HumanitiesWeb.org - History of Friedrich II of Prussia - Frederick the Great (Chapter XI. - The Bursting Forth of Bedlams: Belleisle and the Breakers of Pragmatic Sanction.) by Thomas Carlyle
History of Friedrich II of Prussia - Frederick the Great Chapter XI. - The Bursting Forth of Bedlams: Belleisle and the Breakers of Pragmatic Sanction.
by Thomas Carlyle
The Battle of Mollwitz went off like a signal-shot among the
Nations; intimating that they were, one and all, to go battling.
Which they did, with a witness; making a terrible thing of it, over
all the world, for above seven years to come. Foolish Nations;
doomed to settle their jarring accounts in that terrible manner!
Nay, the fewest of them had any accounts, except imaginary ones, to
settle there at all; and they went into the adventure GRATIS,
spurred on by spectralities of the sick brain, by phantasms of
hope, phantasms of terror; and had, strictly speaking, no actual
business in it whatever.
Not that Mollwitz kindled Europe; Europe was already kindled for
some two years past;--especially since the late Kaiser died, and
his Pragmatic Sanction was superadded to the other troubles afoot.
But ever since that Image of JENKINS'S EAR had at last blazed up in
the slow English brain, like a fiery constellation or Sign in the
Heavens, symbolic of such injustices and unendurabilities, and had
lighted the Spanish-English War, Europe was slowly but pretty
surely taking fire. France "could not see Spain humbled," she said:
England (in its own dim feeling, and also in the fact of things)
could not do at all without considerably humbling Spain. France,
endlessly interested in that Spanish-English matter, was already
sending out fleets, firing shots,--almost, or altogether, putting
forth her hand in it. "In which case, will not, must not, Austria
help us?" thought England,--and was asking, daily, at Vienna (with
intense earnestness, but without the least result), through
Excellency Robinson there, when the late Kaiser died. Died, poor
gentleman;--and left his big Austrian Heritages lying, as it were,
in the open market-place; elaborately tied by diplomatic packthread
and Pragmatic Sanction; but not otherwise protected against the
assembled cupidities of mankind! Independently of Mollwitz, or of
Silesia altogether, it was next to impossible that Europe could
long avoid blazing out; especially unless the Spanish-English
quarrel got quenched, of which there was no likelihood.
But if not as cause, then as signal, or as signal and cause
together (which it properly was), the Battle of Mollwitz gave the
finishing stroke, and set all in motion. This was "the little stone
broken loose from the mountain;" this, rather than the late
Kaiser's Death, which Friedrich defined in that manner. Or at
least, this was the first LEAP it took; hitting other stones big
and little, which again hit others with their leaping and rolling,
--till the whole mountain-side is in motion under law of gravity,
and you behold one wide stone-torrent thundering towards the
valleys; shivering woods, farms, habitations clean away with it:
fatal to any Image of composite Clay and Brass which it may meet!
There is, accordingly, from this point, a change in Friedrich's
Silesian Adventure; which becomes infinitely more complicated for
him,--and for those that write of him, no less! Friedrich's
business henceforth is not to be done by direct fighting, but
rather by waiting to see how, and on what side, others will fight:
nor can we describe or understand Friedrich's business, except as
in connection with the immense, obsolete, and indeed delirious
Phenomenon called Austrian-Succession War, upon which it is
difficult to say any human word. If History, driven upon Dismal
Swamp with its horrors and perils, can get across unsunk, she will
be lucky!
For, directly on the back of Mollwitz, there ensued, first, an
explosion of Diplomatic activity such as was never seen before;
Excellencies from the four winds taking wing towards Friedrich; and
talking and insinuating, and fencing and fugling, after their sort,
in that Silesian Camp of his, the centre being there. A universal
rookery of Diplomatists;--whose loud cackle and cawing is now as if
gone mad to us; their work wholly fallen putrescent and avoidable,
dead to all creatures. And secondly, in the train of that, there
ensued a universal European War, the French and the English being
chief parties in it; which abounds in battles and feats of arms,
spirited but delirious, and cannot be got stilled for seven or
eight years to come; and in which Friedrich and his War swim only
as an intermittent Episode henceforth. What to do with such a War;
how extricate the Episode, and leave the War lying? The War was at
first a good deal mad; and is now, to men's imagination, fallen
wholly so; who indeed have managed mostly to forget it; only the
Episode (reduced thereby to an UNintelligible state) retaining
still some claims on them.
It is singular into what oblivion the huge Phenomenon called
Austrian-Succession War has fallen; which, within a hundred years
ago or little more, filled all mortal hearts! The English were
principals on one side; did themselves fight in it, with their
customary fire, and their customary guidance ("courageous Wooden
Pole with Cocked Hat," as our friend called it); and paid all the
expenses, which were extremely considerable, and are felt in men's
pockets to this day: but the English have more completely forgotten
it than any other People. "Battle of Dettingen, Battle of Fontenay,
--what, in the Devil's name, were we ever doing there?" the
impatient Englishman asks; and can give no answer, except the
general one: "Fit of insanity; DELIRIUM TREMENS, perhaps FURENS;--
don't think of it!" Of Philippi and Arbela educated Englishmen can
render account; and I am told young gentlemen entering the Army are
pointedly required to say who commanded at Aigos-Potamos and
wrecked the Peloponnesian War: but of Dettingen and Fontenoy, where
is the living Englishman that has the least notion, or seeks for
any? The Austrian-Succession War did veritably rage for eight
years, at a terrific rate, deforming the face of Earth and Heaven;
the English paying the piper always, and founding their National
Debt thereby:--but not even that could prove mnemonic to them;
and they have dropped the Austrian-Succession War, with one accord,
into the general dustbin, and are content it should lie there.
They have not, in their language, the least approach to an
intelligible account of it: How it went on, whitherward, whence;
why it was there at all,--are points dark to the English, and on
which they do not wish to be informed. They have quitted the
matter, as an unintelligible huge English-and-Foreign Delirium
(which in good part it was); Delirium unintelligible to them;
tedious, not to say in parts, as those of the Austrian Subsidies,
hideous and disgusting to them; happily now fallen extinct; and
capable of being skipped, in one's inquiries into the wonders of
this England and this World. Which, in fact, is a practical
conclusion not so unwise as it looks.
"Wars are not memorable," says Sauerteig, "however big they may
have been, whatever rages and miseries they may have occasioned, or
however many hundreds of thousands they may have been the death
of,--except when they have something of World-History in them
withal. If they are found to have been the travail-throes of great
or considerable changes, which continue permanent in the world, men
of some curiosity cannot but inquire into them, keep memory of
them. But if they were travail-throes that had no birth, who of
mortals would remember them? Unless perhaps the feats of prowess,
virtue, valor and endurance, they might accidentally give rise to,
were very great indeed. Much greater than the most were, which came
out in that Austrian-Succession case! Wars otherwise are mere
futile transitory dust-whirlwinds stilled in blood; extensive fits
of human insanity, such as we know are too apt to break out;--such
as it rather beseems a faithful Son of the House of Adam NOT to
speak about again; as in houses where the grandfather was hanged,
the topic of ropes is fitly avoided.
"Never again will that War, with its deliriums, mad outlays of
blood, treasure, and of hope and terror, and far-spread human
destruction, rise into visual life in any imagination of living
man. In vain shall Dryasdust strive: things mad, chaotic and
without ascertainable purpose or result, cannot be fixed into human
memories. Fix them there by never so many Documentary Histories,
elaborate long-eared Pedantries, and cunning threads, the poor
human memory has an alchemy against such ill usage;--it forgets
them again; grows to know them as a mere torpor, a stupidity and
horror, and instinctively flies from Dryasdust and them."
Alive to any considerable degree, in the poor human imagination,
this Editor does not expect or even wish the Austrian-Succession
War to be. Enough for him if it could be understood sufficiently to
render his poor History of Friedrich intelligible. For it enwraps
Friedrich like a world-vortex henceforth; modifies every step of
his existence henceforth; and apart from it, there is no
understanding of his business or him. "So much as sticks to
Friedrich:" that was our original bargain! Assist loyally,
O reader, and we will try to make the indispensable a minimum
for you.
