History of Friedrich II of Prussia — Volume 06Carlyle, Thomas
History
History of Friedrich II of Prussia — Volume 06
Carlyle, Thomas
Frederick II, King of Prussia, 1712-1786; Prussia (Germany) -- History -- Frederick II, 1740-1786; Social problems
Hanover Pressed men not coming home,--I think, not one of them,--the
Hanover Officials decide to seize such Prussian Soldiers as happen to be
seizable, in Hanover Territory. The highway in that border-country runs
now on this side of the march, now on that;--watch well, and you will
get Prussian Soldiers from time to time! Which the Hanover people do;
and seize several, common men and even officers. Here is once more a
high course of proceeding. Here is coal to raise smoke enough, if well
blown upon,--which, with Seckendorf and Grumkow working the bellows,
we may well fancy it was! But listen to what follows, independently of
bellows.
On the 28th June, 1729, hay lying now quite dry upon the Meadow of
Clamei, lo, the Bailiff of Hanoverian Buhlitz, Unpicturesque Traveller
will find the peat-smoky little Village of Buhlitz near by a dusty
little Town called Luchow, midway from Hamburg to Magdeburg; altogether
peaty, mossy country; in the Salzwedel district, where used to be Wendic
populations, and a Marck or Border Fortress of Salzwedel set up against
them:--Bailiff of Buhlitz, I say, sallies forth with several carts, with
all the population of the Village, with a troop of horse to escort, and
probably flags flying and some kind of drums beating;--publicly rakes
together the hay, defiant of the Prussian Majesty and all men; loads
it on his carts, and rolls home with it; leaving to the Brandenburgers
nothing but stubble and the memory of having mown for Hanover to eat.
This is the 28th June, 1729; King of Prussia is now at Magdeburg,
reviewing his troops; within a hundred miles of these contested
quag-countries: who can blame him that he flames up now into clear blaze
of royal indignation? The correspondence henceforth becomes altogether
lively: but in the Britannic Archives there is nothing of it,--Dubourgay
having received warning from my Lord Townshend to be altogether ignorant
of the matter henceforth, and let the Hanover Officials manage it. His
Prussian Majesty returns home in the most tempestuous condition.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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