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Germany from the Earliest Period Vol. 4

W >> Wolfgang Menzel, Trans. Mrs. George Horrocks >> Germany from the Earliest Period Vol. 4




[Footnote 9: "How can France, with her solemn assurances of liberty,
arbitrarily interfere with the government of a country already
possessing a representative elected by the people? How can she
proclaim us as a free nation, and, at the same moment, deprive us of
our liberty? Will she establish a new mythology of nations, and divide
the different peoples on the face of the earth, according to their
strength, into nations and demi-nations?"--_Protest of the Provisional
Council of the City of Brussels. The President, Theodore Dotrenge._
"Every free nation gives to itself laws, does not receive them from
another."--_Protest of the City of Antwerp, President of the Council,
Van Dun._ "You confiscate alike public and private property. That have
even our former tyrants never ventured to do when declaring us rebels,
and you say that you bring to us liberty."--_Protest of the Hennegau._
The most copious account of the revolutionizing of the Netherlands is
contained in Rau's History of the Germans in France, and of the French
in Germany. Frankfort on the Maine, 1794 and 1795.]



CCXLIX. The Defection of Prussia--The Archduke Charles


Frederick William's advisers, who imagined the violation of every
principle of justice and truth an indubitable proof of instinctive and
consummate prudence, unwittingly played a high and hazardous game.
Their diplomatic absurdity, which weighed the fate of nations against
a dinner, found a confusion of all the solid principles on which
states rest as stimulating as the piquant ragouts of the great Ude.
Lucchesini, under his almost intolerable airs of sapience, as artfully
veiled his incapacity in the cabinet as Ferdinand of Brunswick did his
in the field, and to this may be ascribed the measures which but
momentarily and seemingly aggrandized Prussia and prepared her deeper
fall. Each petty advantage gained by Prussia but served to raise
against her some powerful foe, and finally, when placed by her policy
at enmity with every sovereign of Europe, she was induced to trust to
the shallow friendship of the French republic.

The Poles, taken unawares by the second partition of their country,
speedily recovered from their surprise and collected all their
strength for an energetic opposition. Kosciuszko, who had, together
with Lafayette, fought in North America in the cause of liberty, armed
his countrymen with scythes, put every Russian who fell into his hands
to death, and attempted the restoration of ancient Poland. How easily
might not Prussia, backed by the enthusiasm of the patriotic Poles,
have repelled the Russian colossus, already threatening Europe! But
the Berlin diplomatists had yet to learn the homely truth, that
"honesty is the best policy." They aided in the aggrandizement of
Russia, drew down a nation's curse upon their heads for the sake of an
addition to the territory of Prussia, the maintenance of which cost
more than its revenue, and violated the Divine commands during a
period of storm and convulsion, when the aid of Heaven was indeed
required. The ministers of Frederick William II. were externally
religious, but those of Frederick William I., by whom the Polish
question had been so justly decided, were so in reality.

The king led his troops in person into Poland. In June, 1794, he
defeated Kosciuszko's scythemen at Szczekociny, but met with such
strenuous opposition in his attack upon Warsaw as to be compelled to
retire in September.[1] On the retreat of the Prussian troops, the
Russians, who had purposely awaited their departure in order to secure
the triumph for themselves, invaded the country in great force under
their bold general, Suwarow, who defeated Kosciuszko, took him
prisoner, and besieged Warsaw, which he carried by storm. On this
occasion, termed by Reichardt "a peaceful and merciful entry of the
clement victor," eighteen thousand of the inhabitants of every age and
sex were cruelly put to the sword. The result of this success was the
third partition or utter annihilation of Poland. Russia took
possession of the whole of Lithuania and Volhynia, as far as the
Riemen and the Bug; Prussia, of the whole country west of the Riemen,
including Warsaw; Austria, of the whole country south of the Bug, A.D.
1795. An army of German officials, who earned for themselves not the
best of reputations, settled in the Prussian division: they were
ignorant of the language of the country, and enriched themselves by
tyranny and oppression. Von Treibenfeld, the counsellor to the
forest-board, one of Bischofswerder's friends, bestowed a number of
confiscated lands upon his adherents.

The ancient Polish feof of Courland was, in consequence of the
annihilation of Poland, incorporated with the Russian empire, Peter,
the last duke, the son of Biron, being compelled to abdicate, A.D.
1795.