WHO WAS TO BLAME FOR THE AUSTRIAN-SUCCESSION WAR?
The first point to be noted is, Where did it originate? To which
the answer mainly is, With that lean Gentleman whom we saw with
Papers in the OEil-de-Boeuf on New-year's day last. With
Monseigneur the Marechal de Belleisle principally; with the
ambitious cupidities and baseless vanities of the French Court and
Nation, as represented by Belleisle. George II.'s Spanish War, if
you will examine, had a real necessity in it. Jenkins's Ear was the
ridiculous outside figure this matter had: Jenkins's Ear was one
final item of it; but the poor English People, in their wrath and
bellowings about that small item, were intrinsically meaning:
"Settle the account; let us have that account cleared up and
liquidated; it has lain too long!" And seldom were a People more in
the right, as readers shall yet see.
The English-Spanish War had a basis to stand on in this Universe.
The like had the Prussian-Austrian one; so all men now admit.
If Friedrich had not business there, what man ever had in an
enterprise he ventured on? Friedrich, after such trial and proof as
has seldom been, got his claims on Schlesien allowed by the
Destinies. His claims on Schlesien;--and on infinitely higher
things; which were found to be his and his Nation's, though he had
not been consciously thinking of them in making that adventure.
For, as my poor Friend insists, there ARE Laws valid in Earth and
in Heaven; and the great soul of the world is just. Friedrich had
business in this War; and Maria Theresa VERSUS Friedrich had
likewise cause to appear in court, and do her utmost pleading
against him.
But if we ask, What Belleisle or France and Louis XV. had to do
there? the answer is rigorously, Nothing. Their own windy vanities,
ambitions, sanctioned not by fact and the Almighty Powers, but by
phantasm and the babble of Versailles; transcendent self-conceit,
intrinsically insane; pretensions over their fellow-creatures which
were without basis anywhere in Nature, except in the French brain
alone: it was this that brought Belleisle and France into a German
War. And Belleisle and France having gone into an Anti-Pragmatic
War, the unlucky George and his England were dragged into a
Pragmatic one,--quitting their own business, on the Spanish Main,
and hurrying to Germany,--in terror as at Doomsday, and zeal to
save the Keystone of Nature these. That is the notable point in
regard to this War: That France is to be called the author of it,
who, alone of all the parties, had no business there whatever.
And the wages due to France for such a piece of industry,--the
reader will yet see what wages France and the other parties got, at
the tail of the affair. For that too is apparent in our day.
We have often said, the Spanish-English War was itself likely to
have kindled Europe; and again Friedrich's Silesian War was itself
likely,--France being nearly sure to interfere. But if both these
Wars were necessary ones, and if France interfered in either of
them on the wrong side, the blame will be to France, not to the
necessary Wars. France could, in no way, have interfered in a more
barefacedly unjust and gratuitous manner than she now did; nor, on
any terms, have so palpably made herself the author of the
conflagration of deliriums that ensued for above Seven years
henceforth. Nay for above Twenty years,--the settlement of this
Silesian Pragmatic-Antipragmatic matter (and of Jenkins's Ear,
incidentally, ALONG with this!) not having fairly completed itself
till 1763.
HOW BELLEISLE MADE VISIT TO TEUTSCHLAND; AND THERE WAS NO
FIT HENRY THE FOWLER TO WELCOME HIM.
It is very wrong to keep Enchanted Wiggeries sitting in this world,
as if they were things still alive! By a species of "conservatism,"
which gets praised in our Time, but which is only a slothful
cowardice, base indifference to truth, and hatred to trouble in
comparison with lies that sit quiet, men now extensively practise
this method of procedure;--little dreaming how bad and fatal it at
all times is. When the brains are out, things really ought to die;
--no matter what lovely things they were, and still affect to be,
the brains being out, they actually ought in all cases to die, and
with their best speed get buried. Men had noses, at one time;
and smelt the horror of a deceased reality fallen putrid, of a once
dear verity become mendacious, phantasmal; but they have, to an
immense degree, lost that organ since, and are now living
comfortably cheek-by-jowl with lies. Lies of that sad
"conservative" kind,--and indeed of all kinds whatsoever: for that
kind is a general mother; and BREEDS, with a fecundity that is
appalling, did you heed it much!--
It was pity that the "Holy Romish Reich, Teutsch by Nation," had
not got itself buried some ages before. Once it had brains and
life, but now they were out. Under the sway of Barbarossa, under
our old anti-chaotic friend Henry the Fowler, how different had it
been! No field for a Belleisle to come and sow tares in; no rotten
thatch for a French Sun-god to go sailing about in the middle of,
and set fire to! Henry, when the Hungarian Pan-Slavonic Savagery
came upon him, had got ready in the interim; and a mangy dog was
the "tribute" he gave them; followed by the due extent of broken
crowns, since they would not be content with that. That was the due
of Belleisle too,--had there been a Henry to meet him with it, on
his crossing the marches, in Trier Country, in Spring, 1741:
"There, you anarchic Upholstery-Belus, fancying yourself God of the
Sun; there is what Teutschland owes you. Go home with that; and
mind your own business, which I am told is plentiful, if you had
eye for it!"
But the sad truth is, for above Four Centuries now,--and especially
for Three, since little Kaiser Karl IV. "gave away all the moneys
of it," in his pressing occasions, this Holy Romish Reich, Teutsch
by Nation, has been more and ever more becoming an imaginary
quantity; the Kaisership of it not capable of being worn by
anybody, except a Hapsburger who had resources otherwise his own.
The fact is palpable. And Austria, and Anti-Reformation Entity,
"conservative" in that bad sense, of slothfully abhorring trouble
in comparison with lies, had not found the poison more mal-odorous
in this particular than in many others. And had cherished its "Holy
Romish Reich" grown UNholy, phantasmal, like so much else in
Austrian things; and had held firm grip of it, these Three Hundred
years; and found it a furthersome and suitable thing, though
sensible it was more and more becoming an Enchanted Wiggery pure
and simple. Nor have the consequences failed; they never do.
Belleisle, Louis XIV., Henri II., Francois I.: it is long since the
French have known this state of matters; and been in the habit of
breaking in upon it, fomenting internal discontents, getting up
unjust Wars,--with or without advantage to France, but with endless
disadvantage to Germany. Schmalkaldic War; Thirty-Years War;
Louis XIV.'s Wars, which brought Alsace and the other fine
cuttings; late Polish-Election War, and its Lorraine; Austrian-
Succession War: many are the wars kindled on poor Teutschland by
neighbor France; and large is the sum of woes to Europe and to it,
chargeable to that score. Which appears even yet not to be
completed?--Perhaps not, even yet. For it is the penalty of being
loyal to Enchanted Wiggeries; of living cheek-by-jowl with lies of
a peaceable quality, and stuffing your nostrils, and searing your
soul, against the accursed odor they all have!--For I can assure
you the curse of Heaven does dwell in one and all of them; and the
son of Adam cannot too soon get quit of their bad partnership, cost
him what it may.
