Book: History of Friedrich II of Prussia V 21

T >> Thomas Carlyle >> History of Friedrich II of Prussia V 21




Karl Theodor's Heir, poor August Christian of Zweibruck, had of
course his own gloomy thoughts on this parcelling of his Bavarian
reversion: but what power has he? None, he thinks, but to take the
inevitable patiently. Nor generally in the Princes of the Reich,
though one would have thought them personally concerned, were it
only for danger of a like mistreatment, was there any emotion
publicly expressed, or the least hope of help. "Perhaps Prussia
will quarrel about it?" think they: "Austria, Prussia, in any of
their quarrels we get only crushed; better to keep out of it.
We well out of it, the more they quarrel and fight, the better for
us!" England, in the shape of Hanover, would perhaps have made some
effort to interfere, provided France did: on either side, I incline
to think,--that is to say, on the side opposite to France. But poor
England is engaged with its melancholy American War; France on the
point of breaking out into Alliance with the Insurrection there.
Neither France nor England did interfere. France is sinking into
bankruptcy; intent to have a Navy before most things; to assist the
Cause of Human Liberty over seas withal, and become a sublime
spectacle, and a ruin to England,--not as in the Pitt-Choiseul
time, but by that improved method. Russia, again involved in Turk
business, looks on, with now and then a big word thrown out on the
one side and the other.--Munchen, in the interval, we can fancy
what an agitated City! One Note says:--

"Kurfurst Max Joseph being dead (30th December, 1777), Privy
Councillor Johann Euchar von Obermayr, favorite and factotum
Minister of the Deceased, opened the Chatoulle [Princely Safe, or
Case of Preciosities]; took from it the Act, which already lay
prepared, for Homaging and solemn Instalment of Karl Theodor
Kur-Pfalz, as heir of Baiern; with immediate intent to execute the
same. Euchar orders strict closure of the Town-gates; the Soldiery
to draw out, and beset all streets,--especially that street where
Imperial Majesty's Ambassador lives: 'Rank close with your backs to
that House,' orders Euchar; 'and the instant anybody stirs to come
out, sound your drums, and, at the same instant, let the rearmost
rank of you, without looking round [for one would not give offence,
unless imperative] smite the butts of their muskets to the ground'
(ready for firing, IF imperative). Nobody, I think, stirred out
from that Austrian Excellency's House; in any case, Obermayr
completed his Act without the least protest or trouble from
anybody; and Karl Theodor, almost to his terror [for he meant to
sell, and satisfy Austria, by no means to resist or fight, the paltry old creature, careful of self and skin only], saw himself solemnly secured by all forms of law in all the Lands of the Deceased. [Fischer, Geschichte Friedrichs des Zweiten (Halle, 1787), ii. 358.]

"Kaiser Joseph, in a fume at this, shot off an express to Bohemia: 'Such and such regiments, ten or twelve of you, with your artillery and tools, march instantly into Straubingen, and occupy that Town and District.' At Vienna, to the Karl-Theodor Ambassador, the Kaunitz Officials were altogether loud-voiced, minatory: 'What is this, Herr Excellenz? Bargain already made; lying ready for mere signature; and at Munchen such doings. Sign this Bargain, or there cross your frontier 60,000 Austrian men, and seize both Baiern and the Ober-Pfalz; bethink you, Herr!' The poor Herr bethought him, what could he do? signed the Bargain, Karl Theodor sanctioning, 3d January, 1778,--the fourth day after Obermayr's Homaging feat;--and completes the first act of this bad business. The Bargain, on Theodor's side, was of the most liberal kind: All and sundry the Lands and Circles of Duke Johann of Straubingen, Lordship of Mindelheim [Marlborough's old Place] superadded, and I know not what else; Sovereignty of the Fiefs in Ober-Pfalz to lapse to the Crown of Bohmen on my decease." Half Bavaria, or better;
some reckon it as good as two-thirds.

