[<italic> OEuvres de Frederic, <end italic> ii. 156.] In Leipe, a little Hamlet sidewards of the road, short way from Grotkau, our Hussar Vanguard had found Austrian Hussars; captured forty, and from them learned that the Austrian Army is in Grotkau; that they took Grotkau half an hour before, and are there! A poor Lieutenant Mitschepfal (whom I think Friedrich used to know in Reinsberg) lay in Grotkau, 'with some sixty recruits and deserters,' says Friedrich,--and with several hundreds of camp-laborers (intended for the trenches, which will not now be opened):--Mitschepfal made a stout defence; but, after three hours of it, had to give in: and there is nothing now for us at Grotkau. 'Halt,' therefore! Neipperg is evidently pushing towards Ohlau, towards Breslau, though in a leisurely way; there it will behoove us to get the start of him, if humanly possible: To the right about, therefore, without delay!
The Prussians repass Leipe (much to the wonder of its ****** people); get along, some seven miles farther, on the road for Ohlau; and quarter, that night, in what handy villages there are;the King's Corps in two Villages, which he calls 'Pogrel and Alsen,'"--which are to be found still on the Map as "Pogarell and Alzenau," on the road from Lowen towards Ohlau.
This is the end of that March into the Mountains, with Neisse Siege hanging triumphant ahead. These are the King's quarters, this wintry Spring night, Saturday, 8th April, 1741; and it is to be guessed there is more of care than of sleep provided for him there.
Seldom, in his life, was Friedrich in a more critical position;and he well knows it, none better. And could have his remorses upon it,--were these of the least use in present circumstances. Here are two Letters which he wrote that night; veiling, we perceive, a very grim world of thoughts; betokening, however, a mind made up.
Jordan, Prince August Wilhelm Heir-Apparent, and other fine individuals who shone in the Schweidnitz circle lately, are in Breslau, safe sheltered against this bad juncture; Maupertuis was not so lucky as to go with them.
THE KING TO PRINCE AUGUST WILHELM (in Breslau).
"POGARELL, 8th April, 1741.
"MY DEAREST BROTHER,--The Enemy has just got into Silesia; we are not more than a mile (QUART DE MILLE) from them. To-morrow must decide our fortune.
"If I die, do not forget a Brother who has always loved you very tenderly. I recommend to you my most dear Mother, my Domestics, and my First Battalion [LIFEGUARD OF FOOT, men picked from his own old Ruppin Regiment and from the disbanded Giants, star of all the Battalions]. [See Preuss, i. 144, iv. 309; Nicolai, <italic>
Beschreibung von Berlin, <end italic> iii, 1252.] Eichel and Schuhmacher [Two of the Three Clerks] are informed of all my testamentary wishes. Remember me always, you; but console yourself for my death: the glory of the Prussian Arms, and the honor of the House have set me in action, and will guide me to my last moment.
You are my sole Heir: I recommend to you, in dying, those whom Ihave the most loved during my life: Keyserling, Jordan, Wartensleben; Hacke, who is a very honest man; Fredersdorf [Factotum], and Eichel, in whom you may place entire confidence.
I bequeath 8,000 crowns (1,200 pounds, which I have with me, to my Domestics; but all that I have elsewhere depends on you. To each of my Brothers and Sisters make a present in my name; a thousand affectionate regards (AMITIES ET COMPLIMENTS) to my Sister of Baireuth. You know what I think on their score; and you know better than I could tell you, the tenderness and all the sentiments of most inviolable friendship with which I am, dearest Brother, "Your faithful Brother and Servant till death, "FEDERIC."[<italic> OEuvres de Frederic, <end italic> xxvi. 85; List of Friedrich's Testamentary arrangements in Note there,--Six in all, at different times, besides this.]
THE KING TO M. JORDAN (in Breslau).
"POGARELL, 8th April, 1741.
"My DEAR JORDAN,---We are going to fight to-morrow. Thou knowest the chances of war; the life of Kings not more regarded than that of private people. I know not what will happen to me.
"If my destiny is finished, remember a friend, who loves thee always tenderly: if Heaven prolong my days, I will write to thee after to-morrow, and thou wilt hear of our victory. Adieu, dear friend; I shall love thee till death.
"FEDERIC."
[Ib. xvii. 98.]
The King, we incidentally discover somewhere, "had no sleep that night;" none, "nor the next night either,"--such a crisis coming, still not come.
Chapter X.
BATTLE OF MOLLWITZ.
"To-morrow," Sunday, did not prove the Day of Fight, after all.
Being a day of wild drifting snow, so that you could not see twenty paces, there was nothing for it but to sit quiet. The King makes all his dispositions; sketches out punctually, to the last item, where each is to station himself, how the Army is to advance in Four Columns, ready for Neipperg wherever he may be,--towards Ohlau at any rate, whither it is not doubted Neipperg is bent.
These snowy six-and-thirty hours at Pogarell were probably, since the Custrin time, the most anxious of Friedrich's life.
Neipperg, for his part, struggles forward a few miles, this Sunday, April 9th; the Prussians rest under shelter in the wild weather.
Neipperg's head-quarters, this night, are a small Village or Hamlet, called Mollwitz: there and in the adjacent Hamlets, chiefly in Laugwitz and Gruningen, his Army lodges itself:--he is now fairly got between us and Ohlau,--if, in the blowing drift, we knew it, or he knew it. But, in this confusion of the elements, neither party knows of the other: Neipperg has appointed that to-morrow, Monday, l0th, shall be a rest-day:--appointment which could by no means be kept, as it turned out!