17th May, 1742. at double-quick time for five miles, cavalry, Prussian and Austrian, bickering in the rear of him, and vanishes over the horizon toward Willimow and Haber that night the way he had come. This is the battle of Chotusitz, called also of Czaslau; Thursday, 17th May, 1742. Vehemently fought on both sides; calculated, one may hope, to end this Silesian matter? The results, in killed and wounded, were not very far from equal. Nay, in killed the Prussians suffered considerably the worse; the exact Austrian cipher of killed being 1052, while that of the Prussians was 1905, owing chiefly to those fierce ineffectual horse-charges "above 1200 Prusand bickerings on the right wing and left; sian cavalry were destroyed in these." But, in fine, the general loss, including wounded and missing, amounted on the Austrian side (prisoners being many, and deserters very many) to near seven thousand, and on the Prussian to between four and five.* Two Generals Friedrich had lost, who are not specially of our acquaintance, and several younger friends whom he loved. Rothenburg, who was in that first charge of horse with Buddenbrock, or in rescue of Buddenbrock, and did exploits, got badly hurt, as we saw -badly, not fatally, as Friedrich's first terror was—and wore his arm in a sling for a long while afterward. Buddenbrock's charge, I since hear, was ruined by the dust ;5 the King's vanguard, under Rothenburg, a "new-raised regiment of hussars in green," coming to the rescue, were mistaken for Austrians, and the cry rose, "Enemy to rear!" which brought Rothenburg his disaster. Friedrich much loved and valued the man; employed him afterward as Embassador to France and in places of trust. Friedrich's embassadors are oftenest soldiers as well: bred soldiers, he finds, if they chance to have natural intelligence, are fittest for all kinds of work. Some eighteen Austrian cannon were got; no standards, because, said the Prussians, they took the precaution of bringing none to the field, but had beforehand rolled them all up, out of harm's way. Let us close with this Fraction of Topography old and new. * Orlich, i., 255; Feldzüge der Preussen, p. 113; Stille, p. 62-71; Friedrich himself, Œuvres, ii., 121-126; and (ib., p. 145-150) the Newspaper "Relation," written also by him. 5 (Euvres de Frédéric, íi., 121. 17th May, 1742. "King Friedrich purchased Nine Acres of ground near Chotusitz to bury the slain; rented it from the proprietor for twenty-five years. I asked, Where are those nine acres; what crop is now upon them? but could learn nothing. A dim people, those poor Czech natives; stupid, dirty-skinned, ill-given; not one in twenty of them speaking any German; and our dragoman a fortuitous Jew Peddler, with the mournfulest of human faces, though a head worth twenty of those Czech ones, poor oppressed soul! The Battle-plain bears rye, barley, miscellaneous pulse, potatoes, mostly insignificant crops; the nine hero-acres in question, perhaps still of slightly richer quality, lie indiscriminate among the others, their very fence, if they ever had one, now torn away. "The Country, as you descend by dusty intricate lanes from Kuttenberg, with your left hand to the Elbe, and at length with your back to it, would be rather pretty were it well cultivated, the scraggy litter swept off, and replaced by verdure and reasonable umbrage here and there. The Field of Chotusitz, where you emerge on it, is a wide, wavy plain; the steeple of Chotusitz, and, three or four miles farther, that of Czaslau (pronounce Kotusitz, Chaslau'), are the conspicuous objects in it. The Lakes Friedrich speaks of, which covered his right and should cover ours, are not now there-'all, or mostly all, drained away eighty years ago,' answered the Czechs; answered one wiser Czech, when pressed upon and guessed upon, thereby solving the enigma which was distressful to us. Between those Lakes and the Brtlinka Brook may be some two miles; Chotusitz is on the crown of the space, if it have a crown; but there is no 'height' on it worth calling a height except by the military man; no tree or bush; no fence among the scrubby ryes and pulses; no obstacle but that Brook, which, or the hollow of which, you see sauntering steadily northward or Elbe-ward, a good distance on your left as you drive for Chotusitz and steeple. Schuschitz, a peaked brown edifice, is visible every where, well ahead and leftward, well beyond said hollow; something of wood and 'deerpark' still noticeable or imaginable yonder. “Chotusitz itself is a poor littery place, standing whitewashed, but much unswept, in two straggling rows, now wide enough apart (no Königseck need now get burnt there); utterly silent under the hot sun ; not a child looked out on us, and I think the very dogs lay wisely asleep. Church and steeple are at the farther or south end of the Village, and have an older date than 1742. High up on the steeple, mending the clock-hands or I know not what, hung in mid air one Czech, the only living thing we saw. Population may be three or four hundred, all busy with their teams or otherwise, we will hope. Czaslau, which you • Helden-Geschichte, ii., 634. 17th May, 1742. approach by something of avenues, of human roads (dust and litter still abounding), is a much grander place, say of 2000 or more; shiny, white, but also somnolent; vast market-place or central square sloping against you; two shiny Hotels on it, with Austrian uniforms loitering about; and otherwise great emptiness and silence. The shiny Hotels (shine due to paint mainly) offer little of humanly edible, and, in the interior, smells strike you as-as the oldest you have ever met before. A people not given to washing, to ventilating! Many Gospels have been preached in those parts, and abstruse Orthodoxies, sometimes with fire and sword, and no end of emphasis; but that of Soap-and-Water (which surely is as Catholic as any, and the plainest of all) has not yet got introduced there!"7 Czaslau hangs upon the English mind (were not the ignorance so total) by another tie: it is the resting-place of Zisca, whose drum, or the