History of Friedrich II of Prussia — Volume 15Carlyle, Thomas
History
History of Friedrich II of Prussia — Volume 15
Carlyle, Thomas
Frederick II, King of Prussia, 1712-1786; Prussia (Germany) -- History -- Frederick II, 1740-1786; Social problems
June 26th, a month before Chlum, General Nassau had been detached, with
some 8 or 10,000, across Glatz Country, into Upper Silesia, to sweep
that clear again. Hautcharmoi, quitting the Frontier Towns, has joined,
raising him to 15,000; and Nassau is giving excellent account of the
multitudinous Pandour doggeries there; and will retake Kosel, and
have Upper Silesia swept before very long. [Kosel, "September 5th:"
Excellent, lucid and even entertaining Account of Nassau's Expedition,
in the form of DIARY (a model, of its kind), in _Feldzuge,_ iv. 257,
371, 532.] On the other hand, the Election matter (KAISERWAHL, a most
important point) is obviously in threatening, or even in desperate
state! That famed Middle-Rhine Army has gone to the--what shall we say?
JULY 5th-19th, MIDDLE-RHINE COUNTRY. "The first Election-news that
reaches Friedrich is from the Middle-Rhine Country, and of very
bad complexion. Readers remember Traun, and his Bathyanis, and his
intentions upon Conti there. In the end of May, old Traun, things being
all completed in Bavaria, had got on march with his Bavarian Army,
say 40,000, to look into Prince Conti down in those parts; a fact very
interesting to the Prince. Traun held leftward, westward, as if for the
Neckar Valley,--'Perhaps intending to be through upon Elsass, in those
southern undefended portions of the Rhine?' Conti, and his Segur, and
Middle-Rhine Army stood diligently on their guard; got their forces,
defences, apparatuses, hurried southward, from Frankfurt quarter where
they lay on watch, into those Neckar regions. Which seen to be done,
Traun whirled rapidly to rightward, to northward; crossed the Mayn
at Wertheim, wholly leaving the Neckar and its Conti; having weighty
business quite in the other direction,--on the north side of the Mayn,
namely; on the Kinzig River, where Bathyani (who has taken D'Ahremberg's
command below Frankfurt, and means to bestir himself in another than the
D'Ahremberg fashion) is to meet him on a set day. Traun having thus,
by strategic suction, pulled the Middle-Rhine Army out of his and
Bathyani's way, hopes they two will manage a junction on the Kinzig;
after junction they will be a little stronger than Conti, though
decidedly weaker taken one by one. Traun, in the long June days, had
such a march, through the Spessart Forest (Mayn River to his left, with
our old friends Dettingen, Aschaffenburg, far down in the plain), as
was hardly ever known before: pathless wildernesses, rocky steeps and
chasms; the sweltering June sun sending down the upper snows upon him in
the form of muddy slush; so that 'the infantry had to wade haunch-deep
in many of the hollow parts, and nearly all the cavalry lost its
horse-shoes.' A strenuous march; and a well-schemed. For at the Kinzig
River (Conti still far off in the Neckar country), Bathyani punctually
appeared, on the opposite shore; and Traun and he took camp together;
July 5th, at Langen-Selbord (few miles north of Hanau, which we
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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