12th-15th Jan., 1741. King Friedrich to M. le Comte Algarotti (gone on a journey). "Ottmachau, 17th January, 1741" (same day as the above to Jordan). "I have begun to settle the Figure of Prussia: the outline will not be altogether regular; for the whole of Silesia is taken, except one miserable hamlet (bicoque), which perhaps I shall have to keep blockaded till next spring. "Up to this time the whole conquest has cost only Twenty Men and Two Officers, one of whom is the poor De Rège, whom you have seen at Berlin”—De Rège, Engineer Major, killed here at Ottmachau in Schwerin's late tussle. "You are greatly wanting to me here. So soon as you have talked that business over, write to me about it." (What is the business? Whither is the dusky Swan of Padua gone?) "In all these three hundred miles I have found no human creature comparable to the Swan of Padua. I would willingly give ten cubic leagues of ground for a genius similar to yours. But I perceive I was about entreating you to return fast, and join me again, while you are not yet arrived where your errand was. Make haste to arrive, then; to execute your commission, and fly back to me. I wish you had a Fortunatus Hat; it is the only thing defective in your outfit. "Adieu, dear Swan of Padua; think, I pray you, sometimes of those who are getting themselves cut in slices" (échiner, chined) "for the sake of glory here, and, above all, do not forget your friends who think a thousand times of you.-FÉDÉRIC.”7 The object of the dear Swan's journey, or even the whereabouts of it, can not be discovered without difficulty, and is not much worth discovering. "Gone to Turin," we at last make out, "with secret commissions:"8 desirable to sound the Sardinian Majesty a little, who is Door-keeper of the Alps between France and Austria, and opens to the best bidder? No great things of a meaning in this mission, we can guess, or Algarotti had not gone upon it, though he is handy, at least, for keeping it unnoticed by the Gazetteer species. Nor was the Swan successful, it would seem; the more the pity for our Swan! However, he comes back safe; attends Friedrich in Silesia, and in the course of next month readers will see him, if any reader wished it. 7 Euvres de Frédéric, xviii., 28. 8 Denina: La Prusse Littéraire (Berlin, 1790), i., 198. A poor vague Book, only worth consulting in case of extremity. 12th-15th Jan., 1741. CHAPTER VI. NEISSE IS BOMBARDED. NEISSE, which Friedrich calls a paltry hamlet (bicoque), is a pleasant, strongly-fortified Town, then of perhaps 6 or 8000 inhabitants, now of double that number; stands on the left or north bank of the Neisse-at this day, on both banks; pleasant broad streets, high strong houses, mostly of stone; pleasantly encircled by green Hills, northward buttresses of the Giant Mountains, itself standing low and level, on rich ground much inclined to be swampy. A lesser river, Biele, or Bielau, coming from the South, flows leisurely enough into the Neisse, filling all the Fortress ditches by the road. Orchard-growth and meadowgrowth are lordly (herrlich); a land rich in fruit, and flowing with milk and honey; much given to weaving, brewing, stocking-making; and, moreover, trades greatly in these articles, and, above all, in Wine. Yearly on St. Agnes Day, "21st January, if not a Sunday," there is a Wine-fair here; Hungarian, of every quality, from Tokay downward, is gathered here for distribution into Germany and all the Western Countries. While you drink your Tokay, know that it comes through Neisse. St. Agnes Day falls but unhandily this year, and I think the Fair will, as they say, ausbleiben, or not be held. Neisse is a Nest of Priests (Pfaffen-Nest), says Friedrich once, which came in this way. About 600 years ago, an ill-conditioned Heir-Apparent of the Liegnitz Sovereign to whom it then belonged quarreled with his Father, quarreled slightly with the Universe, and, after moping about for some time, went into the Church. Having Neisse for an appanage already his own, he gave it to the Bishop of Breslau, whose, in spite of the old Father's protestings, it continued, and continues. Bishops of Breslau are made very grand by it; Bishops of Breslau have had their own difficulties here. Thus once (in our Perkin-Warbeck time, A.D. 1497), a Duke of Oppeln, sitting in some Official Conclave or meeting of magnates here-zealous for country 12th-15th Jan., 1741. privilege, and feeling himself insufferably put upon-started up, openly defiant of Official men, glaring wrathfully into Duke Casimir of Teschen (Bohemian-Austrian Captain of Silesia), and into the Bishop of Breslau himself; nay, at last, flashed out his sword upon those sublime dignitaries; for which, by-and-by, he had to lay his head on the block, in the great square here, and died penitent, we hope. This place, my Dryasdust informs me, had many accidents by floodage and by fire; was seized and reseized in the Thirty-Years War especially, at a great rate: Saxon Arnheim, Austrian Holk, Swedish Torstenson; no end to the battering and burning poor Neisse had, to the big ransoms "in new Reichsthalers and 300 casks of wine." But it always rebuilt itself, and began business again. How happy when it could get under some effectual Protector of the Liegnitz line, of the Austrian-Bohemian line, and this or the other battering, just suffered, was to be the last for some time! Here, again, is a battering coming on it, the first of a series that are now imminent. The reader is requested to look at Neisse; for, besides the Tokay wine, there will things arrive there. Neisse River, let us again mention, is one of Four bearing that name, and all belonging to the Oder: could not they be labelled, then, or numbered, in some way? This Neisse, which we could call Neisse the First (and which careful readers may as well make acquaintance with on their Map, where too they will find Neisse the Second, "the Wüthende or Roaring Neisse," and two others which