History of Friedrich II of Prussia - Frederick the Great Chapter X. - Crown-Prince Goes to the Rhine Campaign
by Thomas Carlyle
The Kaiser--with Kehl snatched from him, the Rhine open, and
Louis XV. singing TE DEUM in the Christmas time for what Villars
in Italy had done--applied, in passionate haste, to the Reich.
The Reich, though Fleury tried to cajole it, and apologize for
taking Kehl from it, declares for the Kaiser's quarrel;
War against France on his behalf; [13th March, 1734 (Buchholz,
i. 131).]--it was in this way that Friedrich Wilhelm and our
Crown-Prince came to be concerned in the Rhine Campaign.
The Kaiser will have a Reich's-Army (were it good for much, as is
not likely) to join to his own Austrian one. And if Prince Eugene,
who is Reich's-Feldmarschall, one of the TWO Feldmarschalls, get
the Generalship as men hope, it is not doubted but there will be
great work on the Rhine, this Summer of 1734.
Unhappily the Reich's-Army, raised from--multifarious contingents,
and guided and provided for by many heads, is usually good for
little. Not to say that old Kur-Pfalz, with an eye to French help
in the Berg-and-Julich matter; old Kur-Pfalz, and the Bavarian set
(KUR-BAIERN and KUR-KOLN, Bavaria and Cologne, who are Brothers,
and of old cousinship to Kur-Pfalz),--quite refuse their
contingents; protest in the Diet, and openly have French leanings.
These are bad omens for the Reich's-Army. And in regard to the
Reich's-Feldmarschall Office, there also is a difficulty.
The Reich, as we hinted, keeps two supreme Feldmarschalls;
one Catholic, one Protestant, for equilibrium's sake; illustrious
Prince Eugenio von Savoye is the Catholic;--but as to the
Protestant, it is a difficulty worth observing for a moment.
Old Duke Eberhard Ludwig of Wurtemberg, the unfortunate old
gentleman bewitched by the Gravenitz "Deliver us from evil," used
to be the Reich's-Feldmarschall of Protestant persuasion;--
Commander-in-Chief for the Reich, when it tried fighting.
Old Eberhard had been at Blenheim, and had marched up and down:
I never heard he was much of a General; perhaps good enough for
the Reich, whose troops were always bad. But now that poor Duke,
as we intimated once or more, is dead; there must be, of
Protestant type, a new Reich's-Feldmasschall had. One Catholic,
unequalled among Captains, we already have; but where is the
Protestant, Duke Eberhard being dead?
Duke Eberhard's successor in Wurtemberg, Karl Alexander by name,
whom we once dined with at Prag on the Kladrup journey, he, a
General of some worth, would be a natural person. Unluckily Duke
Karl Alexander had, while an Austrian Officer and without outlooks
upon Protestant Wurtemberg, gone over to Papacy, and is now
Catholic. "Two Catholic Feldmarschalls!" cries the CORPUS
EVANGELICORUM; "that will never do!"
Well, on the other or Protestant side there appear two Candidates;
one of them not much expected by the reader: no other than
Ferdinand Duke of Brunswick-Bevern, our Crown-Prince's Father-in-
law; whom we knew to be a worthy man, but did not know to be much
of a soldier, or capable of these ambitious views. He is Candidate
First. Then there is a Second, much more entitled: our gunpowder
friend the Old Dessauer; who, to say nothing of his soldier
qualities, has promises from the Kaiser,--he surely were the man,
if it did not hurt other people's feelings. But it surely does and
will. There is Ferdinand of Bevern applying upon the score of old
promises too. How can people's feelings be saved? Protestants
these two last: but they cannot both have it; and what will
Wurtemberg say to either of them? The Reich was in very great
affliction about this preliminary matter. But Friedrich Wilhelm
steps in with a healing recipe: "Let there be four Reich's-
Feldmarschalls," said Friedrich Wilhelm; "two Protestant and two
Catholic: won't that do?"--Excellent! answers the Reich: and there
are four Feldmarschalls for the time being; no lack of commanders
to the Reich's-Army. Brunswick-Bevern tried it first; but only
till Prince Eugene were ready, and indeed he had of himself come
to nothing before that date. Prince Eugene next; then Karl
Alexander next; and in fact they all might have had a stroke at
commanding, and at coming to nothing or little,--only the Old
Dessauer sulked at the office in this its fourfold state, and
never would fairly have it, till, by decease of occupants, it came
to be twofold again. This glimpse into the distracted effete
interior of the poor old Reich and its Politics, with friends of
ours concerned there, let it be welcome to the reader.
[ Leopoldi von Anhalt-Dessau Leben (by
Ranfft), p. 127; Buchholz, i. 131.]
Friedrich Wilhelm was without concern in this War, or in what had
led to it. Practical share in the Polish Election (after that
preliminary theoretic program of the Kaiser's and Czarina's went
to smoke) Friedrich Wilhelm steadily refused to take:
though considerable offers were made him on both sides,--offer of
West Preussen (Polish part of Prussia, which once was known to us)
on the French side. [By De la Chetardie, French Ambassador at
Berlin (Buchholz, i. 130).] But his primary fixed resolution was
to stand out of the quarrel; and he abides by that; suppresses any
wishes of his own in regard to the Polish Election;--keeps ward on
his own frontiers, with good military besom in hand, to sweep it
out again if it intruded there. "What King you like, in God's
name; only don't come over my threshold with his brabbles
and him!"
But seeing the Kaiser got into actual French War, with the Reich
consenting, he is bound, by Treaty of old date (date older than
WUSTERHAUSEN, though it was confirmed on that famous occasion),
"To assist the Kaiser with ten thousand men;" and this engagement
he intends amply to fulfil. No sooner, therefore, had the Reich
given sure signs of assenting ("Reich's assent" is the condition
of the ten thousand), than Friedrich Wilhelm's orders were out,
"Be in readiness!" Friedrich Wilhelm, by the time of the Reich's
actual assent, or Declaration of War on the Kaiser's behalf, has
but to lift his finger: squadrons and battalions, out of Pommern,
out of Magdeburg, out of Preussen, to the due amount, will get on
march whitherward you bid, and be with you there at the day you
indicate, almost at the hour. Captains, not of an imaginary
nature, these are always busy; and the King himself is busy over
them. From big guns and wagon-horses down to gun-flints and
gaiter-straps, all is marked in registers; nothing is wanting,
nothing out of its place at any time, in Friedrich Wilhelm's Army.
From an early period, the French intentions upon Philipsburg might
be foreseen or guessed: and in the end of March, Marechal Berwick,
"in three divisions," fairly appears in that quarter; his purpose
evident. So that the Reich's-Army, were it in the least ready,
ought to rendezvous, and reinforce the handful of Austrians there.
Friedrich Wilhelm's part of the Reich's-Army does accordingly
straightway get on march; leaves Berlin, after the due reviewing,
"8th April:" [Fassmann, p. 495.] eight regiments of it, three of
Horse and five of Foot, Goltz Foot-regiment one of them;--
a General Roder, unexceptionable General, to command in chief;--
and will arrive, though the farthest off, "first of all the
Reich's-Contingents;" 7th of June, namely. The march, straight
south, must be some four hundred miles.
Besides the Official Generals, certain high military dignitaries,
Schulenburg, Bredow, Majesty himself at their head, propose to go
as volunteers;--especially the Crown-Prince, whose eagerness is
very great, has got liberty to go. "As volunteer" he too:
as Colonel of Goltz, it might have had its unsuitabilities, in
etiquette and otherwise. Few volunteers are more interested than
the Crown-Prince. Watching the great War-theatre uncurtain itself
in this manner, from Dantzig down to Naples; and what his own
share in it shall be: this, much more than his Marriage, I
suppose, has occupied his thoughts since that event. Here out of
Ruppin, dating six or seven weeks before the march of the Ten
Thousand, is a small sign, one among many, of his outlooks in this
matter. Small Note to his Cousin, Margraf Heinrich, the ill-
behaved Margraf, much his comrade, who is always falling into
scrapes; and whom he has just, not without difficulty, got
delivered out of something of the kind. [ OEuvres de
Frederic, xxvii. part 2d, pp. 8, 9.] He writes in
German and in the intimate style of THOU:--
"RUPPIN. 23d FEBRUARY, 1734. MY DEAR BROTHER,--I can with pleasure
answer that the King hath spoken of thee altogether favorably to
me [scrape now abolished, for the time]:--and I think it would not
have an ill effect, wert thou to apply for leave to go with the
ten thousand whom he is sending to the Rhine, and do the Campaign
with them as volunteer. I am myself going with that corps; so I
doubt not the King would allow thee.
"I take the freedom to send herewith a few bottles of Champagne;
and wish" all manner of good things.
