sian forces at Eisenach and Gotha were too weak to prevent the Hanoverians from forcing their way through. But the Prussian Government did not choose to consent to these terms; at the same time, it was of the utmost importance to it that the Hanoverians should be detained somehow or other for a short time in their present encampment, since the railway from Magdeburg by Halle to Gotha would enable it in a very brief space of time to concentrate at Gotha a force which would effectually bar the Hanoverian march. The ruse, therefore, was resorted to of sending to the Hanoverian advance the lying telegram bearing the signature of Major von Jacobi. It is not certainly known what part was played by the Duke of Saxe-Coburg, or by the Prussian authorities with whom he was in constant communication, in this not very creditable stratagem; but there is a significant old proverb which bids us ask, when we wish to ascertain the authorship of any act, "To whom is it for good?" However this may be, the Hanoverians drew off, on the receipt of the telegram, and retired upon their main body at Langensalza. On the night of the 24th, a messenger was sent from Langensalza to the Bavarian headquarters at Bamberg, to report the situation of the Hanoverian army, and to solicit speedy assistance. Prince Charles coolly replied that an army of 19,000 men ought to be able to cut its way through, and only sent forward a few detachments for a short distance along the road to Gotha. On this, Captain Hozier remarks, "This procedure of Prince Charles of Bavaria was alone sufficient to condemn him as a general. He held his army inactive, when, by a bold advance, not only could he have insured the safety of the Hanoverians, but could in all probability have captured the whole of his enemy's troops at Gotha. Thus he would have saved 19,000 allies, have captured 6,000 of his adversary's men, have turned the scale of war by 25,000 combatants, and have preserved to his own cause a skilled and highlytrained army, proud of high and ancient military reputation, which the faults of politicians had placed in a most precarious and unfortunate position."

The King waited where he was during the 25th and 26th, engaged in pour-parlers, which led to nothing, with the Prussian Lieutenant-General von Alvensleben, who had been sent to negotiate from Berlin. Thus his only hope of escape vanished; for during the 25th troops were being hurried up in all directions to Gotha and Eisenach, so that by the evening of that day there were already thirteen Prussian battalions at Eisenach, and twelve at Gotha, besides cavalry and artillery. MajorGeneral Flies arrived at Gotha on the 26th, and took the command, intending to attack the Hanoverians on the Perhaps it was well for their fame that he did so, since the time for forcing their way to the southward was probably now gone by, and, with a force of 12,000 enemies entrenched at Gotha, and another force of 13,000 encamped a few miles to the westward, the chance was but trifling that a small army of 18,000 men, ill fed and short of ammunition, would be able to fight its way to the southward in spite of them. Had the Hanoverian army been left to itself, it would either have capitulated

morrow.

in a few days to a superior force, or, if it had attempted to continue its march, it would probably have been attacked on both flanks, and could scarcely have escaped a great disaster. As it was, Major-General Flies gave them the opportunity of winning a victory, which, in the long night of political extinction that has followed, must have often cheered the downcast spirits of Hanoverian patriots, when brooding indignantly over the mixture of fraud, rapine, and violence to which the independence of their country succumbed.

Flies had moved his force out from Gotha on the evening of the 26th, and bivouacked at Werza; whence he advanced in the direction of Langensalza early on the morning of the 27th. Through some mismanagement or misconception, such as did not often occur on the Prussian side, the real superiority of force which the Prussians could by this time have brought to bear against the Hanoverians was not made available, and Flies was about to attack an army considerably more numerous than his own. Misleading reports respecting the movements both of the Bavarians and Hanoverians had reached Von Falkenstein at Eisenach. He therefore ordered Goeben with his division to watch the Bavarians, who were supposed to be advancing from the south, and detached Manteuffel towards Mühlhausen, a town between Göttingen and Langensalza, under the erroneous belief that the Hanoverians were now retreating northwards, and meant to seek a strong position among the Harz Mountains. General Arenttschildt entertained no such intention, but, expecting to be attacked from Gotha, he had drawn up his little army on the northern bank of the Unstrut, a marshy stream which runs past Langensalza in a general easterly direction, running to join the Saale near Leipsic. The Prussians advanced gallantly, drove in the Hanoverian outposts on the right or south bank of the Unstrut, and attempted to cross the river. But the Hanoverian artillery, judiciously posted and well served, defeated this attempt. A number of partial actions, in which great gallantry was exhibited on both sides, occurred in different parts of the field. The Prussians, however, being decidedly over-matched, were unable to gain ground; and about one o'clock, General Arenttschildt ordered his brigade commanders to cross the Unstrut, and assume the offensive. This was doneineffectually for a time on the Hanoverian left, where the swampy nature of the ground by the river presented great obstacles to an advance-but with complete success on their right, where General Bülow drove the Prussians steadily before him, and was able to use his superior cavalry with considerable effect. The excellent military qualities of the Prussian soldier, and the deadly rapidity of fire of the needle-gun, prevented the retreat from becoming a disaster. However, General Flies had no choice but to order a general retreat, and fall back in the direction of Gotha. Two guns and two thousand stand of arms fell into the hands of the victors, whose cavalry continued the pursuit till about half-past four, making many prisoners.

