History of Friedrich II of Prussia, vol 20 | Page 4

hears afterwards; his centre camp is at Schlettau,
which also is strong, though not to such a degree. This line extends
from Meissen southward about 10 miles, commanding the Reich-ward
Passes of the Metal Mountains, and is defensive of Leipzig, Torgau and
the Towns thereabouts. [Tempelhof, iv. 16 et seq.] Katzenhauser is but
a mile or two from Krogis--that unfortunate Village where Finck got
his Maxen Order: "ER WEISS,--You know I can't stand having
difficulties raised; manage to do it!"
Friedrich's task, this Year, is to defend Saxony; Prince Henri having
undertaken the Russians,--Prince Henri and Fouquet, the Russians and
Silesia. Clearly on very uphill terms, both of them: so that Friedrich
finds he will have a great many things to assist in, besides defending
Saxony. He lies here expectant till the middle of June, above seven
weeks; Daun also, for the last two weeks, having taken the field in a
sort. In a sort;--but comes no nearer; merely posting himself astride of
the Elbe, half in Dresden, half on the opposite or northern bank of the
River, with Lacy thrown out ahead in good force on that vacant side;
and so waiting the course of other people's enterprises.
Well to eastward and rearward of Daun, where we have seen Loudon

about to be very busy, Prince Henri and Fouquet have spun themselves
out into a long chain of posts, in length 300 miles or more, "from
Landshut, along the Bober, along the Queiss and Oder, through the
Neumark, abutting on Stettin and Colberg, to the Baltic Sea."
[Tempelhof, iv. 21-24.] On that side, in aid of Loudon or otherwise,
Daun can attempt nothing; still less on the Katzenhauser-Schlettau side
can he dream of an attempt: only towards Brandenburg and Berlin--the
Country on that side, 50 or 60 miles of it, to eastward of Meissen, being
vacant of troops-- is Daun's road open, were he enterprising, as
Friedrich hopes he is not. For some two weeks, Friedrich--not ready
otherwise, it being difficult to cross the River, if Lacy with his 30,000
should think of interference--had to leave the cunctatory Feldmarschall
this chance or unlikely possibility. At the end of the second week
("June 14th," as we shall mark by and by), the chance was withdrawn.
Daun and his Lacy are but one, and that by no means the most
harassing, of the many cares and anxieties which Friedrich has upon
him in those Seven Weeks, while waiting at Schlettau, reading the
omens. Never hitherto was the augury of any Campaign more
indecipherable to him, or so continually fluctuating with wild hopes,
which proved visionary, and with huge practical fears, of what he knew
to be the real likelihood. "Peace coming?" It is strange how long
Friedrich clings to that fond hope: "My Edelsheim is in the Bastille, or
packed home in disgrace: but will not the English and Choiseul make
Peace? It is Choiseul's one rational course; bankrupt as he is, and
reduced to spoons and kettles. In which case, what a beautiful effect
might Duke Ferdinand produce, if he marched to Eger, say to Eger,
with his 50,000 Germans (Britannic Majesty and Pitt so gracious), and
twitched Daun by the skirt, whirling Daun home to Bohemia in a
hurry!" Then the Turks; the Danes,--"Might not the Danes send us a
trifle of Fleet to Colberg (since the English never will), and keep our
Russians at bay?"--"At lowest these hopes are consolatory," says he
once, suspecting them all (as, no doubt, he often enough does), "and
give us courage to look calmly for the opening of this Campaign, the
very idea of which has made me shudder!" ["To Prince Henri:" in
Schoning, ii. 246 (3d April, 1760): ib. 263 (of the
DANISH outlook); &c. &c.]

Meanwhile, by the end of May, the Russians are come across the
Weichsel again, lie in four camps on the hither side; start about June
1st;--Henri waiting for them, in Sagan Country his head- quarter; and
on both hands of that, Fouquet and he spread out, since the middle of
May, in their long thin Chain of Posts, from Landshut to Colberg again,
like a thin wall of 300 miles. To Friedrich the Russian movements are,
and have been, full of enigma: "Going upon Colberg? Going upon
Glogau; upon Breslau?" That is a heavy-footed certainty, audibly
tramping forward on us, amid these fond visions of the air! Certain too,
and visible to a duller eye than Friedrich's; Loudon in Silesia is
meditating mischief. "The inevitable Russians, the inevitable Loudon;
and nothing but Fouquet and Henri on guard there, with their long thin
chain of posts, infinitely too thin to do any execution!" thinks the King.
To whom their modes of operating are but little satisfactory, as seen at
Schlettau from the distance. "Condense yourself,"