"FRIEDRICH."
[Ib. xxvii. part 2d, p. 10.]
This Margraf Heinrich goes; also his elder Brother, Margraf
Friedrich Wilhelm,--who long persecuted Wilhelmina with his hopes;
and who is now about getting Sophie Dorothee, a junior Princess,
much better than he merits: Betrothal is the week after these ten
thousand march; [16th April, 1734 (Ib. part 1st, p. 14 n).] he
thirty, she fifteen. He too will go; as will the other pair of
Cousin Margraves,--Karl, who was once our neighbor in Custrin;
and the Younger Friedrich Wilhelm, whose fate lies at Prag if he
knew it. Majesty himself will go as volunteer. Are not great
things to be done, with Eugene for General?--To understand the
insignificant Siege of Philipsburg, sum-total of the Rhine
Campaign, which filled the Crown-Prince's and so many other
minds brimful; that Summer, and is now wholly out of every mind,
the following Excerpt may be admissible:--
"The unlucky little Town of Philipsburg, key of the Rhine in that
quarter, fortified under difficulties by old Bishops of Speyer who
sometimes resided there, [Kohler, Munzbelustigungen,
vi. 169.] has been dismantled and refortified, has had its
Rhine-bridge torn down and set up again; been garrisoned now by
this party, now by that, who had 'right of garrison there;' nay
France has sometimes had 'the right of garrison;'--and the poor
little Town has suffered much, and been tumbled sadly about in the
Succession-wars and perpetual controversies between France and
Germany in that quarter. In the time we are speaking of, it has a
'flying-bridge' (of I know not what structure), with fortified
'bridge-head (TETE-DE-PONT,' on the western or France-ward side of
the River. Town's bulwarks, and complex engineering defences, are
of good strength, all put in repair for this occasion: Reich and
Kaiser have an effective garrison there, and a commandant
determined on defence to the uttermost: what the unfortunate
Inhabitants, perhaps a thousand or so in number, thought or did
under such a visitation of ruin and bombshells, History gives not
the least hint anywhere. 'Quite used to it!' thinks History, and
attends to other points.
"The Rhine Valley here is not of great breadth: eastward the
heights rise to be mountainous in not many miles. By way of
defence to this Valley, in the Eugene-Marlborough Wars, there was,
about forty miles southward, or higher up the River than
Philipsburg, a military line or chain of posts; going from
Stollhofen, a boggy hamlet on the Rhine, with cunning
indentations, and learned concatenation of bog and bluff, up into
the inaccessibilities,--LINES OF STOLLHOFEN, the name of it,--
which well-devised barrier did good service for certain years.
It was not till, I think, the fourth year of their existence, year
1707, that Villars, the same Villars who is now in Italy, 'stormed
the Lines of Stollhofen;' which made him famous that year.
"The Lines of Stollhofen have now, in 1734, fallen flat again;
but Eugene remembers them, and, I could guess, it was he who
suggests a similar expedient. At all events, there is a similar
expedient fallen upon: LINES OF ETTLINGEN this time; one-half
nearer Philipsburg; running from Muhlburg on the Rhine-brink up to
Ettlingen in the Hills. [See map] Nearer, by twenty miles; and,
I guess, much more slightly done. We shall see these Lines of
Ettlingen, one point of them, for a moment:--and they would not be
worth mentioning at all, except that in careless Books they too
are called 'Lines of STOLLHOFEN,' [Wilhelmina (ii. 206), for
instance; who, or whose Printer, call them "Lines of STOKOFF"
even.] and the ingenuous reader is sent wandering on his map
to no purpose."
"Lines of ETTLINGEN" they are; related, as now said, to the
Stollhofen set. Duke Ferdinand of Brunswick-Bevern, one of the
four Feldmarschalls, has some ineffectual handful of Imperial
troops dotted about, within these Lines and on the skirts of
Philipsburg;--eagerly waiting till the Reich's-Army gather to him;
otherwise he must come to nothing. Will at any rate, I should
think, be happy to resign in favor of Prince Eugene, were that
little hero once on the ground.
On Mayday, Marechal Berwick, who has been awake in this quarter,
"in three divisions," for a month past,--very impatient till
Belleisle with the first division should have taken Trarbach, and
made the Western interior parts secure,--did actually cross the
Rhine, with his second division, "at Fort Louis," well up the
River, well south of Philipsburg; intending to attack the Lines of
Ettlingen, and so get in upon the Town. There is a third division,
about to lay pontoons for itself a good way farther down, which
will attack the Lines simultaneously from within,--that is to say,
shall come upon the back of poor Bevern and his defensive handful
of troops, and astonish him there. All prospers to Berwick in this
matter: Noailles his lieutenant (not yet gone to Italy till next
year), with whom is Maurice Comte de Saxe (afterwards Marechal de
Saxe), an excellent observant Officer, marches up to Ettlingen,
May 3d; bivouacs "at the base of the mountain" (no great things of
a mountain); ascends the same in two columns, horse and foot, by
the first sunlight next morning; forms on a little plain on the
top; issues through a thin wood,--and actually beholds those same
LINES OF ETTLINGEN, the outmost eastern end of them: a somewhat
inconsiderable matter, after all! Here is Noailles's
own account:--
"These retrenchments, made in Turk fashion, consisted of big trees
set zigzag (EN ECHIQUIER), twisted together by the branches;
the whole about five fathoms thick. Inside of it were a small
forlorn of Austrians: these steadily await our grenadiers, and do
not give their volley till we are close. Our grenadiers receive
their volley; clear the intertwisted trees, after receiving a
second volley (total loss seventy-five killed and wounded);
and--the enemy quits his post; and the Lines of Ettlingen ARE
stormed!" [Noailles, Memoires (in Petitot's
Collection), iii. 207.] This is not like storming the Lines of
Stollhofen; a thing to make Noailles famous in the Newspapers for
a year. But it was a useful small feat, and well enough performed
on his part. The truth is, Berwick was about attacking the Lines
simultaneously on the other or Muhlburg end of them (had not
Noailles, now victorious, galloped to forbid); and what was far
more considerable, those other French, to the northward, "upon
pontoons," are fairly across; like to be upon the BACK of Duke
Ferdinand and his handful of defenders. Duke Ferdinand perceives
that he is come to nothing; hastily collects his people from their
various posts; retreats with them that same night, unpursued, to
Heilbronn; and gives up the command to Prince Eugene, who is just
arrived there,--who took quietly two pinches of snuff on hearing
this news of Ettlingen, and said, "No matter, after all!"
Berwick now forms the Siege, at his discretion; invests
Philipsburg, 13th May; [Berwick, ii. 312; 23d, says Noailles's
Editor (iii. 210).] begins firing, night of the 3d-4th June;--
Eugene waiting at Heilbronn till the Reich's-Army come up.
The Prussian ten thousand do come, all in order, on the 7th:
the rest by degrees, all later, and all NOT quite in order.
Eugene, the Prussians having joined him, moves down towards
Philipsburg and its cannonading; encamps close to rearward of the
besieging French. "Camp of Wiesenthal" they call it; Village of
Wiesenthal with bogs, on the left, being his head-qnarters;
Village of Waghausel, down near the River, a five miles distance,
being his limit on the right. Berwick, in front, industriously
battering Philipsburg into the River, has thrown up strong lines
behind him, strongly manned, to defend himself from Eugene;
across the River, Berwick has one Bridge, and at the farther end
one battery with which he plays upon the rear of Philipsburg.
He is much criticised by unoccupied people, "Eugene's attack will
ruin us on those terms!"--and much incommoded by overflowings of
the Rhine; Rhine swoln by melting of the mountain-snows, as is
usual there. Which inundations Berwick had well foreseen,
though the War-minister at Paris would not: "Haste!" answered the
War-minister always: "We shall be in right time. I tell you there
have fallen no snows this winter: how can inundation be?"--
"Depends on the heat," said Berwick; "there are snows enough
always in stock up there!"
And so it proves, though the War-minister would not believe;
and Berwick has to take the inundations, and to take the
circumstances;--and to try if, by his own continual best
exertions, he can but get Philipsburg into the bargain. On the
12th of June, visiting his posts, as he daily does, the first
thing, Berwick stept out of the trenches, anxious for clear view
of something; stept upon "the crest of the sap," a place exposed
to both French and Austrian batteries, and which had been
forbidden to the soldiers,--and there, as he anxiously scanned
matters through his glass, a cannon-ball, unknown whether French
or Austrian, shivered away the head of Berwick; left others to
deal with the criticisms, and the inundations, and the operations
big or little, at Philipsburg and elsewhere! Siege went on, better
or worse, under the next in command; "Paris in great anxiety," say
the Books.