In this battle of Langensalza, the Hanoverians sustained a heavier loss in killed and wounded than the

A.D. 1866.]

Prussians, doubtless owing to the comparative inefficiency of their firearms. The loss on their side amounted to 1,429; on the Prussian side it did not much exceed 800; but the Hanoverians claimed to have captured upwards of 900 prisoners, besides the two guns already mentioned.

On the day after the battle, the King of Hanover, still at Langensalza, published a general order, thanking the troops for the gallantry they had displayed. Nevertheless, a council of war being held in the course of the day by the principal officers of the army, the situation of affairs appeared to them to be desperate, and they reported their opinion to the blind King. How far Prussian promises and inducements may have been influential in producing this unanimity among the officers, there are no means of judging. It is certain that the soldiers, although insufficiently fed, and exhausted by the great heat and the hardships of their unaccustomed life, were extremely dissatisfied at the prospect of a capitulation, and demanded to be again led against the enemy. Perhaps a determined pressing onwards might, since the force at Gotha had been defeated, have brought at least a considerable portion of the army to a place of safety, within reach or supporting distance of the Bavarians. But it is idle to speculate in this direction, and the King took the only course which could be considered prudent, under the circumstances, in authorising General Arenttschildt to treat for a capitulation. Von Falkenstein required an unconditional surrender, and a convention was drawn up accordingly; but on the 29th General Manteuffel arrived from Berlin, empowered by the King to grant additional articles, which were more honourable and more favourable to the Hanoverians. The King of Prussia commanded that, in the first place, his highest recognition of the gallant conduct of the Hanoverian troops should be recorded. It was then agreed that the King of Hanover, with the Crown Prince and his suite, should be at liberty to fix his royal residence anywhere he pleased, except in Hanover, his private property remaining at his high disposal. The officers were to retain their arms and horses: all other arms, horses, and ammunition were to be surrendered; and both officers and men were to engage not to serve against Prussia. This convention, thus modified, was signed at Langensalza, on the 29th June, by the Lieutenant-Generals Arenttschildt and Manteuffel.

It is needless to observe that this convention embodied the last public act which Hanover was destined to execute as an independent state. The Prussians overran the kingdom, and took its administration into their own hands. With what unblushing disregard to justice and international right all this was brought about, even the meagre sketch which has been given in these pages may sufficiently indicate. Yet it is hazardous for an Englishman to pronounce a decided opinion upon the whole transaction. On the one hand, an ancient ruling house, of an antiquity and dignity beside which the more modern glories of the Hohenzollerns have a parvenu and upstart look, was rudely hurled from the throne; the capital became a provincial town; the nobles were hurt in their

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feelings of honour, and the honest peasantry in their simple loyalty, by the violent transfer of their allegiance to a foreign sovereign. On the other hand, the commercial classes, with which in Hanover, as in every other country, the prosperity of trade is a paramount consideration, were said to be satisfied with the change, on account of the increased activity which the union with Prussia promoted in the pursuits of trade and industry. To this it must be added, that with so dangerous a neighbour as France, every sensible Hanoverian must feel some satisfaction for the loss of independence in the thought that Germany now offers a compact and united front, where formerly all was weakness and division. Till France has beaten her sword into a ploughshare, it is probable that no serious effort will ever be made to vindicate for Hanover, now an integral part of the Prussian state, any portion of her old independence.

