correspondence between frederick and voltaire.—voltaire’s visit to frederick.—domestic habits of the king.—unavailing diplomacy of voltaire.—the new alliance.—the renewal of war.—the siege of prague.—the advance upon vienna.—darkening prospects.—the pandours.—divisions in council.—sickness of louis xv.—energy of frederick.—distress of the army.
the correspondence carried on between frederick and voltaire, and their mutual comments, very clearly reveal the relations existing between these remarkable men. frederick was well aware that the eloquent pen of the great dramatist and historian could give him celebrity throughout europe. voltaire was keenly alive to the consideration that the friendship of a monarch could secure to him position and opulence. and yet each privately spoke of the other very contemptuously, while in the correspondence which passed between them they professed for each other the highest esteem and affection. frederick wrote from berlin as follows to voltaire:
327
“october 7, 1743.
“my dear voltaire,—france has been considered thus far as the asylum of unfortunate monarchs. i wish that my capital should become the temple of great men. come to it, then, my dear voltaire, and give whatever orders can tend to render a residence in it agreeable to you. my wish is to please you, and wishing this, my intention is to enter entirely into your views.
“choose whatever apartment in our house you like. regulate yourself all that you want, either for comfort or luxury. make your arrangements in such a way as that you may be happy and comfortable, and leave it to me to provide for the rest. you will be always entirely free, and master to choose your own way of life. my only pretension is to enchain you by friendship and kindness.
“you will have passports for the post-horses, and whatever else you may ask. i hope to see you on wednesday. i shall then profit by the few moments of leisure which remain to me, to enlighten myself by the blaze of your powerful genius. i entreat you to believe i shall always be the same toward you. adieu.”
voltaire has given a detailed account of the incidents connected with this visit to his prussian majesty. it is a humiliating exhibition of the intrigues and insincerity which animated the prominent actors in those scenes.
“the public affairs in france,” writes voltaire, “continued in as bad a state after the death of cardinal de fleury as during the last two years of his administration. the house of austria rose again from its ashes. france was cruelly pressed upon by that power and by england. no other resource remained to us but the chance of regaining the king of prussia, who, having drawn us into the war, had abandoned us as soon as it was convenient to himself so to do. it was thought advisable, under these circumstances, that i should be sent to that monarch to sound his intentions, and, if possible, persuade him to avert the storm which, after it had first fallen on us, would be sure, sooner or later, to fall from vienna upon him. we also wished to secure from him the loan of a hundred thousand men, with the assurance that he could thus better secure to himself silesia.
328 “the minister for foreign affairs was charged to hasten my departure. a pretext, however, was necessary. i took that of my quarrel with the bishop mirepoix. i wrote accordingly to the king of prussia that i could no longer endure the persecutions of this monk, and that i should take refuge under the protection of a philosophical sovereign, far from the disputes of this bigot. when i arrived at berlin the king lodged me in his palace, as he had done in my former journeys. he then led the same sort of life which he had always done since he came to the throne. he rose at five in summer and six in winter.75 a single servant came to light his fire, to dress and shave him. indeed, he dressed himself almost without any assistance. his bedroom was a handsome one. a rich and highly ornamented balustrade of silver inclosed apparently a bed hung with curtains, but behind the curtains, instead of a bed, there was a library. as for the royal couch, it was a wretched truckle-bed, with a thin mattress, behind a screen, in one corner of the room. marcus aurelius and julian, his favorite heroes, and the greatest men among the stoics, were not worse lodged.”
the king devoted himself very energetically to business during the morning, and reviewed his troops at eleven o’clock. he dined at twelve.
“after dinner,” writes voltaire, “the king retired alone into his cabinet, and made verses till five or six o’clock. a concert commenced at seven, in which the king performed on the flute as well as the best musician. the pieces of music executed were also often of the king’s composition. on the days of public ceremonies he exhibited great magnificence. it was a fine spectacle to see him at table, surrounded by twenty princes of the empire, served on the most beautiful gold plate in europe, and attended by thirty handsome pages, and as many young heyducs, superbly dressed, and carrying great dishes of massive gold. after these banquets the court attended the opera in the great theatre, three hundred feet long. the most admirable singers and the best dancers were at this time in the pay of the king of prussia.”
voltaire seems to have formed a very different estimate of his329 own diplomatic abilities from those expressed by the king of prussia. voltaire writes:
“in the midst of fêtes, operas, and suppers, my secret negotiation advanced. the king allowed me to speak to him on all subjects. i often intermingled questions respecting france and austria in conversations relating to the ?neid and livy. the discussion was sometimes very animated. at length the king said to me, ‘let france declare war against england, and i will march.’ this was all i desired. i returned as quickly as possible to the court of france. i gave them the same hopes which i had myself been led to entertain at berlin, and which did not prove delusive.”