The figure of Duchess Clement, Amazon in hair-powder, driviug incessantly about among the officialities and aristocratic circles; this and the order of "Rattle your muskets on the ground;"
let these two features represent to us the Munchen of those months. Munchen, Regensburg, Vienna are loud with pleading, protocolling; but it is not there that the crisis of the game will be found
to lie.

Friedrich has, for some time back, especially since the late Kur-
Baiern's illness, understood that Austria, always eager for a clutch at Baiern, had something of that kind in view; but his first positive news of it was a Letter from Duchess Clement (date, JANUARY 3d), which, by the detail of facts, unveiled to his quick eye the true outline, extent and nature of this Enterprise of Austria's; Enterprise which, he could not but agree with Duchess Clement, was one of great concernment not to Baiern alone.
"Must be withstood; prevented, at whatever risk," thought Friedrich on the instant: "The new Elector, Karl Theodor, he probably is dead to the matter; but one ought to ask him. If he answer, Dead;
then ask his Heir, Have you no life to it?" Heir is a gallant enough young gentleman, of endless pedigree, but small possessions, "Karl August Christian [Karl II. in Official style], Duke of Zweibruck-Birkenfeld," Karl Theodor's eldest Nephew;
Friedrich judges that he probably will have haggled to sign any Austrian convention for dismembering Baiern, and that he will start into life upon it so soon as he sees hope.

"A messenger to him, to Karl Theodor and him," thinks Friedrich:
"a messenger instantly; and who?" For that clearly is the first thing. And a delicate thing it is; requiring to be done in profoundest secrecy, by hint and innuendo rather than speech;
by somebody in a cloak of darkness, who is of adroit quality, and was never heard of in diplomatic circles before, not to be suspected of having business of mine on hand. Friedrich bethinks him that in a late visit to Weimar, he had noticed, for his fine qualities, a young gentleman named Gortz; Eustace von Gortz, [Preuss, iv. 92 n. &c.] late Tutor to the young Duke (Karl August, whom readers know as Goethe's friend): a wise, firm, adroit-looking young gentleman; who was farther interesting as Brother to Lieutenant-General von Gortz, a respectable soldier of Friedrich's. Ex-Tutor at Weimar, we say, and idle for the moment; hanging about Court there, till he should find a new function.

Of this Ex-Tutor Friedrich bethinks him; and in the course of that same day,--for there is no delay,--Friedrich, who is at Berlin, beckons General Gortz to come over to him from Potsdam instantly. "Hither this evening; and in all privacy meet me in the Palace at such an hour" (hour of midnight or thereby); which of course Gortz, duly invisible to mankind, does. Friedrich explains: An errand to
Munchen; perfectly secret, for the moment, and requiring great
delicacy and address; perhaps not without risk, a timorous man
might say: will your Brother go for me, think you? Gortz thinks he
will. "Here is his Instruction, if so," adds the King, handing him
an Autograph of the necessary outline of procedure,--not signed,
nor with any credential, or even specific address, lest accident
happen. "Adieu then, Herr General-Lieutenant; rule is, shoes of
swiftness, cloak of darkness: adieu!" And Gortz Senior is off on
the instant, careering towards Weimar, where he finds Gortz Junior,
and makes known his errand. Gortz Junior stares in the natural
astonishment; but, after some intense brief deliberation, becomes
affirmative, and in a minimum of time is ready and on the road.