No decided answer having been given by the Government of Hesse Cassel to the summons sent by Prussia on the 15th inst., war was immediately declared, and General Beyer was ordered to advance with his division from Wetzlar upon Cassel. Breaking up from Wetzlar on the night of the 16th, one of the Prussian brigades reached Cassel by three forced marches on the 19th, and the remainder on June 20. The Elector, taken by surprise, had only time to give directions to his small army to march upon Fulda and Hanau. The soldiers showed an excellent spirit, and obeyed the order strictly; many even joined their respective corps after they had reached Frankfort and Mayence. Thus the army was saved, though it was but ill provided with munitions of war. The Elector himself remained at his country palace of Wilhelmshöhe (memorable a few years later as the place of captivity of the prisoner of Sedan), where he underwent many vexations and annoyances. He was eventually transferred, under arrest, to Bremen, by the express order of the King of Prussia, vainly protesting against the violence to which he was subjected. Cholera having broken out at Bremen, the Elector was subsequently removed to Stettin.

Alone among the three Princes to whom the imperious Prussian summons of June 15 was addressed, the King of Saxony was not taken unprepared. He met the Prussian demand with a direct and unqualified refusal, and immediately put his army in motion to join Marshal Benedek. Orders were given for the dismantling of the railway that enters Saxony out of Prussia, near the course of the Elbe, and for the destruction of the bridge over that river at Rieza. The Saxon pioneers set to work on the night of the 15th, but had made no great progress, when the advanced guard of General Herwarth's army was upon them, early on the morning of the 16th, and compelled them to desist. The rails had been taken up in many places, but not bent or carried away, and only a portion of the bridge of Rieza had been destroyed by the flames, so that the clever workmen of the Prussian railway and pontoon corps soon brought both railway and bridge into working order again. On the same day Prince Frederick Charles, moving from Görlitz, crossed the Saxon frontier, and advanced upon

Dresden. A junction was effected between the two armies near Meissen, and both marched to Dresden, which was occupied without opposition on the 18th. By the 20th June, the whole of Saxony (with the exception of the virgin fortress of Königstein in the Saxon Switzerland) was in the power of the Prussians. The war had lasted but five days, and already the vigour and rapidity with which Prussia dealt her blows had secured for her advantages of inestimable value. Her right flank was now perfectly secure from attack, through the prostration of the power of Hanover and Hesse Cassel; the prestige and the terror of her arms were greatly enhanced by the occupation of the beautiful capital of Saxony; and the

culminated in the present situation of affairs, and ascribed the entire guilt of the war to the unprincipled ambition of Prussia. "While engaged," he said, “in a work of peace, which was undertaken for the purpose of laying the foundation for a constitution which should augment the unity and power of the empire, and at the same time to secure to my several countries and peoples free internal development, my duties as a sovereign have obliged me to place my whole army under arms. On the frontiers of my empire, in the south and in the north, stand the armies of two enemies, who have allied with the intention of breaking the power of Austria as a great European state." The hostility of Italy was at least in

The

conquest of that kingdom had rendered possible the union of two Prussian armies, and secured a corresponding shortening and strengthening of her lines. discipline maintained in the Prussian columns entering Saxony was perfect; there was no plundering, and the least possible amount of damage to property; hence an amicable feeling soon sprang up between the invaders and the natives, and the good-natured soldiers might frequently be seen helping to carry the peasants' hay for them.

There was no formal declaration of war on the part of Austria or Prussia; but an Austrian manifesto appeared on the 17th, and a Prussian on the 18th June. On the 20th, Italy declared war against Austria and Bavaria.

In the Austrian manifesto, addressed "To my peoples," the Emperor retraced the series of events which had

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telligible; she desired to deprive Austria of a portion of her territory, and made no secret of the fact. As for Prussia, events had proved that she substituted open violence for right and justice, and was determined to break down all barriers in Germany which obstructed the path of her inordinate ambition. The most pernicious of wars, a war of Germans against Germans, has become inevitable, and I now summon before the tribunal of history-before an eternal and all-powerful God-those persons who have brought it about, and make them responsible for the misfortunes which may fall on individuals, families, districts, and countries. We shall not be alone in the struggle which is about to take place. The princes and peoples of Germany know that their liberty and independence are menaced by a Power which listens but to the dictates of egotism, and is under the

concluded by bidding them go forward with their old battle-cry, "With God for King and Fatherland! Long live the King!"

