Foot, in whole about 1,500 of both kinds, were what
remained of those 10,680 after this bloody morning's work. There had
been about six hours of it; 'all over by 8 o'clock.'" [ Hofbericht
von der am 23 Junius, 1760, bey Landshuth vorgefallenen Action
italic> (in Seyfarth, Beylagen, ii. 669-671);
Helden-Geschichte, vi. 258-284; Tempelhof, iv.
26-41; Stenzel, v. 241 (who, by oversight,--this Volume being
posthumous to poor Stenzel, --protracts the Action to "half-past 7 in the
evening").]
Fouquet has obeyed to the letter: "Did not my King wrong me?"
Fouquet may say to himself. Truly, Herr General, your King's Order
was a little unwise; as you (who were on the ground, and your King not)
knew it to be. An unwise Order;--perhaps not inexcusable in the sudden
circumstances. And perhaps a still more perfect Bayard would have
preferred obeying such a King in spirit, rather than in letter, and
thereby doing him vital service AGAINST his temporary will? It is not
doubted but Fouquet, left to himself and his 13,000, with the Fortresses
and Garrisons about him, would have maintained himself in Silesia till
help came. The issue is,-- Fouquet has probably lost this fine King his
Silesia, for the time being; and beyond any question, has lost him
10,000 Prussian- Spartan fighters, and a fine General whom he could ill
spare!--In a word, the Gate of Silesia is burst open; and Loudon has
every prospect of taking Glatz, which will keep it so.
What a thunder-bolt for Friedrich! One of the last pillars struck away
from his tottering affairs. "Inevitable, then? We are over with it, then?"
One may fancy Friedrich's reflections. But he showed nothing of them
to anybody; in a few hours, had his mind composed, and new plans on
the anvil. On the morrow of that Austrian Joy-Firing,--morrow, or
some day close on it (ought to have been dated, but is not),--there went
from him, to Magdeburg, the Order: "Have me such and such quantities
of Siege-Artillery in a state of readiness." [Tempelhof, iv. 51.] Already
meaning, it is thought, or contemplating as possible a certain Siege,
which surprised everybody before long! A most inventive, enterprising
being; no end to his contrivances and unexpected outbreaks; especially
when you have him jammed into a corner, and fancy it is all over with
him!
"To no other General," says Tempelhof, "would such a notion of
besieging Dresden have occurred; or if it had suggested itself, the
hideous difficulties would at once have banished it again, or left it only
as a pious wish. But it is strokes of this kind that characterize the great
man. Often enough they have succeeded, been decisive of great
campaigns and wars, and become splendid in the eyes of all mankind;
sometimes, as in this case, they have only deserved to succeed, and to
be splendid in the eyes of judges. How get these masses of enemies
lured away, so that you could try such a thing? There lay the difficulty;
insuperable altogether, except by the most fine and appropriate
treatment. Of a truth, it required a connected series of the wisest
measures and most secret artifices of war;--and withal, that you should
throw over them such a veil as would lead your enemy to see in them
precisely the reverse of what they meant. How all this was to be set in
action, and how the Enemy's own plans, intentions and moods of mind
were to be used as raw material for attainment of your object,--studious
readers will best see in the manoeuvres of the King in his now more
than critical condition; which do certainly exhibit the completest
masterpiece in the Art of leading Armies that Europe has ever seen."
Tempelhof is well enough aware, as readers should continue to be, that,
primarily, and onward for three weeks more, not Dresden, but the
getting to Silesia on good terms, is Friedrich's main enterprise: Dresden
only a supplement or substitute, a second string to his bow, till the first
fail. But, in effect, the two enterprises or strings coincide, or are one,
till the first of them fail; and Tempelhof's eulogy will apply to either.
The initiatory step to either is a Second Feat of Marching;--still
notabler than the former, which has had this poor issue. Soldiers of the
studious or scientific sort, if there are yet any such among us, will
naturally go to Tempelhof, and fearlessly encounter the ruggedest
Documents and Books, if Tempelhof leave them dubious on any point
(which he hardly will): to ingenuous readers of other sorts, who will
take a little pains for understanding the thing, perhaps the following
intermittent far-off glimpses may suffice. [Mitchell, ii. 162 et seq.; and
Tempelhof (iv. 50-53 et seq.), as a scientific check on Mitchell,
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