Gortz Junior proved to have been an excellent choice on the King's
part; and came to good promotion afterwards by his conduct in this
affair. Gortz Junior started for Munchen on the instant, masked
utterly, or his business masked, from profane eyes; saw this
person, saw that, and glided swiftly about, swiftly and with sure
aim; and speedily kindled the matter, and had smoke rising in
various points. And before January was out, saw the Reichs-Diet at
Regensburg, much more the general Gazetteerage everywhere, seized
of this affair, and thrown into paroxysms at the size and
complexion of it: saw, in fact, a world getting into flame,--
kindled by whom or what nobody could guess, for a long time to
come. Gortz had great running about in his cloak of darkness, and
showed abundant talent of the kind needed. A pushing, clear-eyed,
stout-hearted man; much cleverness and sureness in what he did and
forbore to do. His adventures were manifold; he had much travelling
about: was at Regensburg, at Mannheim; saw many persons whom he had
to judge of on the instant, and speak frankly to, or speak darkly,
or speak nothing; and he made no mistake. One of his best
counsellors, I gather, was Duchess Clement: of course it was not
long till Duchess Clement heard some inkling of him; till, in some
of his goings and comings, he saw Duchess Clement, who hailed him
as an angel of light. In one journey more mysterious than ever, "he
was three days invisible in Duchess Clement's Garden-house."
"AH, MADAME, QUE N'ETIEZ-VOUS ELECTEUR, Why were not you Elector!"
writes Friedrich to her once: "We should not have seen those
shameful events, which every good German must blush for, to the
bottom of his heart (DONT TOUT BON ALLEMAND DOIT ROUGIR JUSQU'AU
FOND DU COEUR)!" [Preuss, iv. 94.]

We cannot afford the least narrative of Gortz and his courses:
imagination, from a few traits, will sufficiently conceive them.
He had gone first to Karl Theodor's Minister: "Dead to it, I fear;
has already signed?" Alas, yes. Upon which to Zweibruck the Heir's
Minister; whom his Master had distinctly ordered to sign, but who,
at his own peril, gallant man, delayed, remonstrated, had not yet
done it; and was able to answer: "Alive to it, he? Yes, with a
witness, were there hope in the world!"--which threw Gortz upon
instant gallop towards Zweibruck Schloss, in search of said Heir,
the young Duke August Christian; who, however, had left in the
interim (summoned by his Uncle, on Austrian urgency, to consent
along with him); but whom Gortz, by dexterity and intuition of
symptoms, caught up by the road, with what a mutual joy! As had
been expected, August Christian, on sight of Gortz, with an armed
Friedrich looming in the distance, took at once into new courses
and activities. From him, no consent now; far other: Treaty with
Friedrich; flat refusal ever to consent: application to the Reich,
application even to France, and whatever a gallant young fellow
could do.

It was by Friedrich's order that he applied to France; his younger
Brother, Max Joseph, was a soldier there, and strove to back him in
Official and other circles,--who were all friendly, even zealous
for him; and gave good words, but had nothing more. This French
department of the business was long a delay to Friedrich's
operations: and in result, poor Max's industry there, do what he
could, proved rather a minus quantity than otherwise. A good young
man, they say; but not the man to kindle into action horses that
are dead,--of which he had experience more than once in time
coming. He is the same that, 30 years after, having survived his
childless elder Brother, became King Max, first King of Baiern;
begot Ludwig, second King,--who, for his part, has begotten Otho
King of Greece, and done other feats still less worth mentioning.
August Christian's behavior is praised as excellent,--passively
firm and polite; the grand requisite, persistence on your ground of
"No:"--but his luck, to find such a Friedrich, and also to find
such a Gortz, was the saving clause for him.

Friedrich was in very weak health in these months; still considered
by the Gazetteers to be dying. But it appears he is not yet too
weak for taking, on the instant necessary, a world-important
resolution; and of being on the road with it, to this issue or to
that, at full speed before the day closed. "Desist, good neighbor,
I beseech you. You must desist, and even you shall:" this
resolution was entirely his own; as were the equally prompt
arrangements he contrived for executing it, should hard come to
hard, and Austria prefer war to doing justice. "Excellent methods,"
say the most unfriendly judges, "which must at once have throttled
Austria into compliance, had he been as prompt in executing them;
--which he by no means was. And there lies his error and failure;
very lamentable, excusable only by decrepitude of body producing
weakness and decay of mind." This is emphatically and wearisomely
Schmettau's opinion, [F. W. C. Graf van Schmettau (this is the
ELDER Schmettau's Son, not the DRESDENER'S whom we used to quote),
FELDZUG DER PREUSSISCHEN ARMEE IN BOHMEN IM JAHRE 1778 (Berlin,
1789,--simultaneously in French too, with Plans): with which--as
the completest Account by an eager Witness and Participator--
compare always Friedrich's own (MEMOIRES DE LA GUERRE DE 1778), in
OEuvres de Frederic, vi. 135-208. Schoning
(vol. iv.), besides his own loose Narrative, or Summary, has given
all the CORRESPONDENCE between Henri and the King:--sufficient to
quench the sharpest appetite on this subject.] who looks at it only
as a military Adjutant, intent on honor and rapid feats of war,--
with how much reason, readers not Prussian or military shall judge
as we go on.

