History of Friedrich II of Prussia — Volume 20Carlyle, Thomas
History
History of Friedrich II of Prussia — Volume 20
Carlyle, Thomas
Frederick II, King of Prussia, 1712-1786; Prussia (Germany) -- History -- Frederick II, 1740-1786; Social problems
At Jonitz, next march southward, he finds the Eugen-Hulsen people ready.
We said they had not been idle while waiting signal: of which here
is one pretty instance. Eugen's Brother, supreme Reigning Duke of
Wurtemberg,--whom we parted with at Fulda, last Winter, on sore
terms; but who again, zealous creature, heads his own little Army in
French-Austrian service, in still more eclipsed circumstances ("No
subsidy at all, this Year, say your august Majesties? Well, I must do
without: a volunteer; and shall need only what I can make by forced
contributions!" which of course he is diligent to levy wherever
possible),--has latterly taken Halle Country in hand, very busy raising
contributions there: and Eugen hears, not without interest, that certain
regiments or detachments of his, pushed out, are lying here, there,
superintending that salutary work,--within clutch, perhaps, of Kleist
the Hussar! Eugen despatches Kleist upon him; who pounces with his usual
fierce felicity upon these people. To such alarm of his poor Serenity
and poor Army, that Serenity flies off homeward at once, and out of
these Wars altogether; where he never had other than the reverse of
business to be, and where he has played such a farce-tragedy for four
years back. Eugen has been heard to speak,--theoretically, and in
excited moments,--of "running such a fellow through the body," were one
near him:: but it is actually Eugen in person that sends him home
from these Wars: which may be counted a not unfraternal or unpatriotic
procedure; being of indisputable benefit to the poor Sovereign man
himself, and to everybody concerned with him.
Hearing that Friedrich was across, Daun came westward that same day
(October 26th), and planted himself at Eilenburg; concluding that the
Reichsfolk would now be in jeopardy first of all. Which was partly the
fact; and indeed this Daun movement rather accelerated the completion
of it. Without this the Reichs Army might have lived another day. It had
quitted Duben, and gone in all haste for Leipzig, at 1 in the morning
(not by Eilenburg, of which or of Daun's arrival there it knows
nothing),--"at 1 in the morning of the 27th," or in fact, so soon as
news could reach it at the gallop, That Friedrich was across. And now
Friedrich, seeing Daun out in this manner, judged that a junction was
contemplated; and that one could not be too swift in preventing it.
October 29th, with one diligent march, Friedrich posted himself at
Duben; there, in a sort now between Daun and the Reichsfolk, detached
Hulsen with a considerable force to visit these latter in Leipzig
itself; and began with all diligence forming "a small Magazine in
Duben," Magdeburg and the current of the Elbe being hitherto his only
resource in that kind. By the time of Hulsen's return, this little
operation will be well forward, and Daun will have declared himself a
little.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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