Jan.-July 1762. of him, has mainly, for the last year or two, had the management of this extraordinary "War." Peace over all the North, Peace and more, is now Friedrich's. Strangling imbroglio, wide as the world, has ebbed to man's height; dawn of day has ripened into sunrise for Friedrich; the way out is now a thing credible and visible to him. Peter's friendliness is boundless; almost too boundless! Peter begs a Prussian Regiment,-dresses himself in its uniform, Colonel of Itzenplitz; Friedrich begs a Russian Regiment, Colonel of Schuwalof: and all is joyful, hopeful; marriage-bells instead of dirge ditto and gallows ditto,-unhappily not for very long.

In regard to Friedrich's feelings while all this went on, take the following small utterances of his, before going farther. January 27th, 1762 (To Madam Camas,—eight days after the Russian Event): "I rejoice, my good Mamma, to find you have such courage; I exhort you to redouble it! All ends

"in this world; so we may hope this accursed War will not "be the only thing eternal there. Since Death has trussed-up "a certain Catin of the Hyperborean Countries, our situation “has advantageously changed, and becomes more supportable "than it was. We must hope that some other good events" (favour of the new Czar mainly) "will happen; by which we may profit to arrive at a good Peace."

January 31st (To Minister Finckenstein): "Behold the "first gleam of light that rises ;--Heaven be praised for it! "We must hope good weather will succeed these storms. God "" grant it !"'34

End of March (To D'Argens) : ** "All that" (at Paris; about the Pompadourisms, the exile of Broglio and Brother, and your other news) "is very miserable; as well as that discrepancy between King's Council and Parlement for and against the Jesuits! But, mon cher Marquis, my head is so 'ill, I can tell you nothing more,—except that the Czar of "Russia is a divine man; to whom I ought to erect altars."35

66

May 25th (To the same,-Russian Peace three weeks ago): "It is very pleasant to me, dear Marquis, that Sans-Souci "could afford you an agreeable retreat during the beautiful "Spring days. If it depended only on me, how soon should I be there beside you! But to the Six Campaigns there is a Seventh "to be added, and will soon open; either because the Number 7 31 Preuss, ii. 312. 35 Euvres de Frédéric, xix. 301.

14

Jan.-July 1762. "had once mystic qualities, or because in the Book of Fate from "all eternity the"-**. "Jesuits banished from France ? Ah, yes :-hearing of that, I made my bit of plan for them" (mean to have my pick of them as schoolmasters in Silesia here); "and am waiting only till I get Silesia cleared of Aus"trians as the first thing. You see we must not mow the corn "till it is ripe."

"36

·

:

Turk poten"All things

May 28th (To the same) : **Tartar Khan actually astir, $10,000 men of his in Hungary' (I am told); Itially ditto, with 200,000' (futile both, as ever) "show me the sure prospect of Peace by the end of this Year; “ and, in the background of it, Sans-Souci and my dear Mar" quis! A sweet calm springs up again in my soul; and a “feeling of hope, to which for six years I had got unused, con"soles me for all I have come through. Think only what a coil I shall be in, before a month hence" (Campaign opened by that time, horrid Game begun again); "and what a pass "we had come to, in December last: Country at its last 'gasp (agonisait), as if waiting for extreme unction: and now "37 **

June 8th (To Madam Camas, — Russian Alliance now come): "I know well, my good Mamma, the sincere part you "take in the lucky events that befall us. The mischief is, we are got so low, that we want at present all manner of for"tunate events to raise us again; and Two grand conclusions "of Peace" (the Russian, the Swedish), "which might reës"tablish Peace throughout, are at this moment only a step to"wards finishing the War less unfortunately."38

Same day, June 8th (To D'Argens): "Czernichef is on "march to join us. Our Campaign will not open till towards "the end of this month" (did open July 1st); "but think then "what a pretty noise in this poor Silesia again ! In fine, my "dear Marquis, the job ahead of me is hard and difficult; and "nobody can say positively how it will all go. Pray for us; " and don't forget a poor devil who kicks about strangely in "his harness, who leads the life of one damned; and who "nevertheless loves you sincerely.—Adieu."3 D'Argens (May 24th) has heard, by Letters from very well-informed persons in Vienna, that Imperial Majesty, for some time past, spends half of her time in praying to the Virgin, and the other half 36 Euvres de Frédéric, xix. 321. 38 Ib. xviii. 146-7. 39 Ib. xix. 327.