It is a hot siege, a stiff defence; Prince Eugene looks on, but
does not attack in the way apprehended. Southward in Italy, we
hear there is marching, strategying in the Parma Country; Graf von
Mercy likely to come to an action before long. Northward, Dantzig
by this time is all wrapt in fire-whirlwinds; its sallyings and
outer defences all driven in; mere torrents of Russiau bombs
raining on it day and night; French auxiliaries, snapt up at
landing, are on board Russian ships; and poor Stanislaus and "the
Lady of Quality who shot the first gun" have a bad outlook there.
Towards the end of the month, the Berlin volunteer Generals, our
Crown-Prince and his Margraves among them, are getting on the road
for Philipsburg;--and that is properly the one point we are
concerned with. Which took effect in manner following.
Tuesday evening, 29th June, there is Ball at Monbijou; the Crown-
Prince and others busy dancing there, as if nothing special lay
ahead. Nevertheless, at three in the morning he has changed his
ball-dress for a better, he and certain more; and is rushing
southward, with his volunteer Generals and Margraves, full speed,
saluted by the rising sun, towards Philipsburg and the Seat of
War. And the same night, King Stanislaus, if any of us cared for
him, is on flight from Dantzig, "disguised as a cattle-dealer;"
got out on the night of Sunday last, Town under such a rain of
bombshells being palpably too hot for him: got out, but cannot get
across the muddy intricacies of the Weichsel; lies painfully
squatted up and down, in obscure alehouses, in that Stygian Mud-
Delta,--a matter of life and death to get across, and not a boat
to be had, such the vigilance of the Russian. Dantzig is
capitulating, dreadful penalties exacted, all the heavier as no
Stanislaus is to be found in it; and search all the keener rises
in the Delta after him. Through perils and adventures of the sort
usual on such occasions, [Credible modest detail of them, in a
LETTER from Stanislaus himself ( History of Stanislaus,
already cited, pp. 235-248).]l Stanislaus does get
across; and in time does reach Preussen; where, by Friedrich
Wilhelm's order, safe opulent asylum is afforded him, till the
Fates (when this War ends) determine what is to become of the poor
Imaginary Majesty. We leave him, squatted in the intricacies of
the Mud-Delta, to follow our Crown-Prince, who in the same hour is
rushing far elsewhither.
Margraves, Generals and he, in their small string of carriages, go
on, by extra-post, day and night; no rest till they get to Hof, in
the Culmbach neighborhood, a good two hundred miles off,--near
Wilhelmina, and more than half-way to Philipsburg.
Majesty Friedrich Wilhelm is himself to follow in about a week:
he has given strict order against waste of time: "Not to part
company; go together, and NOT by Anspach or Baireuth,"--though
they lie almost straight for you.
This latter was a sore clause to Friedrich, who had counted all
along on seeing his dear faithful Wilhelmina, as he passed:
therefore, as the Papa's Orders, dangerous penalty lying in them,
cannot be literally disobeyed, the question rises, How see
Wilhelmina and not Baireuth? Wilhelmina, weak as she is and unfit
for travelling, will have to meet him in some neutral place,
suitablest for both. After various shiftings, it has been settled
between them that Berneck, a little town twelve miles from
Baireuth on the Hof road, will do; and that Friday, probably
early, will be the day. Wilhelmina, accordingly, is on the road
that morning, early enough; Husband with her, and ceremonial
attendants, in honor of such a Brother; morning is of sultry
windless sort; day hotter and hotter;--at Berneck is no Crown-
Prince, in the House appointed for him; hour after hour,
Wilhelmina waits there in vain. The truth is, one of the smallest
accidents has happened: the Generals "lost a wheel at Gera
yesterday;" were left behind there with their smiths, have not yet
appeared; and the insoluble question among Friedrich and the
Margraves is, "We dare not go on without them, then? We dare;--
dare we?" Question like to drive Friedrich mad, while the hours,
at any rate, are slipping on! Here are three Letters of Friedrich,
legible at last; which, with Wilhelmina's account from the other
side, represent a small entirely human scene in this French-
Austrian War,--nearly all of human we have found in the
beggarly affair:--
1. TO PRINCESS WILHELMINA, AT BAIREUTH, OR ON THE ROAD TO BERNECK.
"HOF, 2d July [not long after 4 a.m.], 1794.
"MY DEAR SISTER,--Here am I within six leagues [say eight or more,
twenty-five miles English] of a Sister whom I love; and I have to
decide that it will be impossible to see her, after all!"--Does
decide so, accordingly, for reasons known to us.
"I have never so lamented the misfortune of not depending on
myself as at this moment! The King being but very sour-sweet on my
score, I dare not risk the least thing; Monday come a week, when
he arrives himself, I should have a pretty scene (SERAIS JOLIMENT
TRAITE) in the Camp, if I were found to have disobeyed orders.
"... The Queen commands me to give you a thousand regards from
her. She appeared much affected at your illness; but for the rest,
I could not warrant you how sincere it was; for she is totally
changed, and I have quite lost reckoning of her (N'Y CONNAIS
RIEN). That goes so far that she has done me hurt with the King,
all she could: however, that is over now. As to Sophie [young
Sister just betrothed to the eldest Margraf whom you know], she
also is no longer the same; for she approves all that the Queen
says or does; and she is charmed with her big clown (GROS NIGAUD)
of a Bridegroom.
"The King is more difficult than ever; he is content with nothing,
so as to have lost whatsoever could be called gratitude for all
pleasures one can do him,"--marrying against one's will, and the
like. "As to his health, it is one day better, another worse;
but the legs, they are always swelled, Judge what my joy must be
to get out of that turpitude,--for the King will only stay a
fortnight, at most, in the Camp.
"Adieu, my adorable Sister: I am so tired, I cannot stir;
having left on Tuesday night, or rather Wednesday morning at three
o'clock, from a Ball at Monbijou, and arrived here this Friday
morning at four. I recommend myself to your gracious remembrance;
and am, for my own part, till death, dearest Sister,"--
Your-- "FRIEDRICH"
[ OEuvres de Frederic, xxvii. part 1st, p. 13.]
This is Letter First; written Friday morning, on the edge of
getting into bed, after such fatigue; and it has, as natural in
that mood, given up the matter in despair. It did not meet
Wilhelmina on the road; and she had left Baireuth;--where it met
her, I do not know; probably at home, on her return, when all was
over. Let Wilhelmina now speak her own lively experiences of that
same Friday:--
"I got to Berneck at ten. The heat was excessive; I found myself
quite worn out with the little journey I had done. I alighted at
the House which had been got ready for my Brother. We waited for
him, and in vain waited, till three in the afternoon. At three we
lost patience; had dinner served without him. Whilst we were at
table, there came on a frightful thunder-storm. I have witnessed
nothing so terrible: the thunder roared and reverberated among the
rocky cliffs which begirdle Berneck; and it seemed as if the world
was going to perish: a deluge of rain succeeded the thunder.
"It was four o'clock; and I could not understand what had become
of my Brother. I had sent out several persons on horseback to get
tidings of him, and none of them came back. At length, in spite of
all my prayers, the Hereditary Prince [my excellent Husband]
himself would go in search. I remained waiting till nine at night,
and nobody returned. I was in cruel agitations: these cataracts of
rain are very dangerous in the mountain countries; the roads get
suddenly overflowed, and there often happen misfortunes. I thought
for certain, there had one happened to my Brother or to the
Hereditary Prince." Such a 2d of July, to poor Wilhelmina!
"At last, about nine, somebody brought word that my Brother had
changed his route, and was gone to Culmbach [a House of ours,
lying westward, known to readers]; there to stay overnight. I was
for setting out thither,--Culmbach is twenty miles from Berneck;
but the roads are frightful," White Mayn, still a young River,
dashing through the rock-labyrinths there, "and full of
precipices:--everybody rose in opposition, and, whether I would or
not, they put me into the carriage for Himmelkron [partly on the
road thither], which is only about ten miles off. We had like to
have got drowned on the road; the waters were so swoln [White Mayn
and its angry brooks], the horses could not cross but by swimming.
"I arrived at last, about one in the morning. I instantly threw
myself on a bed. I was like to die with weariness; and in mortal
terrors that something had happened to my Brother or the
Hereditary Prince. This latter relieved me on his own score;
he arrived at last, about four o'clock,--had still no news farther
of my Brother. I was beginning to doze a little, when they came to
warn me that 'M. von Knobelsdorf wished to speak with me from the
Prince-Royal.' I darted out of bed, and ran to him. He," handing
me a Letter, "brought word that"--
But let us now give Letter Second, which has turned up lately, and
which curiously completes the picture here. Friedrich, on rising
refreshed with sleep at Hof, had taken a cheerfuler view; and the
Generals still lagging rearward, he thinks it possible to see
Wilhelmiua after all. Possible; and yet so very dangerous,--
perhaps not possible? Here is a second Letter written from
Munchberg, some fifteen miles farther on, at an after period of
the same Friday: purport still of a perplexed nature, "I will, and
I dare not;"--practical outcome, of itself uncertain, is scattered
now by torrents and thunderstorms. This is the Letter, which
Knobelsdorf now hands to Wilhelmina at that untimely hour
of Saturday:--
2. TO PRINCESS WILHELMINA (by Knobelsdorf).
"MUNCHBERG, 2d July, 1754.