fable of whose drum we saw in the citadel of Glatz. Zisca was buried in his skin at Czaslau finally, in the Church of St. Peter and St. Paul there, with due epitaph, and his big mace or battle-club, mostly iron, hung honorable on the wall close by. Kaiser Ferdinand, Karl V.'s brother, on a Progress to Prag, came to lodge at Czaslau one afternoon: "What is that?" said the Kaiser, strolling over this Peter-and-Paul's Church, and noticing the mace. "Ugh! Faugh!" growled he, angrily, on hearing what, and would not lodge in the Town, but harnessed again, and drove farther that same night. The club is now gone; but Zisca's dust lies there irremovable till Doomsday, in the land where his limbs were made. A great behemoth of a war-captain; one of the fiercest, inflexiblest, ruggedest creatures ever made in the, form of man; devoured priests with appetite wherever discoverable; dishonorers of his sister; murderers of the God's-witness John Huss-them may all the Devils help! Beat Kaiser Sigismund Supra-Grammaticam again and ever again, scattering the Ritter hosts in an extraordinary manner-a Zisca conquerable only by Death, and the Pest-Fever passing that way. His birthplace, Troznow, is a village in the Budweis neighborhood, 100 miles to south. There, for three centuries after him, stood "Zisca's Oak" (under shade of which his mother, taken suddenly on the harvest-field, had borne Zisca); a weird object, gate of Heaven and of Orcus to the superstitious populations about. At midnight on the HallowEve dark smiths would repair thither to cut a twig of the Zisca Oak: twig of it, put at the right moment under your stithy, insures good luck, lends pith to arm and heart, which is already good luck ; so that a Bishop of those parts, being of some culture, had to cut it down above a hundred years ago, and build some Chapel in its stead; 7 Tourist's Note (13th September, 1858). 17th May, 1742. no Oak there now, but an orthodox Inscription, not dated that I could see.8 Friedrich did not much pursue the Austrians after this victory; having cleared the Czaslau region of them, he continued there (at Kuttenberg mainly), and directed all his industry to getting Peace made. His experiences of Broglio, and of what help was likely to be had from Broglio-whom his Court, as Friedrich chanced to know, had ordered "to keep well clear of the King of Prussia"-had not been flattering. Beaten in this Battle, Broglio's charity would have been a weak reed to lean upon: he is happy to inform Broglio that, though kept well clear of, he is not beaten. Blustering Broglio might have guessed that he now would have to look to himself. But he did not; his eyes, naturally dim and bad, being dazzled at this time by "an ever-glorious victory" (so Broglio thinks it) of his own achieving. Broglio, some couple of days after Czaslau, had marched hastily out of Prag for Budweis quarter, where Lobkowitz and the Austrians were unexpectedly bestirring themselves, and threatening to capture that "Castle of Frauenberg" (mythic old Hill-castle among woods), Broglio's chief post in those regions. Broglio, May 24th, has fought a handsome skirmish (thanks partly to Belleisle, who chanced to arrive from Frankfurt just in the nick of time, and joined Broglio)-skirmish of Sahay, magnified in all the French gazettes into a Victory of Sahay--victory little short of Pharsalia, says Friedrich; the complete account of which, forgotten now by all creatures, is to be read in him they call Mauvillon,9 and makes a pretty enough piece of fence on the small scale. Lobkowitz had to give up the Frauenberg enterprise, and cross to Budweis again, till new force should come. "Why not drive him out of Budweis," think the two French Marshals, “him and whatever force can come? If those lucky Prussians would co-operate, and those unlucky Saxons, how easy were it!" Belleisle sets off to persuade Friedrich, to persuade Saxony (and we shall see him on the route); Broglio wait› Hormayr, Esterreichischer Plutarch, iii. (3tes), 110–145. 9 Guerre de Bohème, ii., 204. 17th May-11th June, 1742. ing sublime on the hither side of the Moldau, well within wind of Budweis, till Belleisle prevail, and return with said co-operation. What became of Broglio, waiting in this sublime manner, we shall also have to see, but perhaps not for a great while yet (can not pause on such absurd phenomena yet), though Broglio's catastrophe is itself a thing imminent, and, within some ten days of that astonishing Victory of Sahay, astonishes poor Broglio the reverse way. A man born for surprises! CHAPTER XIV. PEACE OF BRESLAU. In actual loss of men or of ground, the results of that Chotusitz Affair were not of decisive nature; but it had been fought with obstinacy-with great fury on the Austrian side (who, as it were, had a bet upon it ever since February 25th), Britannic George and all the world looking on; and, in dispiritment and discredit to the beaten party, its results were considerable; the voice of all the world declaring through its Gazetteer Editors, "You can not beat these Prussians !"--voice confirmed by one's own sad thoughts. In such sounding of the rams' horns round one's Jericho there is always a strange influence (what is called panic, as if Pan or some god were in it), and one's Jericho is the apter to fall! Among the Austrian Prisoners there was a General Pallandt, mortally wounded too, whom Friedrich, according to custom, treated with his best humanity, though all help was hopeless to poor Pallandt. Calling one day at Pallandt's sick-couch, Friedrich was so sympathetic, humane, and noble that Pallandt was touched by it, and said, What a pity your noble Majesty and my noble Queen should ruin one another for a set of French intruders, who play false even to your Majesty! "False?” Friedrich inquires farther; Pallandt, a man familiar at Court, has seen a Letter from Fleury to the Queen of Hungary conclusive as to Fleury's good faith; will undertake, if permitted, to get his Majesty a sight of it. Friedrich permits; the Fleury letter comes; to the effect, "Make peace with us, O Queen; with your Prus |