Belleisle's Journey as Sun-god began in March,--"end of March,
1741," no date of a day to be had for that memorable thing:--and he
went gyrating about, through the German Courts, for almost a year
afterwards; his course rather erratic, but always in a splendor as
of Belus, with those hundred and thirty French Lords and Valets,
and the glory of Most Christian King irradiating him. Very diligent
for the first six months, till September or October next, which we
may call his SEED-TIME; and by no means resting after nine or
twelve months, while the harrowing and hoeing went on. In January,
1742, he had the great satisfaction to see a Bavarian Kaiser got,
instead of an Austrian; and everywhere the fruit of his diligent
husbandry begin to BEARD fairly above ground, into a crop of facts
(like armed men from dragon's teeth), and "the pleasure of the"--
WHOM was it the pleasure of?--"prosper in his hands." Belleisle was
a pretty man; but I doubt it was not "the Lord" he was doing the
pleasure of, on this occasion, but a very Different Personage,
disguised to resemble him in poor Belleisle's eyes!--
Austria was not dangerous to France in late times, and now least of
all; how far from it,--humbled by the loss of Lorraine; and now as
it were bankrupt, itself in danger from all the world. And France,
so far as express Treaties could bind a Nation, was bound to
maintain Austria in its present possessions. The bitter loss of
Lorraine had been sweetened to the late Kaiser by that solitary
drop of consolation;--as his Failure of a Life had been, poor man:
"Failure the most of me has been; but I have got Pragmatic
Sanction, thanks to Heaven, and even France has signed it!" Loss of
Lorraine, loss of Elsass, loss of the Three Bishoprics; since Karl
V.'s times, not to speak of earlier, there has been mere loss on
loss:--and now is the time to consummate it, think Belleisle and
France, in spite of Treaties.
Towards humbling or extinguishing Austria, Belleisle has two
preliminary things to do: FIRST, Break the Pragmatic Sanction, and
get everybody to break it; SECOND, Guide the KAISERWAHL (Election
of a Kaiser), so that it issue, not in Grand-Duke Franz, Maria
Theresa's Husband, as all expect it will, but in another party
friendly to France:--say in Karl Albert of Bavaria, whose Family
have long been good clients of ours, dependent on us for a living
in the Political World. Belleisle, there is little doubt, had from
the first cast his eye on this unlucky Karl Albert for Kaiser;
but is uncertain as to carrying him. Belleisle will take another if
he must; Kur-Sachsen, for example;--any other, and all others, only
not the Grand-Duke: that is a point already fixed with Belleisle,
though he keeps it well in the background, and is careful not to
hint it till the time come.
In regard to Pragmatic Sanction, Belleisle and France found no
difficulty,--or the difficulty only (which we hope must have been
considerable) of eating their own Covenant in behalf of Pragmatic
Sanction; and declaring, which they did without visible blush, That
it was a Covenant including, if not expressly, then tacitly, as all
human covenants do, this clause, "SALVO JURE TERTII (Saving the
rights of Third Parties),"--that is, of Electors of Bavaria, and
others who may object, against it! O soul of honor, O first Nation
of the Universe, was there ever such a subterfuge? Here is a field
of flowering corn, the biggest in the world, begirt with elaborate
ring-fence, many miles of firm oak-paling pitched and buttressed;
--the poor gentleman now dead gave you his Lorraine, and almost his
life, for swearing to keep up said paling. And you do keep it up,--
all except six yards; through which the biggest team on the highway
can drive freely, and the paltriest cadger's ass can step in for
a bellyful!
It appears, the first Nation of the Universe had, at an early
period of their consultations, hit upon this of SALVO JURE TERTII,
as the method of eating their Covenant, before an enlightened
public. [20th January, 1741, in their Note of Ceremony, recognizing
Maria Theresa as Queen of Hungary, Note which had been due so very
long (ADELUNG, ii. 206), there is ominous silence on Pragmatic
Sanction; "beginning of March," there is virtual avowal of SALVO
JURE (ib. 279);--open avowal on Belleisle's advent (ib. 305).]
And they persisted in it, there being no other for them.
An enlightened public grinned sardonically, and was not taken in;
but, as so many others were eating their Covenants, under equally
poor subterfuges, the enlightened public could not grin long on any
individual,--could only gape mutely, with astonishment, on all.
A glorious example of veracity and human nobleness, set by the gods
of this lower world to their gazing populations, who could read in
the Gazettes! What is truth, falsity, human Kingship, human
Swindlership? Are the Ten Commandments only a figure of speech,
then? And it was some beggarly Attorney-Devil that built this
sublunary world and us? Questions might rise; had long been
rising;--but now there was about enough, and the response to them
was falling due; and Belleisle himself, what is very notable, had
been appointed to get ready the response. Belleisle (little as
Belleisle dreamt of it, in these high Enterprises) was ushering in,
by way of response, a RAGNAROK, or Twilight of the Gods, which, as
"French Revolution, or Apotheosis of SANSCULOTTISM," is now well
known;--and that is something to consider of!
DOWNBREAK OF PRAGMATIC SANCTION; MANNER OF THE CHIEF
ARTISTS IN HANDLING THEIR COVENANTS.
The operation once accomplished on its own Pragmatic Covenant,
France found no difficulty with the others. Everybody was disposed
to eat his Covenant, who could see advantage in so doing, after
that admirable example. The difficulty of France and Belleisle
rather was, to keep the hungry parties back: "Don't eat your
Covenant TILL the proper time; patience, we say!" A most sad
Miscellany of Royalties, coming all to the point, "Will you eat
your Covenant, Will you keep it?"--and eating, nearly all; in fact,
wholly all that needed to eat.
On the first Invasion of Silesia, Maria Theresa had indignantly
complained in every Court; and pointing to Pragmatic Sanction, had
demanded that such Law of Nature be complied with, according to
covenant. What Maria Theresa got by this circuit of the Courts,
everybody still knows. Except England, which was willing, and
Holland, which was unwilling, all Courts had answered, more or less
uneasily: "Law of Nature,--humph: yes!"--and, far from doing
anything, not one of them would with certainty promise to do
anything. From England alone and her little King (to whom Pragmatic
Sanction is the Palladium of Human Freedoms and the Keystone of
Nature) could she get the least help. The rest hung back; would not
open heart or pocket; waited till they saw. They do now see;
now that Belleisle has done his feat of Covenant-eating!--
Eleven great Powers, some count Thirteen, some Twelve, [Scholl,
ii. 286; Adelung, LIST, ii. 127.]--but no two agree, and hardly one
agrees with himself;--enough, the Powers of Europe, from Naples and
Madrid to Russia and Sweden, have all signed it, let us say a Dozen
or a Baker's-Dozen of them. And except our little English Paladin
alone, whose interest and indeed salvation seemed to him to lie
that way, and who needed no Pragmatic Covenant to guide him, nobody
whatever distinguished himself by keeping it. Between December,
1740, when Maria Theresa set up her cries in all Courts, on to
April, 1741, England, painfully dragging Holland with her, had
alone of the Baker's-Dozen spoken word of disapproval; much less
done act of hindrance. Two especially (France and Bavaria, not to
mention Spain) had done the reverse, and disowned, and declared
against, Pragmatic Sanction. And after the Battle of Mollwitz, when
the "little stone" took its first leap, and set all thundering,
then came, like the inrush of a fashion, throughout that high
Miscellany or Baker's-Dozen, the general eating of Covenants (which
was again quickened in August, for a reason we shall see):
and before November of that Year, there was no Covenant left to
eat. Of the Baker's-Dozen nobody remained but little George the
Paladin, dragging Holland painfully along with him;--and Pragmatic
Sanction had gone to water, like ice in a June day, and its
beautiful crystalline qualities and prismatic colors were forever
vanished from the world. Will the reader note a point or two, a
personage or two, in this sordid process,--not for the process's
sake, which is very sordid and smells badly, but for his own sake,
to elucidate his own course a little in the intricacies now coming
or come upon him and me?
