3d Dec. 1762.

my King can have it; those that prefer War, they too can have it !" Kleist, dividing himself in the due artistic way, flew over the Voigtland, on to Bamberg, on to Nürnberg itself (which he took, by sounding rams'-horns, as it were, having no gun heavier than a carbine, and held for a week);22—fluttering the Reichs Diet not a little, and disposing everybody for Peace. The Austrians saw it with pleasure, "We solemnly engaged to save these poor people harmless, on their joining us ;—and, behold, it has become thrice and four times impossible. Let them fall off into Peace, like ripe pears, of themselves; we can then turn round and say, 'Save you harmless? Yes; if you hadn't

fallen off!"

November 24th, all Austrians make truce with Friedrich, Truce till March 1st;-all Austrians, and what is singular, with no mention of the Reich whatever. The Reich is defenceless, at the feet of Kleist and his 6,000. Stollberg is still in Prussian neighbourhood; and may be picked up any day! Stollberg hastens off to defend the Reich; finds the Reich quite empty of enemies before his arrival;—and at least saves his own skin. A month or two more, and Stollberg will lay-down his Command, and the last Reichs-Execution Army, playing Farce-Tragedy so long, make its exit from the Theatre of this World.

CHAPTER XIII.

PEACE OF HUBERTSBURG.

THE Prussian troops took Winter-quarters in the MeissenFreyberg region, the old Saxon ground, familiar to them for the last three years: room enough this Winter,-'from Plauen and Zwickau, round by Langensalza again;' Truce with everybody, and nothing of disturbance till March 1st at soonest. The usual recruiting went on, or was preparing to go on,—a part of which took immediate effect, as we shall see. Recruiting, refitting, "Be ready for a new Campaign, in any case: the readier we are, the less our chance of having one!" Friedrich's headquarter is Leipzig; but till December 5th he does not get thither. "More business on me than ever!" complains he. At Leipzig he had his Nephews, his D'Argens;

22 Helden-Geschichte, vii. 186-194.

6th Dec. 1762.

for a week or two his Brother Henri; finally, his Berlin Ministers, especially Herzberg, when actual Peace came to be the matter in hand. Henri, before that, had gone home: "Peace being now the likelihood;-Home; and recruit one's poor health, at Berlin, among friends!"

Before getting to Leipzig, the King paid a flying Visit at Gotha ;-probably now the one fraction of these manifold Winter movements and employments, in which readers could take interest. Of this, as there happens to be some record left of it, here is what will suffice. From Meissen, Friedrich writes to his bright Grand-Duchess, always a bright, high and noble creature in his eyes: “Authorised by your approval” (has politely inquired beforehand), "I shall have the infinite satis"faction of paying my duties on December 3d" (four days hence), "and of reiterating to you, Madam, my liveliest and "sincerest assurances of esteem and friendship." **‹Some ' of my Commissariat people have been misbehaving? Strict

' inquiry shall be had,'1—and we soon find was. But the Visit is our first thing.

By

The Visit took place accordingly; Seidlitz, a man known in Gotha ever since his fine scenic-military procedures there in 1757, accompanied the King. Of the lucent individualities invited to meet him, all are now lost to me, except one Putter, a really learned Göttingen Professor (deep in Reichs-History and the like), whom the Duchess has summoned over. the dim lucency of Putter, faint to most of us as a rushlight in the act of going out, the available part of our imagination must try to figure, in a kind of Obliterated-Rembrandt way, this glorious Evening; for there was but one,-December 3d4th,—Friedrich having to leave early on the 4th. Here is Putter's record, given in the third person :

'During dinner, Putter, honourably present among the 'spectators of this high business, was beckoned by the Duchess to step near the King' (right hand or left, Putter does not say); but the King graciously turned round, and conversed 'with Putter.' The King said:

king. "In German History much is still buried; many important "Documents lie hidden in Monasteries." Putter answered 'schicklich -fitly; that is all we know of Putter's answer.

To the Grand-Duchess, 'Meissen, 29th November' (Euvres de Frédéric, xviii.

6th Dec. 1762.

King (thereupon). "Of Books on Reichs-History I know only the "Père Barri."2

Putter. "

'Foreigners have for most part known only, in re"gard to our History, a Latin work written by Struve at Jena." King. Struv, Struvius; him I don't know."

Putter. "

'It is a pity Barri had not known German." King. "Barri was a Lorrainer; Barri must have known German!" -Then turning to the Duchess, on this hint about the German Language, he told her, 'in a ringing merry tone, How, at Leipzig once, 'he had talked with Gottsched' (talk known to us) 'on that subject, ' and had said to him, That the French had many advantages; among ' others, that a word could often be used in a complex signification, for ' which you had in German to scrape together several different expres'sions. Upon which Gottsched had said, "We will have that mended (Das wollen wir noch machen) !" These words the King repeated twice or thrice, with such a tone that you could well see how the man's ' conceit had struck him ;'—and in short, as we know already, what a gigantic entity, consisting of wind mainly, he took this elevated Gottsched to be.

Upon which, Putter retires into the honorary ranks again; silent, at least to us, and invisible; as the rest of this Royal Evening at Gotha is. Here, however, is the Letter following on it two days after :

Friedrich to the Duchess of Sachsen-Gotha.

