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17th Oct. 1760.

direct for Saxony and it;-to Lübben, 50 or 60 miles straight south of Berlin; and halted there some days, to adjust himself for a new sequel. "These are the "things," exclaims he, sorrowfully, to D'Argens, "which "I have been in dread of since Winter last; this is what gave the dismal tone to my Letters to you. It has "required not less than all my philosophy to endure "the reverses, the provocations, the outrages, and the "whole scene of atrocious things that have come to "14 pass. Friedrich's grief about Berlin we need not paint; though there were murmurs afterwards, "Why did not he start sooner?" which he could not, in strict reason, though aware that these savageries were on march. He had hoped the Eugen-Hülsen appliances, even should all else fail, might keep them at bay. And indeed, in regard to these latter, it turned only on a hair. Montalembert calculating, vows, on his oath, "Can assure you, M. l'Ambassadeur, puis bien vous assurer comme si j'étais devant Dieu, as if I stood "before God,"15 that, from first to last, it was my doing; that, but for me, at the very last, the Russians, on sight of Hülsen and Eugen, and no Lacy come, would have marched away!

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Friedrich's orderings and adjustings, dated Lübben, where his Army rested after this news from Berlin, were manifold; and a good deal still of wrecks from the Berlin Business fell to his share. For instance, one thing he had at once ordered: "Your Bill of a Million-and-half to the Russians, don't pay it, or any part of it! When Bamberg was ransomed, Spring gone a year,-Reich and Kaiser, did they respect our Bill we had on Bamberg? Did not they cancel it, and flatly refuse?" Friedrich is positive on the point,

14 Euvres de Frédéric, xix. 199: '22d Oct.'

15 Montalembert, ii. 108.

17th Oct. 1760.

"Reprisal our clear remedy!" But Berlin itself was in alarm, for perhaps another Russian visit; Berlin and Gotzkowsky were humbly positive the other way. Upon which a visit of Gotzkowsky to the Royal Camp: "Merchants' Bills are a sacred thing, Your Majesty!" urged Gotzkowsky. Who, in his zeal for the matter, undertook dangerous visits to the Russian Quarters, and a great deal of trouble, peril and expense, during the weeks following. Magnanimous Gotzkowsky, 'in 'mere bribes to the Russian Officials, spent about '6,000l. of his own,' for one item. But he had at length convinced his Majesty that Merchants' Bills were a sacred thing, in spite of Bamberg and desecrative individualities; and that this Million-and-half must be paid. Friedrich was struck with Gotzkowsky and his view of the facts. Friedrich, from his own distressed funds, handed to Gotzkowsky the necessary Million-andhalf, commanding only profound silence about it; and to Gotzkowsky himself a present of 150,000 thalers (20,000l. odd);16 and so the matter did at last end.

It had been a costly business to Berlin, and to the King, and to the poor harried Country. To Berlin, bombardment of ten hours; alarm of discursive siegework in the environs for five days; foreign yoke for three days; lost money to the amounts above stated; what loss in wounds to body or to peace of mind, or whether any loss that way, nobody has counted. The Berlin people rose to a more than Roman height of temper, testifies D'Argens;17 so that perhaps it was a gain. The King's Magazines and War-furnitures about Berlin are wasted utterly,-Arsenal itself not blown

16 Archenholtz, ii. 146.

Euvres de Frédéric, xix. 195-199: 'D'Argens to the King: Berlin, 19th October 1760,'—an interesting Letter of details.

17th Oct. 1760.

up, we well know why ;-and much Hunnish ruin in Charlottenburg, with damage to Antiques, for which latter clause there shall, in a few months, be reprisal, if it please the Powers!

