preach indulgence, have a little of it for
persons who have no intention of offending you, or of failing in
respect for you; and deign to receive with more benignity the
humble representations which the conjunctures sometimes force from
me. F."--Which relieves Eichel of his difficulties, and quenches
this sputter. [Plucked up from the waste imbroglios of SCHONING
(iii. 296-311), by arranging and omitting.]

Prince Henri, for all his complaining, did beautifully this Season
again (though to us it must be silent, being small-war merely);--
and in particular, MAY 12th) early in the morning, simultaneously
in many different parts, burst across the Mulda, ten or twenty
miles long (or BROAD rather, from his right hand to his left),
sudden as lightning, upon the supine Serbelloni and his Austrians
and Reichsfolk. And hurled them back, one and all, almost to the
Plauen Chasm and their old haunts; widening his quarters notably.
[ Bericht von dem Uebergang uber die Mulde, den der Prinz
Heinrich den 12ten May 1762 glucklich ausgefuhrt (in
Seyfarth, Beylagen, iii, 280-291).] A really
brilliant thing, testifies everybody, though not to be dwelt on
here. Seidlitz was of it (much fine cutting and careering, from the
Seidlitz and others, we have to omit in these two Saxon Campaigns!)
--Seidlitz was of it; he and another still more special
acquaintance of ours, the learned Quintus Icilius; who also did his
best in it, but lost his "AMUSETTE" (small bit of cannon,
"Plaything," so called by Marechal de Saxe, inventor of the
article), and did not shine like Seidlitz.

Henri's quarters being notably widened in this way, and nothing but
torpid Serbellonis and Prince Stollbergs on the opposite part,
Henri "drew himself out thirty-five miles long;" and stood there,
almost looking into Plauen region as formerly. And with his fiery
Seidlitzes, Kleists, made a handsome Summer of it. And beat the
Austrians and Reichsfolk at Freyberg (OCTOBER 29th) a fine Battle,
and his sole one),--on the Horse which afterwards carried Gellert,
as is pleasantly known.

But we are omitting the news from Petersburg,--which came the very
day after that gloomy LETTER TO D'ARGENS; months before the TIFF OF
QUARREL with Henri, and the brilliant better destinies of that
Gentleman in his Campaign.

BRIGHT NEWS FROM PETERSBURG (certain, Jan. 19th); WHICH GROW
EVER BRIGHTER; AND BECOME A STAR-OF-DAY FOR FRIEDRICH.

To Friedrich, long before all this of Henri, indeed almost on the
very day while he was writing so despondently to D'Argens, a new
phasis had arisen. Hardly had he been five weeks at Breslau, in
those gloomy circumstances, when,--about the middle of January,
1762 (day not given, though it is forever notable),--there arrive
rumors, arrive news,--news from Petersburg; such as this King never
had before! "Among the thousand ill strokes of Fortune, does there
at length come one pre-eminently good? The unspeakable Sovereign
Woman, is she verily dead, then, and become peaceable to me
forevermore?" We promised Friedrich a wonderful star-of-day; and
this is it,--though it is long before he dare quite regard it as
such. Peter, the Successor, he knows to be secretly his friend and
admirer; if only, in the new Czarish capacity and its chaotic
environments and conditions, Peter dare and can assert these
feelings? What a hope to Friedrich, from this time onward!
Russia may be counted as the bigger half of all he had to strive
with; the bigger, or at least the far uglier, more ruinous and
incendiary;--and if this were at once taken away, think what a
daybreak when the night was at the blackest!

Pious people say, The darkest hour is often nearest the dawn. And a
dawn this proved to be for Friedrich. And the fact grew always the
longer the brighter;--and before Campaign time, had ripened into
real daylight and sunrise. The dates should have been precise;
but are not to be had so: here is the nearest we could come.
January 14th, writing to Henri, the King has a mysterious word
about "possibilities of an uncommon sort,"--rumors from Petersburg,
I could conjecture; though perhaps they are only Turk or Tartar-
Khan affairs, which are higher this year than ever, and as futile
as ever. But, on JANUARY 19th, he has heard plainly,--with what
hopes (if one durst indulge them)!--that the implacable Imperial
Woman, INFAME CATIN DU NORD, is verily dead. Dead; and does not
hate me any more. Deliverance, Peace and Victory lie in the word!--
Catin had long been failing, but they kept it religiously secret
within the Court walls: even at Petersburg nobody knew till the
Prayers of the Church were required: Prayers as zealous as you
can,--the Doctors having plainly intimated that she is desperate,
and that the thing is over. On CHRISTMAS-DAY, 1761, by Russian
Style, 5th JANUARY, 1762, by European, the poor Imperial Catin lay
dead;--a death still more important than that of George II. to
this King.

Peter III., who succeeded has lang been privately a sworn friend
and admirer of the King; and hastens, not too SLOWLY as the King
had feared, but far the reverse, to make that known to all mankind.
That, and much else,--in a far too headlong manner, poor soul!
Like an ardent, violent, totally inexperienced person (enfranchised
SCHOOL-BOY, come to the age of thirty-four), who has sat hitherto
in darkness, in intolerable compression; as if buried alive! He is
now Czar Peter, Autocrat, not of Himself only, but of All the
Russias;--and has, besides the complete regeneration of Russia, two
great thoughts: FIRST, That of avenging native Holstein, and his
poor martyr of a Father now with God, against the Danes;--and,

SECOND, what is scarcely second in importance to the first, and
indeed is practically a kind of preliminary to it, That of
delivering the Prussian Pattern of Heroes from such a pattern of
foul combinations, and bringing Peace to Europe, while he settles
the Holstein-Danish business. Peter is Russian by the Mother's
side; his Mother was Sister of the late Catin, a Daughter, like
her, of Czar Peter called the Great, and of the little brown
Catharine whom we saw transiently long ago. His Holstein Business
shall concern us little; but that with Friedrich, during the brief
Six Months allowed him for it,--for it, and for all his remaining
businesses in this world,--is of the highest importance to
Friedrich and us.