Pichegru invaded Holland late in the autumn of 1794. The duke of York
had already returned to England. A line of defence was, nevertheless,
taken up by the British under Wallmoden, by the Dutch under their
hereditary stadtholder, William V. of Orange, and by an Austrian corps
under Alvinzi; the Dutch were, however, panic-struck, and negotiated a
separate treaty with Pichegru,[2] who, at that moment, solely aimed at
separating the Dutch from their allies; but when, in December, all the
rivers and canals were suddenly frozen, and nature no longer threw
insurmountable obstacles in his path, regardless of the negotiations
then pending in Paris, he unexpectedly took up arms, marched across
the icebound waters, and carried Holland by storm. With him marched
the anti-Orangemen, the exiled Dutch patriots, under General Daendels
and Admiral de Winter, with the pretended view of restoring ancient
republican liberty to Holland and of expelling the tyrannical Orange
dynasty.

The British (and some Hessian troops) were defeated at Thiel on the
Waal; Alvinzi met with a similar fate at Pondern, and was compelled to
retreat into Westphalia. Some English ships, which lay frozen up in
the harbor, were captured by the French hussars. A most manly
resistance was made; but no aid was sent from any quarter. Prussia,
who so shortly before had ranged herself on the side of the
stadtholder against the people, was now an indifferent spectator.
William V. was compelled to flee to England. Holland was transformed
into a Batavian republic. Hahn, Hoof, etc., were the first furious
Jacobins by whom everything was there formed upon the French model.
The Dutch were compelled to cede Maestricht, Venloo, and Vliessingen;
to pay a hundred millions to France, and, moreover, to allow their
country to be plundered, to be stripped of all the splendid works of
art, pictures, etc. (as was also the case in the Netherlands and on
the Rhine), and even of the valuable museum of natural curiosities
collected by them with such assiduity in every quarter of the globe.
These depredations were succeeded by a more systematic mode of
plunder. Holland was mercilessly drained of her enormous wealth. All
the gold and silver bullion was first of all collected; this was
followed by the imposition of an income-tax of six per cent, which was
afterward repeated, and was succeeded by an income-tax on a sliding
scale from three to thirty per cent. The British, at the same time,
destroyed the Dutch fleet in the Texel commanded by de Winter, in
order to prevent its capture by the French, and seized all the Dutch
colonies, Java alone excepted. The flag of Holland had vanished from
the seas.

In August, 1794, the reign of terror in France reached its close. The
moderate party which came into power gave hopes of a general peace,
and Frederick William II without loss of time negotiated a separate
treaty, suddenly abandoned the monarchical cause which he had formerly
so zealously upheld, and offered his friendship to the revolutionary
nation, against which he had so lately hurled a violent manifesto. The
French, with equal inconsistency on their part, abandoned the popular
cause, and, after having murdered their own sovereign and threatened
every European throne with destruction, accepted the alliance of a
foreign king. Both parties, notwithstanding the contrariety of their
principles and their mutual animosity, were conciliated by their
political interest. The French, solely bent upon conquest, cared not
for the liberty of other nations; Prussia, intent upon self-
aggrandizement, was indifferent to the fate of her brother sovereigns.
Peace was concluded between France and Prussia at Basel, April 5,
1795. By a secret article of this treaty, Prussia confirmed the French
republic in the possession of the whole of the left bank of the Rhine,
while France in return richly indemnified Prussia at the expense of
the petty German states. This peace, notwithstanding its manifest
disadvantages, was also acceded to by Austria, which, on this
occasion, received the unfortunate daughter of Louis XVI. in exchange
for Semonville and Maret, the captive ambassadors of the republic, and
the members of the Convention seized by Dumouriez. Hanover[3] and
Hesse-Cassel participated in the treaty and were included within the
line of demarcation, which France, on her side, bound herself not to
transgress.

The countries lying beyond this line of demarcation, the Netherlands,
Holland, and Pfalz-Juliers, were now abandoned to France, and Austria,
kept in check on the Upper Rhine, was powerless in their defence. In
this manner fell Luxemburg and Düsseldorf. All the Lower Rhenish
provinces were systematically plundered by the French under pretext of
establishing liberty and equality.[4] The Batavian republic was
permitted to subsist, but dependent upon France; Belgium was annexed
to France, A.D. 1795.