1. ELECTOR OF BAVARIA.--Karl Albert of Baiern is by some counted
as a Signer of the Pragmatic Sanction, and by others not;
which occasions that discrepancy of sum-total in the Books. And he
did once, in a sense, sign it, he and his Brother of Koln;
but, before the late Kaiser's death, he had openly drawn back from
it again; and counted himself a Non-signer. Signer or not, he, for
his part, lost no moment (but rather the contrary) in openly
protesting against it, and signifying that he never would
acknowledge it. Of this the reader saw something, at the time of
her Hungarian Majesty's Accession. Date and circumstances of it,
which deserve remembering, are more precisely these: October 20th,
1740, Karl Albert's Ambassador, Perusa by name, wrote to Karl from
Vienna, announcing that the Kaiser was just dead. From Munchen, on
the 21st, Karl Albert, anticipating such an event, but not yet
knowing it, orders Perusa, in CASE of the Kaiser's decease, which
was considered probable at Munchen, to demand instant audience of
the proper party (Kanzler Sinzendorf), and there openly lodge his
Protest. Which Perusa did, punctually in all points,--no moment
LOST, but rather the contrary, as we said! Let poor Karl Albert
have what benefit there is in that fact. He was, of all the Anti-
Pragmatic Covenant-Breakers (if he ever fairly were such), the only
one that proceeded honorably, openly and at once, in the matter;
and he was, of them all, by far the most unfortunate.
This is the poor gentleman whom Belleisle had settled on for being
Kaiser. And Kaiser he became; to his frightful sorrow, as it
proved: his crown like a crown of burning iron, or little better!
There is little of him in the Books, nor does one desire much:
a tall aquiline type of man; much the gentleman in aspect; and in
reality, of decorous serious deportment, and the wish to be high
and dignified. He had a kind of right, too, in the Anti-Pragmatic
sense; and was come of Imperial kindred,--Kaiser Ludwig the
Bavarian, and Kaiser Rupert of the Pfalz, called Rupert KLEMM, or
Rupert Smith's-vice, if any reader now remember him, were both of
his ancestors. He might fairly pretend to Kaisership and to
Austrian ownership,--had he otherwise been equal to such
enterprises. But, in all ambitions and attempts, howsoever grounded
otherwise, there is this strict question on the threshold: "Are you
of weight for the adventure; are not you far too light for it?"
Ambitious persons often slur this question; and get squelched to
pieces, by bringing the Twelve Labors of Hercules on Unherculean
backs! Not every one is so lucky as our Friedrich in that
particular,--whose back, though with difficulty, held out.
Which poor Karl Albert's never had much likelihood to do.
Few mortals in any age have offered such an example of the
tragedies which Ambition has in store for her votaries; and what a
matter Hope FULFILLED may be to the unreflecting Son of Adam.
We said, he had a kind of right to Austria, withal. He descended by
the female line from Kaiser Ferdinand I. (as did Kur-Sachsen,
though by a younger Daughter than Karl Albert's Ancestress); and he
appealed to Kaiser Ferdinand's Settlement of the Succession, as a
higher than any subsequent Pragmatic could be. Upon which there
hangs an incident; still famous to German readers. Karl Albert,
getting into Public Argument in this way, naturally instructed
Perusa to demand sight of Kaiser Ferdinand's Last Will, the tenor
of which was known by authentic Copy in Munchen, if not elsewhere
among the kindred. After some delay, Perusa (4th November, 1740),
summoning the other excellencies to witness, got sight of the Will:
to his horror, there stood, in the cardinal passage, instead of
"MUNNLICHE" (male descendants), "EHELICHE" (lawfully begotten
descendants),--fatal to Karl Albert's claim! Nor could he PROVE
that the Parchment had been scraped or altered, though he kept
trying and examining for some days. He withdrew thereupon, by
order, straightway from Vienna; testifying in dumb-show what he
thought. "It is your Copy that is false," cried the Vienna people:
"it has been foisted on you, with this wrong word in it; done by
somebody (your friend, the Excellency Herr von Hartmann, shall we
guess?), wishing to curry favor with ambitious foolish persons!"
Such was the Austrian story. Perhaps in Munchen itself their
Copyist was not known;--for aught I learn, the Copy was made long
since, and the Copyist dead. Hartmann, named as Copyist by the
Vienna people, made emphatic public answer: "Never did I copy it,
or see it!" And there rose great argument, which is not yet quite
ended, as to the question, "Original falsified, or Copy falsified?"
--and the modern vote, I believe, rather clearly is, That the
Austrian Officials had done it--in a case of necessity. [Adelung,
ii. 150-154 (14th-20th November, 1740), gives the public facts,
without commentary. Hormayr ( Anemonen aus dem Tagebuch
eines alten Pilgersmannes, Jena, 1845, i. 162-169,--
our old Hormayr of the AUSTRIAN PLUTARCH, but now Anonymous, and in
Opposition humor) considers the case nearly proved against Austria,
and that Bartenstein and one Bessel, a pillar of the Church, were
concerned in it.] Possi-ble? "But you will lose your soul!" said
the Parson once to a poor old Gentlewoman, English by Nation, who
refused, in dying, to contradict some domestic fiction, to give up
some domestic secret: "But you will lose your soul, Madam!"--
"Tush, what signifies my poor silly soul compared with the honor of
the family?"--
2. KING FRIEDRICH;--King Friedrich may be taken as the Anti-
Pragmatic next in order of time. He too lost not a moment, and
proceeded openly; no quirking to be charged upon him. His account
of himself in this matter always was: "By the Treaty of
Wusterhausen, 1726, unquestionably Prussia undertook to guarantee
Pragmatic Sanction; the late Kaiser undertaking in return, by the
same Treaty, to secure Berg and Julich to Prussia, and to have some
progress made in it within six months from signing.
And unquestionably also, the late Kaiser did thereupon, or even had
already done, precisely the reverse; namely, secured, so far as in
him was possible, Berg and Julich to Kur-Pfalz. Such Treaty, having
in this way done suicide, is dead and become zero: and I am free,
in respect of Pragmatic Sanction, to do whatever shall seem good to
me. My wish was, and would still be, To maintain Pragmatic
Sanction, and even to support it by 100,000 men, and secure the
Election of the Grand-Duke to the Kaisership,--were my claims on
Silesia once liquidated. But these have no concern with Pragmatic
Sanction, for or against: these are good against whoever may fall
Heir to the House of Austria, or to Silesia: and my intention is,
that the strong hand, so long clenched upon my rights, shall open
itself by this favorable opportunity, and give them out." That is
Friedrich's case. And in truth the jury everywhere has to find,--so
soon as instructed, which is a long process in some sections of it
(in England, for example),--That Pragmatic Sanction has not, except
helpless lamentations, "Alas that YOU should be here to insist upon
your rights, and to open fists long closed!"--the least, word to
say to Friedrich.
3. TERMAGANT OF SPAIN.--Perhaps the most distracted of the Anti-
Pragmatic subterfuges was that used by Spain, when the She-dragon
or Termagant saw good to eat her Covenant; which was at a very
early stage. The Termagant's poor Husband is a Bourbon, not a
Hapsburg at all: "But has not he fallen heir to the Spanish
Hapsburgs; become all one as they, an ALTER-EGO of the Spanish
Hapsburgs?" asks she. "And the Austrian Hapsburgs being out, do not
the Spanish Hapsburgs come in? He, I say, this BOURBON-Hapsburg, he
is the real Hapsburg, now that the Austrian Branch is gone;
President he of the Golden Fleece [which a certain "Archduchess,"
Maria Theresa, had been meddling with]; Proprietor, he, of Austrian
Italy, and of all or most things Austrian!"--and produces
Documentary Covenants of Philip II. with his Austrian Cousins;
"to which Philip," said the Termagant, "we Bourbons surely, if you
consider it, are Heir and Alter-Ego!" Is not, this a curious case
of testamentary right; human greed obliterating personal
identity itself?
Belleisle had a great deal of difficulty, keeping the Termagant
back till things were ripe. Her hope practically was, Baby Carlos
being prosperous King of Naples this long while, to get the
Milanese for another Baby she has,--Baby Philip, whom she once
thought of making Pope;--and she is eager beyond measure to have a
stroke at the Milanese. "Wait!" hoarsely whispers Belleisle to her;
and she can scarcely wait. Maria Theresa's Note of Announcement
"New Queen of Hungary, may it please you!" the French, as we saw,
were very long in answering. The Termagant did not answer it at
all; complained on the contrary, "What is this, Madam! Golden
Fleece, you?"--and, early in March, informed mankind that she was
Spanish Hapsburg, the genuine article; and sent off Excellency
Montijos, a little man of great expense, to assist at the Election
of a proper Kaiser, and be useful to Belleisle in the great things
now ahead. [Spain's Golden-Fleece pretensions, 17th January, 1741
(Adelung, ii. 233, 234); "Publishes at Paris," in March (ib. 293);
and on the 23d March accredits Montijos (ib. 293): Italian War,
held back by Belleisle and the English Fleets, cannot get begun
till October following.]