"MY DEAREST SISTER,--I am in despair that I cannot satisfy my
impatience and my duty,--to throw myself at your feet this day.
But alas, dear Sister, it does not depend on me: we poor Princes,
"the Margraves and I," are obliged to wait here till our Generals
[Bredow, Schulenburg and Company] come up; we dare not go along
without them. They broke a wheel in Gera [fifty miles behind us];
hearing nothing of them since, we are absolutely forced to wait
here. Judge in what a mood I am, and what sorrow must be mine!
Express order not to go by Baireuth or Anspach:--forbear, dear
sister, to torment me on things not depending on myself at all.
"I waver between hope and fear of paying my court to you. I hope
it might still be at Berneck," this evening,--"if you could
contrive a road into the Nurnberg Highway again; avoiding
Baireuth: otherwise I dare not go. The Bearer, who is Captain
Knobelsdorf [excellent judicious man, old acquaintance from the
Custrin time, who attends upon us, actual Captain once, but now
titular merely, given to architecture and the fine arts (Seyfarth
(Anonymous), Lebens- und Regierungs-Geschichte Friedrichs
des Andern (Leipzig, 1786), ii. 200. OEuvres
de Frederic, vii. 33. Preuss, Friedrich mit
seinen Verwandten (Berlin. 1838), pp. 8, 17.)], will
apprise you of every particular: let Knobelsdorf settle something
that may be possible. This is how I stand at present; and instead
of having to expect some favor from the King [after what I have
done by his order], I get nothing but chagrin. But what is crueler
upon me than all, is that you are ill. God, in his grace, be
pleased to help you, and restore the precious health which I so
much wish you! ... FRIEDRICH."
[ OEuvres de Frederic, xxvii. part lst, p. 15.]
Judicious Knobelsdorf settles that the meeting is to be this very
morning at eight; Wilhelmina (whose memory a little fails her in
the insignificant points) does not tell us where: but, by faint
indications, I perceive it was in the Lake-House, pleasant
Pavilion in the ancient artificial Lake, or big ornamental
Fishpond, called BRANDENBURGER WEIHER, a couple of miles to the
north of Baireuth: there Friedrich is to stop,--keeping the
Paternal Order from the teeth outwards in this manner.
Eight o'clock: so that Wilhelmina is obliged at once to get upon
the road again,--poor Princess, after such a day and night.
Her description of the Interview is very good:--
"My Brother overwhelmed me with caresses; but found me in so
pitiable a state, he could not restrain his tears. I was not able
to stand on my limbs; and felt like to faint every moment, so weak
was I. He told me the King was much angered at the Margraf [my
Father-in-Law] for not letting his Son make the Campaign,"--
concerning which point, said Son, my Husband, being Heir-Apparent,
there had been much arguing in Court and Country, here at
Baireuth, and endless anxiety on my poor part, lest he should get
killed in the Wars. "I told him all the Margraf's reasons;
and added, that surely they were good, in respect of my dear
Husband. 'Well,' said he, 'let him quit soldiering, then, and give
back his regiment to the King. But for the rest, quiet yourself as
to the fears you may have about him if he do go; for I know, by
certain information, that there will be no blood spilt.'--'They
are at the Siege of Philipsburg, however.'--'Yes,' said my
Brother, 'but there will not be a battle risked to hinder it.'
"The Hereditary Prince," my Husband, "came in while we were
talking so; and earnestly entreated my Brother to get him away
from Baireuth. They went to a window, and talked a long time
together. In the end, my Brother told me he would write a very
obliging Letter to the Margraf, and give him such reasons in favor
of the Campaign, that he doubted not it would turn the scale.
'We will stay together,' said he, addressing the Hereditary
Prince; 'and I shall be charmed to have my dear Brother always
beside me.' He wrote the Letter; gave it to Baron Stein
[Chamberlain or Goldstick of ours], to deliver to the Margraf.
He promised to obtain the King's express leave to stop at Baireuth
on his return;--after which he went away. It was the last time I
saw him on the old footing with me: he has much changed since
then!--We returned to Baireuth; where I was so ill that, for three
days, they did not think I should get over it." [Wilhelmina,
ii. 200-202.]
Crown-Prince dashes off, southwestward, through cross country,
into the Nurnberg Road again; gets to Nurnberg that same Saturday
night; and there, among other Letters, writes the following;
which will wind up this little Incident for us, still in a
human manner:--
3. TO PRINCESS WILHELMINA AT BAIREUTH.
"NURNBERG, 3d July, 1734.
"MY DEAREST (TRES-CHERE) SISTER,--It would be impossible to quit
this place without signifying, dearest Sister, my lively gratitude
for all the marks of favor you showed me in the WEIHERHAUS [House
on the Lake, to-day]. The highest of all that it was possible to
do, was that of procuring me the satisfaction of paying my court
to you. I beg millions of pardons for so putting you about,
dearest Sister; but I could not help it; for you know my sad
circumstances well enough. In my great joy, I forgot to give you
the Enclosed. I entreat you, write me often news of your health!
Question the Doctors; and"--and in certain contingencies, the
Crown-Prince "would recommend goat's-milk" for his poor Sister.
Had already, what was noted of him in after life, a tendency to
give medical advice, in cases interesting to him?--
"Adieu, my incomparable and dear Sister. I am always the same to
you, and will remain so till my death.
"FRIEDRICH."
[ OEuvres de Frederic, xxvii. part lst, p. 57.]
Generals with their wheel mended, Margraves, Prince and now the
Camp Equipage too, are all at Nurnberg; and start on the morrow;
hardly a hundred miles now to be done,--but on slower terms, owing
to the Equipage. Heilbronn, place of arms or central stronghold of
the Reich's-Army, they reach on Monday: about Eppingen, next
night, if the wind is westerly, one may hear the cannon,--not
without interest. It was Wednesday forenoon, 7th July, 1734, on
some hill-top coming down from Eppingen side, that the Prince
first saw Philipsburg Siege, blotting the Rhine Valley yonder with
its fire and counter-fire; and the Tents of Eugene stretching on
this side: first view he ever had of the actualities of war.
His account to Papa is so distinct and good, we look through it
almost as at first-hand for a moment:--
"CAMP AT WIESENTHAL, Wednesday, 7th July, 1734.
"MOST ALL-GRACIOUS FATHER,-- ... We left Nurnberg [nothing said of
our Baireuth affair], 4th early, and did not stop till Heilbronn;
where, along with the Equipage, I arrived on the 5th. Yesterday I
came with the Equipage to Eppingen [twenty miles, a slow march,
giving the fourgons time]; and this morning we came to the Camp at
Wiesenthal. I have dined with General Roder [our Prussian
Commander]; and, after dinner, rode with Prince Eugene while
giving the parole. I handed him my All-gracious Father's Letter,
which much rejoiced him. After the parole, I went to see the
relieving of our outposts [change of sentries there], and view the
French retrenchment.
"We," your Majesty's Contingent, "are throwing up three redoubts:
at one of them today, three musketeers have been miserably shot
[GESCHOSSEN, wounded, not quite killed]; two are of Roder's, and
one is of Finkenstein's regiment.
"To-morrow I will ride to a village which is on our right wing;
Waghausel is the name of it [Busching, v. 1152.] [some five miles
off, north of us, near by the Rhine]; there is a steeple there,
from which one can see the French Camp; from this point I will
ride down, between the two Lines," French and ours, "to see what
they are like.
"There are quantities of hurdles and fascines being made;
which, as I hear, are to be employed in one of two different
plans. The first plan is, To attack the French retrenchment
generally; the ditch which is before it, and the morass which
lies on our left wing, to be made passable with these fascines.
The other plan is, To amuse the Enemy by a false attack, and throw
succor into the Town.--One thing is certain, in a few days we
shall have a stroke of work here. Happen what may, my All-gracious
Father may be assured that" &c., "and that I will do nothing
unworthy of him.
"FRIEDRICH."
[ OEuvres, xxvii. part 3d, p. 79.]
