1757.

CAMPAIGN IN GERMANY.

"known to Blake!"*

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It is the peculiar glory of Pitt's administration to have delivered us from these new phrases and new feelings, and awakened. -never again to slumber, the ancient spirit of England.

But the theatre of the greatest warlike scenes was Germany. Frederick, undismayed at the numbers gathering against him, was the first in the field. He knew that forward movements are often the best foundation for a successful system of defence. He resolved to strike a blow against the Austrian army, while the French, the Russian, and the Swedish were still in winter quarters. Early in April his troops, in different divisions, came climbing through the mountain passes that guard the frontier of Bohemia. They reunited near the walls of Prague, and there, on the 6th of May, gave battle to the Austrians under Marshal Brown and Prince Charles of Lorraine. The numbers engaged were nearly 70,000 on the Prussian, and nearly 80,000 on the Austrian, side. Seldom in modern times has there been a conflict so long and so bloody. The fighting continued from nine in the morning till eight at night, and, in killed, wounded, and prisoners, the loss of the Royal army was 18,000, of the Imperial 24,000 men.† The chiefs on both sides vied with each other in courage and self-exposure; Marshal Brown fell mortally wounded; the King of Prussia, his brother, Prince Henry, and his general, Prince Ferdinand of Brunswick, appeared in the thickest of the fight. Still more conspicuous was the conduct of Marshal Schwerin, a veteran, seventy-two years of age, the first instructor of Frederick in the art of war. Seeing the Prussian infantry waver, he sprung from his horse, snatched a standard from an Ensign, and led back his troops to the charge with the words, "Forward! forward! my chil"dren!" Forward they rushed accordingly at the well known voice and the bright example, but in the midst of their onset four musket balls pierced the heroic breast of

* Letter to his son, September 30. 1757. He adds, "I hear that "letters have been sent to both (Holbourne and Loudoun), with very severe reprimands."

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† Archenholtz, Geschichte des Sieben-jährigen Kringes, vol. i. p. 53.

Schwerin. Still he held up the colours in his dying grasp, still they waved over his lifeless features*, and his standard became as it were the shroud of this gallant soldier.

-

The victory, though dear-bought, was decided in favour of Frederick. It would have been complete, but for the want of a few more pontoons to enable another body of Prussians which had remained beyond the river Moldau, and had borne no part in the battle, to pass over, and take the enemy in the rear. Had there been these few more pontoons, the Prussian writers confidently state that not a single man of the Imperialists could have escaped, that the whole aspect of the war would have changed, - that within a few weeks their King might have dictated terms of peace to the Empress Queen under the walls of Vienna. As it was, the remains of the defeated army had time to scatter along the open country, or to seek refuge within the ramparts of Prague, where Frederick hastened to besiege them. Heavy cannon were brought from Dresden, and the city was bombarded. But another Austrian army under Marshal Daun was now advancing from the side of Moravia, and had been reinforced by 16,000 fugitives from the recent conflict. Frederick, mindful of his own exploit of the preceding year at the siege of Pirna and the battle of Lowositz, determined to try once more the same hazardous venture. He left a part of his army to continue the circumvallation, and with the remainder marched against Daun. He found the Austrian Marshal at the head of a superior army, and, moreover, intrenched along the steep heights of Kolin. Nothing daunted, Frederick led up his troops to an assault on the morning of the 18th of June. Again and again were they driven back with dreadful slaughter; again and again were they urged forward to the charge; but at sunset their repulse became irretrievable; 13,000 of their bravest comrades had fallen, and the survivors, yielding the victory, withdrew from the fatal field. Their officers were deeply dejected. This is our Pultawa!" muttered several as they went along.

*

"Das Panier seines Monarchen deckte ihn, und verhüllte seine "todes-zuge." (Archenholtz, vol. i. p. 50.)

1757.

FORTITUDE OF KING FREDERICK.

115

The mind of the King himself was scarcely less overwhelmed at his disaster. It is still recorded of him, how next day at the rallying place, a village on the road to Prague, he was seen to sit for many hours on one of the hollowed trees which throughout Germany and Switzerland serve to collect and convey the mountain rills; his head had sunk upon his breast, he uttered no word, he made no sign to his attendants, but with his cane was mechanically drawing figures in the sand. From his