Peter is one of the wildest men; his fate, which was tragical, is
now to most readers rather of a ghastly grotesque than of a
lamentable and pitiable character. Few know, or have ever
considered, in how wild an element poor Peter was born and nursed;
what a time he has had, since his fifteenth year especially, when
Cousin of Zerbst and he were married. Perhaps the wildest and
maddest any human soul had, during that Century. I find in him,
starting out from the Lethean quagmires where he had to grow, a
certain rash greatness of idea; traces of veritable conviction,
just resolution; veritable and just, though rash. That of
admiration for King Friedrich was not intrinsically foolish, in the
solitary thoughts of the poor young fellow; nay it was the reverse;
though it was highly inopportune in the place where he stood.
Nor was the Holstein notion bad; it was generous rather, noble
and natural, though, again, somewhat impracticable in
the circumstances.

The summary of the Friedrich-Peter business is perhaps already
known to most readers, and can be very briefly given; nor is
Peter's tragical Six Months of Czarship (5th JANUARY-9th JULY,
1762) a thing for us to dwell on beyond need. But it is wildly
tragical; strokes of deep pathos in it, blended with the ghastly
and grotesque: it is part of Friedrich's strange element and
environment: and though the outer incidents are public enough, it
is essentially little known. Had there been an AEschylus, had there
been a Shakspeare!--But poor Peter's shocking Six Months of History
has been treated by a far different set of hands, themselves almost
shocking to see: and, to the seriously inquiring mind, it lies, and
will long lie, in a very waste, chaotic, enigmatic condition.
Here, out of considerable bundles now burnt, are some rough
jottings, Excerpts of Notes and Studies,--which, I still doubt
rather, ought to have gone in AUTO DA FE along with the others.
AUTO DA FE I called it; Act of FAITH, not Spanish-Inquisitional,
but essentially Celestial many times, if you reflect well on the
poisonous consequences, on the sinfulness and deadly criminality,
of Human Babble,--as nobody does nowadays! I label the different
Pieces, and try to make legible;--hasty readers have the privilege
of skipping, if they like. The first Two are of preliminary or
prefatory nature,--perhaps still more skippable than those that
will by and by follow.

1. GENEALOGY OF PETER. "His grandfather was Friedrich IV., Duke of
Holstein-Gottorp and Schleswig, Karl XII.'s brother-in-law;
on whose score it was (Denmark finding the time opportune for a
stroke of robbery there) that Karl XII., a young lad hardly
eighteen, first took arms; and began the career of fighting that
astonished Denmark and certain other Neighbors who had been too
covetous on a young King. This his young Brother-in-law, Friedrich
of Holstein-Gottorp (young he too, though Karl's senior by ten
years), had been reinstated in his Territory, and the Danes sternly
forbidden farther burglary there, by the victorious Karl; but went
with Karl in his farther expeditions. Always Karl's intimate, and
at his right hand for the next two years: fell in the Battle of
Clissow, 19th July, 1702; age not yet thirty-one.

"He left as Heir a poor young Boy, at this time only two years old.
His young Widow Hedwig survived him six years. [Michaelis, ii.
618-629.] Her poor child grew to manhood; and had tragic fortunes
in this world; Danes again burglarious in that part, again robbing
this poor Boy at discretion, so soon as Karl XII. became
unfortunate; and refusing to restore (have not restored Schleswig
at all [A.D. 1864, HAVE at last had to do it, under unexpected
circumstances!]):--a grimly sad story to the now Peter, his only
Child! This poor Duke at last died, 18th June, 1739, age thirty-
nine; the now Peter then about 11,--who well remembers tragic Papa;
tragic Mamma not, who died above ten years before. [Michaelis, ii.
617; Hubner, tt. 227, 229.]

"Czar Peter called the Great had evidently a pity for this
unfortunate Duke, a hope in his just hopes; and pleaded, as did
various others, and endeavored with the unjust Danes, mostly
without effect. Did, however, give him one of his Daughters to
wife;--the result of whom is this new Czar Peter, called the Third:
a Czar who is Sovereign of Holstein, and has claims of Sovereignty
in Sweden, right of heirship in Schleswig, and of damages against
Denmark, which are in litigation to this day. The Czarina CATIN,
tenderly remembering her Sister, would hear of no Heir to Russia
but this Peter. Peter, in virtue of his paternal affinities, was
elected King of Sweden about the same time; but preferred Russia,--
with an eye to his Danes, some think. For certain, did adopt the
Russian Expectancy, the Greek religion so called; and was," in the
way we saw long years ago, "married (or to all appearance married)
to Catharina Alexiewna of Anhalt-Zerbst, born in Stettin;
[Herr Preuss knows the house: "Now Dr. Lehmann's [at that time the
Governor of Stettin's], in which also Czar Paul's second Spouse
[Eugen of Wurtemberg a NEW Governor's Daughter], who is Mother of
the Czars that follow, was born:" Preuss, ii. 310, 311.
Catharine, during her reign, was pious in a small way to the place
of her cradle; sent her successive MEDALS &c. to Stettin, which
still has them to show.] a Lady who became world-famous as Czarina
of the Russias.

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