8th Sept. 1759 well; after her death, not well, dark rather, and growing darker: and in about three years Schmettau followed (27th October 1775), whither that good soul had gone. The elder Brother, -who was a distinguished Academician, as well as Feldmarschall and Negotiator,—had died at Berlin, in Voltaire's time, 1751. Each of those Schmettaus had a Son, in the Prussian Army, who wrote Books, or each a short Book, still worth reading.29 But we must return. On the very morrow, September 5th, Daun heard of the glorious success at Dresden; had not expected it till about the 10th at soonest. From Triebel he sends the news at gallop to Lieberose and Soltikof: "Rejoice with us, Excellenz: did not I predict it? Silesia and Saxony both are ours; fruits chiefly of your noble successes. Oh, continue them a very little!" Umph!" answers Soltikof, not with much enthusiasm: "Send us meal steadily; and gain you, Excellenz's self, some noble success!" Friedrich did not hear of it for almost a week later; not till Monday 10th,‚—as a certain small Anecdote would of itself indicate. 66 Sunday Evening 9th September, General Finck, with his new 6,000, hastening on to join Wunsch for relief of Dresden, had got to Grossenhayn; and was putting-up his tents, when the Outposts brought him in an Austrian Officer, who had come with a Trumpeter inquiring for the General. The Austrian Officer "is in quest of proper lodgings for General Schmettau and Garrison” (fancy Finck's sudden stare!);—“last night they lodged at Gross-Döbritz, tolerably to their mind: but the question for the Escort is, Where to lodge this night, if your Excellency could advise me?" Herr, I will advise you to go back to Gross-Döbritz on the instant," answers Finck grimly; "I shall be obliged to make you and your Trumpet prisoners, otherwise!" Exit Austrian Officer. That same evening, too, Captain Kollas, carrying Schmettau's sad news to the King, calls on Finck in passing; gives dismal details of the Capitulation and the Austrian way of keeping it; filling Finck's mind with sorrowful indignation.3 30 Finck, let us add here, though in date it belongs a little elsewhere,-pushes on, not the less, to join Wunsch at Torgau; 29 Bavarian War of 1778, by the Feldmarschall's Son; and this Leben we have just been citing, by the Lieutenant-General's. 30 Tempelhof, iii. 237. 15th-25th Sept. 1759. joins Wunsch, straightway recaptures Leipzig, garrison prisoners (September 13th): recaptures all those north-western garrisons, -multitudinous Reichsfolk trying, once, to fight him, in an amazingly loud, but otherwise helpless way ('Action of Korbitz' they call it); cannonading far and wide all day, and manœuvring about, here bitten-in upon, there trying to bite, over many leagues of Country; principally under Haddick's leading ;31 who saw good to draw-off Dresden-ward next day, and leave Finck master in those regions. To Daun's sad astonishment, -in a moment of crisis, as we shall hear farther on! So that Saxony is not yet conquered to Daun; Saxony, no, nor indeed will be:-but Dresden is. Friedrich never could recover Dresden; though he hoped, and at intervals tried hard, for a long while to come. CHAPTER VI. PRINCE HENRI MAKES A MARCH OF FIFTY HOURS; THE THE eyes of all had been bent on Dresden latterly; and there had occurred a great deal of detaching thitherward, and of marching there and thence, as we have partly seen. And the end is, Dresden, and to appearance Saxony along with it, is Daun's. Has not Daun good reason now to be proud of the cunctatory method? Never did his game stand better; and all has been gained at other people's expense. Daun has not played one trump card; it is those obliging Russians that have played all the trumps, and reduced the Enemy to nothing. Only continue that wise course,—and cart meal, with your whole strength, for the Russians!— Safe behind the pools of Lieberose, Friedrich between them and Berlin, lie those dear Russians; extending, Daun and they, like an impassable military dike, with spurs of Outposts and cunningly-devised Detachments, far and wide,-from beyond Bober or utmost Crossen on the east, to Hoyerswerda in Elbe Country on the west;-dike of eighty miles long, and in some eastern parts of almost eighty broad; so elaborate is Daun's detaching quality, in cases of moment. "The King's broken 31 Hofbericht von der am 21 September bey Korbitz (in Meissen Country, south of Elbe; Krögis too is a Village in this wide-spread Action') vorgefallenen Action (Seyfarth, Beylagen, ii. 621-630). Tempelhof, iii. 248, 258. 