On the retreat of the Prussians, Mannheim was surrendered without a
blow by the electoral minister, Oberndorf, to the French. Wurmser
arrived too late to the relief of the city. Quosdanowich, his
lieutenant-general, nevertheless, succeeded in saving Heidelberg by
sheltering himself behind a great abatis at Handschuchsheion, whence
he repulsed the enemy, who were afterward almost entirely cut to
pieces by General Klenau, whom he sent in pursuit with the light
cavalry. General Boros led another Austrian corps across Nassau to
Ehrenbreitstein, at that time besieged by the French under their
youthful general, Marceau, who instantly retired. Wurmser no sooner
arrived in person than, attacking the French before Mannheim, he
completely put them to the rout and took General Oudinot prisoner.
Clairfait, at the same time, advanced unperceived upon Mayence, and
unexpectedly attacking the besieging French force, carried off one
hundred and thirty-eight pieces of heavy artillery. Pichegru, who had
been called from Holland to take the command on the Upper Rhine, was
driven back to the Vosges. Jourdan advanced to his aid from the Lower
Rhine, but his vanguard under Marceau was defeated at Kreuznach and
again at Meissenheim. Mannheim also capitulated to the Austrians. The
winter was now far advanced; both sides were weary of the campaign,
and an armistice was concluded. Austria, notwithstanding her late
success, was, owing to the desertion of Prussia, in a critical
position. The imperial troops also refused to act. The princes of
Southern Germany longed for peace. Even Spain followed the example of
Prussia and concluded a treaty with the French republic.

The consequent dissolution of the coalition between the German powers
had at least the effect of preventing the formation of a coalition of
nations against them by the French. Had the alliance between the
sovereigns continued, the French would, from political motives, have
used their utmost endeavors to revolutionize Germany; this project was
rendered needless by the treaty of Basel, which broke up the coalition
and confirmed France in the undisturbed possession of her liberties;
and thus it happened that Prussia unwittingly aided the monarchical
cause by involuntarily preventing the promulgation of the
revolutionary principles of France.

Austria remained unshaken, and refused either to betray the
monarchical cause by the recognition of a revolutionary democratical
government, or to cede the frontiers of the empire to the youthful and
insolent generals of the republic. Conscious of the righteousness of
the cause she upheld, she intrepidly stood her ground and ventured her
single strength in the mighty contest, which the campaign of 1796 was
to decide. The Austrian forces in Germany were commanded by the
emperor's brother, the Archduke Charles; those in Italy, by Beaulieu.
The French, on the other hand, sent Jourdan to the Lower Rhine, Moreau
to the Upper Rhine, Bonaparte to Italy, and commenced the attack on
every point with their wonted impetuosity.

The Austrians had again extended their lines as far as the Lower
Rhine. A corps under Prince Ferdinand of Würtemberg was stationed in
the Bergland, in the narrow corner still left between the Rhine and
the Prussian line of demarcation. Marceau forced him to retire as far
as Altenkirchen, but the Archduke Charles hastening to his assistance
encountered Jourdan's entire force on the Lahn near Kloster Altenberg,
and, after a short contest, compelled it to give way. A great part of
the Austrian army of the Rhine under Wurmser having been, meanwhile,
drawn off and sent into Italy, the archduke was compelled to turn
hastily from Jourdan against Moreau, who had just despatched General
Ferino across the Lake of Constance, while he advanced upon Strasburg.
A small Swabian corps under Colonel Raglowich made an extraordinary
defence in Kehl (the first instance of extreme bravery given by the
imperial troops at that time), but was forced to yield to numbers. The
Austrian general, Sztarray, was, notwithstanding the gallantry
displayed on the occasion, also repulsed at Sasbach; the Wurtemberg
battalion was also driven from the steep pass of the Kniebes,[5]
across which Moreau penetrated through the Black Forest into the heart
of Swabia, and had already reached Freudenstadt, when the Austrian
general, Latour, marched up the Murg. He was, however, also repulsed.
The Archduke Charles now arrived in person in the country around
Pforzheim (on the skirts of the Black Forest), and sent forward his
columns to attack the French in the mountains, but in vain; the French
were victorious at Rothensol and at Wildbad. The archduke retired
behind the Neckar to Cannstadt; his rearguard was pursued through the
city of Stuttgard by the vanguard of the French. After a short
cannonade, the archduke also abandoned his position at Cannstadt. The
whole of the Swabian circle submitted to the French. Wurtemberg was
now compelled to make a formal cession of Mumpelgard, which had been
for some time garrisoned by the French,[6] and, moreover, to pay a
contribution of four million livres; Baden was also mulcted two
millions, the other states of the Swabian circle twelve millions, the
clergy seven millions, altogether twenty-five million livres, without
reckoning the enormous requisition of provisions, horses, clothes,
etc. The archduke, in the meantime, deprived the troops belonging to
the Swabian circle of their arms at Biberach, on account of the peace
concluded by their princes with the French, and retired behind the
Danube by Donauwoerth. Ferino had, meanwhile, also advanced from
Huningen into the Breisgau and to the Lake of Constance, had beaten
the small corps under General Frõhlick at Herbolsheim and the remnant
of the French emigrants under Oonde at Mindelheim,[7] and joined
Moreau in pursuit of the archduke. His troops committed great havoc
wherever they appeared.[8]