4. KING OF POLAND.--The most ticklish card in Belleisle's game, and
probably the greatest fool of these Anti-Pragmatic Dozen, was
Kur-Sachsen, King of Poland. He, like Karl Albert Kur-Baiern,
derives from Kaiser Ferdinand, though by a YOUNGER Daughter, and
has a like claim on the Austrian Succession; claim nullified,
however, by that small circumstance itself, but which he would fain
mend by one makeshift or another; and thinks always it must surely
be good for something. This is August III., this King of Poland, as
readers know; son of August the Strong: Papa made him change to the
Catholic religion so called,--for the sake of getting Poland, which
proves a very poor possession to him. Who knows what damage the
poor creature may have got by that sad operation;--which all Saxony
sighed to the heart on hearing of; for it was always hoped he had
some real religion, and would deliver them from that Babylonish
Captivity again! He married Kaiser Joseph I.'s Daughter,--Maria
Theresa's Cousin, and by an Elder Brother;--this, too, ought surely
to be something in the Anti-Pragmatic line? It is true, Kur-Baiern
has to Wife another Daughter of Kaiser Joseph's; but she is the
younger: "I am senior THERE, at least! "thinks the foolish man.
Too true, he had finally, in past years, to sign Pragmatic
Sanction; no help for it, no hope without it, in that Polish-
Election time. He will have to eat his Covenant, therefore, as the
first step in Anti-Pragmatism; and he is extremely in doubt as to
the How, sometimes as to the Whether. And shifts and whirls,
accordingly, at a great rate, in these months and years; now on
Maria Theresa's side, deluded by shadows from Vienna, and getting
into Russian Partition-Treaties; anon tickled by Belleisle into the
reverse posture; then again reversing. An idle, easy-tempered, yet
greedy creature, who, what with religious apostasy in early
manhood, what with flaccid ambitions since, and idle gapings after
shadows, has lost helm in this world; and will make a very bad
voyage for self and country.
His Palinurus and chief Counsellor, at present and afterwards, is a
Count von Bruhl, once page to August the Strong; now risen to such
height: Bruhl of the three hundred and sixty-five suits of clothes;
whom it has grown wearisome even to laugh at. A cunning little
wretch, they say, and of deft tongue; but surely among the unwisest
of all the Sons of Adam in that day, and such a Palinurus as seldom
steered before. Kur-Sachsen, being Reichs-Vicar in the Northern
Parts,--(Kur-Baiern and Kur-Pfalz, as friends and good
Wittelsbacher Cousins surely ought, in a crisis like this, have
agreed to be JOINT-Vicars in the Southern Parts, and no longer
quarrel upon it),--Kur-Sachsen has a good deal to do in the
Election preludings, formalities and prearrangements; and is
capable, as Kur-Pfalz and Cousin always are, of serving as chisel
to Belleisle's mallet, in such points, which will plentifully
turn up.
5. KING OF SARDINIA.--Reichs-Vicar in the Italian Parts is Charles
Amadeus King of Sardinia (tough old Victor's Son, whom we have
heard of): an office mostly honorary; suitable to the important
individual who keeps the Door of the Alps. Charles Amadeus had
signed the Pragmatic Sanction; but eats his Covenant, like the
others, on example of France;--having, as he now bethinks himself,
claims on the Milanese. There are two claimants on the Milanese,
then; the Spanish Termagant, and he? Yes; and they will have their
difficulties, their extensive tusslings in Italian War and
otherwise, to make an adjustment of it; and will give Belleisle
(at least the Doorkeeper will) an immensity of trouble, in
years coming.
In this way do the Pragmatic people eat their own Covenant, one
after the other, and are not ashamed;--till all have eaten, or as
good as eaten; and, almost within year and day, Pragmatic Sanction
is a vanished quantity; and poor Kaiser Karl's life-labor is not
worth the sheepskin and stationery it cost him. History reports in
sum, That "nobody kept the Pragmatic Sanction; that the few
[strictly speaking, the one] who acted by it, would have done
precisely the same, though there had never been such a Document in
existence." To George II., it is, was and will be, the Keystone of
Nature, the true Anti-French palladium of mankind; and he, dragging
the unwilling Dutch after him, will do great things for it:
but nobody else does anything at all. Might we hope to bid adieu to
it, in this manner, and never to mention it again!--
Document more futile there had not been in Nature, nor will be.
Friedrich had not yet fought at Mollwitz in assertion of his
Silesian claim, when the poor Pope--poor soul, who had no Covenant
to eat, but took pattern by others--claimed, in solemn Allocution,
Parma and Piacenza for the Holy See. [Adelung, ii. 376 (5th April,
1741)] All the world is claiming. Of the Court of Wurtemberg and
its Protestings, and "extensive Deduction" about nothing at all, we
do not speak; [Ib. ii. 195, 403.] nor of Montmorency claiming
Luxemburg, of which he is Titular "Duke;" nor of Monsignore di
Guastalla claiming Mantua; nor of--In brief, the fences are now
down; a broad French gap in those miles of elaborate paling, which
are good only as firewood henceforth, and any ass may rush in and
claim a bellyful. Great are the works of Belleisle!--
CONCERNING THE IMPERIAL ELECTION (Kaiserwahl) THAT IS
TO BE: CANDIDATES FOR KAISERSHIP.
At equal step with the ruining of Pragmatic Sanction goes on that
spoiling of Grand-Duke Franz's Election to the Kaisership:
these two operations run parallel; or rather, under different
forms, they are one and the same operation. "To assist, as a Most
Christian neighbor ought, in picking out the fit Kaiser," was
Belleisle's ostensible mission; and indeed this does include
virtually his whole errand. Till three months after Belleisle's
appearance in the business, Grand-Duke Franz never doubted but he
should be Kaiser; Friedrich's offers to, help him in it he had
scorned, as the offer of a fifth wheel to his chariot, already
rushing on with four. "Here is Kur-Bohmen, Austria's own vote,"
counts the Grand-Duke; "Kur-Sachsen, doing Prussian-Partition
Treaties for us; Kur-Trier, our fat little Schonborn, Austrian to
the bone; Kur-Mainz, important chairman, regulator of the Conclave;
here are Four Electors for us: then also Kur-Pfalz, he surely, in
return for the Berg-Julich service; finally, and liable to no
question Kur-Hanover, little George of England with his endless
guineas and resources, a little Jack-the-Giantkiller, greater than
all Giants, Paladin of the Pragmatic and us: here are Six Electors
of the Nine. Let Brandenburg and the Bavarian Couple, Kur-Baiern
and Kur-Koln, do their pleasure!" This was Grand-Duke
Franz's calculation.
By the time Belleisle had been three months in Germany, the Grand-
Duke's notion had changed; and he began "applying to the
Sea-Powers," "to Russia," and all round. In Belleisle's sixth
month, the Grand-Duke, after such demolition of Pragmatic, and such
disasters and contradictions as had been, saw his case to be
desperate; though he still stuck to it, Austrian-like,--or rather,
Austria for him stuck to it, the Grand-Duke being careless of such
things;--and indeed, privately, never did give in, even AFTER the
Election, as we shall have to note.
