Book: History of Friedrich II of Prussia V 21

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




Germany at large, though it lay so silent, in its bedrid condition,
was in great anxiety. Never had the Holy Romish Reich such a shock
before: "Meaning to partition us like Poland?" thought the Reich,
with a shudder. "They can, by degrees, if they think good;
these Two Great Sovereigns!" Courage, your Durchlauchts: one of the
Two great ones has not that in his thoughts; has, and will have,
the reverse of that; which will be your anchorages in the storms of
fate for a long time to come! Nor was it--as will shortly appear to
readers--Kaunitz's immediate intention at all: enough if poor we
can begin it, set it fairly under way; let some unborn happier
Kaunitz, the last of a series, complete such blessed consummation;
in a happier time, far over the practical horizon at present.
This we do gather to have been Kaunitz's real view; and it throws a
light on the vexed Partition-of-Poland question, and gives weight
to Dohm's assertion, That Kaunitz was the actual beginner there.

Weeks before Friedrich heard of this remarkable Memorial, and ten
days before it was brought to paper, there came to Friedrich
another unexpected remarkable Document: a LETTER from Kaiser Joseph
himself, who is personally running about in these parts, over in
Bohemia, endeavoring to bring Army matters to a footing; and is no
doubt shocked to find them still in such backwardness, with a
Friedrich at hand. The Kaiser's Letter, we perceive, is pilot-
balloon to the Kaunitz episcopal Document, and to an actual meeting
of Prussian and Austrian Ministers on the Bavarian point; and had
been seen to be a salutary measure by an Austria in alarm. It asks,
as the Kaunitz Memorial will, though in another style, "Must there
be war, then? Is there no possibility left in negotiation and
mutual concession? I am your Majesty's friend and admirer; let us
try." This was an unexpected and doubtless a welcome thing to
Friedrich; who answers eagerly, and in a noble style both of
courtesy and of business sense: upon which there followed two other
Imperial Letters with their two Royal answers; [In OEuvres
de Frederic, (vi. 183-193), Three successive Letters
from the Kaiser (of dates, "Olmutz," "Litau," "Konigsgratz,"
13th-19th April, 1778), with King's Answers ("Schonwalde," all of
them, and 14th-20th April),--totally without interest to the
general reader.] and directly afterwards the small Austrian-
Prussian Congress we spoke of, Finkenstein and Hertzberg on the
Prussian part, Cobenzl on the Austrian (Congress sitting at
Berlin), which tried to agree, but could not; and to which
Kaunitz's Memorial of April 24th was meant as some helpful
sprinkling of presidential quasi-episcopal oil.

Oil merely: for it turned out, Kaunitz had no thought at present of
partitioning the German Reich with Friedrich; but intended merely
to keep his own seized portion of Baiern, and in return for
Friedrich's assent intended to recompense Friedrich with--in fact,
with Austria's consent, That if Anspach and Baireuth lapsed home to
Prussia (as it was possible they might, the present Margraf,
Friedrich's Nephew, the Lady-Craven Margraf, having a childless
Wife), Prussia should freely open the door to them! A thing which
Friedrich naturally maintained to be in need of nobody's consent,
and to lie totally apart from this question; but which Austria
always considered a very generous thing, and always returned to,
with new touches of improvement, as their grand recipe in this
matter. So that, unhappily, the Hertzberg-Cobenzl treatyings,
Kaiser's Letters and Kaunitz's episcopal oil, were without effect,
--except to gain for the Austrians, who infinitely needed it, delay
of above two months. The Letters are without general interest:
but, for Friedrich's sake, perhaps readers will consent to a
specimen? Here are parts of his First Letter: people meaning to be
Kings (which I doubt none of my readers are) could not do better
than read it, and again read it, and acquire that style, first of
knowing thoroughly the object in hand, and then of speaking on it
and of being silent on it, in a true and noble manner:--


FRIEDRICH TO HIS IMPERIAL MAJESTY (at Olmutz).

"SCHONWALDE, 14th April, 1778.

