Book: History of Friedrich II of Prussia V 20

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




Emerging out of Liegnitz, Daun did see, to northeastward, a vast
pillar or mass of smoke, silently mounting, but could do nothing
with it. "Cannon-smoke, no doubt; but fallen entirely silent, and
not wending hitherward at all. Poor Loudon, alas, must have got
beaten!" Upon which Daun really did try, at least upon Ziethen;
but could do nothing. Poured cavalry across the Stone-bridge at the
Topferberg: who drove in Ziethen's picket there; but were torn to
pieces by Ziethen's cannon. Ziethen across the Schwartzwasser is
alert enough. How form in order of battle here, with Ziethen's
batteries shearing your columns longitudinally, as they march up?
Daun recognizes the impossibility; wends back through Liegnitz to
his Camp again, the way he had come. Tide-hour missed again;
ebb going uncommonly rapid! Lacy had been about Waldau, to try
farther up the Schwartzwasser on Ziethen's right: but the
Schwartzwasser proved amazingly boggy; not accessible on any point
to heavy people,--"owing to bogs on the bank," with perhaps poor
prospect on the other side too!

And, in fact, nothing of Lacy more than of Daun, could manage to
get across: nothing except two poor Hussar regiments; who, winding
up far to the left, attempted a snatch on the Baggage about
Hummeln,--Hummeln, or Kuchel of the Scrubs. And gave a new alarm to
Mitchell, the last of several during this horrid night; who has sat
painfully blocked in his carriage, with such a Devil's tumult,
going on to eastward, and no sight, share or knowledge to be had of
it. Repeated hussar attacks there were on the Baggage here,
Loudon's hussars also trying: but Mitchell's Captain was
miraculously equal to the occasion; and had beaten them all off.
Mitchell, by magnanimous choice of his own, has been in many Fights
by the side of Friedrich; but this is the last he will ever be in
or near;--this miraculous one of Liegnitz, 3 to 4.30 A.M., Friday,
August 15th, 1760.

Never did such a luck befall Friedrich before or after. He was
clinging on the edge of slippery abysses, his path hardly a foot's-
breadth, mere enemies and avalanches hanging round on every side:
ruin likelier at no moment, of his life;--and here is precisely the
quasi-miracle which was needed to save him. Partly by accident too;
the best of management crowned by the luckiest of accidents.
[Tempelhof, iv. 151-171; Archenholtz, ubi supra; HO BERICHT VON DER
SCHLACHT SO AM 15 AUGUST, 1760, BEY LIEGNITZ, VORGEFALLEN
(Seyfarth, Beylagen, ii. 696-703); &c. &c.]

Friedrich rested four hours on the Battle-field,--if that could be
called rest, which was a new kind of diligence highly wonderful.
Diligence of gathering up accurately the results of the Battle;
packing them into portable shape; and marching off with them in
one's pocket, so to speak. Major-General Saldern had charge of
this, a man of many talents; and did it consummately. The wounded,
Austrian as well as Prussian, are placed in the empty meal-wagons;
the more slightly wounded are set on horseback, double in possible
cases: only the dead are left lying: 100 or more meal-wagons are
left, their teams needed for drawing our 82 new cannon;--the wagons
we split up, no Austrians to have them; usable only as firewood for
the poor Country-folk. The 4 or 5,000 good muskets lying on the
field, shall not we take them also? Each cavalry soldier slings one
of them across his back, each baggage driver one: and the muskets
too are taken care of. About 9 A.M., Friedrich, with his 6,000
prisoners, new cannon-teams, sick-wagon teams, trophies,
properties, is afoot again. One of the succinctest of Kings.