The Reich itself being mainly a Phantasm or Enchanted Wiggery, its
"Kaiser-Choosing" (KAISERWAHL),--now getting under way at
Frankfurt, with preliminary outskirts at Regensburg, and in the
Chancery of Mainz--is very phantasmal, not to say ghastly;
and forbidding, not inviting, to the human eye. Nine Kurfursts,
Choosers of Teutschland's real Captain, in none of whom is there
much thought for Teutschland or its interests,--and indeed in
hardly more than One of whom (Prussian Friedrich, if readers will
know it) is there the least thought that way; but, in general, much
indifference to things divine or diabolic, and thought for one's
own paltry profits and losses only! So it has long been; and so it
now is, more than usual.--Consider again, are Enchanted Wiggeries a
beautiful thing, in this extremely earnest World?--
The Kaiserwahl is an affair depending much on processions,
proclamations, on delusions optical, acoustic; on palaverings,
manoeuvrings, holdings back, then hasty pushings forward;
and indeed is mainly, in more senses than one, under guidance of
the Prince of the Power of the Air. Unbeautiful, like a World-
Parliament of Nightmares (if the reader could conceive such a
thing); huge formless, tongueless monsters of that species, doing
their "three readings,"--under Presidency or chief-pipership as
above! Belleisle, for his part, is consummately skilful, and
manages as only himself could. Keeps his game well hidden, not a
hint or whisper of it except in studied proportions; spreads out
his lines, his birdlime; tickles, entices, astonishes; goes his
rounds, like a subtle Fowler, taking captive the minds of men;
a Phoebus-Apollo, god of melody and of the sun, filling his net
with birds.
I believe, old Kur-Pfalz, for the sake of French neighborhood, and
Berg-and-Julich, were there nothing more, was very helpful to him;
--in March past, when the Election was to have been, when it would
have gone at once in favor of the Grand-Duke, Kur-Pfalz got the
Election "postponed a little." Postponing, procrastinating;
then again pushing violently on, when things are ripe: Belleisle
has only to give signal to a fit Kur-Pfalz. In all Kurfurst Courts,
the French Ambassadors sing diligently to the tune Belleisle sets
them; and Courts give ear, or will do, when the charmer
himself arrives.
Kur-Sachsen, as above hinted, was his most delicate operation, in
the charming or trout-tickling way. And Kur-Sachsen--and poor
Saxony, ever since--knows if he did not do it well! "Deduct this
Kur-Sachsen from the Austrian side," calculates Belleisle; "add him
to ours, it is almost an equality of votes. Kur-Baiern, our own
Imperial Candidate; Kur-Koln, his Brother; Kur-Pfalz, by genealogy
his Cousin (not to mention Berg-Julich matters); here are three
Wittelsbachers, knit together; three sure votes; King Friedrich,
Kur-Brandenburg, there is a fourth; and if Kur-Sachsen would join?"
But who knows if Kur-Sachsen will! The poor soul has himself
thoughts of being Kaiser; then no thoughts, and again some:
thoughts which Belleisle knows how to handle. "Yes, Kaiser you,
your Majesty; excellent!" And sets to consider the methods:
"Hm, ha, hm! Think, your Majesty: ought not that Bohemian Vote to
be excluded, for one thing? Kur-Bohmen is fallen into the distaff,
Maria Theresa herself cannot vote. Surely question will rise,
Whether distaff can, validly, hand it over to distaff's husband, as
they are about doing? Whether, in fact, Kur-Bohmen is not in
abeyance for this time?" "So!" answered Kur-Sachsen, Reichs-
Vicarius. And thereupon meetings were summoned; Nightmare
Committees sat on this matter under the Reichs-Vicar, slowly
hatching it; and at length brought out, "Kur-Bohmen NOT
transferable by the distaff; Kur-Bohmen in abeyance for this time."
Greatly to the joy of Belleisle; infinitely to the chagrin of her
Hungarian Majesty,--who declared it a crying injustice (though I
believe legally done in every point); and by and by, even made it a
plea of Nullity, destructive to the Election altogether, when her
Hungarian Majesty's affairs looked up again, and the world would
listen to Austrian sophistries and obstinacies. This was an
essential service from Kur-Sachsen. [Began, indistinctly, "in
March" (1741); languid "for some months" (Adelung, ii. 292);
"November 4th," was settled in the negative, "Kur-Bohmen not to
have a vote" ( Maria Theresiens Leben,
p. 47 n.).
After which Kur-Sachsen's own poor Kaisership died away into
"Hm, ha, hm!" again, with a grateful Belleisle. Who nevertheless
dexterously retained Kur-Sachsen as ally; tickling the poor wretch
with other baits. Of the Kaiser he had really meant all along,
there was dead silence, except between the parties; no whisper
heard, for six months after it had been agreed upon; none, for two
or near three months after formal settlement, and signing and
sealing. Karl Albert's Treaty with Belleisle was 18th May, 1741;
and he did not declare himself a Candidate till 1st-4th July
following. [Adelung, ii. 357, 421.] Belleisle understands the
Nightmare Parliaments, the electioneering art, and how to deal with
Enchanted Wiggeries. More perfect master, in that sad art, has not
turned up on record to one's afflicted mind. Such a Sun-god, and
doing such a Scavengerism! Belleisle, in the sixth month (end of
August, 1741), feels sure of a majority. How Belleisle managed,
after that, to checkmate George of England, and make even George
vote for him, and the Kaiserwahl to be unanimous against Grand-
Duke Franz, will be seen. Great are Belleisle's doings in this
world, if they were useful either to God or man, or to Belleisle
himself first of all!--
TEUTSCHLAND TO BE CARVED INTO SOMETHING OF SYMMETRY,
SHOULD THE BELLEISLE ENTERPRISES SUCCEED.
Belleisle's schemes, in the rear of all this labor, are grandiose
to a degree. Men wonder at the First Napoleon's mad notions in that
kind. But no Napoleon, in the fire of the revolutionary element; no
Sham-Napoleon, in the ashes of it: hardly a Parisian Journalist of
imaginative turn, speculating on the First Nation of the Universe
and what its place is,--could go higher than did this grandiose
Belleisle; a man with clear thoughts in his head, under a torpid
Louis XV. Let me see, thinks Belleisle. Germany with our Bavarian
for Kaiser; Germany to be cut into, say, Four little Kingdoms:
1. Bavaria with the lean Kaiserhood; 2. Saxony, fattened by its
share of Austria; 3. Prussia the like; 4. Austria itself, shorn
down as above, and shoved out to the remote Hungarian parts: VOILA.
These, not reckoning Hanover, which perhaps we cannot get just yet,
are Four pretty Sovereignties. Three, or Two, of these hireable by
gold, it is to be hoped. And will not France have a glorious time
of it; playing master of the revels there, egging one against the
other! Yes, Germany is then, what Nature designed it, a Province of
France: little George of Hanover himself, and who knows but England
after him, may one day find their fate inevitable, like the others.
O Louis, O my King, is not this an outlook? Louis le Grand was
great; but you are likely to be Louis the Grandest; and here is a
World shaped, at last, after the real pattern!
Such are, in sad truth, Belleisle's schemes; not yet entirely
hatched into daylight or articulation; bnt becoming articulate, to
himself and others, more and more. Reader, keep them well in mind:
I had rather not speak of them again. They are essential to our
Story; but they are afflictively vain, contrary to the Laws of
Fact; and can, now or henceforth, in nowise be. My friend, it was
not Beelzebub, nor Mephistopheles, nor Autolyeus-Apollo that built
this world and us; it was Another. And you will get your crown well
rapped, M. le Marechal, for so forgetting that fact! France is an
extremely pretty creature; but this of making France the supreme
Governor and God's-Vicegerent of Nations, is, was, and remains, one
of the maddest notions. France at its ideal BEST, and with a demi-
god for King over it, were by no means fit for such function; nay
of many Nations is eminently the unfittest for it. And France at
its WORST or nearly so, with a Louis XV. over it by way of demi-god
--O Belleisle, what kind of France is this; shining in your
grandiose imagination, in such contrast to the stingy fact: like a
creature consisting of two enormous wings, five hundred yards in
potential extent, and no body bigger than that of a common cock,
weighing three pounds avoirdupois. Cock with his own gizzard much
out of sorts, too!