the fact was, that the diplomacy of voltaire had probably not the slightest influence in guiding the action of the king. frederick had become alarmed in view of the signal successes of the armies of maria theresa, under her brother-in-law, prince charles of lorraine. several austrian generals, conspicuous among whom was marshal traun, were developing great military ability. the armies of austria had conquered bohemia and bavaria. the french troops, discomfited in many battles, had been compelled to retreat to the western banks of the rhine, vigorously pursued by prince charles. the impotent emperor charles albert, upon whom france had placed the imperial crown of germany, was driven from his hereditary realm, and the heart-broken man, in poverty and powerlessness, was an emperor but in name. it was evident that maria theresa was gathering her strength to reconquer silesia. she had issued a decree that the elector of bavaria was not legitimately chosen emperor. it was very manifest that her rapidly increasing influence would soon enable her to dethrone the unfortunate charles albert, and to place the imperial crown upon the brow of her husband.
under these circumstances, it was evidently impossible for frederick to retain silesia unless he could again rally france and other powers to his aid. it was always easy to rouse france against england, its hereditary foe. thus influenced, frederick, early in the spring of 1744, entered into a new alliance with france and the emperor charles albert against maria theresa. the two marriages which he had so adroitly consummated constrained330 russia and sweden to neutrality. while france, by the new treaty, was engaged to assail with the utmost energy, under the leadership of louis xv. himself, the triumphant austrian columns upon the rhine, frederick, at the head of one hundred thousand troops, was to drive the austrians out of bohemia, and reseat charles albert upon his hereditary throne. for this service frederick was to receive from the bohemian king three important principalities, with their central fortresses near upon the borders of silesia.
the shrewd foresight of frederick, and his rapidly developing military ability, had kept his army in the highest state of discipline, while his magazines were abundantly stored with all needful supplies. it was written at the time:
“some countries take six months, some twelve, to get in motion for war. but in three weeks prussia can be across the frontiers and upon the throats of its enemy. some countries have a longer sword than prussia, but none can unsheath it so soon.”
public opinion was then much less potent than now; still it was a power. frederick had two objects in view in again drawing the sword. one was to maintain possession of silesia, which was seriously menaced; the other was to enlarge his territory, and thus to strengthen his hold upon his new conquest, by adding to prussia the three important bohemian principalities of k?niggratz, bunzlau, and leitmeritz. by a secret treaty, he had secured the surrender of these provinces in payment for the assistance his armies might furnish the allies; but policy required that he should not avow his real motives. he therefore issued a manifesto, in which he falsely stated,
“his prussian majesty requires nothing for himself. he has taken up arms simply and solely with the view of restoring to the empire its freedom, to the emperor his imperial crown, and to all europe the peace which is so desirable.”
frederick published his manifesto on the 10th of august, 1744. early in the morning of the 15th he set out from potsdam upon this new military expedition. his two eldest brothers, augustus william, prince of prussia, and prince henry, accompanied him. the army entered bohemia in three columns, whose concentrated force amounted to nearly one hundred thousand men. frederick in person led the first column, the old331 prince leopold the second, and marshal schwerin the third. marching by different routes, they swept all opposition before them. on the 4th of september the combined army appeared before the walls of prague. here, as in every act of frederick’s life, his marvelous energy was conspicuous.
the works were pushed with the utmost vigor. on the 8th the siege cannon arrived; late in the night of wednesday, the 9th, they were in position. immediately they opened their rapid, well-aimed, deadly fire of solid shot and shell from three quarters—the north, the west, and the east. frederick, watching the bombardment from an eminence, was much exposed to the return fire of the austrians. he called upon others to take care of themselves, but seemed regardless of his own personal safety. his cousin, prince william, and a page, were both struck down at his side by a cannon-ball.
on the 16th the battered, smouldering, blood-stained city was surrendered, with its garrison of sixteen thousand men. the prisoners of war were marched off to frederick’s strong places in the north. prague was compelled to take the oath of allegiance to the emperor, and to pay a ransom of a million of dollars. abundant stores of provision and ammunition were found in the city. it was a brilliant opening of the campaign.
the impetuous frederick made no delay at prague. the day after the capture, leaving five thousand men, under general einsiedel, to garrison the city, he put his troops in motion, ascending the right bank of the moldau. it would seem that he was about to march boldly upon vienna. wagons of meal, drawn by oxen, followed the army. the heavy artillery was left behind. the troops were forced along as rapidly as possible. they advanced in two columns. one was led by frederick, and the other by young leopold. the country through which they passed was dreary, desolate, barren in the extreme—a wild waste of precipitous rocks, and bogs, and tangled forest. the roads were wretched. no forage could be obtained. the starved oxen were continually dropping, exhausted, by the way; the path of the army was marked by their carcasses.
it was but sixty miles from prague to tabor. the march of frederick’s division led through kunraditz, across the sazawa river, through bistritz and miltchin. it was not until the ninth332 day of their toilsome march that the steeples of tabor were descried, in the distant horizon, on its high, scarped rock. here both columns united. half of the draught cattle had perished by the way, and half of the wagons had been abandoned.
the pandours.
the prospects of frederick were now gloomy. the bright morning of the campaign had darkened into a stormy day. the barren region around afforded no supplies. the inhabitants were all catholics; they hated the heretics. inspired by their priests, they fled from their dwellings, taking with them or destroying every thing which could aid the prussian army. but most annoying of all, the bold, sagacious chieftain, general bathyani, with hordes of pandours which could not be counted—horsemen who seemed to have the vitality and endurance of centaurs—was making deadly assaults upon every exposed point.