Saxony, we ought to mention, was also aggrieved. The Dowager-
Electress Maria Antoinette, our sprightly friend, had, as sole
surviving Sister of the late Kurfurst Max, the undoubted heirship
of Kurfurst Max's "allodial properties and territories:"
territories, I think, mainly in the Ober-Pfalz (which are NOT
Bavaria Proper, but were acquired in the Thirty-Years War), which
are important in value, and which Austria, regardless of our lively
friend, has laid hold of as lapsed fiefs of Bohemia.
Clearly Bohemian, says Austria; and keeps hold. Our lively friend
hereupon makes over all her rights in that matter to her Son, the
reigning Elector; with the counsel, if counsel were needed, "Ask
protection of King Friedrich; go wholly with King Friedrich."
Mecklenburg too has an interest. Among the lapsed fiefs is one to a
Duchy called of Leuchtenberg;--in regard to which, says
Mecklenburg, as loud as it can, "That Duchy is not lapsed at all;
that is now mine, witness this Document" (of a valid testamentary
nature)! Other claims were put in; but these three: Zweibruck
endlessly important; Saxony important too, though not in such
degree; Mecklenburg unimportant, but just,--were alone recognized
in impartial quarters as authentic and worthy of notice.

Of the pleadings and procedures in the Reichs Diet no reader would
permit me to speak, were I inclined. Enough to understand that they
went on in the usual voluminous dull-droning way, crescendo always;
and deserve, what at present they are sure of, oblivion from all
creatures. The important thing was, not those pleadings in the
Reichs Diet, nor the Austrian proposals there or elsewhere; but the
brandishing of arms in emitting and also in successively answering
the same. Answer always No by Friedrich, and some new flash of
handled arms,--the physiognomy of which was the one significant
point, Austria, which is far from ready with arms, though at each
fresh pleading or proposal it tries to give a kind of brandish,
says mainly three things, in essence somewhat thus.
AUSTRIA: "Cannot two States of the Reich come to a mutual
understanding, as Austria and Bavaria have done? And what have
third parties to say to it?" FRIEDRICH: "Much! Parties of the Reich
have much to say to it!" (This several times with variations.)
AUSTRIA: "Our rights seem to us valid: Zweibruck, Saxony,
Mecklenburg, if aggrieved, can try in the Reichs Law-Courts."
FRIEDRICH: "Law-Courts!" with a new brandish; that is, sets more
regiments on march, from Pommern to Wesel all on march, to Berlin,
to Silesia, towards the Bohemian Frontier. AUSTRIA, by the voice of
Kaunitz: "We will not give up our rights without sentence of Law.
We cannot recognize the King of Prussia as Law-Judge in this
matter." FRIEDRICH: "The King of Prussia is of the Jury!"

Pulse after pulse, this is something like the course things had,
crescendo till, in about three months, they got to a height which
was evidently serious. Nay, in the course of the pleadings it
became manifest that on the Austrian grounds of claim, not Maria
Theresa could be heir to Straubingen, but Friedrich himself:
"I descend from Three-Crown Albert's Daughter," said Maria Theresa.
"And I from an elder Daughter of his, and do not claim!"
Friedrich could have answered, but did not; treating such claim all
along as merely colorable and chimerical, not worth attention in
serious affairs of fact. Till, at length, after about three months,
there comes a really serious brandish.