I should have mentioned the joy of poor Regiment Bernburg;
which rather affected me. Loudon gone, the miracle of Battle done,
and this miraculous packing going on,--Friedrich riding about among
his people, passed along the front of Bernburg, the eye of him
perhaps intimating, "I saw you, BURSCHE;" but no word coming from
him. The Bernburg Officers, tragically tressless in their hats,
stand also silent, grim as blackened stones (all Bernburg black
with gunpowder): "In us also is no word; unless our actions perhaps
speak?" But a certain Sergeant, Fugleman, or chief Corporal, stept
out, saluting reverentially: "Regiment Bernburg, IHRO MAJESTAT--?"
"Hm; well, you did handsomely. Yes, you shall have your side-arms
back; all shall be forgotten and washed out!" "And you are again
our Gracious King, then?" says the Sergeant, with tears in his
eyes.--"GEWISS, Yea, surely!" [Tempelhof, iv. 162-164.] Upon which,
fancy what a peal of sound from the ecstatic throat and heart of
this poor Regiment. Which I have often thought of; hearing mutinous
blockheads,"glorious Sons of Freedom" to their own thinking, ask
their natural commanding Officer, "Are not we as good as thou? Are
not all men equal?" Not a whit of it, you mutinous blockheads;
very far from it indeed!

This was the breaking of Friedrich's imprisonment in the deadly
rock-labyrinths; this success at Liegnitz delivered him into free
field once more. For twenty-four hours more, indeed, the chance was
still full of anxiety to him; for twenty-four hours Daun, could he
have been rapid, still had the possibilities in hand;--but only
Daun's Antagonist was usually rapid. About 9 in the morning, all
road-ready, this latter Gentleman "gave three Salvos, as Joy-fire,
on the field of Liegnitz;" and, in the above succinct shape,--
leaving Ziethen to come on, "with the prisoners, the sick-wagons
and captured cannon," in the afternoon,--marched rapidly away.
For Parchwitz, with our best speed: Parchwitz is the road to
Breslau, also to Glogau,--to Breslau, if it be humanly possible!
Friedrich has but two days' bread left; on the Breslau road, at
Auras, there is Czernichef with 24,000; there are, or there may be,
the Loudon Remnants rallied again, the Lacy Corps untouched, all
Daun's Force, had Daun made any despatch at all. Which Daun seldom
did. A man slow to resolve, and seeking his luck in leisure.

All judges say, Daun ought now to have marched, on this enterprise
of still intercepting Friedrich, without loss of a moment. But he
calculated Friedrich would probably spend the day in TE-DEUM-ing on
the Field (as is the manner of some); and that, by to-morrow,
things would be clearer to one's own mind. Daun was in no haste;
gave no orders,--did not so much as send Czernichef a Letter.
Czernichef got one, however. Friedrich sent him one; that is to
say, sent him one TO INTERCEPT. Friedrich, namely, writes a Note
addressed to his Brother Henri: "Austrians totally beaten this day;
now for the Russians, dear Brother; and swift, do what we have
agreed on!" [ OEuvres de Frederic, v. 67.]
Friedrich hands this to a Peasant, with instructions to let himself
be taken by the Russians, and give it up to save his life.
Czernichef, it is thought, got this Letter; and perhaps rumor
itself, and the delays of Daun, would, at any rate, have sent him
across. Across he at once went, with his 24,000, and burnt his
Bridge. A vanished Czernichef;--though Friedrich is not yet sure of
it: and as for the wandering Austrian Divisions, the Loudons,
Lacys, all is dark to him.

So that, at Parchwitz, next morning (August 16th), the question,
"To Glogau? To Breslau?" must have been a kind of sphinx-enigma to
Friedrich; dark as that, and, in case of error, fatal. After some
brief paroxysm of consideration, Friedrich's reading was, "To
Breslau, then!" And, for hours, as the march went on, he was
noticed "riding much about," his anxieties visibly great. Till at
Neumarkt (not far from the Field of LEUTHEN), getting on the
Heights there,--towards noon, I will guess,--what a sight!
Before this, he had come upon Austrian Out-parties, Beck's or
somebody's, who did not wait his attack: he saw, at one point, "the
whole Austrian Army on march (the tops of its columns visible among
the knolls, three miles off, impossible to say whitherward);"
and fared on all the faster, I suppose, such a bet depending;--and,
in fine, galloped to the Heights of Neumarkt for a view: "Dare we
believe it? Not an Austrian there!" And might be, for the moment,
the gladdest of Kings. Secure now of Breslau, of junction with
Henri: fairly winner of the bet;--and can at last pause, and take
breath, very needful to his poor Army, if not to himself, after
such a mortal spasm of sixteen days! Daun had taken the Liegnitz
accident without remark; usually a stoical man, especially in other
people's misfortunes; but could not conceal his painful
astonishment on this new occasion,--astonishment at unjust fortune,
or at his own sluggardly cunctations, is not said.