37 Ib. 323.

Jan.-July 1762. ' in weeping.' 'I wish her,' adds the ungallant D'Argens, 'as 'punishment for the mischiefs her ambition has cost mankind 'these seven years past, the fate of Phaethon's Sisters, and 'that she melt altogether into water !"40-Take one other little utterance; and then to Colonel Hordt and the Petersburg side of things.

June 19th (still to D'Argens): "What is now going on in "Russia no Count Kaunitz could foresee what has come to pass in England,—of which the hatefulest part" (Bute's altogether extraordinary attempts, in the Kaunitz, in the Czar Peter direction, to force a Peace upon me) "is not yet known "to you, I had no notion of, in forming my plans! The "Governor of a State, in troublous times, never can be sure. "This is what disgusts me with the business, in comparison. “ A Man of Letters operates on something certain ; a Politician can have almost no data of that kind."41 (How easy everybody's trade but one's own !)

Readers know what a tragedy poor Peter's was. His Czernichef did join the King; but with far less advantage than Czernichef or anybody had anticipated!—It is none of our intention to go into the chaotic Russian element, or that wildlyblazing sanguinary Catharine-and-Peter business; of which, at any rate, there are plentiful accounts in common circulation, more or less accurate,-especially M. Rulbière's, 42 the most succinct, lucid and least unsatisfactory, in the accessible languages. Only so far as Friedrich was concerned are we. But readers saw this Couple married, under Friedrich's auspices,a Marriage which he thought important twenty years ago; and sure enough the Dissolution of it did prove important to him, and is a necessary item here!

Readers, even those that know Rulhière, will doubtless consent to a little supplementing from Two other Eye-witnesses of credit. The first and principal is a respectable Ex-Swedish Gentleman, whom readers used to hear of; the Colonel Hordt above mentioned, once of the Free-Corps Hordt, but fallen Prisoner latterly ;-whose experiences and reports are all the more interesting to us, as Friedrich himself had specially to depend on them at present; and doubtless, in times long after40 Euvres de Frédéric, xix. 320 (24th May 1762'). 41 Ib. p. 329..

42 Histoire on Anecdotes sur la Révolution de Russie en l'année 1762 (written 1768; first printed Paris, 1797: English Translation, London, 1797).

Our

Jan.-July 1762. wards, now and then heard speech of them from Hordt. second Eye-witness is the Reverend Herr Doctor Büsching (of the Erdbeschreibung, of the Beyträge, and many other Works, an invaluable friend to us all along); who, in his wandering time, had come to be "Pastor of the German Church at Petersburg," some years back.

What Colonel Hordt and the others saw at Petersburg

(January-July 1762).

Autumn 1759, in the sequel to Kunersdorf,—when the Russians and Daun lay so long torpid, uncertain what to do except keep Friedrich and Prince Henri well separate, and Friedrich had such watchings, campings and marchings about on the hither skirt of them (skirt always veiled in Cossacks, and producing skirmishes as you marched past),we did mention Hordt's capture;43 not much hoping that readers could remember it in such a press of things more memorable. It was in, or as prelude to, one of those skirmishes (one of the earliest, and a rather sharp one, 'at Trebatsch,' in Frankfurt-Lieberose Country, 4th September 1759'), that Hordt had his misfortune: he had been out reconnoitering, with an Orderly or two, before the skirmish began, was suddenly 'surrounded by 200 Cossacks,' and after desperate plunging into bogs, desperate firing of pistols and the like, was taken prisoner. Was carted miserably to Petersburg,—such a journey for dead ennui as Hordt never knew; and was then tumbled out into solitary confinement in the Citadel, a place like the Spanish Inquisition; not the least notice taken of his request for a few Books, for leave to answer his poor Wife's Letter merely by the words, "Dear one, I am alive;"—and was left there, to the company of his own reflections, and a life as if in vacant Hades, for twenty-five months and three days. After the lapse of that period, he has something to say to us again, and we transiently look-in upon him there.