"SIRE MY BROTHER,--I have received, with all the satisfaction
possible, the Letter which your Imperial Majesty has had the
goodness to write to me. I have neither Minister nor Clerk (SCRIBE)
about me; therefore your Imperial Majesty will be pleased to put up
with such Answer as an Old Soldier can give, who writes to you with
probity and frankness, on one of the most important subjects which
have risen in Politics for a long time.

"Nobody wishes more than I to maintain peace and harmony between
the Powers of Europe: but there are limits to everything; and cases
so intricate (EPINEUX) arise that goodwill alone will not suffice
to maintain things in repose and tranquillity. Permit me, Sire, to
state distinctly what the question seems to me to be. It is to
determine if an Emperor can dispose at his will of the Fiefs of the
Empire. Answer in the affirmative, and, all these Fiefs become
TIMARS [in the Turk way], which are for life only; and which the
Sultan disposes of again, on the possessor's death. Now, this is
contrary to the Laws, to the Customs and Constitutions of the
German Empire."--"I, as member of the Empire, and as having, by the
Treaty of Hubertsburg, re-sanctioned the Peace of Westphalia, find
myself formally engaged to support the immunities, the liberties
and rights of the Germanic Body.

"This, Sire, is the veritable state of things. Personal interest I
have none: but I am persuaded your Majesty's self would regard me
as a paltry man, unworthy of your esteem, should I basely sacrifice
the rights, immunities and privileges, which the Electors and I
have received from our Ancestors.

"I continue to speak to your Majesty with the same frankness.
I love and honor your person. It will certainly be hard for me to
fight against a Prince gifted with excellent qualities, and whom I
personally esteem. But"-- And is there no remedy? Anspach and
Baireuth stand in no need of sanction. I consent to the Congress
proposed:--being with the &c. &c.--F. [ OEuvres de
Frederic, vi. 187.]

The sittings of this little Congress at Berlin lasted all through
May and June; to the disgust of Schmettau and the ardent Prussian
mess-rooms, "lying ready here, and forbidden to act." For the
Austrians all the while were at their busiest, improving the
moments, marching continually hitherward from Hungary, from
Limburg, from all ends of the earth. Both negotiating parties had
shown a manifest wish to terminate without war; and both made
various attempts or proposals that way; Friedrich offering, in the
name of European peace, to yield the Austrians some small rim or
paring of Bavaria from the edge adjoining them; the Austrians
offering Anspach-Baireuth with some improvements;--always offering
Friedrich his own Baireuth-Anspach with some new sauce (as that he
might exchange those Territories with Saxony for a fine equivalent
in the Lausitz, contiguous to him, which was a real improvement and
increase):--but as neither party would in the least give up in
essentials, or quit the ground it had taken, the result was
nothing. Week after week; so many weeks are being lost to
Friedrich; gained to Austria: Schmettau getting more and
more disgusted.

Friedrich still waited; not in all points quite ready yet, he said,
nor the futile diplomacies quite complete;--evidently in the
highest degree unwilling to come to the cutting point, and begin a
War which nobody could see the end of. Many things he tried;
Peace so precious to him, try and again try. All through June too,
this went on; the result always zero,--obviously certain to be so.
As even Friedrich had at last to own to himself; and likewise that
the Campaign season was ebbing away; and that if his grand Moravian
scheme was to be tried on Austria, there was not now a moment
to lose.

Friedrich's ultimate proposal, new modification of what all his
proposals had been, "To you some thin rim of Baiern; to Saxony and
Mecklenburg some ETCETERA of indemnity, money chiefly (money always
to be paid by Karl Theodor, who has left Baiern open to the spoiler
in this scandalous manner)," was of June 13th; Austrians for ten
days meditating on it, and especially getting forward their Army
matters, answer, June 24th "No we won't." Upon which Friedrich--to
the joy of Schmettau and every Prussian--actually rises. Emits his
War-Manifesto (JULY 3d): "Declaration to our Brethren (MITSTANDE)
of the Reich," that Austria will listen to nothing but War;
[Fischer, ii 388; Dohm, Denkwurdigkeiten, i.
110; OEuvres de Frederic, vi. 145.] and, on
and from that day, goes flowing forward in perfect columns and
arrangements, 100,000 strong; through the picturesque Glatz
Country, straight towards the Bohemian Border, hour by hour.
Flows over the Bohemian Border by Nachod Town; his vanguard
bursting into field-music and flourishes of trumpeting at that
grand moment (July 5th); flowed bodily over; and encamped that
night on Bohemian ground, with Nachod to rear; thence towards
Kwalkowitz, and on the second day to Jaromirtz ("Camp of
Jaromirtz"), a little Town which we have heard of before, but which
became more famous than ever during the next ten weeks.