SUNDAY, APRIL 5th, 1778, at Berlin, Friedrich holds review of his
Army, all assembled, equipped and in readiness; and (in that upper
Parole-Room of the Schloss) makes this Speech, which, not without
extraneous intention, was printed in the Newspapers:--

FRIEDRICH'S SPEECH TO HIS GENERALS. "Gentlemen, I have assembled
you here for a public object. Most of you, like myself, have often
been in arms along with one another, and are grown gray in the
service of our Country: to all of us is well known in what dangers,
toils and renown we have been fellow-sharers. I doubt not in the
least that all of you, as myself, have a horror of bloodshed:
but the danger which now threatens our Countries, not only renders
it a duty, but puts us in the absolute necessity, to adopt the
quickest and most effectual means for dissipating at the right time
the storm which threatens to break out on us.

"I depend with complete confidence on your soldierly and patriotic
zeal, which is already well and gloriously known to me, and which,
while I live, I will acknowledge with the heartiest satisfaction.
Before all things, I recommend to you, and prescribe as your most
sacred duty, That, in every situation, you exercise humanity on
unarmed enemies; and be continually attentive that, in this respect
too, there be the strictest discipline (MANNSZUCHT) kept among
those under you.

"To travel with the pomp of a King is not among my wishes: and all
of you are aware that I have no pleasure in rich field-furniture:
but my increasing age, and the weakness it brings, render me
incapable of riding as I did in my youth. I shall, therefore, be
obliged to make use of a post-chaise in times of marching; and all
of you have liberty to do the same. But on the day of battle you
shall see me on horseback; and there, also, I hope my Generals will
follow that example."

VOLTAIRE SMOTHERED UNDER ROSES. King's Speech was on Sunday, April
5th, Evening of last Monday (March 30th), at the Theatre Francais
in Paris, poor Voltaire had that world-famous apotheosis of his;
and got "smothered under roses," as he termed it. He had left
Ferney (such the urgency of Niece Denis and her unappeasable desire
for a sight of Paris again) February 5th; arrived in Paris February
10th; ventured out to see his poor last Tragedy, not till the sixth
night of it, March 30th; was beshouted, crowned, raised to the
immortal gods by a repentant Paris world: "Greatest of men,--You
were not a miscreant and malefactor, then: on the contrary, you
were a spiritual Hercules, a heroic Son of Light; Slayer of the
Nightmare Monsters, and foul Dragons and Devils that were preying
on us: to you shall not we now say, Long life, with all our throats
and all our hearts,"--and so quench you at last! Which they managed
to do, poor repentant souls. The tottering wayworn Voltaire, over-
agitated in this way, took to bed; never rose again; and on that
day two months was dead. [In DUVERNET, and still better in
LONGCHAMP ET WAGNIERE, ample account of these interesting
occurrences.] His light all done; to King Friedrich, or to any of
us, no flash of radiancy from him any more forever.

APRIL 6th, Friedrich gets on march--perhaps about 100,000 strong--
for Schonwalde, in the Neisse-Schweidnitz neighborhood; and there,
in the course of the week, has cantoned himself, and sits
completing his magazines and appliances for actual work of war.
This is a considerable brandish; and a good deal astonishes Kaunitz
and the Vienna people, who have not 10,000 at present on those
Frontiers, and nothing whatever in a state of readiness.
"Dangerous really!" Kaunitz admits; and sets new regiments on march
from Hungary, from the Netherlands, from all ends of the Earth
where they are. Tempers his own insolent talk, too; but strives to
persuade himself that it is "Menace merely. He won't; he abhors
war." Kaunitz had hardly exaggerated Friedrich's abhorrence of war;
though it turned out there were things which Friedrich abhorred
still more.