concern us less), rises in the "Western Snow-Mountains (Schneegebirge)," Southwestern or Glatz district of the Giant Mountains; drains Glatz County and grows big there; washes the Town of Glatz; then eastward by Ottmachau, by Neisse Town; whence turning rather abruptly north or northeast, it gets into the Oder not far south of Brieg. Neisse as a Place of Arms, the chief Fortress of Silesia and the nearest to Austria, is extremely desirable for Friedrich; but there is, no hope of it without some kind of Siege, and Friedrich determines to try in that way. From Ottmachau, accordingly, and from the other sides, the Siege-Artillery being now at hand, due force gathers itself round Neisse, Schwerin taking charge ; and for above a week there is demonstrating and posting, summoning and parleying; and then, for three days, with pauses intervening, there is extremely furious bombardment, red-hot at times: "Will you yield, then?" with steady negative from Neisse. Friedrich's quarter is at Ottmachau, twelve miles off, from which he can ride over to see and superintend. The fury of his bombardment, which naturally grieved him, testifies the intensity of his wish. But it was to no purpose. The Commandant, Colonel von Roth (the same who was proposed for Breslau lately, a wise head and a stout, famed in defenses), had "poured water on his ramparts" after well repairing them-made his ramparts all ice and glass-and done much else. Would the reader care to look for a moment? Here, from our waste Paper-masses, is abundance, requiring only to be abridged: "January, 1741: Monday, 9th-Wednesday, 11th. Monday, 9thday when that sputter at Ottmachau began-Prussian light-troops appeared transiently on the heights about Neisse for the first time; directly on sight of whom, Commandant Roth assembled the Burghers of the place, took a new Oath of Fidelity from one and all, admonished them to do their utmost, as they should see him do. The able-bodied and likeliest of them (say about 400) he has had arranged into Militia Companies, with what drill there could be in the interim; and since his coming, has employed every moment in making ready. Wednesday, 11th, he locks all the Gates, and stands strictly on his guard. The inhabitants are mostly Catholic, with sumptuous Bishops of Breslau, with Kreuzherren (imaginary Teutsch or other Ritters with some reality of money), with Jesuit Dignitaries, Church and Quasi-Church Officialities, resident among them; population, high and low, is inclined by creed to the Queen of Hungary. Commandant Roth has only 1200 regular soldiers; at the outside, 1600 men under arms; but he has gunpowder, he has meal; experience also, and courage; and hopes these may suffice him for a time. One of the most determined Commandants; expert in the defense of strong places. A born Silesian (not Saxon, as some think), and is of the Augsburg Confession; but that circumstance is not important here, though at Breslau Browne thought it was. Thursday, 12th. The Prussians, in regular force, appear on the Kaninchen Berg (Cony Hill, so-called from its rabbits), south of the River, evidently taking post there. Roth fires a signal shot; the Southern Suburbs of Neisse, as preappointed, go up in flame, crackle high and far, 15th Jan., 1741. in a lamentable manner (erbärmlich), through the grim winter air." This is the day Friedrich came over to Ottmachau, and settled the sputter there. "Next day, and next again, the same phenomena at Neisse, the Prussians edging ever nearer, building their batteries, preparing to open their cannonade; whereupon Roth burns the remaining Suburbs with lamentable crackle: on all sides now are mere ashes. Bishop's Mill, Franciscan Cloister, Bishop's Pleasure-garden, with its summer-houses; Bishop's Hospital, and several Churches: Roth can spare none of these things, with the Prussians nestling there. Surely the Bishop himself, respectable Cardinal Graf von Sinzendorf, had better get out of these localities while time yet is?" "Saturday, 14th," that was the day Friedrich, at Ottmachau, wrote as above to Jordan (Letter No. 1), while the Neisse Suburbs crackled lamentably twelve miles off. "Schwerin gets order to break up, in person, from Ottmachau to-morrow, and begin actual business on the Kaninchen Hill yonder. "Sunday, 15th. Schwerin does; marches across the River; takes post on the south side of Neisse: notable to the Sunday rustics. Nothing but burnt villages and black walls for Schwerin in that Cony-Hill quarter and all round; and Roth salutes him with one twenty-four pounder, which did no hurt. And so the cannonade begins, Sunday, 15th, and intermittently, on both sides of the River, continues, always bursting out again at intervals, till Wednesday; a mere preliminary cannonade on Schwerin's part, making noise, doing little hurt; intended more to terrify, but without effect that way on Roth or the Townsfolk. The poor Bishop did, on the second day of it, come out and make application to Schwerin; was kindly conducted to his Majesty, who happened to be over there; was kept to dinner, and easily had leave to retire to Freywalde, a Country-House he has in the safe distance.1 There let him be quiet, well out of these confused batterings and burnings of property. ་ "His Majesty's head-quarter is at Ottmachau, but in two hours he can be here any day, and looks into every thing; sorry that the cannonade does not yet answer. And remnants of suburbs are still crackling into flame; high Country-houses of Kreuzherren, of Jesuits, a fanatic people seemingly all set against us. If Neisse will not yield of good-will, needs is it must be beaten to powder,' wrote his Majesty to Jordan in these circumstances, as we read above. Roth is sorry to observe the Prussians have still one good Bishop's-mansion, in a place called the Karlau (Karl-Meadow), with the Bishop's winter fuel already stacked there, but strives to take order about the same. 1 Helden-Geschichte, i., 683. |