History of Friedrich II of Prussia — Volume 18Carlyle, Thomas
History
History of Friedrich II of Prussia — Volume 18
Carlyle, Thomas
Frederick II, King of Prussia, 1712-1786; Prussia (Germany) -- History -- Frederick II, 1740-1786; Social problems
Fermor, walking off in this manner,--not till the third day, nay not
conclusively till the seventh day, after Zorndorf,--strove at first to
consider himself victorious. "I passed the night on the field of battle
[or NOT far from it, for good reasons, Mutzel being bridgeless]: may not
I, in the language of enthusiasm, be considered conqueror? Here are 26
of their cannon, got when I cried 'Arah' prematurely. (Where the 103
pieces of my own are, and my 27 flags, and my Army-chest and sundries?
Dropped somewhere; they will probably turn up again!)" thinks
Fermor,--or strives to think, and says. So that, at Petersburg, at Paris
and Vienna, in the next three weeks, there were TE-DEUMS, Ambrosian
chantings, fires-of-joy; and considerable arguing among the Gazetteers
on both parts,--till the dust settled, and facts appeared as they were.
To the effect: "TE DEUM non LAUDAMUS; alas no, we must retract; and it
was good gunpowder thrown after bad!"
On always homewards, but at its own pace, waited on by Dohna, goes the
Russian Monster: violently case-shotting if you prick into its rearward
parts. One Palmbach,--under Romanzow, I think, who had not taken part
in the Battle, being out Stettin way, and unable to join till
now,--Palmbach, with a Detachment of 15,000, which was thought
sufficient for the object, did try to make a dash on Colberg,--how happy
had we any port on the Baltic, to feed us in this Country! But though
Colberg is the paltriest crow's-nest (BICOQUE), according to all
engineers, and is defended only by 700 militia (the Colonel of them, one
Heyde, a gray old Half-pay, not yet renowned in the soldier world, as he
here came to be), Palmbach, with his best diligence, could make nothing
of it; but, after battering, bombarding, even scalading, and in all
ways blurting and blazing at a mighty rate for four weeks, and wasting
a great deal of gunpowder and 2,000 Russian lives, withdrew on those
remarkable terms. [In _Helden-Geschichte,_ v. 349-365 ("3d-31st October,
1758"), a complete and minute JOURNAL of this First Siege of Colberg,
which is interesting to read of, as all the Three of them are.] And
did then, as tail of Fermor, what Fermor and the Russian Monster was
universally doing, make off at a good pace,--having nothing to live upon
farther,--and vanish from those Countries, to the relief of Dohna and
mankind.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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