gloomy reveries he was roused by the necessity of action. He found himself compelled to raise the siege of Prague, and to retire beyond the frontiers of Bohemia. Never did he appear more vigilant in his own duties, or more severe against the officers who failed in theirs. His brother, Prince William, the heir presumptive to the Crown, and the great grandfather of the present King, having committed some errors, and incurred some losses, in the retreat, was so harshly upbraided by His Majesty that he threw up his command, and retired almost heartbroken to his country seat, where he died a few months afterwards. Yet still amidst all these cares and sorrows, these taunts and these partings, Frederick could find delight in composing stanza after stanza of mawkish French verses; and his private correspondence preserves a tone, not only of composure, but of cheerfulness. Thus he writes to his friend, the Earl Marischal, after the battle of Kolin :-" Fortune, my dear Lord, has this day "turned her back upon me. I ought to have expected it; "Fortune is female, and I am not a man of gallantry. "Fortune now declares in favour of the ladies who are carrying on war against me. What do you say to this "combination against a Margrave of Brandenburg? How "would the Great Elector, Frederick William, be astonished, could he now from his grave see his grandson "assailed by the Russians, the Austrians, nearly all Germany, and a hundred thousand French! I know not "whether it will be a disgrace to me to fail before such "odds, but this I do know, that there will be no glory in "overcoming me."

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His enemies, indeed, were now closing upon him from every side. The provinces beyond the Vistula became prey of Russian hordes, to which only one division of

the

Prussians under Marshal Lehwald was opposed. In the result, however, their own devastations, and the consequent want of supplies, proved a check to their further progress during this campaign. In Westphalia above 80,000 effective French soldiers were advancing, commanded by the Mareschal d'Estrées, a grandson of the famous Minis ter Louvois. The Duke of Cumberland, who had undertaken to defend his father's Electorate against them, was at the head of a motley army of scarce 50,000 men; there were no English beyond the officers of his personal staff, but, beside the native Hanoverians, he had several regiments of Prussians; he had also Hessians, Brunswickers, and many other mercenaries hired from the smaller Princes of Northern Germany. His military talents were not such as to supply his want of numbers or of combination; he allowed the French to pass the deep and rapid Weser unopposed; he gave them no disturbance when laying waste great part of the Electorate; he only fell back from position to position until at length the enemy came up with him at the village of Hastenbeck near Hameln. There, on the 26th of July, an action was fought, and the Duke was worsted with the loss of several hundred men. The only resource of His Royal Highness was a retreat across the wide Lüneburg moors, to cover the town of Stade towards the mouth of the Elbe, where the archives and other valuable effects from Hanover had been already deposited for safety.

Hameln, Göttingen, Hanover itself, and soon afterwards both Bremen and Verden, were occupied without resistance by the French. These fruits of their victory were not, however, reaped by their commander in the conflict. At this very period a Court intrigue recalled D'Estrées from Germany*, and shared his command between twc favourites of Madame de Pompadour,—the Duke de Richelieu and the Prince de Soubise, -Richelieu to act against Cumberland, and Soubise against Frederick. Richelieu showed himself equally alert in the plunder of the conquered province and the pursuit of the defeated general. He forced the Duke of Cumberland to retire

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* "Le lendemain de la bataille d'Hastenbeck le Maréchal (d'Estrées) reçut le courrier qui lui annonçait son rappel." (Mémoires du Baron de Besenval, vol. i. p. 91.)

1757.

CONVENTION OF CLOSTER-SEVEN.

117

beneath the cannon of Stade, where His Royal Highness hoped that he might maintain himself until the approach of winter put a close to this campaign. But the French having hemmed him in on all sides, though still at some distance, might next, perhaps, have invested a little fort at the mouth of the stream of Zwinga, thus cutting off the Duke's communication with the Elbe, and rendering useless to him four English men of war which had anchored in that river. Under this apprehension His Royal Highness accepted the mediation of Count Lynar, the Minister of the King of Denmark, and on the 8th of September signed at Closter-Seven a Convention with the Duke de Richelieu. The terms were that the auxiliary troops, as of Hesse and Brunswick, should be sent home, and that the Hanoverians under Cumberland should pass the Elbe, and be dispersed into different quarters of cantonments, leaving only a garrison at Stade.

At a more recent period one of the greatest authorities in war has held that these terms were by no means so favourable to the French as they were entitled to claim *; but at the time itself the Convention of Closter-Seven was denounced both by English and Prussians as an ignominious capitulation. In fact it would be difficult to decide whether this Convention excited most indignation at the English Court or at the Prussian camp. Frederick, seeing the whole French force now left at liberty to pour on his dominions, exclaimed that we had undone him without mending our own situation. George the Second lost no time in recalling the Duke to England, and on his arrival treated him with the utmost coldness. When the Duke first appeared in the Royal presence, the King never addressed a word to him, but said aloud in the course of the evening: "Here is my son, who has ruined “me and disgraced himself!"† The Duke was ill-disposed to brook such treatment; he had already, from the

* "La Convention de Closter Seven est inexplicable. Le Duc de "Cumberland était perdu; il était obligé de mettre bas les armes et "de se rendre prisonnier ; il n'était donc possible d'admettre d'autres "termes de capitulation que ceux-là." (Napoleon, Mémoires publiés par Montholon, vol. v. p. 213.)

† Lord Orford's Memoirs, vol. ii. p. 250.