It was "early in March" [Adelung, ii. 305.] when Belleisle, the
Artificial Sun-god, quitted Paris on this errand. He came by the
Moselle road; called on the Rhine Kurfursts, Koln, Trier, Mainz;
dazzling them, so far as possible, with his splendor for the mind
and for the eye. He proceeded next to Dresden, which is a main
card: and where there is immense manipulation needed, and the most
delicate trout-tickling; this being a skittish fish, and an
important, though a foolish. Belleisle was at Dresden when the
Battle of Mollwitz fell out: what a windfall into Belleisle's game!
He ran across to Friedrich at Mollwitz, to congratulate, to
consult,--as we shall see anon.
Belleisle, I am informed, in this preliminary Tour of his, speaks
only, or hints only (except in the proper quarters), of Election
Business; of the need there perhaps is, on the part of an Age
growing in liberal ideas, to exclude the Austrian Grand-Duke;
to curb that ponderous, harsh, ungenerous House of Austria, too
long lording it over generous Germany; and to set up some better
House,--Bavaria, for example; Saxony, for example? Of his plans in
the rear of this he is silent; speaks only by hints, by innuendoes,
to the proper parties. But ripening or ripe, plans do lie to rear;
far-stretching, high-soaring; in part, dark even at Versailles;
darkly fermenting, not yet developed, in Belleisle's own head; only
the Future Kaiser a luminous fixed point, shooting beams across the
grandiose Creation-Process going on there.
By the end of August, 1741, Belleisle had become certain of his
game; 24th January, 1742, he saw himself as if winner.
Before August, 1741, he had got his Electors manipulated, tickled
to his purpose, by the witchery of a Phoebus-Autolycus or
Diplomatic Sun-god; majority secured for a Bavarian Kaiser, and
against an Austrian one. And in the course of that month,--what was
still more considerable!--he was getting, under mild pretexts,
about a hundred thousand armed Frenchmen gently wafted over upon
the soil of Germany. Two complete French Armies, 40,000 each (PLUS
their Reserves), one over the Upper Rhine, one over the Lower;
about which we shall hear a great deal in time coming! Under mild
pretexts: "Peaceable as lambs, don't you observe? Merely to protect
Freedom of Election, in this fine neighbor country; and as allies
to our Friend of Bavaria, should he chance to be new Kaiser, and to
persist in his modest claims otherwise." This was his crowning
stroke. Which finished straightway the remnants of Pragmatic
Sanction and of every obstacle; and in a shining manner swept the
roads clear. And so, on January 24th following, the Election, long
held back by Belleisle's manoeuvrings, actually takes effect,--in
favor of Karl Albert, our invaluable Bavarian Friend. Austria is
left solitary in the Reich; Pragmatic Sanction, Keystone of Nature,
which Belleisle and France had sworn to keep in, is openly torn out
by Belleisle and by France and the majority of mankind;
and Belleisle sees himself, to all appearance, winner.
This was the harvest reaped by Belleisle, within year and day;
after endless manoeuvring, such as only a Belleisle in the
character of Diplomatic Sun-god could do. Beyond question, the
distracted ambitions of several German Princes have been kindled by
Belleisle; what we called the rotten thatch of Germany is well on
fire. This diligent sowing in the Reich--to judge by the 100,000,
armed men here, and the counter hundreds of thousands arming--
has been a pretty stroke of dragon's-teeth husbandry on
Belleisle's part.
BELLEISLE ON VISIT TO FRIEDRICH; SEES FRIEDRICH BESIEGE
BRIEG, WITH EFFECT.
It was April 26th when Marechal de Belleisle, with his Brother the
Chevalier, with Valori and other bright accompaniment, arrived in
Friedrich's Camp. "Camp of Mollwitz" so named; between Mollwitz and
Brieg; where Friedrich is still resting, in a vigilant expectant
condition; and, except it be the taking of Brieg, has nothing
military on hand. Wednesday, 26th April, the distinguished
Excellency--escorted for the last three miles by 120 Horse, and the
other customary ceremonies--makes his appearance: no doubt an
interesting one to Friedrich, for this and the days next following.
Their talk is not reported anywhere: nor is it said with exactitude
how far, whether wholly now, or only in part now, Belleisle
expounded his sublime ideas to Friedrich; or what precise reception
they got. Friedrich himself writes long afterwards of the event;
but, as usual, without precision, except in general effect. Now, or
some time after, Friedrich says he found Belleisle, one morning,
with brow clouded, knit into intense meditation: "Have you had bad
news, M. le Marechal?" asks Friedrich. "No, oh no! I am considering
what we shall make of that Moravia?"--"Moravia; Hm!" Friedrich
suppresses the glance that is rising to his eyes: "Can't you give
it to Saxony, then? Buy Saxony into the Plan with it!" "Excellent,"
answers Belleisle, and unpuckers his stern brow again.
Friedrich thinks highly, and about this time often says so, of the
man Belleisle: but as to the man's effulgencies, and wide-winged
Plans, none is less seduced by them than Friedrich: "Your chickens
are not hatched, M. le Marechal; some of us hope they never will
be,--though the incubation-process may have uses for some of us!"
Friedrich knows that the Kaisership given to any other than Grand-
Duke Franz will be mostly an imaginary quantity. "A grand Symbolic
Cloak in the eyes of the vulgar; but empty of all things, empty
even of cash, for the last Two Hundred Years: Austria can wear it
to advantage; no other mortal. Hang it on Austria, which is a solid
human figure,--so." And Friedrich wishes, and hopes always, Maria
Theresa will agree with him, and get it for her Husband. "But to
haug it on Bavaria, which is a lean bare pole? Oh, M. le Marechal!
--And those Four Kingdoms of yours: what a brood of poultry, those!
Chickens happily yet UNhatched;--eggs addle, I should venture to
hope:--only do go on incubating, M. le Marechal!" That is
Friedrich's notion of the thing. Belleisle stayed with Friedrich "a
few days," say the Books. After which, Friedrich, finding Belleisle
too winged a creature, corresponded, in preference, with Fleury and
the Head Sources;--who are always intensely enough concerned about
those "aces" falling to him, and how the same are to be "shared."
[Details in Helden-Geschichte, i. 912, 962,
916; in OEuvres de Frederic, ii. 79, 80; &c.]
Instead of parade or review in honor of Belleisle, there happened
to be a far grander military show, of the practical kind. The Siege
of Brieg, the Opening of the Trenches before Brieg, chanced to be
just ready, on Belleisle's arrival:--and would have taken effect,
we find, that very night, April 26th, had not a sudden wintry
outburst, or "tempest of extraordinary violence," prevented.
Next night, night of the 27th-28th, under shine of the full Moon,
in the open champaign country, on both sides of the River, it did
take effect. An uncommonly fine thing of its sort; as one can still
see by reading Friedrich's strict Program for it,--a most minute,
precise and all-anticipating Program, which still interests
military men, as Friedrich's first Piece in that kind,--and
comparing therewith the Narratives of the performance which ensued.
[ Ordre und Dispositiones (SIC), wornach sich der General-
Lieutenant von Kalckstein bei Eroffnung der Trancheen, &c.
(Oeuvres de Frederic, xxx. 39-44): the Program.
Helden-Geschichte, i. 916-928:
the Narrative.]
Kalkstein, Friedrich's old Tutor, is Captain of the Siege;
under him Jeetz, long used to blockading about Brieg. The silvery
Oder has its due bridges for communication; all is in readiness,
and waiting manifold as in the slip,--and there is Engineer
Walrave, our Glogau Dutch friend, who shall, at the right instant,
"with his straw-rope (STROHSEIL) mark out the first parallel," and
be swift about it! There are 2,000 diggers, with the due
implements, fascines, equipments; duly divided, into Twelve equal
Parties, and "always two spademen to one pickman " (which indicates
soft sandy ground): these, with the escorting or covering
battalions, Twelve Parties they also, on both sides of the River,
are to be in their several stations at the fixed moments;
man, musket, mattock, strictly exact. They are to advance at
Midnight; the covering battalions so many yards ahead: no speaking
is permissible, nor the least tobacco-smoking; no drum to be
allowed for fear of accident; no firing, unless you are fired on.