Next day (August 17th), Friedrich encamps at Hermannsdorf, head-
quarter the Schloss of Hermannsdorf, within seven miles of Breslau;
continues a fortnight there, resting his wearied people, himself
not resting much, watching the dismal miscellany of entanglements
that yet remain, how these will settle into groups,--especially
what Daun and his Soltikof will decide on. In about a fortnight,
Daun's decision did become visible; Soltikof's not in a fortnight,
nor ever clearly at all. Unless it were To keep a whole skin, and
gradually edge home to his victuals. As essentially it was, and
continued to be; creating endless negotiations, and futile
overtures and messagings from Daun to his barbarous Friend, endless
suasions and troubles from poor Montalembert,--of which it would
weary every reader to hear mention, except of the result only.

Friedrich, for his own part, is little elated with these bits of
successes at Liegnitz or since; and does not deceive himself as to
the difficulties, almost the impossibilities, that still lie ahead.
In answer to D'Argens, who has written ("at midnight," starting out
of bed "the instant the news came"), in zealous congratulation on
Liegnitz, here is a Letter of Friedrich's: well worth reading,--
though it has been oftener read than almost any other of his.
A Letter which D'Argens never saw in the original form; which was
captured by the Austrians or Cossacks; [See OEuvres de
Frederic, xix. 198 (D'Argens himself, "19th October"
following), and ib. 191 n.; Rodenbeck, ii. 31, 36;--mention of it
in Voltaire, Montalembert, &c.] which got copied everywhere, soon
stole into print, and is ever since extensively known.


FRIEDRICH TO MARQUIS D'ARGENS (at Berlin).

"HERMANNSDORF, near Breslau, 27th August, 1760.

"In other times, my dear Marquis, the Affair of the 15th would have
settled the Campaign; at present it is but a scratch. There will be
needed a great Battle to decide our fate: such, by all appearance,
we shall soon have; and then you may rejoice, if the event is
favorable to us. Thank you, meanwhile, for all your sympathy.
It has cost a deal of scheming, striving and much address to bring
matters to this point. Don't speak to me of dangers; the last
Action costs me only a Coat [torn, useless, only one skirt left, by
some rebounding cannon-ball?] and a Horse [shot under me]: that is
not paying dear for a victory.

"In my life, I was never in so bad a posture as in this Campaign.
Believe me, miracles are still needed if I am to overcome all the
difficulties which I still see ahead. And one is growing weak
withal. 'Herculean' labors to accomplish at an age when my powers
are forsaking me, my weaknesses increasing, and, to speak candidly,
even hope, the one comfort of the unhappy, begins to be wanting.
You are not enough acquainted with the posture of things, to know
all the dangers that threaten the State: I know them, and conceal
them; I keep all the fears to myself, and communicate to the Public
only the hopes, and the trifle of good news I may now and then
have. If the stroke I am meditating succeed [stroke on Daun's Anti-
Schweidnitz strategies, of which anon], then, my dear Marquis, it
will be time to expand one's joy; but till then let us not flatter
ourselves, lest some unexpected bit of bad news depress us
too much.

"I live here [Schloss of Hermannsdorf, a seven miles west of
Breslau] like a Military Monk of La Trappe: endless businesses, and
these done, a little consolation from my Books. I know not if I
shall outlive this War: but should it so happen, I am firmly
resolved to pass the remainder of my life in solitude, in the bosom
of Philosophy and Friendship. When the roads are surer, perhaps you
will write me oftener. I know not where our winter-quarters this
time are to be! My House in Breslau is burnt down in the
Bombardment [Loudon's, three weeks ago]. Our enemies grudge us
everything, even daylight, and air to breathe: some nook, however,
they must leave us; and if it be a safe one, it will be a true
pleasure to have you again with me.

