History of Friedrich II of Prussia — Volume 12Carlyle, Thomas
History
History of Friedrich II of Prussia — Volume 12
Carlyle, Thomas
Frederick II, King of Prussia, 1712-1786; Prussia (Germany) -- History -- Frederick II, 1740-1786; Social problems
Without plans of Glogau, and more detail and study than the reader would
consent to, there can no Narrative be given. Glogau has Ramparts, due
Ring-fence, palisaded and repaired by Wallis; inside of this is an old
Town-Wall, which will need petards: there are about 1,000 men under
Wallis, and altogether on the works, not to count a mortar or two,
fifty-eight big guns. The reader must conceive a poor Town under
blockade, in the wintry night-time, with its tough Count Wallis; ill-off
for the necessaries of life; Town shrouded in darkness, and creeping
quietly to its bed. This on the one hand: and on the other hand,
Prussian battalions marching up, at 10 o'clock or later, with the utmost
softness of step; "taking post behind the ordinary field-watches;" and
at length, all standing ranked, in the invisible dark; silent, like
machinery, like a sleeping avalanche: Husht!--No sentry from the walls
dreams of such a thing. "Twelve!" sings out the steeple of Glogau; and
in grim whisper the word is, "VORWARTS!" and the three-winged avalanche
is in motion.
They reach their glacises, their ditches, covered ways, correct as
mathematics; tear out chevaux-de-frise, hew down palisades, in the given
number of minutes: Swift, ye Regiment's-carpenters; smite your best!
Four cannon-shot do now boom out upon them; which go high over their
heads, little dreaming how close at hand they are. The glacis is thirty
feet high, of stiff slope, and slippery with frost: no matter, the
avalanche, led on by Leopold in person, by Margraf Karl the King's
Cousin, by Adjutant Goltz and the chief personages, rushes up with
strange impetus; hews down a second palisade; surges in;--Wallis's
sentries extinct, or driven to their main guards. There is a singular
fire in the besieging party. For example, Four Grenadiers,--I think of
this First Column, which succeeded sooner, certainly of the Regiment
Glasenapp,--four grenadiers, owing to slippery or other accidents, in
climbing the glacis, had fallen a few steps behind the general body; and
on getting to the top, took the wrong course, and rushed along rightward
instead of leftward. Rightward, the first thing they come upon is a mass
of Austrians still ranked in arms; fifty-two men, as it turned out, with
their Captain over them. Slight stutter ensues on the part of the
Four Grenadiers; but they give one another the hint, and dash forward:
"Prisoners?" ask they sternly, as if all Prussia had been at their
rear. The fifty-two, in the darkness, in the danger and alarm, answer
"Yes."--"Pile arms, then!" Three of the grenadiers stand to see that
done; the fourth runs off for force, and happily gets back with it
before the comedy had become tragic for his comrades. "I must make
acquaintance with these four men," writes Friedrich, on hearing of
it; and he did reward them by present, by promotion to sergeantcy (to
ensigncy one of them), or what else they were fit for. Grenadiers of
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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