History of Friedrich II of Prussia — Volume 19Carlyle, Thomas
History
History of Friedrich II of Prussia — Volume 19
Carlyle, Thomas
Frederick II, King of Prussia, 1712-1786; Prussia (Germany) -- History -- Frederick II, 1740-1786; Social problems
"Friday, August 3d, General Loudon came to hand: arrived early, in the
Guben (or Western) Suburb, his 18,000 and he. In high spirits naturally,
and somewhat exultant to have evaded Friedrich; but found a reception
that surprised him. The Russians had been living in the hope of
junction; but still more vividly in that of meal. 'Auxiliaries;
humph,--only 18,000 of them; how much welcomer had been as many
hundredweights of meal!' Loudon had pushed his baggage direct into
Frankfurt; and likewise a requisition of such and such proviants,
weights of meal and the like, in exuberant amount, to be furnished
straightway by the City: neither of which procedures would the
Russians hear of for a moment. 'Out with you!' said they roughly to the
baggage-people: 'quarter in the Guben Suburb, or where you like; not
here!' And with regard to the requisition of proviant, they answered
in a scornful angry key, 'Proviant? You too without it? You have not
brought us meal, according to covenant; instead of meal, you bring us
18,000 new eaters, most of them on horse-back,--Satan thank you! From
Frankfurt be very certain you can get no ounce of meal; Frankfurt is our
own poor meal-bag, dreadfully scanty: stay outside, and feed where and
how you can!'
"All this, Loudon, though of hot temper, easily capable of rising to
the fierce point, had to endure in silence, for the common interest.
Loudon's own table is furnished from Frankfurt; no other Austrian man's:
all others have to shift how they can. Sad requisitioning needed, and
sad plunder to supplement it: the Austrian behavior was very bad, say
the Frankfurters; 'in particular, they had burnt gradually all the
corn-mills in the country; within many miles not one mill standing
when they left us,'--and four horses all the conveyance power we had.
Soltikof lodges in great pomp, much soldiery and cannon parading before
his doors; not an undignified man, or an inhuman or essentially foolish,
but very high in his ways, and distasteful to Austrian dignitaries."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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