"Well, my dear Marquis, what has become of the Peace with France
[English Peace]! Your Nation, you see, is blinder than you thought:
those fools will lose their Canada and Pondicherry, to please the
Queen of Hungary and the Czarina. Heaven grant Prince Ferdinand may
pay them for their zeal! And it will be the innocent that suffer,
the poor officers and soldiers, not the Choiseuls and--... But here
is business come on me. Adieu, dear Marquis; I embrace you.--F."
[ OEuvres de Frederic, xix. 191.]

Two Events, of opposite complexion, a Russian and a Saxon,
Friedrich had heard of while at Hermannsdorf, before writing as
above. The Saxon Event is the pleasant one, and comes first.

HULSEN ON THE DURRENBERG, AUGUST 20th. "August 20th, at Strehla, in
that Schlettau-Meissen Country, the Reichsfolk and Austrians made
attack on Hulsen's Posts, principal Post of them the Durrenberg
(DRY-HILL) there,--in a most extensive manner; filling the whole
region with vague artillery-thunder, and endless charges, here,
there, of foot and horse; which all issued in zero and minus
quantities; Hulsen standing beautifully to his work, and Hussar
Kleist especially, at one point, cutting in with masterly
execution, which proved general overthrow to the Reichs Project;
and left Hulsen master of the field and of his Durrenberg, PLUS
1,217 prisoners and one Prince among them, and one cannon: a Hulsen
who has actually given a kind of beating to the Reichsfolk and
Austrians, though they were 30,000 to his 10,000, and had counted
on making a new Maxen of it." [Archenholts, ii. 114; BERICHT VON
DER OM 20 AUGUST 1780 BEY STREHLA VORGEFALLONEN ACTION (Seyfarth,
Beylagen, ii. 703-719).] Friedrich writes a
glad laudatory Letter to Hulsen: "Right, so; give them more of that
when they apply next!" [Letter in SCHONING, ii. 396, "Hermsdorf"
(Hermannsdorf), "27th August, 1760."]

This is a bit of sunshine to the Royal mind, dark enough otherwise.
Had Friedrich got done here, right fast would he fly to the relief
of Hulsen, and recovery of Saxony. Hope, in good moments, says,
"Hulsen will be able to hold out till then!" Fear answers, "No, he
cannot, unless you get done here extremely soon!"--The Russian
Event, full of painful anxiety to Friedrich, was a new Siege of
Colberg. That is the sad fact; which, since the middle of August,
has been becoming visibly certain.

SECOND SIEGE OF COLBERG, AUGUST 26th. "Under siege again, that poor
Place; and this time the Russians seem to have made a vow that take
it they will. Siege by land and by sea; land-troops direct from
Petersburg, 15,000 in all (8,000 of them came by ship), with
endless artillery; and near 40 Russian and Swedish ships-of-war,
big and little, blackening the waters of poor Colberg. August 26th
[the day before Friedrich's writing as above], they have got all
things adjusted,--the land-troops covered by redoubts to rearward,
ships moored in their battering-places;--and begin such a
bombardment and firing of red-hot balls upon Colberg as was rarely
seen. To which, one can only hope old Heyde will set a face of
gray-steel character, as usual; and prove a difficult article to
deal with, till one get some relief contrived for him.
[Archenholtz, ii. 116: in Helden-Geschichte,
(vi.73-83), "TAGEBUCH of Siege, 26th August-18th September," and
other details.]



Chapter IV.

DAUN IN WRESTLE WITH FRIEDRICH IN THE SILESIAN HILLS.

