History of Friedrich II of Prussia — Volume 09Carlyle, Thomas
History
History of Friedrich II of Prussia — Volume 09
Carlyle, Thomas
Frederick II, King of Prussia, 1712-1786; Prussia (Germany) -- History -- Frederick II, 1740-1786; Social problems
"The Rhine Valley here is not of great breadth: eastward the heights
rise to be mountainous in not many miles. By way of defence to this
Valley, in the Eugene-Marlborough Wars, there was, about forty miles
southward, or higher up the River than Philipsburg, a military line or
chain of posts; going from Stollhofen, a boggy hamlet on the Rhine, with
cunning indentations, and learned concatenation of bog and bluff, up
into the inaccessibilities,--LINES OF STOLLHOFEN, the name of it,--which
well-devised barrier did good service for certain years. It was not
till, I think, the fourth year of their existence, year 1707, that
Villars, the same Villars who is now in Italy, 'stormed the Lines of
Stollhofen;' which made him famous that year.
"The Lines of Stollhofen have now, in 1734, fallen flat again; but
Eugene remembers them, and, I could guess, it was he who suggests a
similar expedient. At all events, there is a similar expedient fallen
upon: LINES OF ETTLINGEN this time; one-half nearer Philipsburg; running
from Muhlburg on the Rhine-brink up to Ettlingen in the Hills. [See map]
Nearer, by twenty miles; and, I guess, much more slightly done. We shall
see these Lines of Ettlingen, one point of them, for a moment:--and they
would not be worth mentioning at all, except that in careless Books
they too are called 'Lines of STOLLHOFEN,' [Wilhelmina (ii. 206), for
instance; who, or whose Printer, call them "Lines of STOKOFF" even.] and
the ingenuous reader is sent wandering on his map to no purpose."
"Lines of ETTLINGEN" they are; related, as now said, to the Stollhofen
set. Duke Ferdinand of Brunswick-Bevern, one of the four Feldmarschalls,
has some ineffectual handful of Imperial troops dotted about, within
these Lines and on the skirts of Philipsburg;--eagerly waiting till the
Reich's-Army gather to him; otherwise he must come to nothing. Will at
any rate, I should think, be happy to resign in favor of Prince Eugene,
were that little hero once on the ground.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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