Jaromirtz, Kwalkowitz, Konigsgratz: this is the old hill-and-dale
labyrinth of an Upper-Elbe Country; only too well known to his
Majesty and us, for almost forty years past: here again are the
Austrians waiting the King; watching diligently this new Invasion
of his out of Glatz and the East! In the same days, Prince Henri,
who is also near 100,000, starts from Dresden to invade them from
the West. Loudon, facing westward, is in watch of Henri; Lacy, or
indeed the Kaiser himself, back-to-back of Loudon, stands in this
Konigsgratz-Jaromirtz part; said to be embattled in a very
elaborate manner, to a length of fifty miles on this fine ground,
and in number somewhat superior to the King;--the Austrians in all
counting about 250,000; of whom Lacy has considerably the larger
share. The terror at Vienna, nevertheless, is very great: "A day of
terror," says one who was there; "I will not trust myself to
describe the sensation which this news, 'Friedrich in Bohemia
again!' produced among all ranks of people." [Cogniazzo, iv. 316,
320, 321; Preuss, iv. 101, &c.] Maria Theresa, with her fine
motherly heart, in alarm for her Country, and trembling "for my two
Sons [Joseph and Leopold] and dear Son-in-Law [of Sachsen-
Teschen], who are in the Army," overcomes all scruples of pride;
instantly despatches an Autograph to the King ("Bearer of this,
Baron von Thugut, with Full Powers"); and on her own strength
starts a new Negotiation,--which, as will be seen, ended no better
than the others. [Her Letters, four in all, with their Appendixes,
and the King's Answers, in OEuvres de Frederic, italic> vi. 196-200.]

Schmettau says, "Friedrich, cheated of his Mahren schemes, was
still in time; the Austrian position being indeed strong, but not
being even yet quite ready." Friedrich himself, however, on
reconnoitring, thought differently. A position such as one never
saw before, thinks he; contrived by Lacy; masterly use of the
ground, of the rivers, of the rocks, woods, swamps; Elbe and his
branches, and the intricate shoulders of the Giant Mountains:
no man could have done it better than Lacy here, who, they say, is
the contriver and practical hand. [ OEuvres de Frederic,
vi. 147.] From Konigsgratz, northward, by Konigshof,
by Arnau, up to Hohenelbe, all heights are crowned, all passes
bristling with cannon. Rivers Aupa, Elbe beset with redoubts, with
dams in favorable places, and are become inundations, difficult
to tap. There are "ditches 8 feet deep by 16 broad." Behind or on
the right bank of Elbe, it is mere intrenchment for five-and-twenty
miles. With bogs, with thickets full of Croats; and such an amount
of artillery,--I believe they have in battery no fewer than 1,500
cannon. A position very considerable indeed:--must have taken time
to deliberate, delve and invest; but it is done. Near fifty miles
of it: here, clear to your glass, has the head of Lacy visibly
emerged on us, as if for survey of phenomena:--head of Lacy sure
enough (body of him lying invisible in the heights, passes and
points of vantage); and its NECK of fifty miles, like the neck of a
war-horse clothed with thunder. On which (thinks Schmettau
privately) you may, too late, make your reflections!