In spite of Friedrich's forebodings, an extraordinary recoil, in
all Anti-Friedrich affairs, ensued upon Liegnitz; everything taking
the backward course, from which it hardly recovered, or indeed did
not recover at all, during the rest of this Campaign. Details on
the subsequent Daun-Friedrich movements--which went all aback for
Daun, Daun driven into the Hills again, Friedrich hopeful to cut
off his bread, and drive him quite through the Hills, and home
again--are not permitted us. No human intellect in our day could
busy itself with understanding these thousand-fold marchings,
manoeuvrings, assaults, surprisals, sudden facings-about (retreat
changed to advance); nor could the powerfulest human memory, not
exclusively devoted to study the Art Military under Friedrich,
remember them when understood. For soldiers, desirous not to be
sham-soldiers, they are a recommendable exercise; for them I do
advise Tempelhof and the excellent German Narratives and Records.
But in regard to others-- A sample has been given: multiply that by
the ten, by the threescore and ten; let the ingenuous imagination
get from it what will suffice. Our first duty here to poor readers,
is to elicit from that sea of small things the fractions which are
cardinal, or which give human physiognomy and memorability to it;
and carefully suppress all the rest.

Understand, then, that there is a general going-back on the
Austrian and Russian part. Czernichef we already saw at once retire
over the Oder. Soltikof bodily, the second day after, deaf to
Montalembert, lifts himself to rearward; takes post behind bogs and
bushy grounds more and more inaccessible; ["August 18th, to
Trebnitz, on the road to Militsch" (Tempelhof, iv. 167).] followed
by Prince Henri with his best impressiveness for a week longer,
till he seem sufficiently remote and peaceably minded: "Making home
for Poland, he," thinks the sanguine King; "leave Goltz with 12,000
to watch him. The rest of the Army over hither!" Which is done,
August 27th; General Forcade taking charge, instead of Henri,--who
is gone, that day or next, to Breslau, for his health's sake.
"Prince Henri really ill," say some; "Not so ill, but in the
sulks," say others:--partly true, both theories, it is now thought;
impossible to settle in what degree true. Evident it is, Henri sat
quiescent in Breslau, following regimen, in more or less pathetic
humor, for two or three months to come; went afterwards to Glogau,
and had private theatricals; and was no more heard of in this
Campaign. Greatly to his Brother's loss and regret; who is often
longing for "your recovery" (and return hither), to no purpose.

Soltikof does, in his heart, intend for Poland; but has to see the
Siege of Colberg finish first; and, in decency even to the
Austrians, would linger a little: "Willing I always, if only YOU
prove feasible!" Which occasions such negotiating, and messaging
across the Oder, for the next six weeks, as--as shall be omitted in
this place. By intense suasion of Montalembert, Soltikof even
consents to undertake some sham movement on Glogau, thereby to
alleviate his Austrians across the River; and staggers gradually
forward a little in that direction:--sham merely; for he has not a
siege-gun, nor the least possibility on Glogau; and Goltz with the
12,000 will sufficiently take care of him in that quarter.

Friedrich, on junction with Forcade, has risen to perhaps 50,000;
and is now in some condition against the Daun-Loudon-Lacy Armies,
which cannot be double his number. These still hang about, in the
Breslau-Parchwitz region; gloomy of humor; and seem to be aiming at
Schweidnitz,--if that could still prove possible with a Friedrich
present. Which it by no means does; though they try it by their
best combinations;--by "a powerful Chain of Army-posts, isolating
Schweidnitz, and uniting Daun and Loudon;" by "a Camp on the
Zobtenberg, as crown of the same;"--and put Friedrich on his
mettle. Who, after survey of said Chain, executes (night of August
30th) a series of beautiful manoeuvres on it, which unexpectedly
conclude its existence:--"with unaccountable hardihood," as
Archenholtz has it, physiognomically TRUE to Friedrich's general
style just now, if a little incorrect as to the case in hand,
"sees good to march direct, once for all, athwart said Chain;
right across its explosive cannonadings and it,--counter-
cannonading, and marching rapidly on; such a march for insolence,
say the Austrians!" [Archenholtz (ii. 115-116); who is in a hurry,
dateless, and rather confuses a subsequent DAY (September 18th)
with this "night of August 30th." See RETZOW, ii. 26; and still
better, TEMPELHOF, iv. 203.] Till, in this way, the insolent King
has Schweidnitz under his protective hand again; and forces the
Chain to coil itself wholly together, and roll into the Hills for a
safe lodging. Whither he again follows it: with continual changes
of position, vying in inaccessibility with your own;
threatening your meal-wagons; trampling on your skirts in this or
the other dangerous manner; marching insolently up to your very
nose, more than once ("Dittmannsdorf, September 18th," for a chief
instance), and confusing your best schemes. [Tempelhof, iv.
193-231; &c. &c.: in Anonymous of Hamburg,
iv. 222-235, "Diary of the AUSTRIAN Army" (3-8th September).]