The Book we excerpt from is Mémoires du Comte de Hordt (second edition, 2 volumes 12mo, Berlin, 1789). This is Bookseller Pitra's redaction of the Hordt Autobiography (Berlin, 1788, was Pitra's first edition): several years after, how many is not said, nor whether Hordt (who had become a dignitary in Berlin society before Pitra's feat) was still living or not, a 'M. Borelly, Professor in the Military School,' undertook a second considerably enlarged and improved redaction;of which latter there is an English Translation; easy enough to read; but nearly without meaning, I should fear, to readers unacquainted with the scene and subject." Hordt was reckoned a perfectly veracious, intelligent kind of man: but he seldom gives the least date, specification or precise detail; and his Book reads, not like the Testimony of 43 Suprà, vol. viii. p. 200.

44 Memoirs of the Count de Hordt: London, 1806: 2 voll. 12m0,-only the first volume of which (unavailable here) is in my possession.

VOL. IX.

Jan.-July 1762. an Eye-witness, which it is, and valuable when you understand it; but more like some vague Forgery, compiled by a destitute inventive individual, regardless of the Ten Commandments (sparingly consulting even his file of Old Newspapers), and writing a Book which would deserve the treadmill, were there any Police in his trade !—

Wednesday 6th January 1762, Hordt's vacant Hades of an existence in the Citadel of Petersburg was broken by a loud sound: three minute-guns went off from different sides, close by; and then whole salvos, peal after peal: "Czarina gone overnight, Peter III. Czar in her stead!" said the Officer, rushing in to tell Hordt; to whom it was as news of resurrection from the dead. 'Evening of same day, an Aide-de-Camp of the new Czar came to announce my liberty; equipage waiting to take me at once to his Russian Majesty. Asked him 'to defer it till the following day;-so agitated was I.' And indeed the Czar, busy taking acclamations, oaths of fealty, riding about among his Troops by torchlight, could have made little of me that evening. 45 Ultimately, my presentation was deferred till Sunday' January 10th, 'that it might be done with proper splendour, all the Nobility being 'then usually assembled about his Majesty.'

"January 10th, Waited, amid crowds of Nobility, in the Gallery, accordingly. Was presented in the Gallery, through which the Czar, 'followed by Czarina and all the Court, were passing on their way to Chapel. Czar made a short kind speech ("Delighted to do you an ' act of justice, Monsieur, and return a valuable servant to the King I 'esteem"); gave me his hand to kiss: Czarina did the same. General 'Korf,' an excellent friend, so kind to me at Königsberg while I was getting carted hither, and a General now in high office here, who had been my introducer, led me into Chapel, to the Court's place (tribune de la Cour). Czar came across repeatedly' (while public worship was going on; a Czar perhaps too regardless that way!) 'to 'talk to me; dwelt much on his attachment to the King. On coming out, the Head Chamberlain whispered me, "You dine with the 'Court."" Which, of course, I did.

'Table was of sixty covers; splendid as the Arabian Tales. Czar ' and Czarina sat side by side; Korf and I had the honour to be placed ' opposite them. Hardly were we seated when the Czar addressed 'me: "You have had no Prussian news this long while. I am glad to tell you that the King is well, though he has had such fighting to " right and left ;-but I hope there will soon be an end to all that.” 'Words which everybody listened to like prophecy!' (Peter is nothing of a Politician.) "How long have you been in prison?" continued the Czar. "Twenty-five months and three days, your Majesty." "Were you well treated?" Hordt hesitated, knew not what to say; but, the Czar urging him, confessed, "He had been always rather "badly used; not even allowed to buy a few books to read." At 45 Hermann, Geschichte des Russischen Staats, v. 241.