2d Jan., 1741.

himself with it, taps them on the shoulder at this instant; mildly constrains the six into their guard-house; the drawbridge falls; 400 Prussian grenadiers take quiet possession of the Dom Island: King may return to the Scultet Garden, having quickened the lazy hours in this manner. To such of the Canons as he came upon his Majesty was most polite, they most submiss. The six soldiers of the drawbridge,. having spoken a little loud-still more, a too zealous beef-eater of old Schaffgotsch's found here, who had been very loud-were put under arrest, but more for form's sake, and were let go in a day or two."

Nothing could be gentler on Friedrich's part, and on that of his Two Colonels, than this delicate operation throughout; and at 4 P.M., after thirty hours of waiting, it is done, and nobody's skin scratched. Old Syndic Gutzmar and the Town-Rath, urged by perils and a Town Population who are Protestant, have signed the Surrender with good-will, at least with resignation, and a feeling of relief. The Ober-Amt Officials have likewise had to sign, full of all the silent spleen and despondency which is natural to the situation; spleen which, in the case of old Schaffgotsch, weak with age, becomes passionately audible here and there. He will have to give account of that injurious Proclamation, or Queen's "Patent," to this King that has now come.

King enters Breslau; stays there, gracious and vigilant, Four Days (Jan. 2d-6th, 1741).

In the Royal Entrance which took place next day, note these points. Syndic Gutzmar and the Authorities came out, in grand coaches, at 8 in the morning; had to wait a while; the King, having ridden away to look after his manifold affairs, did not get back till 10. Town Guard and Garrison are all drawn out; Gates all flung open, Prussian sentries withdrawn from them, and from the Excise-houses they had seized; King's Kitchenand-Proviant Carriages (four mules to each, with bells, with uncommonly rich housings); King's Body-Coach very grand indeed, and grandly escorted, the Thirty Body-guards riding ahead; but nothing in it, only a most superfine cloak "lined wholly with ermine" flung upon the seat. Other Coaches, more or less grandly escorted; Head Cup-bearers, Seneschals, Princes, Margraves; but where is the King? King had ridden away a second time, with chief Generals, taking survey of the Town Walls,

2d-6th Jan., 1741. round as far as the Ziegel-Thor (Tile-Gate, extreme southeast, by the river-edge): he has thus made the whole circuit of Breslau ; unwearied in picking up useful knowledge, "though it was very cold," while that Procession of Coaches went on.

At noon, his Majesty, thrifty of time, did enter; on horseback, Schwerin riding with him; behind him miscellaneous chief Officers, Borck and Posadowsky among others; some miscellany of Page-people following. With this natural escort he rode in, Town-Major (commandant of Town-guard), with drawn sword, going ahead; King wore his usual Cocked Hat and practical Blue Cloak, both a little dimmed by service; but his gray horse was admirable; and Four scarlet Footmen, grand as galoon and silver fringe could make them, did the due magnificence in dress. He was very gracious, saluting to this side and to that, where he noticed people of condition in the windows. "Along Schweidnitz Street, across the Great Ring, down Albrecht Street." He alighted, to lodge, at the Count-Schlegenberg House, which used to be the Austrian Cardinal von Sinzendorf, Primate of Silesia's hired lodging: Sinzendorf's furniture is put gently aside on this new occasion. King came on the balcony, and stood there for some minutes, that every body might see him. The "immense shoutings," Dryasdust assures me, have been exaggerated; and I am warned not to believe the Kriegs-Fama such and such a Number, except after comparing it with him. That day there was dinner of more than thirty covers, Chief Syndic Gutzmar and other such guests; but as to the viands, says my friend, these, owing to the haste, were nothing to speak of.2

Dinner better and better ordered, King more and more gracious, so it continued all the four days of his Majesty's stay: on the second day he had to rise suddenly from table, and leave his guests with an apology, something having gone awry at one of the Gates-awry there, between the Town Authorities and a General Jeetz of his, who is on march across the River at this moment (on what errand we shall hear), and a little mistakes the terms. His Majesty puts Jeetz right, and even waits till he see his Brigade and him clear across. A junior Schaffgotsch,3 not the inconsolable Schaffgotsch senior, but his Nephew, was 3 Ib., ii., 159.

2 Helden-Geschichte, i., 545–548.

2d-6th Jan., 1741.

one of the guests this second day; an ecclesiastic, but of witty fashionable type, and, I think, a very worthless fellow, though of a family important in the Province. Dinner falls about noon; does not last above two hours or three, so that there is space for a ride ("to the Dom" the first afternoon, "four runners" always) and for much indoor work before the supper-hour.

As the Austrian Authorities sat silent in their place, and gave no explanation of that "Patent" affixed amid thunder and lightning, they got orders from his Majesty to go their ways next day, and went. In behalf of old President von Schaffgotsch, a chief of the Silesian Nobility, and man much loved, the Breslau people, and men from every guild and rank of society, made petition That he should be allowed to continue in his Town House here, which "first request of yours" his Majesty, with much grace, is sorry to be obliged to refuse. The suppressed and insuppressible weak indignation of old Schaffgotsch is visible on the occasion; nor, I think, does Friedrich take it ill; only sends him out of the way with it for the time. The Austrian OberAmt vanished bodily from Breslau in this manner, and never returned. Proper "War-Commission (Feld-Kriegs-Commissariat)," with Münchow, one of those skillful Cüstrin Münchows, at the top of it, organized itself instead, which, almost of necessity, became Supreme Government in a City ungoverned otherwise; and, truly, there was little regret of the Ober-Amt in Breslau, and ever less, to a marked extent, as the years went on.