Neither of those fine plans took effect; nor did anything take
effect, as we shall see. But in regard to that "survey from the
steeple of Waghausel, and ride home again between the Lines,"--in
regard to that, here is an authentic fraction of anecdote,
curiously fitting in, which should not be omitted. A certain Herr
van Suhm, Saxon Minister at Berlin, occasionally mentioned here,
stood in much Correspondence with the Crown-Prince in the years
now following: Correspondence which was all published at the due
distance of time; Suhm having, at his decease, left the Prince's
Letters carefully assorted with that view, and furnished with a
Prefatory "Character of the Prince-Royal (Portrait du
Prince-Royal, par M. de Suhm)." Of which Preface this
is a small paragraph, relating to the Siege of Philipsburg;
offering us a momentary glance into one fibre of the futile War
now going on there. Of Suhm, and how exact he was, we shall know a
little by and by. Of "Prince von Lichtenstein," an Austrian man
and soldier of much distinction afterwards, we have only to say
that he came to Berlin next year on Diplomatic business, and that
probably enough he had been eye-witness to the little fact,--fact
credible perhaps without much proving. One rather regretted there
was no date to it, no detail to give it whereabout and fixity in
our conception; that the poor little Anecdote, though indubitable,
had to hang vaguely in the air. Now, however, the above dated
LETTER does, by accident, date Suhm's Anecdote too; date "July 8"
as good as certain for it; the Siege itself having ended (July 18)
in ten days more. Herr von Suhm writes (not for publication till
after Friedrich's death and his own):--
"It was remarked in the Rhine Campaign of 1734, that this Prince
has a great deal of intrepidity (BEAUCOUP DE VALEUR). On one
occasion, among others [to all appearance, this very day,
"July 8," riding home from Waghausel between the lines], when he
had gone to reconnoitre the Lines of Philipsburg, with a good many
people about him,--passing, on his return, along a strip of very
thin wood, the cannon-shot from the Lines accompanied him
incessantly, and crashed down several trees at his side; during
all which he walked his horse along at the old pace, precisely as
if nothing were happening, nor in his hand upon the bridle was
there the least trace of motion perceptible. Those who gave
attention to the matter remarked, on the contrary, that he did not
discontinue speaking very tranquilly to some Generals who
accompanied him; and who admired his bearing, in a kind of danger
with which he had not yet had occasion to familiarize himself.
It is from the Prince von Lichtenstein that I have this anecdote."
[ Correspondance de Frederic II. avec M. de Suhm
(Berlin, 1787); Avant-propos, p. xviii. (written 28th
April, 1740). The CORRESPONDANCE is all in OEuvres de
Frederic (xvi, 247-408); but the Suhm Preface not.]
On the 15th arrived his Majesty in person, with the Old Dessauer,
Buddenbrock, Derschau and a select suite; in hopes of witnessing
remarkable feats of war, now that the crisis of Philipsburg was
coming on. Many Princes were assembled there, in the like hope:
Prince of Orange (honeymoon well ended [Had wedded Princess Anne,
George II.'s eldest, 25th (14th) March, 1734; to the joy of self
and mankind, in England here.]), a vivacious light gentleman,
slightly crooked in the back; Princes of Baden, Darmstadt,
Waldeck: all manner of Princes and distinguished personages,
fourscore Princes of them by tale, the eyes of Europe being turned
on this matter, and on old Eugene's guidance of it. Prince Fred of
England, even he had a notion of coming to learn war.
It was about this time, not many weeks ago, that Fred, now falling
into much discrepancy with his Father, and at a loss for a career
to himself, appeared on a sudden in the Antechamber at St. James's
one day; and solemnly demanded an interview with his Majesty.
Which his indignant Majesty, after some conference with Walpole,
decided to grant. Prince Fred, when admitted, made three demands:
1. To be allowed to go upon the Rhine Campaign, by way of a
temporary career for himself; 2. That he might have something
definite to live upon, a fixed revenue being suitable in his
circumstances; 3. That, after those sad Prussian disappointments,
some suitable Consort might be chosen for him,--heart and
household lying in such waste condition. Poor Fred, who of us
knows what of sense might be in these demands? Few creatures more
absurdly situated are to be found in this world. To go where his
equals were, and learn soldiering a little, might really have been
useful. Paternal Majesty received Fred and his Three Demands with
fulminating look; answered, to the first two, nothing; to the
third, about a Consort, "Yes, you shall; but be respectful to the
Queen;--and now. off with you; away!" [Coxe's Walpole,
i. 322.]
Poor Fred, he has a circle of hungry Parliamenteers about him;
young Pitt, a Cornet of Horse, young Lyttelton of Hagley, our old
Soissons friend, not to mention others of worse type; to whom this
royal Young Gentleman, with his vanities, ambitions,
inexperiences, plentiful inflammabilities, is important for
exploding Walpole. He may have, and with great justice I should
think, the dim consciousness of talents for doing something better
than "write madrigals" in this world; infinitude of wishes and
appetites he clearly has;--he is full of inflammable materials,
poor youth. And he is the Fireship those older hands make use of
for blowing Walpole and Company out of their anchorage. What a
school of virtue for a young gentleman;--and for the elder ones
concerned with him! He did not get to the Rhine Campaign;
nor indeed ever to anything, except to writing madrigals, and
being very futile, dissolute and miserable with what of talent
Nature had given him. Let us pity the poor constitutional Prince.
Our Fritz was only in danger of losing his life; but what is that,
to losing your sanity, personal identity almost, and becoming
Parliamentary Fireship to his Majesty's Opposition?
Friedrich Wilhelm stayed a month campaigning here; graciously
declined Prince Eugene's invitation to lodge in Headquarters,
under a roof and within built walls; preferred a tent among his
own people, and took the common hardships,--with great hurt to his
weak health, as was afterwards found.
In these weeks, the big Czarina, who has set a price (100,000
rubles, say 15,000 pounds) upon the head of poor Stanislaus, hears
that his Prussian Majesty protects him; and thereupon signifies,
in high terms, That she, by her Feld-marschall Munnich, will come
across the frontiers and seize the said Stanislaus. To which his
Prussian Majesty answers positively, though in proper Diplomatic
tone, "Madam, I will in no wise permit it!" Perhaps his Majesty's
remarkablest transaction, here on the Rhine, was this concerning
Stanislaus. For Seckendorf the Feldzeugmeister was here also, on
military function, not forgetful of the Diplomacies; who busily
assailed his Majesty, on the Kaiser's part, in the same direction:
"Give up Stanislaus, your Majesty! How ridiculous (LACHERLICH) to
be perhaps ruined for Stanislaus!" But without the least effect,
now or afterwards.
Poor Stanislaus, in the beginning of July, got across into
Preussen, as we intimated; and there he continued, safe against
any amount of rubles and Feldmarschalls, entreaties and menaces.
At Angerburg, on the Prussian frontier, he found a steadfast
veteran, Lieutenant-General von Katte, Commandant in those parts
(Father of a certain poor Lieutenant, whom we tragically knew of
long ago!)--which veteran gentleman received tbe Fugitive Majesty,
[ Militair-Lexikon, ii. 254.] with welcome in
the King's name, and assurances of an honorable asylum till the
times and roads should clear again for his Fugitive Majesty.
Fugitive Majesty, for whom the roads and times were very dark at
present, went to Marienwerder; talked of going "to Pillau, for a
sea-passage," of going to various places; went finally to
Konigsberg, and there--with a considerable Polish Suite of
Fugitives, very moneyless, and very expensive, most of them, who
had accumulated about him--set up his abode. There for almost two
years, in fact till this War ended, the Fugitive Polish Majesty
continued; Friedrich Wilhelm punctually protecting him, and even
paying him a small Pension (50 pounds a month),--France, the least
it could do for the Grandfather of France, allowing a much larger
one; larger, though still inadequate. France has left its
Grandfather strangely in the lurch here; with "100,000 rubles on
his head." But Friedrich Wilhelm knows the sacred rites, and will
do them; continues deaf as a door-post alike to the menaces and
the entreaties of Kaiser and Czarina; strictly intimating to
Munnich, what the Laws of Neutrality are, and that they must be
observed. Which, by his Majesty's good arrangements, Munnich,
willing enough to the contrary had it been feasible, found himself
obliged to comply with. Prussian Majesty, like a King and a
gentleman, would listen to no terms about dismissing or delivering
up, or otherwise, failing in the sacred rites to Stanislaus;
but honorably kept him there till the times and routes cleared
themselves again. [Forster, ii. 132, 134-136.] A plain piece of
duty; punctually done: the beginning of it falls here in the Camp
at Philipsburg, July-August 1734; in May, 1736, we shall see some
glimpse of the end!--
His Prussian Majesty in Camp at Philipsburg--so distinguished a
volunteer, doing us the honor to encamp here--"was asked to all
the Councils-of-war that were held," say the Books. And he did
attend, the Crown-Prince and he, on important occasions: but,
alas, there was, so to speak, nothing to be consulted of.