Schmettau asserts that the position, though strong, was nothing
like so infinitely strong; and that Friedrich in his younger days
would very soon have assaulted it, and turned Lacy inside out:
but Friedrich, we know, had his reasons against hurry.
He reconnoitred diligently; rode out reconnoitring "fifteen miles
the first day" (July 6th), ditto the second and following; and was
nearly shot by Croats,--by one specific Croat, says Prussian
Mythology, supported by Engraving. An old Engraving, which I have
never seen; represents Friedrich reconnoitring those
five-and-twenty miles of Elbe, which have so many redoubts on their
side of it, and swarm with Croat parties on both sides: this is all
the truth that is in the Engraving. [Rodenbeck, p. 188.] Fact says:
Friedrich ("on the 8th," if that were all the variation) "was a
mark for the Austrian sharpshooters for half an hour." Myth says,
and engraves it, with the date of "July 7th:" Friedrich, skirting
some thicket, suddenly came upon a single Croat with musket
levelled at him, wild creature's finger just on the trigger;--and
quietly admonishing, Friedrich lifts his finger with a "DU, DU (Ah
you!);" upon which, such the divinity that hedges one, the wild
creature instantly flings down his murder-weapon, and, kneeling,
embraces the King's boot,--with kisses, for anything I know. It is
certain, Friedrich, about six times over in this paltry War or
Quasi No-War, set his attendants on the tremble; was namely, from
Croateries and Artilleries, in imminent peril of life; so careless
was he, and dangerous to speak to in his sour humor. Humor very
sour, they say, for most part; being in reality altogether backward
and loath for grand enterprise; and yet striving to think he was
not; ashamed that any War of his should be a No-War.
Schmettau says:--

"On the day of getting into Jaromirtz [July 8th], the King, tired
of riding about while the Columns were slowly getting in, lay down
on the ground with his Adjutants about him. A young Officer came
riding past; whom the King beckoned to him;--wrote something with
pencil (an Order, not of the least importance), and said: 'Here;
that Order to General Lossow, and tell him he is not to take it ill
that I trouble him, as I have none in my Suite that can do
anything.'" Let the Suite take it as they can! A most pungent,
severe old King; quite perverse at times, thinks Schmettau.
Thus again, more than once.:--

"On arriving with his Column where the Officer, a perfectly skilful
man, had marked out the Camp, the King would lift his spy-glass;
gaze to right and left, riding round the place at perhaps a hundred
yards' distance; and begin: 'SIEHT ER, HERR, But look, Herr, what a
botching you have made of it again (WAS ER DA WIEDER FUR DUMM ZEUG
GEMACHT HAT)!' and grumbling and blaming, would alter the Camp,
till it was all out of rule; and then say, 'See there, that is the
way to mark out Camps.'" [Schmettau, xxv. 30, 24.]

In a week's time, July 13th, came another fine excuse for inaction;
Plenipotentiary Thugut, namely, and the Kaiserinn's Letter, which
we spoke of. Autograph from Maria Theresa herself, inspired by the
terror of Vienna and of her beautiful motherly heart.
Negotiation to be private utterly: "My Son, the Kaiser, knows
nothing of it; I beg the most absolute secrecy;" which was
accordingly kept, while Thugut, with Finkenstein and Hertzberg
again, held "Congress of Braunau" in those neighborhoods,--with as
little effect as ever. Thugut's Name, it seems, was originally
TUNICOTTO (Tyrolese-Italian); which the ignorant Vienna people
changed into "THU-NICHT-GUT (Do-no-good)," till Maria Theresa, in
very charity, struck out the negative, and made him "Do-good."
Do-good and his Congress held Friedrich till August 10th: five more
weeks gone; and nothing but reconnoitring,--with of course
foraging, and diligently eating the Country, which is a daily
employment, and produces fencing and skirmishing enough.

Henri, in the interim, has invaded from the West; seen Leitmeritz,
Lobositz;--Prag Nobility all running, and I suppose Prayers to St.
Titus going again,--and Loudon in alarm. Loudon, however, saved
Prag "by two masterly positions" (not mentionable here); upon which
Henri took camp at Niemes; Loudon, the weaker in this part, seizing
the Iser as a bulwark, and ranking himself behind it, back-to-back
of Lacy. Here for about five weeks sat Henri, nothing on hand but
to eat the Country. Over the heads of Loudon and Lacy, as the crow
flies, Henri's Camp may be about 70 miles from Jaromirtz, where the
King is. Hussar Belling, our old Anti-Swede friend, a brilliant
cutting man, broke over the Iser once, perhaps twice; and there was
pretty fencing by him and the like of him: "but Prince Henri did
nothing," says the King, [ OEuvres de Frederic, italic> vi. 154]--was, in fact, helping the King to do nothing.
By the 10th of September, as Henri has computed, this Country will
be eaten; "Forage, I find, will be quite done here on September
10th," writes Henri, after a week or two's experience.

