3. THE BROGLIO REINFORCEMENT COMING ACROSS TO JOIN SOUBISE, ANDPERFORM AT ROSSBACH (Humble Petition from the Magistrates of Sangerhausen, To the King of Poland's Majesty):--SANGERHAUSEN, 23d OCTOBER, 1757.--"Scarcely had we, with profound submission (ALLERUNTERTHANIGST), under date of the 13th current, represented to your Royal Majesty and Electoral Translucency how heavily we were pressed down by the forage requisitions and transits of troops, and the consequent, expenditure in food, drinking, in oats and hay, which no one pays,--when directly thereafter, on the 14th of October, a new French party, of the Fischer Corps,"--Fischer is a mighty Hussar, scarcely inferior to Turpin;, and stands in astonishing authority with Richelieu, and an Army whose object is plunder, [Ferdinand's Correspondente, SOEPIUS(<italic> Westphalen, <end italic> i. 40-127); &c. &c.]--"new party of the Fischer Corps, of some sixty men and horse, arrived in the Town; demanded meat, drink, oats aud hay, and all things necessary;which they received from us;--and not only paid not one farthing for all this, but furthermore some of them, instead of thanks to their Landlord, Rossold, forcibly broke up his press, drank his brandy, and carried off a TOUTE (gather-all) with money in it.
From a Tanner, Lindauer by name, they bargained for a buckskin;and having taken, would not pay it. In the RATHSKELLER (Town Public-house) they drank much wine, and gave nothing for it: nay on marching off,--because no mounted guide (REITENDER BOTE) was at hand, and though they had before expressly said none such would be needed,--they rushed about like distracted persons (WIE RASENDELEUTE) in the market-place and in the streets; beat the people, tumbled them about, and lugged them along, in a violent manner;using abusive language to a frightful extent, and threatening every misfortune.
"Hardly were we rid of this confusion and astonishment when, on October 21st, a whole swarm of horses, men, women, children and wagons, which likewise all belonged to the Fischer Corps, and were commanded by First-Lieutenant Schmidt, came into our Town.
This troop consisted of 80 men, part infantry, part cavalry;with some 80 work-horses, 10 baggage-wagons, and about 100 persons, women, sick people and the like. They stayed the whole night here;made meat, drink, corn, hay and whatever they needed be brought them; and went off next day without paying anything.
"Our Inns were now almost quite exhausted of forage in corn or hay;and we knew not how we were to pay what had been spent,--when the thirty French Light Cavalry, of whom we, with profound submission, on the 13th HUJUS gave your Royal Majesty and Electoral Translucency account, renewed their visit upon us; came, under the command of Rittmeister de Mocu, on the 22d of October [while the baggage-wagons, work-horses, women, sick, and so forth, were hardly gone], towards evening, into the Town; consumed in meat and drink, oats and hay, and the like, what they could lay hold of; and next morning early marched away, paying, as their custom is, nothing.
"Not enough that,--besides the great forage-contribution (LIEFERUNG), which we already, with profound submission, notified to your Royal Majesty and Electoral Translucency as having been laid upon us; and that, by order of the Duc de Broglio, a new requisition is now laid on us, and we have had to engage for sixty-four more sacks of wheat, and thirty-two of rye (as is noted under head A, in the enclosed copy),--there has farther come on us, on the part of the Reichs Army, from Kreis-Commissarius Heldorf [whose Schloss of Grost, we perceive, they have since burnt, by way of thanks to him [Supra, No. 2.]], the simultaneous Order for instant delivery of Forage (as under head B, here enclosed)! Thus are we, at the appointed places, all at once to furnish such quantities, more than we can raise; and know not when or where we shall, either for what has been already furnished, or for what is still to be, receive one penny of money: nay, over and above, we are to sustain the many marchings of troops, and provide to the same what meat, drink, oats, hay and so on, they require, without the least return of payment!
"So unendurable, and, taken all together, so hard (SIC) begins the conduct of these troops, that profess being come as friends and helpers, to appear to us. And Heaven alone knows how long, under a continuance of such things, the subjects (whom the Hail-storm of last year had at any rate impoverished) shall be able to support the same. We would, were a reasonable delivery of forage laid upon us even at a low price, and the board and billet of the marching troops paid to us even in part, lay out our whole strength in helping to bear the burdens of the Fatherland; but if such things go on, which will soon leave us only bare life and empty huts, we can look forward to nothing but our ruin and destruction. But, as it is not your Royal Majesty's and Electoral Translucency's most gracious will that we, your Most Supreme Self's most faithful subjects, should entirely perish, therefore we repeat our former most submissive prayer once again with hot (SIC) sorrow of mind to Highest-the-Same; and sob most submissively for that help which your Most Supreme Self, through most gracious mediation with the Duc de Richelieu, with the Reichs Army or wherever else, might perhaps most graciously procure for us. Who, in deepest longing thitherwards, with the most deepest devotion, remain--" [<italic>
Helden-Geschichte, <end italic> iv. 688-691.] (NAMES, unfortunately, not given).
How many Saxons and Germans generally--alas, how many men universally--cry towards celestial luminaries of the governing kind with the most deepest devotion, in their extreme need, under their unsufferable injuries; and are truly like dogs in the backyard barking at the Moon. The Moon won't come down to them, and be eaten as green cheese; the Moon can't!