The Prince broke up his head-quarters at Görlitz on the 22nd June, and marched thence with the main body of the First Army direct for Zittau, the last town in Saxony towards Bohemia. The passes through the mountains were found to be undefended; in fact, the rapid movements of the Prussians had left no time for Benedek to take the necessary measures. Count Clam Gallas, in command of the 1st Austrian Corps, numbering about 60,000 men, was posted to the south of the mountains, on the line of the Iser (a river which runs into the Elbe at Brandeis, not many miles from Prague), prepared in that advantageous position to stop, or delay as much as possible, the advance of the invaders. At the toll-house which marks the frontier of Bohemia, the Prince stationed himself, on the morning of June 23, to watch his troops march over the border. "As the leading ranks of each battalion arrived at the first point on the road from which they caught sight of the Austrian colours that showed the frontier, they raised a cheer, which was quickly caught up by those in the rear, and was repeated again and again till, when the men came up to the toll-house, and saw their soldier Prince standing on the border line, it swelled into a roar of rapturous delight, which only ceased to be replaced by a martial song that was caught up by each battalion as it streamed into Bohemia. Their chief himself stood by the roadside, calm and collected; but he gazed proudly on the passing sections, and well he might, for never did an army cross an enemy's frontier better equipped, better cared for, or with a higher courage, than that which marched out of Saxony that day."*

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Our readers will not expect that we should enter into a minute description of the various combats and strategic movements which ensued, till the day on which the opposing hosts were confronted for the bitter but decisive struggle of Sadowa. Such a description belongs to purely military history. It may be found in the pages of Captain Hozier's interesting work, or in those of the Swiss Colonel Rüstow's 'Krieg von 1866." The general result of the skirmishes and severer conflicts which occurred, between the First Army and the Army of the Elbe on the one side, and the forces under the Count Clam Gallas on the other, from the 23rd to the 29th of June, may be summed up in a few sentences. The first action was fought at Liebenau, where some Austrian cavalry were driven back on their supports. On the same day (June 26) a severe action was fought at the town of Podoll; there was hard fighting in the streets, and from house to house; but the fatal superiority of the needle-gun soon asserted itself, and the Austrians were driven out of the place, with a loss of several hundreds in killed and wounded, and 500 unwounded prisoners. The Prussian medical men, who tended both friend and foe in the field hospitals with equal zeal and humanity, declared that the Austrian wounded on this occasion were in the proportion of five to one of

Hozier,

the Prussian. A more important action was fought at München-grätz (June 28), in which the Austrians were defeated, with the loss of 1,000 prisoners. Türnau— a town which had fallen into the hands of the Prussian advanced guard immediately after the skirmish of Liebenau-Podoll, and München-grätz, are all towns situated on the Iser, and the consequence of the Prussian successes in these three actions was that Count Clam Gallas was forced back from the whole line of the Iser, and

compelled to retire on Gitschin. Here he took up a strong position on some hilly ground to the north and west of that town, having the little river Czidlina behind him. A Saxon brigade stood in line with the Austrians on this occasion, and fought most gallantly. LieutenantGeneral Tümpling had the direction of the main Prussian attack, which was made late in the afternoon of June 29. For some time the resistance of the Austrians and Saxons was stubborn, and the battle remained stationary; gradually, however, fresh troops were brought into action on the Prussian side in overwhelming numbers, and the enemy was dislodged from the hills and woods to which he had clung, losing fearfully in his retreat, from the rapid discharges of the needle-gun. The Austrians, however, withdrew in good order across the Czidlina, and re-formed behind Gitschin. From the whole Prussian line, now crowning everywhere the heights from which their foes had been driven, there thundered down, about nine o'clock in the evening, the shout of victory. But even with this success Prince Frederick Charles was not content, but sent several regiments in, later in the night, to storm Gitschin. There was some street fighting, but the place was not firmly held; and, on the morning of the 30th June, Gitschin was completely in the power of the Prussians, and Clam Gallas was in full retreat upon Nechanitz. The Austrians and Saxons are said to have lost 7,000 prisoners on this disastrous day, besides 3,000 killed and wounded. Many of the regiments that fought against Prussia in this series of actions were Italian, and it is no subject of surprise if we find that they fought with little enthusiasm, and allowed themselves rather easily to be taken prisoners. It could not be expected that they would contend with much spirit against the Power which was fighting the battles of their own countrymen.

While the First Army and the Army of the Elbe were thus advancing from the north, the Second Army was moving from Silesia, under circumstances of far greater difficulty and peril, to effect a junction with them in Bohemia. The Crown Prince had been appointed in May to the command of the Second Army, which consisted of the corps of Guards, and the 1st, 5th, and 6th Army Corps of the line, and, when about to take the field, mustered 125,000 strong. The Crown Prince fixed his head-quarters at Neisse, with the object, as has been already explained, of disguising from the Austrians his intention of leading his army across the Sudetic ranges from the county of Glätz. Between the 10th and the 20th June, the dense masses of the Austrian army (with the exception of the 1st Corps, under Count Clam Gallas, which had been already detached in advance to