15th-25th Sept. 1759. Army on one side of us," calculates Daun; "Prince Henri's on the other; incommunicative they; reduced to isolation, powerless either or both of them against such odds. They shall wait there, please Heaven, till Saxony be quite finished. Zweibrück, and our Detachments and Maguires, let them finish Saxony, while Soltikof keeps the King busy. Saxony finished, how will either Prince or King attempt to recover it! After which, Silesia for us;—and we shall then be near our Magazines withal, and this severe stress of carting will abate or cease." In fact, these seem sound calculations: Friedrich is 24,000; Henri 38,000; the military dike is, of Austrians 75,000, of Russians and Austrians together 120,000. Daun may fairly calculate on succeeding beautifully this Year: Saxony his altogether; and in Silesia some Glogau or strong Town taken, and Russians and Austrians wintering together in that Country. If only Daun do not too much spare his trump cards! But there is such a thing as excess on that side too: and perhaps it is even the more ruinous kind,—and is certainly the more despised by good judges, though the multitude of bad may notice it less. Daun is unwearied in his vigilances, in his infinite cartings of provision for himself and Soltikof,-long chains of Magazines, big and little, at Guben, at Görlitz, at Bautzen, Zittau, Friedland;—and does, aided by French Montalembert, all that man can to keep those dear stupid Russians in tune. Daun's problem of carting provisions, and guarding his multifarious posts, and sources of meal and defence, is not without its difficulties. Especially with a Prince Henri opposite; who has a superlative manœuvring talent of his own, and an industry not inferior to Daun's in that way. Accordingly, ever since August 11th-13th, when Daun moved northward to Triebel, and Henri shot-out detachments parallel to him, "to secure the Bober and our right flank, and try to regain communication with the King,"-still more, ever since August 22d, when Daun undertook that onerous cartage of meal for Soltikof as well as self, the manoeuvring and mutual fencing and parrying, between Henri and him, has been getting livelier and livelier. Fain would Daun secure his numerous Roads and Magazines; assiduously does Henri threaten him in these points, and try all means to regain communication with his Brother. Daun has 15th-25th Sept. 1759. Magazines and interests everywhere; Henri is everywhere diligent to act on them. : Daun in person, ever since Kunersdorf time, has been at Triebel; Henri moved to Sagan after him, but has left a lieutenant at Schmöttseifen, as Daun has at Mark-Lissa :here are still new planets, and secondary ditto, with revolving moons. In short, it is two interpenetrating solar systems, gyrating, osculating and colliding, over a space of several thousand square miles,—with an intricacy, with an embroiled abstruseness Ptolemean or more! Which indeed the soldier who would know his business, -(and not knowing it, is not he of all solecisms in this world the most flagrant ?),―ought to study, out of Tempelhof and the Books; but which, except in its results, no other reader could endure. The result we will make a point of gathering: carefully riddled-down, there are withal in the details five or six little passages which have some shadow of interest to us; these let us note, and carefully omit the rest: Of Fouquet at Landshut. 'Fouquet was twice attacked at Lands'hut; but made a lucky figure both times. Attack first was by 'Deville; attack second by Harsch. Early in July, not long after 'Friedrich had left for Schmöttseifen, rash Deville (a rash creature, ' and then again a laggard, swift where he should be slow, and vice versa) again made trial on Landshut and Fouquet; but was beautifully dealt with; taken in rear, in flank, or forget how taken, but sent galloping through the Passes again, with a loss of many Prisoners, most of his furnitures, and all his presence of mind: whom Daun thereupon summoned out of those parts, “Hitherward to Mark-Lissa ' with your Corps; leave Fouquet alone !" 