Jourdan had also again pushed forward. The archduke had merely been
able to oppose to him on the Lower Rhine thirty thousand men under the
Count von Wartensleben, who, owing to Jourdan's numerical superiority,
had been repulsed across both the Lahn and Maine. Jourdan took
Frankfort by bombardment and imposed upon that city a contribution of
six millions. The Franconian circle also submitted and paid sixteen
millions, without reckoning the requisition of natural productions and
the merciless pillage.[9]

The Archduke Charles, too weak singly to encounter the armies of
Moreau and Jourdan, had, meanwhile, boldly resolved to keep his
opponents as long as possible separate, and, on the first favorable
opportunity, to attack one with the whole of his forces, while he kept
the other at bay with a small division of his army. In pursuance of
this plan, he sent Wartensleben against Jourdan, and, meanwhile, drew
Moreau after him into Bavaria, where, leaving General Latour with a
small corps to keep him in check at Rain on the Lech, he recrossed the
Danube at Ingolstadt with the flower of his army and hastily advanced
against Jourdan, who was thus taken unawares. At Teiningen, he
surprised the French avant-garde under Bernadotte, which he compelled
to retire. At Amberg, he encountered Jourdan, whom he completely
routed, A.D. 1796. The French retreated through the city, on the other
side of which they formed an immense square against the imperial
cavalry under Wernek; it was broken on the third charge, and a
terrible slaughter took place, three thousand of the French being
killed and one thousand taken prisoner. The peasantry had already
flown to arms, and assisted in cutting down the fugitives. Jourdan
again made a stand at Wurzburg, where Wernek stormed his batteries at
the head of his grenadiers and a complete rout ensued, September 3.
The French lost six thousand dead and two thousand prisoners. The
peasantry rose _en masse_, and hunted down the fugitives.[10] On the
Upper Rhone, Dr. Röder placed himself at the head of the peasantry,
but, encountering a superior French corps at Mellrichstadt, was
defeated and killed. The French suffered most in the Spessart, called
by them, on that account, La petite Vendee. The peasantry were here
headed by an aged forester named Philip Witt, and, protected by their
forests, exterminated numbers of the flying foe. The imperial troops
were also unremitting in their pursuit, again defeated Bernadotte at
Aschaffenburg and chased Jourdan through Nassau across the Rhine.
Marceau, who had vainly besieged Mayence, again made stand at
Allerheim, where he was defeated and killed.[11]

Moreau, completely deceived by the archduke, had, meanwhile, remained
in Bavaria. After defeating General Latour at Lechhausen, instead of
setting off in pursuit of the archduke and to Jourdan's aid, he was,
as the archduke had foreseen, attracted by the prospect of gaining a
rich booty, in an opposite direction, toward Munich. Bavaria submitted
to the French, paid ten millions, and ceded twenty of the most
valuable pictures belonging to the Dusseldorf and Munich galleries.
The news of Jourdan's defeat now compelled Moreau to beat a rapid
retreat in order to avoid being cut off by the victorious archduke.
Latour set off vigorously in pursuit, came up with him at Ulm and
again at Ravensberg, but was both times repulsed, owing to his
numerical inferiority. A similar fate awaited the still smaller
imperial corps led against the French by Nauendorf at Rothweil and by
Petrosch at Villingen, and Moreau led the main body of his army in
safety through the deep narrow gorges of the Hollenthal in the Black
Forest to Freiburg in the Breisgau, where he came upon the archduke,
who, amid the acclamations of the armed peasantry (by whom the
retreating French[12] were, as in the Spessart, continually harassed
in their passage through the Black Forest), had hurried, but too late,
to his encounter. Moreau had already sent two divisions of his army,
under Ferino and Desaix, across the Rhine at Huningen and Breisach,
and covered their retreat with the third by taking up a strong
position at Schliesgen, not far from Freiburg, whence, after braving a
first attack, he escaped during the night to Huningen. This retreat,
in which he had saved his army with comparatively little loss, excited
general admiration, but in Italy there was a young man who scornfully
exclaimed, "It was, after all, merely a retreat!"