"Leipzig, 6th December 1762. "Madam,-I should never have done, my adorable Duchess, if I "rendered you account of all the impressions which the friendship you "lavished on me has made on my heart. I could wish to answer it by "entering into everything that can be agreeable to you" (conduct of my Recruiters or Commissariat people first of all). "I take the liberty of forwarding the Answers which have come in to the Two "Mémoires you sent me. I am mortified, Madam, if I have not been "able to fulfil completely your desires: but if you knew the situation "I am in, I flatter myself you would have some consideration for it. "I have found myself here" (in Leipzig, as elsewhere) 66 over"whelmed with business, and even to a degree I had not expected. Meanwhile, if I ever can manage again to run over and pay you in person the homage of a heart which is more attached to you than that "of your near relations, assuredly I will not neglect the first oppor"tunity that shall present itself.

2 Barri de Beaumarchais, 10 voll. 4to, Paris, 1748: I believe, an extremely feeble Pillar of Will-o'-Wisps by Night-as I can expressly testify Pfeffel to be (Pfeffel, Abrégé Chronologique de l'Histoire d'Allemagne, 2 voll. 4to, Paris, 1776), who has succeeded Barri as Patent Guide through that vast Sylva Sylvarum and its pathless intricacies, for the inquiring French and English.

3 Burkhard Gotthelf Struve, Syntagma Historia Germanica (1730, 2 voll. folio);

4Putter's Selbstbiographie (Autobiography), p. 406 :' cited in Preuss, ii. 277 n.

24th Nov. 1762.

"Messieurs the English" (Bute, Bedford and Company, with their Preliminaries signed, and all my Westphalian Provinces left in a condition we shall hear of) "continue to betray. Poor M. Mitchell has "had a stroke of apoplexy on hearing it. It is a hideous thing (chose "" affreuse); but I will speak of it no more. May you, Madam, enjoy all "the prosperities that I wish for you, and not forget a Friend, who "will be till his death, with sentiments of the highest esteem and the "most perfect consideration,-Madam, your Highness's most faithful "Cousin and Servant,-FRIEDRICH. "5

For a fortnight past, Friedrich has had no doubt that general Peace is now actually at hand. November 25th, ten days before this visit, a Saxon Privy-Councillor, Baron von Fritsch, who, by Order from his Court, had privately been at Vienna on the errand, came privately next, with all speed, to Friedrich (Meissen, November 25th):6 "Austria willing for Treaty; is your Majesty willing?" Thrice-willing, I; my terms well known!" Friedrich would answer,-gladdest of mankind to see general Pacification coming to this vexed Earth again. The Dance of the Furies, waltzing itself off, home out of this upper sunlight: the mad Bellona steeds plunging down, down, towards their Abysses again, for a season!—

This was a result which Friedrich had foreseen as nearly certain ever since the French and English signed their Preliminaries. And there was only one thing which gave him anxiety; that of his Rhine Provinces and Strong Places, especially Wesel, which have been in French hands for six years past, ever since Spring 1757. Bute stipulates That those places and countries shall be evacuated by his Choiseul, as soon as weather and possibility permit; but Bute, astonishing to say, has not made the least stipulation as to whom they are to be delivered to,―allies or enemies, it is all one to Bute. Truly rather a shameful omission, Pitt might indignantly think,and call the whole business steadily, as he persisted to do, "a shameful Peace," had there been no other article in it but this; —as Friedrich, with at least equal emphasis, thought and felt. And, in fact, it had thrown him into very great embarrassment, on the first emergence of it.

For her Imperial Majesty began straightway to draw troops into those neighbourhoods: "We will take delivery, our Allies playing into our hand!" And Friedrich, who had no disposable troops, had to devise some rapid expedient; and did, 5 Euvres de Frédéric, xviii. 201, 6 Rädenbeck, ii, 193.

24th Nov. 1762.

Set his Free-Corps agents and recruiters in motion : "Enlist me those Light people of Duke Ferdinand's, who are all getting discharged; especially that Britannic Legion so-called. All to be discharged; reënlist them, you; Ferdinand will keep them till you do it. Be swift!" And it is done;-a small bit of actual enlistment among the many prospective that were going on, as we noticed above. Precise date of it not given; must have been soon after November 3d. There were from 5 to 6,000 of them; and it was promptly done. Divided into various regiments; chief command of them given to a Colonel Bauer, under whom a Colonel Beckwith whose name we have heard: these, to the surprise of Imperial Majesty, and alarm of a pacific Versailles, suddenly appeared in the Cleve Countries, handy for Wesel, for Geldern; in such posts, and in such force and condition as intimated, "It shall be we, under favour, that take delivery!" Snatch Wesel from them, some night, sword in hand that had been Bauer's notion; but nothing of that kind was found necessary; mere demonstration proved sufficient. To the French Garrisons the one thing needful was to get away in peace; Bauer with his brows gloomy is a dangerous neighbour. Perhaps the French Officers themselves rather favoured Friedrich than his enemies. Enough, a private agreement, or mutual understanding on word of honour, was come to and, very publicly, at length, on the 11th and 12th days. of March 1763 (Peace now settled everywhere), Wesel, in great gala, full of field-music, military salutations and mutual dining, saw the French all filing out, and Bauer and people filing in, to the joy of that poor Town.7

Soon after which, painful to relate, such the inexorable pressure of finance, Bauer and people were all paid off, flung loose again: ruthlessly paid off by a necessitous King! There were about 6,000 of those poor fellows,-specimens of the bastard heroic, under difficulties, from every country in the world; Beckwith and I know not what other English specimens of the lawless heroic; who were all cashiered, officer and man, on getting to Berlin. As were the earlier Free-Corps, and indeed the subsequent, all and sundry, 'except seven,' whose names will not be interesting to you. Paid off, with or without remorse, such the exhaustion of finance; Kleist, Icilius, Count Hordt and others vainly repugning and remonstrating;

7 Preuss, ii. 342.