There was always talk of Henri and the King, who are 100,000 each,
joining hands by the post of Arnau, or some weak point of Lacy's
well north of Konigsgratz; thus of cutting off the meal-carts of
that back-to-back copartnery, and so of tumbling it off the ground
(which was perfectly possible, says Schmettau); and small
detachments and expeditious were pushed out, General Dahlwig,
General Anhalt, partly for that object: but not the least of it
ever took effect. "Futile, lost by loitering, as all else was,"
groans Schmettau. Prince Henri was averse to attempt, intimates the
King,--as indeed (though refusing to own it) was I.
"September 10th, my forage will be out, your Majesty," says Henri,
always a punctual calculating man.

The Austrians, on their side, were equally stagnant; and, except
the continual skirmishing with the Prussian foragers, undertook
nothing. "Shamefully ill-clone our foraging, too," exclaims
Schmettau again and again: "Had we done it with neatness, with
regularity, the Country would have lasted us twice as long.
Doing it headlong, wastefully and by the rule-of-thumb, the Country
was a desert, all its inhabitants fled, all its edibles consumed,
before six weeks were over. Friedrich is not now himself at all;
in great things or in little; what a changed Friedrich!" exclaims
Schmettau, with wearisome iteration.

From about August 6th, or especially August 10th, when the Maria-
Theresa Correspondence, or "Congress of Braunau," ended likewise in
zero, Friedrich became impatient for actual junction with Prince
Henri, actual push of business; and began to hint of an excellent
plan he had: "Burst through on their left flank; blow up their post
of Hohenelbe yonder: thence is but one march to Iser river;
junction with Prince Henri there; and a Lacy and a Loudon tumbled
to the winds." "A plan perfectly feasible," says Schmettau; "which
solaced the King's humor, but which he never really intended to
execute." Possibly not; otherwise, according to old wont, he would
have forborne to speak of it beforehand. At all events, August
15th, in the feeling that one ought really to do something, the
rather as forage hereabouts was almost or altogether running out,
he actually set about this grand scheme.

Got on march to rightward, namely, up the Aupa river, through the
gloomy chasms of Kingdom-Wood, memorable in old days: had his
bakery shifted to Trautenau; his heavy cannon getting tugged
through the mire and the rains, which by this time were abundant,
towards Hohenelbe, for the great enterprise: and sat encamped on
and about the Battle-ground of Sohr for a week or so, waiting till
all were forward; eating Sohr Country, which was painfully easy to
do. The Austrians did next to nothing on him; but the rains, the
mud and scarcity were doing much. Getting on to Hohenelbe region,
after a week's wet waiting, he, on ocular survey of the ground
about, was heard to say, "This cannot be done, then!" "Had never
meant to do it," sneers Schmettau, "and only wanted some excuse."
Which is very likely. Schmettau gives an Anecdote of him here:
In regard to a certain Hill, the Key of the Austrian position,
which the King was continually reconnoitring, and lamenting the
enormous height of, "Impossible, so high!" One of the Adjutants
took his theodolite, ascertained the height, and, by way of
comforting his Majesty, reported the exact number of feet above
their present level. "How do YOU know, Herr?" said the King
angrily. "Measured it by Trigonometry, your Majesty."--
"Trigonometry! SCHER' ER SICH ZUM TEUFEL (Off with you, Sir, to the
Devil, your Trigonometry and you!)"--no believer in mathematics,
this King.