Schonwalde, head-quarter of this alarming Prussian cantonment, is
close on the new Fortress of Silberberg, a beautiful new
impregnability, looking into those valleys of the Warta, of the
young Neisse, which are the road to Bohemia or from it,--where the
Pandour torrents used to issue into the first Silesian Wars;
where Friedrich himself was once to have been snapped up, but was
not quite,--and only sang Mass as Extempore Abbot, with Tobias
Stusche, in the Monastery of Camenz, according to the myth which
readers may remember. No more can Pandours issue that way;
only Prussians can enter in. Friedrich's windows in the Schloss of
Schonwalde,--which are on the left hand, if you be touring in those
parts,--look out, direct upon Silberberg, and have its battlements
between them and the 3-o'clock Sun. [Schoning, iv. (Introductory
Part).] In the Town of Silberberg, Friedrich has withal a modest
little lodging,--lodging still known,--where he can alight for an
hour or a night, in the multifarious businesses that lead him to
and fro. "A beautiful place," says Schoning; "where the King stayed
twelve weeks" or more; waiting till the Bavarian-Austrian case
should ripen better. At Schonwalde, what was important in his
private circle, he heard of Lord Marischal's death, then of
Voltaire's; not to mention that of English Pitt, and perhaps others
interesting to him. [Voltaire died May 30th; Marischal, May 25th;
Pitt, May 11th;--and May 4th, in the Cantonment here, died General
von Rentzel, the same who, as Lieutenant Rentzel, sixty years ago,
had taught the little Crown-Prince his drill (Rodenbeck,
iii. 187).]

"Now was the time," cry Schmettau and the unfavorable, "when he
might have walked across into Eastern Bohemia, into Mahren, whither
you like; to Vienna itself, and taken Austria by the throat at
discretion: 'Do justice, then, will you! Let go Bavaria, or--!'
In his young years, would not he have done so? His Plan, long since
laid down, was grand: To march into Mahren, leaving Silesia
guarded; nay leaving Bohemia to be invaded,--for Prince Henri, and
the Saxons, who are a willing handful, and will complete Henri
likewise to 100,000, were to do that, feat the while;--March into
Mahren, on to Vienna if he chose; laying all flat. Infallible," say
the Schmettau people. "He had the fire of head to contrive it all;
but worn down and grown old, he could not execute his great
thoughts." Which is obviously absurd, Friedrich's object not being
to lay Austria flat, or drive animosities to the sanguinary point,
and kindle all Europe into war; but merely to extract, with the
minimum of violence, something like justice from Austria on this
Bavarian matter. For which end, he may justly consider slow
pressure preferable to the cutting method. His problem is most
ticklish, not allowed for by Schmettau.

The encampment round Schonwalde, especially as there was nothing
ready thereabouts on the Austrian side, produced a visible and
great effect on the negotiations; and notably altered the high
Kaunitz tone towards Friedrich. "Must two great Courts quarrel,
then, for the sake of a small one?" murmured Kaunitz, plaintively
now, to himself and to the King,--to the King not in a very
distinct manner, though to himself the principle is long since
clear as an axiom in Politics: "Great Courts should understand one
another; then the small would be less troublesome." For a quarter
of a century this has been the Kaunitz faith. In 1753, when he
miraculously screwed round the French into union with the Austrians
to put down an upstart Prussia, this was his grand fulcrum, the
immovable rock in which the great Engineer fixed down his political
capstans, and levered and screwed. He did triumphantly wind matters
round,--though whether they much profited him when round, may be
a question.

But the same grand principle, in the later instance of partitioning
Poland, has it not proved eminently triumphant, successful in all
points? And, doubtless, this King of Prussia recognizes it, if made
worth his while, thinks Kaunitz. In a word, Kaunitz's next
utterance is wonderfully changed. The great Engineer speaks almost
like a Bishop on this new text. "Let the Two Courts," says he, "put
themselves each in the other's place; each think what it would
want;" and in fact each, in a Christian manner, try to do as it
would be done by! How touching in the mouth of a Kaunitz, with
something of pathos, of plaintiveness, almost of unction in it!
"There is no other method of agreeing," urges he: "War is a
terrible method, disliked by both of us. Austria wishes this of
Bavaria; but his Prussian Majesty's turn will come, perhaps now is
(let him say and determine); we will make it worth his while."
This is of APRIL 24th; notable change since the cantoning
round Schonwalde.

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