On the 5th of January (fourth and last night here) his Majesty gave a grand Ball. Had hired, or Colonel Posadowsky instead of him had hired, the Assembly Rooms (Redouten-Saal) for the purpose: "Invite all the Nobility, high and low;" expense by estimate is a ducat (half-guinea) each; do it well, and his Majesty will pay. About 6 in the evening, his Majesty in person did us the honor to drive over; opened the Ball with Madam the Countess von Schlegenberg (I should guess, a Dowager Lady), in whose house he lodges. I am not aware that his Majesty danced much farther; but he was very condescending, and spoke and smiled up and down, till, about 10 P.M., an Officer came in with a Letter, which Letter his Majesty having read, and seemingly asked a question or two in regard to, put silently in

Nevertheless, after a

7th-12th Jan., 1741. his pocket, as if it were a finished thing. few minutes, his Majesty was found to have silently withdrawn, and did not return, not even to supper; perceiving which, all the Prussian official people gradually withdrew, though the dancing and supping continued not the less to a late hour.1

"Open the Austrian Mail-bag (Felleisen); see a little what they are saying over there!" Such order had evidently been given this night. In consequence of which, people wrote by Dresden, and not the direct way, in future, wishing to avoid that openable Felleisen. Next morning, January 6th, his Majesty had left for Ohlau, early I suppose, though there proved to be nothing dangerous ahead there, after all.

CHAPTER V.

FRIEDRICH PUSHES FORWARD TOWARD BRIEG AND NEISSE.

OHLAU is a pleasant little Town two marches southeast of Breslau, with the Ohlau River on one side and the Oder on the other, capable of some defense were there a garrison. Brieg, the important Fortress, still on the Oder, is some fifteen miles beyond Ohlau; after which, bending straight south and quitting Oder, Neisse, the still more important, may be thirty miles; from Breslau to Neisse, by this route (which is bow, not string), sixtyfive or seventy miles. One of my Topographers yields this Note, if readers care for it:

"Ohlau River, an insignificant drab-colored stream, rises well south of Breslau, about Strehlen; makes, at first direct westward toward the Oder, and then, when almost close upon it, breaks off to north, and saunters along, irregularly parallel to Oder, for twenty miles farther, before it can fall fairly in. To this circumstance both Breslau and a Town of Ohlau owe their existence; Towns, both of them, 'between the waters,' and otherwise well seated; Ohlau sheltering itself in the attempted outfall of its little river; Breslau clustering itself about the actual outfall: both very defensible places in the old rude time, and good for trade in all times. Both Oder and Ohlau Rivers have spilt

4 Helden-Geschichte, i., 557.

7th-12th Jan., 1741.

and spread themselves into islands and deltas a good deal at their place of meeting, and even have changed their courses, and cut out new channels for themselves, in the sandy country, making a very intricate watery net-work of a site for Breslau; and, indeed, the Ohlau River here, for centuries back, has been compelled into wide meanderings, mere filling of rampart-ditches, so that it issues quite obscurely, and in an artificial engineered condition, at Breslau.'

Ohlau had been expected to make some defense, General Browne having thrown 300 men into it, and done what he could for the works. And Ohlau did at first threaten to make some, but thought better of it overnight, and in effect made none, but was got (morning of January 9th) on the common terms by merely marching up to it in minatory posture. "Prisoners of War if you make resistance; Free Withdrawal" (Liberty to march away, arms shouldered, and not serve against us for a year) "if you have made none:" this is the common course where there are Austrian Soldiers at all; the course where none are, and only a few Syndics sit, with their Town-Key laid on the table, a prey to the stronger hand, we have already seen.

From Ohlau, proper Detachment, under General Kleist, is pushed forward to summon Brieg; Jeetz, from the other side of the river (whom we saw crossing at Breslau the other day, interrupting his Majesty's dinner), is to co-operate with Kleist in that enterprise, were the Country once cleared on his, Jeetz's, east side of Oder; especially were Namslau once had—a small Town and Castle over there, which commands the Polish and Hungarian road. Friedrich's hopes are buoyant; Schwerin is swiftly rolling forward to rightward, nothing resisting him; Detachment is gone from Schwerin, over the Hills, to Glatz (the Grafschaft, or County Glatz, an Appendage to Schlesien), under excellent. guidance; under guidance, namely, of Colonel Camas, who has just come home from his Parisian Embassy, and got launched among the wintry Mountains on a new operation, which, however, proves of non-effect for the present.1

Indeed, it is observable that southward of Breslau, the dispute, what dispute there can be, properly begins, and that Gen

1 Helden-Geschichte, i., 678; Orlich, Geschichte der beiden Schlesischen Kriege, i., 49.