He was loath to go; and laid the blame on many things. "Were Prince
Henri now but across the Iser. Had that stupid Anhalt, when he was
upon it [galloping about, to the ruin of his head], only seized
Arnau, Arnau and its Elbe-Bridge; and had it in hand for junction
with Prince Henri!" In fine, just as the last batch of heavy
cannon--twenty or thirty hungered horses to a gun, at the rate of
five miles a day in roads unspeakable--were getting in, he ordered
them all to be dragged back, back to the Trautenau road; whither we
must now all go. And, SEPTEMBER 8th, in perfect order, for the
Austrians little molested him, and got a bad bargain when they did,
the great Friedrich with his whole Army got on march homeward,
after such a Campaign as we see. Climbed the Trautenau-Landshut
Pass, with nothing of effective loss except from the rainy
elements, the steep miry ways and the starved horses;
draught-horses especially starved,--whom, poor creatures, "you
would see spring at the ropes [draught-harness], thirty of them to
a gun, when started and gee-ho'd to; tug violently with no effect,
and fall down in whole rows."

Prince Henri, forage done, started punctually September 10th, two
days after his Brother; and with little or no pursuit, from the
Austrians, and with horses unstarved, got home in comparatively
tolerable circumstances. Cantoned himself in Dresden neighborhood,
and sat waiting: he had never approved this War; and now, I
suppose, would not want for reflections. Friedrich's cantonments
were round Landshut, and spread out to right and to left, from
Glatz Country and the Upper-Silesian Hills, to Silberberg and
Schweidnitz;--his own quarter is the same region, where he lay so
long in Summer, 1759, talking on learned subjects with the late
Quintus Icilius, if readers remember, and wearily waiting till
Cunctator Daun (likewise now deceased) took his stand, or his seat,
at Mark Lissa, and the King could follow him to Schmottseifen.
Friedrich himself on this present occasion stayed at Schatzlar as
rear-guard, to see whether the Austrians would not perhaps try to
make some Winter Campaign of it, and if so, whether they would
attempt on Prince Henri or on him. The Austrians did not attempt on
either; showed no such intention,--though mischievous enough in
other small ways. Friedrich wrote the ELOGE of Voltaire
[ OEuvres de Frederic, vii. 50 et seq.
("finished Nov. 26th, 1778").] while he waited here at Schatzlar,
among the rainy Mountains. Later on, as prospects altered, he was
much at Breslau, or running about on civic errands with Breslau as
centre: at Breslau he had many Dialogues with Professor Garve,--in
whose good, but oppressively solemn, little Book, more a dull-
droning Preachment than a Narrative, no reader need look for them
or for him.

As to the EULOGY OF VOLTAIRE, we may say that it is generous,
ingenious, succinct; and of dialect now obsolete to us. There was
(and is, though suppressed) another EULOGY, brand-new, by a
Contemporary of our own,--from which I know not if readers will
permit me a sentence or two, in this pause among the
rainy Mountains?

... "A wonderful talent lay in this man--[in Voltaire, to wit;
"such an intellect, the sharpest, swiftest of the world," thinks
our Contemporary; "fathoming you the deepest subject, to a depth
far beyond most men's soundings, and coming up with victory and
something wise and logically speakable to say on it, sooner than
any other man,--never doubting but he has been at the bottom, which
is from three to ten miles lower!"] wonderful talent; but observe
always, if you look closely, it was in essence a mere talent for
Speech; which talent Bavius and Maevius and the Jew Apella may
admire without looking behind it, but this Eulogist by no means
will. Speech, my friend? If your sublime talent of speech consists
only in making ignorance appear to be knowledge, and little wisdom
appear to be much, I will thank you to walk on with it, and apply
at some other shop. The QUANTITY of shops where you can apply with
thrice-golden advantage, from the Morning Newspapers to the
National Senate, is tremendous at this epoch of the poor world's
history;--go, I request you! And while his foot is on the stairs,
descending from my garret, I think: O unfortunate fellow-creature
in an unfortunate world, why is not there a Friedrich Wilhelm to
'elect' you, as he did Gundling, to his TOBACCO Parliament, and
there set Fassmann upon you with the pans of burning peat? It were
better even for yourself; wholesomely didactic to your poor self, I
cannot doubt; and for the poor multitudes to whom you are now to be
sacred VATES, speaking and singing YOUR dismal GUNDLINGIANA as if
inspired by Heaven, how infinitely better!--Courage, courage!
I discern, across these hideous jargons, the reign of greater
silence approaching upon repentant men; reign of greater silence, I
say; or else that of annihilation, which will be the most silent
of all. ...

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