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
It is in this Kingdom Forest (which he calls ROYAUME DE SILVA, instead
of SYLVA DE ROYAUME) that Friedrich now marches; keeping the body of the
Forest well on his left, and skirting the southern and eastern sides
of it. Rough marching for his Majesty; painfully infested by Nadastian
Tolpatches; who run out on him from ambushes, and need to be scourged;
one ambush in particular, at a place called Liebenthal (second day's
march, and near the end of it),--where our Prussian Hussars, winding
like fiery dragons on the dangerous precipices, gave them better than
they brought, and completely quenched their appetite for that day. After
Liebenthal, the march soon ends; three miles farther on, at the dim
wold-hamlet of Staudentz: here a camp is pitched; here, till the Country
is well eaten out, or till something else occur, we propose to tarry for
a time.
Horse-forage abounds here; but there is no getting of it without
disturbance from those dogs; you must fight for every truss of grass:
if a meal-train is coming, as there does every five days, you have
to detach 8,000 foot and 3,000 horse to help it safe in. A fretting
fatiguing time for regular troops. Our bakery is at Trautenau,--where
Valori is now lodging. The Tolpatchery, unable to take Trautenau, set
fire to it, though it is their own town, their own Queen's town; thatchy
Trautenau, wooden too in the upper stories of it, takes greedily to
the fire; goes all aloft in flame, and then lies black. A scandalous
transaction, thinks Friedrich. The Prussian corn lay nearly all in
cellars; little got, even of the Prussians, by such an atrocity: and
your own poor fellow-subjects, where are they? Valori was burnt out
here; again exploded from his quarters, poor man;--seems to have thought
it a mere fire in his own lodging, and that he was an unfortunate
diplomatist. Happily he got notice (PRIVATISSIME, for no officer dare
whisper in such cases) that there is an armed party setting out for
Silesia, to guard meal that is coming: Valori yokes himself to this
armed party, and gets safe over the Hills with it,--then swift, by extra
post, to Breslau and to civilized (partially civilized) accommodation,
for a little rest after these hustlings and tossings.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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