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Of all this, Montalembert declares, "Before God, that he, Montalembert, is and was the mainspring." And indeed, Tempelhof, without censure of Montalembert and his vocation, but accurately computing time and circumstance, comes to the same conclusion;-as thus: October 8th, seeing no Lacy come, Czernichef, had it not been for Montalembert's eloquence, had 'fixed for returning to Cöpenik: whom cautious Lacy 'would have been obliged to imitate. Suppose Czer' nichef had, October 9th, got to Cöpenik,-Eugen and 'Hülsen remain at Berlin; Czernichef could not have got back thither before the 11th; on the 11th was 'news of Friedrich's coming; which set all on gallop 'to the right about.'18 So that really, before God, it seems Montalembert must have the merit of this fine achievement: the one fruit, so far as I can discover, of his really excellent reasonings, eloquences, patiences, sown broadcast, four or five long years, on such a field as fine human talent never had before. I declare to you, M. l'Ambassadeur, this excellent vulture-swoop on Berlin, and burning or reburning of the Peasantry of the Mark, is due solely to one poor zealous gentleman!-

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What was next to follow out of this,-in Torgau neighbourhood, where Daun now stands expectant, — poor M. de Montalembert was far from anticipating; and will be in no haste to claim the merit of before God or man.

18 Tempelhof, iv. 277.

CHAPTER V.

BATTLE OF TORGAU.

AFTER Hülsen's fine explosion on the Dürrenberg, August 20th, on the incompetent Reichs Generals, there had followed nothing eminent; new futilities, attemptings and desistings, advancings and recoilings, on the part of the Reich; Hülsen solidly maintaining himself, in defence of his Torgau Magazine and Saxon interests in those regions, against such overwhelming odds, till relief and reinforcement for them and him should arrive; and gaining time, which was all he could aim at in such circumstances. Had the Torgau Magazine been bigger, perhaps Hülsen might have sat there to the end. But having solidly eaten out said Magazine, what could Hülsen do but again move rearward? Above all, on the alarm from Berlin, which called him off double-quick, things had to go their old road in that quarter. Weak Torgau was taken, weak Wittenberg besieged. Leipzig, Torgau, Wittenberg, all that Country, by the time the Russians left Berlin, was again the Reich's. Eugen and Hülsen, hastening for relief of Wittenberg, the instant Berlin was free, found Wittenberg a heap of ruins, out of which the Prussian garrison, very hunger urging, had issued the day before, as prisoners of war. Nothing more to be done by Eugen, but take post, within reach of Magdeburg and victual, and wait new Order from the King.

'Hofbericht von dem Rückzug des General-Lieutenants von Hülsen aus dem Lager bey Torgau (in Seyfarth, Beylagen, ii. 755-784).

20th Oct. 3d Nov. 1760.

The King is very unquestionably coming on; leaves Lübben thitherward October 20th.2 With full fixity of purpose as usual; but with as gloomy an outlook as ever before. Daun, we said, is now arrived in those parts: Daun and the Reich together are near 100,000; Daun some 60,000,-Loudon having stayed behind, and gone southward, for a stroke on Kosel (if Goltz will permit, which he won't at all!), and the Reich 35,000. Saxony is all theirs; cannot they maintain Saxony? Not a Town or a Magazine now belongs to Friedrich there, and he is in number as 1 to 2. "Maintain Saxony; indisputably you can!" that is the express Vienna Order, as Friedrich happens to know. The Russians themselves have taken Camp again, and wait visibly, about Landsberg and the Warta Country, till they see Daun certain of executing said Order; upon which they intend, they also, to winter in those Elbe Prussian parts, and conjointly to crush Friedrich into great confinement indeed. Friedrich is aware of this Vienna Order; which is a kind of comfort in the circumstances. The intentions of the hungry Russians, too, are legible to Friedrich; and he is much resolved that said Order shall be impossible to Daun. "Were it to be possible, we are landless. Where are our recruits, our magazines, our resources for a new Campaign? We may as well die, as suffer that to be possible!" Such is Friedrich's fixed view. He says to D'Argens :

You, as a follower of Epicurus, put a value on "life; as for me, I regard death from the Stoic point of "view. Never shall I see the moment that forces me "to make a disadvantageous Peace; no persuasion, no

2 Rödenbeck, ii. 35: in Anonymous of Hamburg (iv. 241-245) Friedrich's Two Marches, towards and from Berlin (7th-17th October, to Lübben; thence, 20th October-3d November, to Torgau).

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