[Footnote 1: The following trait proves the complete stagnation of
chivalric feeling in the army. Szekuli, colonel of the Prussian
hussars, condemned several patriotic ladies, belonging to the highest
Polish families at Znawrazlaw, to be placed beneath the gallows, in
momentary expectation of death, until it, at length, pleased him to
grant a reprieve, couched in the most offensive and indecent terms.]

[Footnote 2: A most disgraceful treaty. William's enemies, the
fugitive patriots, had promised the French, in return for their aid,
sixty million florins of the spoil of their country. William, upon
this, promised to pay to France a subsidy of eighty millions, in order
to guarantee the security of his frontier, but was instantly outbid by
the base and self-denominated patriots, who offered to France a
hundred million florins in order to induce her to invade their
country.]

[Footnote 3: Von Berlepsch, the councillor of administration, proposed
to the Calemberg diet to declare their neutrality in defiance of
England, and, in case of necessity, to place "the Calemberg Nation"
under the protection of France.--Havemomn.]

[Footnote 4: "Wherever these locusts appear, everything, men, cattle,
food, property, etc., is carried off. These thieves seize everything
convertible into money. Nothing is safe from them. At Cologne, they
filled a church with coffee and sugar. At Aix-la-Chapelle, they
carried off the finest pictures of Rubens and Van Dyck, the pillars
from the altar, and the marble-slab from the tomb of Charlemagne, all
of which they sold to some Dutch Jews."--_Posselt's Annals of 1796_.
At Cologne, the nuns were instantly emancipated from their vows, and
one of the youngest and most beautiful afterward gained great
notoriety as a barmaid at an inn. This scandalous story is related by
Klebe in his Travels on the Rhine. In Bonn, Gleich, a man who had
formerly been a priest, placed himself at the head of the French
rabble and planted trees of liberty. He also gave to the world a
decade, as he termed his publication.--_Müller_, _History of Bonn_.
"The French proclaimed war against the palaces and peace to the huts,
but no hut was too mean to escape the rapacity of these birds of prey.
The first-fruits of liberty was the pillage of every corner."--
_Schwaben's History of Siegburg_. The brothers Boisserée'e afterward
collected a good many of the church pictures, at that period carried
away from Cologne and more particularly from the Lower Rhine. They now
adorn Munich and form the best collection of old German paintings now
existing.]

[Footnote 5: "Had Würtemberg possessed but six thousand well-organized
troops, the position on the Roszbuhl might have been maintained, and
the country have been saved. The millions since paid by Würtemberg,
and which she may still have to pay, would have been spared."--
_Appendix to the History of the Campaign of 1796._]

[Footnote 6: The duke, Charles, had, in 1791, visited Paris, donned
the national cockade, and bribed Mirabeau with a large sum of money to
induce the French government to purchase Mümpelgard from him. The
French, however, were quite as well aware as the duke that they would
ere long possess it gratis.]

[Footnote 7: Moreau generously allowed all his prisoners, who, as
ex-nobles, were destined to the guillotine, to escape.]

[Footnote 8: Armbruster's "Register of French Crime" contains as
follows: "Here and there, in the neighboring towns, there were
certainly symptoms of an extremely favorable disposition toward the
French, which would ill deserve a place in the annals of German
patriotism and of German good sense. This disposition was fortunately
far from general. The appearance of the French in their real
character, and the barbarous excesses and heavy contributions by which
they rendered the people sensible of their presence, speedily effected
their conversion." The French, it is true, neither murdered the
inhabitants nor burned the villages as they had during the previous
century in the Pfalz, but they pillaged the country to a greater
extent, shamefully abused the women, and desecrated the churches.
Their license and the art with which they extorted the last penny from
the wretched people surpassed all belief. "Not satisfied with robbing
the churches, they especially gloried in giving utterance to the most
fearful blasphemies, in destroying and profaning the altars, in
overthrowing the statues of saints, in treading the host beneath their
feet or casting it to dogs.--At the village of Berg in Weingarten,
they set up in the holy of holies the image of the devil, which they
had taken from the representation of the temptation of the Saviour in
the wilderness. In the village of Boos, they roasted a crucifix before
a fire."--_Vide Hurter's Memorabilia, concerning the French allies in
Swabia, who attempted to found an Alemannic Republic. Schaffhausen,
1840_. Moreau reduced them to silence by declaring, "I have no need of
a revolution to the rear of my army."]

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