Fascines and hurdles lay useless; no attempt was made to relieve
Philipsburg. On the third day after his Majesty's arrival, July
18th, Philipsburg, after a stiff defence of six weeks, growing
hopeless of relief, had to surrender;--French then proceeded to
repair Philipsburg, no attempt on Eugene's part to molest them
there. If they try ulterior operations on this side the River, he
counter-tries; and that is all.
Our Crown-Prince, somewhat of a judge in after years, is maturely
of opinion, That the French Lines were by no means inexpugnable;
that the French Army might have been ruined under an attack of the
proper kind. [ OEuvres de Frederic, i. 167.]
Their position was bad; no room to unfold themselves for fight,
except with the Town's cannon playing on them all the while;
only one Bridge to get across by, in case of coming to the worse:
defeat of them probable, and ruin to them inevitable in case of
defeat. But Prince Eugene, with an Army little to his mind
(Reich's-Contingents not to be depended on, thought Eugene), durst
not venture: "Seventeen victorious Battles, and if we should be
defeated in the eighteenth and last?"
It is probable the Old Dessauer, had he been Generalissimo, with
this same Army,--in which, even in the Reich's part of it, we know
ten thousand of an effective character,--would have done some
stroke upon the French; but Prince Eugene would not try.
Much dimmed from his former self this old hero; age now 73;--
a good deal wearied with the long march through Time. And this
very Summer, his Brother's Son, the last male of his House, had
suddenly died of inflammatory fever; left the old man very
mournful: "Alone, alone, at the end of one's long march;
laurels have no fruit, then?" He stood cautious, on the defensive;
and in this capacity is admitted to have shown skilful management.
But Philipsburg being taken, there is no longer the least event to
be spoken of; the Campaign passed into a series of advancings,
retreatings, facing, and then right-about facings,--painful
manoeuvrings, on both sides of the Rhine and of the Neckar,--
without result farther to the French, without memorability to
either side. About the middle of August, Friedrich Wilhelm went
away;--health much hurt by his month under canvas, amid Rhine
inundations, and mere distressing phenomena. Crown-Prince
Friedrich and a select party escorted his Majesty to Mainz, where
was a Dinner of unusual sublimity by the Kurfurst there; [15th
August (Fassmann, p. 511.)]--Dinner done, his Majesty stept on
board "the Electoral Yacht;" and in this fine hospitable vehicle
went sweeping through the Binger Loch, rapidly down towards Wesel;
and the Crown-Prince and party returned to their Camp, which is
upon the Neckar at this time.
Camp shifts about, and Crown-Prince in it: to Heidelberg, to
Waiblingen, Weinheim; close to Mainz at one time: but it is not
worth following: nor in Friedrich's own Letters, or in other
documents, is there, on the best examination, anything
considerable to be gleaned respecting his procedures there.
He hears of the ill-success in Italy, Battle of Parma at the due
date, with the natural feelings; speaks with a sorrowful gayety,
of the muddy fatigues, futilities here on the Rhine;--has the
sense, however, not to blame his superiors unreasonably.
Here, from one of his Letters to Colonel Camas, is a passage worth
quoting for the credit of the writer. With Camas, a distinguished
Prussian Frenchman, whom we mentioned elsewhere, still more with
Madame Camas in time coming, he corresponded much, often in a fine
filial manner:--
"The present Campaign is a school, where profit may be reaped from
observing the confusion and disorder which reigns in this Army:
it has been a field very barren in laurels; and those who have
been used, all their life, to gather such, and on Seventeen
distinguished occasions have done so, can get none this time."
Next year, we all hope to be on the Moselle, and to find that a
fruitfuler field ... "I am afraid, dear Camas, you think I am
going to put on the cothurnus; to set up for a small Eugene, and,
pronouncing with a doctoral tone what each should have done and
not have done, condemn and blame to right and left. No, my dear
Camas; far from carrying my arrogance to that point, I admire the
conduct of our Chief, and do not disapprove that of his worthy
Adversary; and far from forgetting the esteem and consideration
due to persons who, scarred with wounds, have by years and long
service gained a consummate experience, I shall hear them more
willingly than ever as my teachers, and try to learn from them how
to arrive at honor, and what is the shortest road into the secret
of this Profession." ["Camp at Heidelberg, 11th September, 1734"
( OEuvres, xvi. 131).]
This other, to Lieutenant Groben, three weeks earlier in date,
shows us a different aspect; which is at least equally authentic;
and may be worth taking with us. Groben is Lieutenant,--I suppose
still of the Regiment Goltz, though he is left there behind;--at
any rate, he is much a familiar with the Prince at Ruppin;
was ringleader, it is thought, in those midnight pranks upon
parsons, and the other escapades there; [Busching, v. 20.] a merry
man, eight years older than the Prince,--with whom it is clear
enough he stands on a very free footing. Philipsburg was lost a
month ago; French are busy repairing it; and manoeuvring, with no
effect, to get into the interior of Germany a little. Weinheim is
a little Town on the north side of the Neckar, a dozen miles or so
from Mannheim;--out of which, and into which, the Prussian Corps
goes shifting from time to time, as Prince Eugene and the French
manoeuvre to no purpose in that Rhine-Neckar Country. "HERDEK
TEREMTETEM" it appears, is a bit of Hungarian swearing; should be
ORDEK TEREMTETE; and means "The Devil made you!"
MAP GOES HERE------
"WEINHEIM, 17th August, 1734.
"HERDEK TEREMTETE! 'Went with them, got hanged with them,'
[ "Mitgegangen mitgehangen:" Letter is in
German.] said the Bielefeld Innkeeper! So will it be with me, poor
devil; for I go dawdling about with this Army here; and the French
will have the better of us. We want to be over the Neckar again
[to the South or Philipsburg side], and the rogues won't let us.
What most provokes me in the matter is, that while we are here in
such a wilderness of trouble, doing our utmost, by military labors
and endurances, to make ourselves heroic, thou sittest, thou
devil, at home!
"Duc de Bouillon has lost his equipage; our Hussars took it at
Landau [other side the Rhine, a while ago]. Here we stand in mud
to the ears; fifteen of the Regiment Alt-Baden have sunk
altogether in the mud. Mud comes of a water-spout, or sudden
cataract of rain, there was in these Heidelberg Countries;
two villages, Fuhrenheim and Sandhausen, it swam away, every stick
of them (GANZ UND GAR).
"Captain van Stojentin, of Regiment Flans," one of our eight
Regiments here, "has got wounded in the head, in an affair of
honor; he is still alive, and it is hoped he will get through it.
"The Drill-Demon has now got into the Kaiser's people too:
Prince Eugene is grown heavier with his drills than we ourselves.
He is often three hours at it;--and the Kaiser's people curse us
for the same, at a frightful rate. Adieu. If the Devil don't get
thee, he ought. Therefore VALE. [ OEuvres de Frederic,
xxvii. part 3d, p. 181.]
"FRIEDRICH."
No laurels to be gained here; but plenty of mud, and laborious
hardship,--met, as we perceive, with youthful stoicism, of the
derisive, and perhaps of better forms. Friedrich is twenty-two and
some months, when he makes his first Campaign. The general
physiognomy of his behavior in it we have to guess from these few
indications. No doubt he profited by it, on the military side;
and would study with quite new light and vivacity after such
contact with the fact studied of. Very didactic to witness even
"the confusions of this Army," and what comes of them to Armies!
For the rest, the society of Eugene, Lichtenstein, and so many
Princes of the Reich, and Chiefs of existing mankind, could not
but be entertaining to the young man; and silently, if he wished
to read the actual Time, as sure enough he, with human and with
royal eagerness, did wish,--they were here as the ALPHABET of it
to him: important for years coming. Nay it is not doubted, the
insight he here got into the condition of the Austrian Army and
its management--"Army left seven days without bread," for one
instance--gave him afterwards the highly important notion, that
such Army could be beaten if necessary!--
Wilhelmina says, his chief comrade was Margraf Heinrich;--the ILL
Margraf; who was cut by Friedrich, in after years, for some
unknown bad behavior. Margraf Heinrich "led him into all manner of
excesses," says Wilhelmina,--probably in the language of
exaggeration. He himself tells her, in one of his LETTERS, a day
or two before Papa's departure: "The Camp is soon to be close on
Mainz, nothing but the Rhine between Mainz and our right wing,
where my place is; and so soon as Serenissimus goes [LE
SERENISSIME, so he irreverently names Papa], I mean to be across
for some sport," [ OEuvres de Frederic,
xxvii. part 1st, p. 17 (10th August).]--no doubt the Ill Margraf
with me! With the Elder Margraf, little Sophie's Betrothed, whom
he called "big clown" in a Letter we read, he is at this date in
open quarrel,--"BROUILLE A TOUTE OUTRANCE with the mad Son-in-law,
who is the wildest wild-beast of all this Camp." [Ibid.]
