It is one of five or six such sallies Friedrich made upon the Reich, sometimes upon the Austrians and Reich together, to tumble up their magazines and preparations. Rapid unexpected inroads, year after year; done chiefly by the Free-Corps; and famous enough to the then Gazetteers. Of which, or of their doers, as we can in time coming afford little or no notice, let us add this small Note on the Free-Corps topic, which is a large one in the Books, but must not interrupt us again:--"Before this War was done," say my Authorities, "there came gradually to be twenty-one Prussian Free-Corps,"--foot almost all;there being already Hussars in quantity, ever since the first Silesian experiences. "Notable Aggregates they were of loose wandering fellows, broken Saxons, Prussians, French; 'Hungarian-Protestant' some of them, 'Deserters from all the Armies' not a few; attracted by the fame of Friedrich,--as the Colonels enlisting them had been; Mayer himself, for instance, was by birth a Vienna man; and had been in many services and wars, from his fifteenth year and onwards. Most miscellaneous, these Prussian Free-Corps;a swift faculty the indispensable thing, by no means a particular character: but well-disciplined, well-captained; who generally managed their work well.
"They were, by origin, of Anti-Tolpatch nature, got up on the diamond-cut-diamond principle; they stole a good deal, with order sometimes, and oftener without; but there was nothing of the old Mentzel-Trenck atrocity permitted them, or ever imputed to them;and they did, usually with good military talent, sometimes conspicuously good, what was required of them. Regular Generals, of a high merit, one or two of their Captains came to be: Wunsch, for example; Werner, in some sort; and, but for his sudden death, this Mayer himself. Others of them, as Von Hordt (Hard is his Swedish name); and 'Quintus Icilius' (by nature GUICHARD, of whom we shall hear a great deal in the Friedrich circle by and by), are distinguished as honorably intellectual and cultivated persons.
[Count de Hordt's Memoirs (autobiographical, or in the first person: English Translation, London, 1806;TWO French Originals, a worse in 1789, and a better now at last), Preface, i-xii. In Helden-Geschichte,
v. 102-104, 93, a detailed "List of the Free-Corps in 1758" (twelve of foot, two of horse, at that time): see Preuss, ii. 372 n.;Pauli (ubi supra), Life of Mayer. ]
"Poor Mayer died within two years hence (5th January, 1759); of fever, caught by unheard-of exertions and over fatigues; after many exploits, and with the highest prospect, opening on him. A man of many adventures, of many qualities; a wild dash of chivalry in him all along, and much military and other talent crossed in the growing. In the dull old Books I read one other fact which is vivid to me, That Wilhelmina, as sequel of those first Franconian exploits and procedures, 'had given him her Order of Knighthood, ORDER OF SINCERITY AND FIDELITY,'"--poor dear Princess, what an interest to Wilhelmina, this flash of her Brother's thunder thrown into those Franconian parts, and across her own pungent anxieties and sorrowfully affectionate thoughts, in these weeks!--Shortly after Mayer, about the time when Mayer was wending homeward, General von Oldenburg, a very valiant punctual old General, was pushed out westward upon Erfurt, a City of Kur-Mainz's, to give Kur-Mainz a similar monition. And did it handsomely, impressively upon the Gazetteer world at least and the Erfurt populations,--though we can afford it no room in this place.
Oldenburg's force was but some 2,000; Pirna Saxons most of them:
--such a winter Oldenburg has had with these Saxons; bursting out into actual musketry upon him once; Oldenburg, volcanically steady, summoning the Prussian part, "To me, true Prussian Bursche!"--and hanging nine of the mutinous Saxons. And has coerced and compesced them (all that did not contrive to desert) into soldierly obedience; and, 20th June, appears at the Gate of Erfurt with them, to do his delicate errand there. Sharply conclusive, though polite and punctual. "Send to Kur-Mainz say you? Well, as to your Citadel, and those 1,400 soldiers all moving peaceably off thither,--Yes.
As to your City: within one hour, Gate open to us, or we open it!"[In Helden-Geschichte (v. 371-384) copious Account, with the Missives to and from, the Reichs-Pleadings that followed, the &c. &c. Militair-Lexikon, ?
Oldenburg.] And Oldenburg marches in, as vice-sovereign for the time:--but, indeed, has soon to leave again; owing to what Event in the distance will be seen!
If Prag Siege go well, these Mayer-Oldenburg expeditions will have an effect on the Reich: but if it go ill, what are they, against Austria with its force of steady pressure? All turns on the issue of Prag Siege:--a fact extremely evident to Friedrich too!
But these are what in the interim can be done. One neglects no opportunity, tries by every method.
OF THE SINGULAR QUASI-BEWITCHED CONDITION OF ENGLAND;AND WHAT IS TO BE HOPED FROM IT FOR THE COMMON CAUSE, IF PRAG GO AMISS.
On the Britannic side, too, the outlooks are not good;--much need Friedrich were through his Prag affair, and "hastening with forty thousand to help his Allies,"--that is, Royal Highness of Cumberland and Britannic Purse, his only allies at this moment.
Royal Highness and Army of Observation (should have been 67,000, are 50 to 60,000, hired Germans; troops good enough, were they tolerably led) finds the Hanover Program as bad as Schmettau and Friedrich ever represented it; and, already,--unless Prag go well, --wears, to the understanding eye, a very contingent aspect.
D'Estrees outnumbers him; D'Estrees, too, is something of a soldier,--a very considerable advantage in affairs of war.