This "insolent" style of management, says Archenholtz, was
practised by Julius Caesar on the Gauls; and since his time by
nobody,--till Friedrich, his studious scholar and admirer, revived
it "against another enemy." "It is of excellent efficacy," adds
Tempelhof; "it disheartens your adversary, and especially his
common people, and has the reverse effect on your own; confuses him
in endless apprehensions, and details of self-defence; so that he
can form no plan of his own, and his overpowering resources become
useless to him." Excellent efficacy,--only you must be equal to
doing it; not unequal, which might be very fatal to you!

For about five weeks, Friedrich, eminently practising this style,
has a most complex multifarious Briarean wrestle with big Daun and
his Lacy-Loudon Satellites; who have a troublesome time, running
hither, thither, under danger of slaps, and finding nowhere an
available mistake made. The scene is that intricate Hill-Country
between Schweidnitz and Glatz (kind of GLACIS from Schweidnitz to
the Glatz Mountains): Daun, generally speaking, has his back on
Glatz, Friedrich on Schweidnitz; and we hear of encampings at
Kunzendorf, at BUNZELWITZ, at BURKERSDORF--places which will be
more famous in a coming Year. Daun makes no complaint of his Lacy-
Loudon or other satellite people; who are diligently circumambient
all of them, as bidden; but are unable, like Daun himself, to do
the least good; and have perpetually, Daun and they, a bad life of
it beside this Neighbor. The outer world, especially the Vienna
outer world, is naturally a little surprised: "How is this,
Feldmarschall Daun? Can you do absolutely nothing with him, then;
but sit pinned in the Hills, eating sour herbs!"

In the Russians appears no help. Soltikof on Glogau, we know what
that amounts to! Soltikof is evidently intending home, and nothing
else. To all Austrian proposals,--and they have been manifold, as
poor Montalembert knows too well,--the answer of Soltikof was and
is: "Above 90,000 of you circling about, helping one another to do
Nothing. Happy were you, not a doubt of it, could WE be wiled
across to you, to get worried in your stead!" Daun begins to be
extremely ill-off; provisions scarce, are far away in Bohemia;
and the roads daily more insecure, Friedrich aiming evidently to
get command of them altogether. Think of such an issue to our once
flourishing Campaign 1760! Daun is vigilance itself against such
fatality; and will do anything, except risk a Fight. Here, however,
is the fatal posture: Since September 18th, Daun sees himself
considerably cut off from Glatz, his provision-road more and more
insecure;--and for fourteen days onward, the King and he have got
into a dead-lock, and sit looking into one another's faces; Daun in
a more and more distressed mood, his provender becoming so
uncertain, and the Winter season drawing nigh. The sentries are in
mutual view: each Camp could cannonade the other; but what good
were it? By a tacit understanding they don't. The sentries,
outposts and vedettes forbear musketry; on the contrary, exchange
tobaccoes sometimes, and have a snatch of conversation. Daun is
growing more and more unhappy. To which of the gods, if not to
Soltikof again, can he apply?

Friedrich himself, successful so far, is abundantly dissatisfied
with such a kind of success;--and indeed seems to be less thankful
to his stars than in present circumstances he ought.
Profoundly wearied we find him, worn down into utter disgust in the
Small War of Posts: "Here we still are, nose to nose," exclaims he
(see Letters TO HENRI), "both of us in unattackable camps.
This Campaign appears to me more unsupportable than any of the
foregoing. Take what trouble and care I like, I can't advance a
step in regard to great interests; I succeed only in trifles. ...
Oh for good news of your health: I am without all assistance here;
the Army must divide again before long, and I have none to intrust
it to." [Schoning, ii. 416.]

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