Wilhelmina's Husband had come, in the beginning of August; but was
not so happy as he expected. Considerably cut out by the Ill
Heinrich. Here is a small adventure they had; mentioned by
Friedrich, and copiously recorded by Wilhelmina: adventure on some
River,--which we could guess, if it were worth guessing, to have
been the Neckar, not the Rhine. French had a fortified post on the
farther side of this River; Crown-Prince, Ill Margraf, and
Wilhelmina's Husband were quietly looking about them, riding up
the other side: Wilhelmina's Husband decided to take a pencil-
drawing of the French post, and paused for that object.
Drawing was proceeding unmolested, when his foolish Baireuth
Hussar, having an excellent rifle (ARQUEBUSE RAYEE) with him, took
it into his head to have a shot at the French sentries at long
range. His shot hit nothing; but it awakened the French animosity,
as was natural; the French began diligently firing; and might
easily have done mischief. My Husband, volleying out some rebuke
upon the blockhead of a Hussar, finished his drawing, in spite of
the French bullets; then rode up to the Crown-Prince and Ill
Margraf, who had got their share of what was going, and were in no
good-humor with him. Ill Margraf rounded things into the Crown-
Prince's ear, in an unmannerly way, with glances at my Husband;--
who understood it well enough; and promptly coerced such ill-bred
procedures, intimating, in a polite impressive way, that they
would be dangerous if persisted in. Which reduced the Ill Margraf
to a spiteful but silent condition. No other harm was done at that
time; the French bullets all went awry, or "even fell short, being
sucked in by the river," thinks Wilhelmina. [Wilhelmina, ii. 208,
209; OEuvres de Frederic, xxvii. part 1st,
p. 19.]
A more important feature of the Crown-Prince's life in these
latter weeks is the news he gets of his father. Friedrich Wilhelm,
after quitting the Electoral Yacht, did his reviewing at Wesel, at
Bielefeld, all his reviewing in those Rhine and Weser Countries;
then turned aside to pay a promised visit to Ginkel the Berlin
Dutch Ambassador, who has a fine House in those parts; and there
his Majesty has fallen seriously ill. Obliged to pause at
Ginkel's, and then at his own Schloss of Moyland, for some time;
does not reach Potsdam till the 14th September, and then in a
weak, worsening, and altogether dangerous condition, which lasts
for months to come. [Fassmann, pp. 512-533: September, 1734-
January, 1735.] Wrecks of gout, they say, and of all manner of
nosological mischief; falling to dropsy. Case desperate, think all
the Newspapers, in a cautious form; which is Friedrich Wilhelm's
own opinion pretty much, and that of those better informed.
Here are thoughts for a Crown-Prince; well affected to his Father,
yet suffering much from him which is grievous. To by-standers, one
now makes a different figure: "A Crown-Prince, who may be King one
of these days,--whom a little adulation were well spent upon!"
From within and from without come agitating influences;
thoughts which must be rigorously repressed, and which are not
wholly repressible. The soldiering Crown-Prince, from about the
end of September, for the last week or two of this Campaign, is
secretly no longer quite the same to himself or to others.
GLIMPSE OF LIEUTENANT CHASOT, AND OF OTHER ACQUISITIONS.
We have still two little points to specify, or to bring up from
the rearward whither they are fallen, in regard to this Campaign.
After which the wearisome Campaign shall terminate; Crown-Prince
leading his Ten Thousand to Frankfurt, towards their winter-
quarters in Westphalia; and then himself running across from
Frankfurt (October 5th), to see Wilhelmina for a day or two on the
way homewards:--with much pleasure to all parties, my readers and
me included!
FIRST point is, That, some time in this Campaign, probably towards
the end of it, the Crown-Prince, Old Dessauer and some others with
them, "procured passports," went across, and "saw the French
Camp," and what new phenomena were in it for them. Where, when,
how, or with what impression left on either side, we do not learn.
It was not much of a Camp for military admiration, this of the
French. [ Memoires de Noailles (passim).]
There were old soldiers of distinction in it here and there; a few
young soldiers diligently studious of their art; and a great many
young fops of high birth and high ways, strutting about "in red-
heeled shoes," with "Commissions got from Court" for this War, and
nothing of the soldier but the epaulettes and plumages,--apt to be
"insolent" among their poorer comrades. From all parties, young
and old, even from that insolent red-heel party, nothing but the
highest finish of politeness could be visible on this particular
occasion. Doubtless all passed in the usual satisfactory manner;
and the Crown-Prince got his pleasant excursion, and materials,
more or less, for after thought and comparison. But as there is
nothing whatever of it on record for us but the bare fact, we
leave it to the reader's imagination,--fact being indubitable, and
details not inconceivable to lively readers. Among the French
dignitaries doing the honors of their Camp on this occasion, he
was struck by the General's Adjutant, a "Count de Rottembourg"
(properly VON ROTHENBURG, of German birth, kinsman to the
Rothenburg whom we have seen as French Ambassador at Berlin long
since); a promising young soldier; whom he did not lose sight of
again, but acquired in due time to his own service, and found to
be of eminent worth there. A Count von Schmettau, two Brothers von
Schmettau, here in the Austrian service; superior men, Prussian by
birth, and very fit to be acquired by and by; these the Crown-
Prince had already noticed in this Rhine Campaign,--having always
his eyes open to phenomena of that kind.
The SECOND little point is of date perhaps two months anterior to
that of the French Camp; and is marked sufficiently in this
Excerpt from our confused manuscripts.
Before quitting Philipsburg, there befell one slight adventure,
which, though it seemed to be nothing, is worth recording here.
One day, date not given, a young French Officer, of ingenuous
prepossessing look, though much flurried at the moment, came
across as involuntary deserter; flying from a great peril in his
own camp. The name of him is Chasot, Lieutenant of such and such a
Regiment: "Take me to Prince Eugene!" he entreats, which is done.
Peril was this: A high young gentleman, one of those fops in red
heels, ignorant, and capable of insolence to a poorer comrade of
studious turn, had fixed a duel upon Chasot. Chasot ran him
through, in fair duel; dead, and is thought to have deserved it.
"But Duc de Boufflers is his kinsman: run, or you are lost!" cried
everybody. The Officers of his Regiment hastily redacted some
certificate for Chasot, hastily signed it; and Chasot ran,
scarcely waiting to pack his baggage.
"Will not your Serene Highness protect me?"--"Certainly!" said
Eugene;--gave Chasot a lodging among his own people; and appointed
one of them, Herr Brender by name, to show him about, and teach
him the nature of his new quarters. Chasot, a brisk, ingenuous
young fellow, soon became a favorite; eager to be useful where
possible; and very pleasant in discourse, said everybody.
By and by,--still at Philipsburg, as would seem, though it is not
said,--the Crown-Prince heard of Chasot; asked Brender to bring
him over. Here is Chasot's own account: through which, as through
a small eyelet-hole, we peep once more, and for the last time,
direct into the Crown-Prince's Campaign-life on this occasion:--
"Next morning, at ten o'clock the appointed hour, Brender having
ordered out one of his horses for me, I accompanied him to the
Prince; who received us in his Tent,--behind which he had,
hollowed out to the depth of three or four feet, a large Dining-
room, with windows, and a roof," I hope of good height, "thatched
with straw. His Royal Highness, after two hours' conversation, in
which he had put a hundred questions to me [a Prince desirous of
knowing the facts], dismissed us; and at parting, bade me return
often to him in the evenings.
"It was in this Dining-room, at the end of a great dinner, the day
after next, that the Prussian guard introduced a Trumpet from
Monsieur d'Asfeld [French Commander-in-Chief since Berwick's
death], with my three horses, sent over from the French Army.
Prince Eugene, who was present, and in good humor, said, 'We must
sell those horses, they don't speak German; Brender will take care
to mount you some way or other.' Prinoe Lichtenstein immediately
put a price on my horses; and they were sold on the spot at three
times their worth. The Prince of Orange, who was of this Dinner
[slightly crook-backed witty gentleman, English honeymoon well
over], said to me in a half-whisper, 'Monsieur, there is nothing
like selling horses to people who have dined well.'