'After which, Fouquet, things being altogether quiet round him, was summoned, with most part of his force, to Schmöttseifen; left 'General Goltz (a man we have met before) to guard Landshut; and was in fair hopes of proving helpful to Prince Henri,—when Harsch' (Harsch by himself this time, not Harsch and Deville as usual) 'thought here was his opportunity; and came with a great apparatus, as if to 'swallow Landshut whole. So that Fouquet had to hurry-off rein'forcements thither; and at length to go himself, leaving Stutterheim ' in his stead at Schmöttseifen. Goltz, however, with his small hand'ful, stood well to his work. And there fell-out sharp fencings at Landshut :-especially one violent attack on our outposts; the Aus'trians quite triumphant; till "a couple of cannon open on them from 'the next Hill,"-till some violent Werner or other charge-in upon 1 Hofbericht von den Unternehmungen des Fouquetschen Corps, im Julius 1759: in Seyfarth, Beylagen, ii. 582-586. 15th-25th Sept. 1759. 'them with Prussian Hussars ;-a desperate tussle, that special one of 'Werner's; not only sabres flashing furiously on both sides, but butts of pistols and blows on the face: till, in short, Harsch finds he can 'make nothing of it, and has taken himself away, before Fouquet 'come.' This Goltz, here playing Anti-Harsch, is the Goltz who, with Winterfeld, Schmettau and others, was in that melancholy Zittau march, of the Prince of Prussia's, in 1757: it was Goltz by whom the King sent his finishing compliment, "You deserve, all of "you, to be tried by Court-Martial, and to lose your heads!" Goltz is mainly concerned with Fouquet and Silesia, in late times; and we shall hear of him once again. Fouquet did not return to Schmöttseifen; nor was molested again in Landshut this year, though he soon had to detach, for the King's use, part of his Landshut force, and had other Silesian business which fell to him. Fortress of Peitz. The poor Fortress of Peitz was taken again ;— do readers remember it, "on the day of Zorndorf," last year? 'This ' year, a fortnight after Kunersdorf, the same old Half-pay Gentleman ' with his Five-and-forty Invalids have again been set adrift, "with the 'honours of war," poor old creatures; lest by possibility they afflict 'the dear Russians and our meal-carts up yonder.3 I will forget who 'took Peitz: perhaps Haddick, of whom we have lately heard so 'much? He was captor of Berlin in 1757, did the Inroad on Berlin 'that year, and produced Rossbach shortly after. Peitz, if he did Peitz, was Haddick's last success in the world. Haddick has been ' most industrious, "guarding the Russian flank,”-standing between 'the King and it, during that Soltikof march to Müllrose, to Lieberose; but that once done, and the King settled at Waldau, Haddick was ordered to Saxony, against Wunsch and Finck:-and readers 'know already what he made of these Two in the "Action at Korbitz, September 21st,"-and shall hear soon what befell Haddick ' himself in consequence.' Colonel Hordt is captured. 'It was in that final marching of Solti'kof to Lieberose that a distinguished Ex-Swede, Colonel Hordt, of the Free Corps Hordt, was taken prisoner. At Trebatsch; hanging on Soltikof's right flank on that occasion. It was not Haddick, it was a swarm of Cossacks who laid Hordt fast; his horse having gone to the girths in a bog. Hordt, an Ex-Swede of distinction, 6 4 a Royalist Exile, on whose head the Swedes have set a price (had gone into "Brahe's Plot," years since, Plot on behalf of the poor 'Swedish King, which cost Brahe his life),-Hordt now might have 'fared ill, had not Friedrich been emphatic, "Touch a hair of him, ' retaliation follows on the instant!" He was carried to Petersburg; "lay twenty-six months and three days" in solitary durance there; ' and we may hear a word from him again. Ziethen almost captured. 'Prince Henri, in the last days of August, 2 Tempelhof, iii. 233: 31st August. A Memoires du Comte de Hordt (à Berlin, 1789), ligible there): in Tempelhof (iii. 235-6) clear account, Ibid. 231: 27th August. |