The covering battalions are all to "lie flat, so soon as they get
to their ground, all but the Officers and sentries." To rear of
these stand Walrave and assistants, silent, with their straw-rope;
--silent, then anon swift, and in whisper or almost by dumb-show,
"Now, then!" After whom the diggers, fascine-men, workers, each in
his kind, shall fall to, silently, and dig and work as for life.
All which is done; exact as clock-work: beautiful to see, or half
see, and speak of to your Belleisle, in the serene moonlight! Half
an hour's marching, half an hour's swift digging: the Town-clock of
Brieg was hardly striking One, when "they had dug themselves in."
And, before daybreak, they had, in two batteries, fifty cannon in
position, with a proper set of mortars (other side the River),--
ready to astonish Piccolomini and his Austrians; who had not had
the least whisper of them, all night, though it was full moon.
Graf von Piccolomini, an active gallant person, had refused terms,
some time before; and was hopefully intent on doing his best.
And now, suddenly, there rose round Piccolomini such a tornado of
cannonading and bombardment, day after day, always "three guns of
ours playing against one of theirs," that his guns got ruined;
that "his hay-magazines took fire,"--and the Schloss itself, which
was adjacent to them, took fire (a sad thing to Friedrich, who
commanded pause, that they might try quenching, but in vain):--and
that, in short, Piccolomini could not stand it; but on the 4th of
May, precisely after one week's experience, hung out the white
flag, and "beat chamade at 3 of the afternoon." He was allowed to
march out next morning, with escort to Neisse; parole pledged, Not
to serve against us for two years coming.
Friedrich in person (I rather guess, Belleisle not now at his side)
saw the Garrison march out;--kept Piccolomini to dinner; a gallant
Piccolomini, who had hoped to do better, but could not. This was a
pretty enough piece of Siege-practice. Torstenson, with his Swedes,
had furiously besieged Brieg in 1642, a hundred years ago; and
could do nothing to it. Nothing, but withdraw again, futile;
leaving 1,400 of his people dead. Friedrich, the Austrian Garrison
once out, set instantly about repairing the works, and improving
them into impregnability,--our ugly friend Walrave presiding over
that operation too.
Belleisle, we may believe, so long as he continued, was full of
polite wonder over these things; perhaps had critical advices here
and there, which would be politely received. It is certain he came
out extremely brilliant, gifted and agreeable, in the eyes of
Friedrich; who often afterwards, not in the very strictest
language, calls him a great man, great soldier, and by far the
considerablest person you French have. It is no less certain,
Belleisle displayed, so far as displayable, his magnificent
Diplomatic Ware to the best advantage. To which, we perceive, the
young King answered, "Magnificent, indeed!" but would not bite all
at once; and rather preferred corresponding with Fleury, on
business points, keeping the matter dexterously hanging, in an
illuminated element of hope and contingency, for the present.
Belleisle, after we know not how many days, returned to Dresden;
perfected his work at Dresden, or shoved it well forward, with
"that Moravia" as bait. "Yes, King of Moravia, you, your Polish
Majesty, shall be!"--and it is said the simple creature did so
style himself, by and by, in certain rare Manifestoes, which still
exist in the cabinets of the curious. Belleisle next, after only a
few days, went to Munchen; to operate on Karl Albert Kur-Baiern, a
willing subject. And, in short, Belleisle whirled along
incessantly, torch in hand; making his "circuit of the German
Courts,"--details of said circuit not to be followed by us farther.
One small thing only I have found rememberable; probably true,
though vague. At Munchen, still more out at Nymphenburg, the fine
Country-Palace not far off, there was of course long conferencing,
long consulting, secret and intense, between Belleisle with his
people and Karl Albert with his. Karl Albert, as we know, was
himself willing. But a certain Baron von Unertl--heavy-built
Bavarian of the old type, an old stager in the Bavarian Ministries
--was of far other disposition. One day, out at Nymphenburg, Unertl
got to the Council-room, while Belleisle and Company were there:
Unertl found the apartment locked, absolutely no admittance; and
heard voices, the Kurfurst's and French voices, eagerly at work
inside. "Admit me, Gracious Herr; UM GOTTES WILLEN, me!" No
admission. Unertl, in despair, rushed round to the garden side of
the Apartment; desperately snatched a ladder, set it up to the
window, and conjured the Gracious Highness: "For the love of
Heaven, my ALLERGNADIGSTER, don't! Have no trade with those French!
Remember your illustrious Father, Kurfurst Max, in the Eugene-
Marlborough time, what a job he made of it, building actual
architecture on THEIR big promises, which proved mere acres of gilt
balloon!" [Hormayr, Anemonen (cited above),
ii. 152.] Words terribly prophetic; but they were without effect on
Karl Albert.
The rest of Belleisle's inflammatory circuitings and extensive
travellings, for he had many first and last in this matter, shall
be left to the fancy of the reader. May 18th, he made formal Treaty
with Karl Albert: Treaty of Nymphenburg, "Karl Albert to be Kaiser;
Bavaria, with Austria Proper added to it, a Kingdom; French armies,
French moneys, and other fine items." [Given in Adelung, ii. 359.]
Treaty to be kept dead secret; King Friedrich, for the present,
would not accede. [Given in Adelung, ii. 421.] June 25th, after
some preliminary survey of the place, Belleisle made his Entry into
Frankfurt: magnificent in the extreme. And still did not rest
there; but had to rush about, back to Versailles, to Dresden,
hither, thither: it was not till the last day of July that he
fairly took up his abode in Frankfurt; and--the Election eggs, so
to speak, being now all laid--set himself to hatch the same.
A process which lasted him six months longer, with curious
phenomena to mankind. Not till the middle of August did he bring
those 80,000 Armed Frenchmen across the Rhine, "to secure peace in
those parts, and freedom of voting." Not till November 4th had
Kur-Sachsen, with the Nightmares, finished that important problem
of the Bohemian Vote, "Bohemian Vote EXCLUDED for this time;"--
after which all was ready, though still not in the least hurry.
November 20th, came the first actual "Election-Conference (WAHL-
CONFERENZ)" in the Romer at Frankfurt; to which succeeded Two
Months more of conferrings (upon almost nothing at all):
and finally, 24th January, 1742, came the Election itself, Karl
Albert the man; poor wretch, who never saw another good day in
this world.
Belleisle during those six months was rather high and airy,
extremely magnificent; but did not want discretion: "more like a
Kurfurst than an Ambassador;" capable of "visiting Kur-Mainz, with
servants purposely in OLD liveries,"--where the case needed old,
where Kur-Mainz needed snubbing; not otherwise. [Buchholz, ii.
57 n.] "The Marechal de Belleisle," says an Eye-witness, of some
fame in those days, "comes out in a variety of parts, among us
here; plays now the General, now the Philosopher, now the Minister
of State, now the French Marquis;--and does them all to perfection.
Surely a master in his art. His Brother the Chevalier is one of the
sensiblest and best-trained persons you can see. He has a
penetrating intellect; is always occupied, and full of great
schemes; and has nevertheless a staid kind of manner. He is one of
the most important Personages here; and in all things his Brother's
right hand." [Von Loen, Kleine Schriften
(cited in Adelung, ii. 400).] In Frankfurt, both Belleisle and his
Brother were much respected, the Brother especially, as men of
dignified behavior and shining qualities; but as to their hundred
and thirty French Lords and other Valetry, these by their
extravagances and excesses (AUSSCHWEIFUNGEN) made themselves
extremely detestable, it would appear. [Buchholz, ii. 54;
in Adelung, ii. 398 n., a French BROCARD on the subject, of
sufficient emphasis.]