"After this sale, I found myself richer than I had ever been in my
life. The Prince-Royal sent me, almost daily, a groom and led
horse, that I might come to him, and sometimes follow him in his
excursions. At last, he had it proposed to me, by M. de Brender,
and even by Prince Eugene, to accompany him to Berlin." Which, of
course, I did; taking Ruppin first. "I arrived at Berlin from
Ruppin, in 1734, two days after the marriage of Friedrich Wilhelm
Margraf of Schwedt [Ill Margraf's elder Brother, wildest wild-
beast of this camp] with the Princess Sophie,"--that is to say,
12th of November; Marriage having been on the l0th, as the Books
teach us. Chasot remembers that, on the 14th, "the Crown-Prince
gave, in his Berlin mansion, a dinner to all the Royal Family," in
honor of that auspicious wedding. [Kurd vou Schlozer,
Chasot (Berlin, 1856), pp. 20-22. A pleasant little
Book; tolerably accurate, and of very readable quality.]
Thus is Chasot established with the Crown-Prince. He will turn up
fighting well in subsequent parts of this History; and again
duelling fatally, though nothing of a quarrelsome man, as
he asserts.
CROWN-PRINCE'S VISIT TO BAIREUTH ON THE WAY HOME.
October 4th, the Crown-Prince has parted with Prince Eugene,--not
to meet again in this world; "an old hero gone to the shadow of
himself," says the Crown-Prince; [ OEuvres (Memoires de
Brandebourg), i. 167.]--and is giving his Prussian
War-Captains a farewell dinner at Frankfurt-on-Mayn; having
himself led the Ten Thousand so far, towards Winter-quarters, and
handing them over now to their usual commanders. They are to
winter in Westphalia, these Ten Thousand, in the Paderborn-Munster
Country; where they are nothing like welcome to the Ruling Powers;
nor are intended to be so,--Kur-Koln (proprietor there) and his
Brother of Bavaria having openly French leanings. The Prussian Ten
Thousand will have to help themselves to the essential, therefore,
without welcome;--and things are not pleasant. And the Ruling
Powers, by protocolling, still more the Commonalty if it try at
mobbing, ["28th March, 1735" (Fassmann, p. 547); Buchholz,
i. 136.] can only make them worse. Indeed it is said the Ten
Thousand, though their bearing was so perfect otherwise, generally
behaved rather ill in their marches over Germany, during this
War,--and always worst, it was remarked by observant persons, in
the countries (Bamberg and Wurzburg, for instance) where their
officers had in past years been in recruiting troubles.
Whereby observant persons explained the phenomenon to themselves.
But we omit all that; our concern lying elsewhere. "Directly after
dinner at Frankfurt," the Crown-Prince drives off, rapidly as his
wont is, towards Baireuth. He arrives there on the morrow;
"October 5th," says Wilhelmina,--who again illuminates him to us,
though with oblique lights, for an instant.
Wilhelmina was in low spirits:--weak health; add funeral of the
Prince of Culmbach (killed in the Battle of Parma), illness of
Papa, and other sombre events:--and was by no means content with
the Crown-Prince, on this occasion. Strangely altered since we met
him in July last! It may be, the Crown-Prince, looking, with an
airy buoyancy of mind, towards a certain Event probably near, has
got his young head inflated a littie, and carries himself with a
height new to this beloved Sister;--but probably the sad humor of
the Princess herself has a good deal to do with it. Alas, the
contrast between a heart knowing secretly its own bitterness, and
a friend's heart conscious of joy and triumph, is harsh and
shocking to the former of the two! Here is the Princess's account;
with the subtrahend, twenty-five or seventy-five per cent, not
deducted from it:--
"My Brother arrived, the 5th of October. He seemed to me put out
(DECONTENANCE); and to break off conversation with me, he said he
had to write to the King and Queen. I ordered him pen and paper.
He wrote in my room; and spent more than a good hour in writing a
couple of Letters, of a line or two each. He then had all the
Court, one after the other, introduced to him; said nothing to any
of them, looked merely with a mocking air at them; after which we
went to dinner.
"Here his whole conversation consisted in quizzing (TURLUPINER)
whatever he saw; and repeating to me, above a hundred times over,
the words 'little Prince,' 'little Court.' I was shocked;
and could not understand how he had changed so suddenly towards
me. The etiquette of all Courts in the Empire is, that nobody who
has not at the least the rank of Captain can sit at a Prince's
table: my Brother put a Lieuteuant there, who was in his suite;
saying to me, 'A King's Lieutenants are as good as a Margraf's
Ministers.' I swallowed this incivility, and showed no sign.
"After dinner, being alone with me, he said,"--turning up the
flippant side of his thoughts, truly, in a questionable way:--
"'Our Sire is going to end (TIRE A SA FIN); he will not live out
this month. I know I have made you great promises; but I am not in
a condition to keep them. I will give you up the Half of the sum
which the late King [our Grandfather] lent you; [Supra, pp. 161,
162.] I think you will have every reason to be satisfied with
that.' I answered, That my regard for him had never been of an
interested nature; that I would never ask anything of him, but the
continuance of his friendship; and did not wish one sou, if it
would in the least inconvenience him. 'No, no,' said he, 'you
shall have those 100,000 thalers; I have destined them for you.--
People will be much surprised,' continued he, 'to see me act quite
differently from what they had expected. They imagine I am going
to lavish all my treasures, and that money will become as common
as pebbles at Berlin: but they will find I know better. I mean to
increase my Army, and to leave all other things on the old
footing. I will have every consideration for the Queen my Mother,
and will sate her (RASSASIERAI) with honors; but I do not mean
that she shall meddle in my affairs; and if she try it, she will
find so.'" What a speech; what an outbreak of candor in the young
man, preoccupied with his own great thoughts and difficulties,--to
the exclusion of any other person's!
"I fell from the clouds, on hearing all that; and knew not if I
was sleeping or waking. He then questioned me on the affairs of
this Country. I gave him the detail of them. He said to me: 'When
your goose (BENET) of a Father-in-law dies, I advise you to break
up the whole Court, and reduce yourselves to the footing of a
private gentleman's establishment, in order to pay your debts.
In real truth, you have no need of so many people; and you must
try also to reduce the wages of those whom you cannot help
keeping. You have been accustomed to live at Berlin with a table
of four dishes; that is all you want here: and I will invite you
now and then to Berlin; which will spare table and housekeeping.'
"For a long while my heart had been getting big; I could not
restrain my tears, at hearing all these indignities. 'Why do you
cry?' said he: 'Ah, ah, you are in low spirits, I see. We must
dissipate that dark humor. The music waits us; I will drive that
fit out of you by an air or two on the flute.' He gave me his
hand, and led me into the other room. I sat down to the
harpsichord; which I inundated (INONDAI) with my tears.
Marwitz [my artful Demoiselle d'Atours, perhaps too artful in time
coming] placed herself opposite me, so as to hide from the others
what disorder I was in.' [Wilhelmina, ii. 216-218.]
For the last two days of the visit, Wilhelmina admits, her Brother
was a little kinder. But on the fourth day there came, by
estafette, a Letter from the Queen, conjuring him to return
without delay, the King growing worse and worse. Wilhelmina, who
loved her Father, and whose outlooks in case of his decease
appeared to be so little flattering, was overwhelmed with sorrow.
Of her Brother, however, she strove to forget that strange
outbreak of candor; and parted with him as if all were mended
between them again. Nay, the day after his departure, there goes a
beautifully affectionate Letter to him; which we could give, if
there were room: [ OEuvres, xxvii. part 1st,
p. 23.] "the happiest time I ever in my life had;" "my heart so
full of gratitude and so sensibly touched;" "every one repeating
the words 'dear Brother' and 'charming Prince-Royal:'"--a Letter
in very lively contrast to what we have just been reading.
A Prince-Royal not without charm, in spite of the hard
practicalities he is meditating, obliged to meditate!--
As to the outbreak of candor, offensive to Wilhelmina and us, we
suppose her report of it to be in substance true, though of
exaggerated, perhaps perverted tone; and it is worth the reader's
note, with these deductions. The truth is, our charming Princess
is always liable to a certain subtrahend. In 1744, when she wrote
those Memoires, "in a Summer-house at
Baireuth," her Brother and she, owing mainly to go-betweens acting
on the susceptible female heart, were again in temporary quarrel
(the longest and worst they ever had), and hardly on speaking
terms; which of itself made her heart very heavy;--not to say that
Marwitz, the too artful Demoiselle, seemed to have stolen her
Husband's affections from the poor Princess, and made the world
look all a little grim to her. These circumstances have given
their color to parts of her Narrative, and are not to be forgotten
by readers.
The Crown-Prince--who goes by Dessau, lodging for a night with the
Old Dessauer, and writes affectionately to his Sister from that
place, their Letters crossing on the road--gets home on the 12th
to Potsdam. October 12th, 1734, he has ended his Rhine Campaign,
in that manner;--and sees his poor Father, with a great many other
feelings besides those expressed in the dialogue at Baireuth.