333 “such a swarm of hornets as darkens the very daylight!” writes carlyle. “vain to scourge them down, to burn them off by blaze of gunpowder; they fly fast, but are straightway back again. they lurk in these bushy wildernesses, scraggy woods; no foraging possible unless whole regiments are sent out to do it; you can not get a letter safely carried for them.”
thus frederick found himself in a barren, hostile country, with a starving army, incessantly assailed by a determined foe, groping his way in absolute darkness, and with the greatest difficulty communicating even with his own divisions, at the distance of but a few leagues. he knew not from what direction to anticipate attack, or how formidable might be his assailants. he knew not whether the french, on the other side of the rhine, had abandoned him to his own resources, or were marching to his rescue. he knew that they were as supremely devoted to their own interests as he was to his, and that they would do nothing to aid him, unless by so doing they could efficiently benefit themselves.
as is usual under such circumstances, a quarrel arose among his officers. young leopold proposed one plan, marshal schwerin another. they were both bold, determined men. frederick found it difficult to keep the peace between them. it was now october. winter, with its piercing gales, and ice, and snow, was fast approaching. it was necessary to seek winter quarters. frederick, with the main body of his army, took possession of budweis, on the upper moldau. a detachment was stationed at neuhaus, about thirty miles northeast of budweis.
it will be remembered that prince charles was at the head of a strong austrian army, on the western banks of the rhine. it numbered over fifty thousand combatants. the king of france had pledged himself to press them closely, so that they could not recross the rhine and rush into bohemia to thwart the operations of frederick; but, unfortunately, louis xv. was seized with a malignant fever, which brought him near to the grave. taking advantage of this, prince charles, on the night of the 23d of august, crossed the rhine with his whole army. it was bright moonlight, so that every movement was as visible as if it had been made by day. but the french officers, glad thus to be rid of the austrian army, preferring much that frederick334 should encounter it in bohemia than that they should struggle against it on the rhine, went quietly to their beds, even forbidding the more zealous subalterns from harassing prince charles in his passage of the river. it was then the great object of the french to take freyburg. the withdrawal of prince charles, with his fifty thousand men, was a great relief to them.
while frederick was involved in all these difficulties, he was cheered by the hope that the french would soon come to his rescue. unutterable was his chagrin when he learned, early in october, that the french had done exactly as he would have done in their circumstances. appalling, indeed, were the tidings soon brought to him, that prince charles, with his army, had marched unmolested into bohemia; that he had already effected a junction with general bathyani and his countless swarm of pandours; and, moreover, that a saxon army, twenty thousand strong, in alliance with the queen of hungary, was on the way to join his already overwhelming foes. it was reported, at the same time, that prince charles was advancing upon budweis, and that his advance-guard had been seen, but a few miles off, on the western side of the moldau.
the exigency demanded the most decisive action. frederick promptly gathered his army, and dashed across the moldau, resolved, with the energies of despair, to smite down the troops of prince charles; but no foe could be found. for four days he sought for them in vain. he then learned that the austrian army had crossed the moldau several miles north of him, thus cutting off his communications with prague.
though prince charles was nominally commander-in-chief of the austrian forces, marshal traun, as we have mentioned, was its military head. he was, at that time, far frederick’s superior in the art of war. frederick had sufficient intelligence and candor to recognize that superiority. when he heard of this adroit movement of his foes, he exclaimed, “old traun understands his trade.”
prince charles was now forming magazines at beneschau, just south of the sazawa river, about seventy miles north of frederick’s encampment at budweis. frederick hastily recrossed the moldau, and, marching through bechin, concentrated nearly all his forces at tabor. he hoped by forced marches to take the335 austrians by surprise, and capture their magazines at beneschau. thousands, rumor said fourteen thousand, of the wild pandours, riding furiously, hovered around his line of march. they were in his front, on his rear, and upon his flanks. ever refusing battle, they attacked every exposed point with the utmost ferocity. the prussian king thus found himself cut off from prague, with exhausted magazines, and forage impossible. he had three hundred sick in his hospitals. he could not think of abandoning them, and yet he had no means for their transportation.
the salvation of the army seemed to depend upon capturing the austrian magazines at beneschau. marshal schwerin was sent forward with all speed, at the head of a strong detachment, and was so lucky as to take beneschau. here he intrenched himself. frederick, upon hearing the glad tidings, immediately started from tabor to join him. his sick were at fraunberg, budweis, and neuhaus, some dozen miles south of tabor. garrisons, amounting to three thousand men, had been left to protect them from the pandours. as frederick was about to abandon that whole region, it was manifest that these garrisons could not maintain themselves. he dispatched eight messengers in succession to summon the troops immediately to join him. the sick were to be left to their fate. it was one of the cruel necessities of war. but not one of these messengers escaped capture by the pandours. frederick commenced his march without these garrisons. the three thousand fighting men, with the three hundred sick, all fell into the hands of the pandours.