Part 15

It was, in fact, so deep and general that a heart less stout, a temper less sardonic than his might have quailed before it--yes, perhaps even this heart did sometimes quail. In France, a country where he had close intellectual ties, he passed for a savage, simply; they called him nothing but the barbarian, the “monster of the north.” Indeed, he might have searched the whole globe over for a sign of sympathy and understanding and found none--no spot on earth where he did not pass for the enemy of mankind, a ravening beast, to draw whose fangs would be a moral act and a safe-guard to the public. He must be struck down, must be rendered for ever powerless. Not only must Silesia be taken from him; Prussia must be reduced to the position which was hers before the Thirty Years’ War, the king of it once more a petty marquis, powerless for harm. Yes, the hour had struck when the civilized states must root out the Prussian spirit and rid the planet from this poisonous growth. Even those who could still think objectively had to admit that there was nothing left for Prussia but to sink under the scorn and hatred heaped upon her by the world.

Quite aside from the material resources which such hatred had at its disposition, the hatred remains in and for itself a thing to shudder at. To fear that which is of the spirit is no disgrace; it involves less cowardice than does fear of physical force. It is upon the imponderables that the best hopes of victory are based; thus there is nothing weak or foolish about taking cognizance of the imponderable and the irrational where it sides against you. The hatred and revulsion which Prussia roused might be as uninstructed and misguided as ever; but the question which had to be raised was this: was it conceivable, or humanly possible, that one man could bear up against the weight of so general a feeling and carry off the victory? It takes more constancy of spirit to confront a preponderance of moral feeling than to defy a superior body of troops. Frederick had to admit to himself that in case of his defeat the world’s rejoicing and the world’s scorn would alike be unbounded; that he should get no justice, and not only that, but that he should actually have been in the wrong. Even on this ground, it was bitterly necessary for him to conquer. He was not in the right, in so far as right is a convention, the voice of the majority, the judgment of humanity. His right was the right of the rising power, a problematical, still illegitimate, untested right, which had first to be fought for and won. Defeated, he was the most wretched of adventurers--_un fou_, as Louis of France called him. Only when success had shown him to be the agent of destiny, only then would he be in the right, and proved to have been always in the right. For every deed that deserves the name is in truth a trial of fate, an effort to create a right, to guide destiny and realize the course of development. And the hatred felt against the doer of the deed is, psychologically speaking, nothing else than an effort to influence the verdict of fate against him--a naïve and irrational effort, because the verdict is settled beforehand, but still a spiritual weight and pressure which might well frighten the bravest. King Frederick is called the Great, not only because of the audacity with which he laid siege to destiny, but also and especially because he had the strength to bear up--alone, with almost superhuman nervous strength--under so heavy a burden of hate. But all the bitterness of soul, all the cynic disbelief in justice, which characterizes him who thus tempts fate, speaks in those words he uttered: “Poor mortals that we are! The world judges our acts not according to our motives, but according to their success. There is nothing left for us but to achieve it.”

So now they got their forces together, bodies of troops, armies, in almost ridiculous superfluity, to overcome him and carve him up in the shortest possible time at the least expense to each of them. Each one looked forward to his share. Elizabeth of Russia displayed great tenacity, she was far from dead yet, she hastened to join the Versailles concordat and signed a special understanding with Austria, by virtue of which she was to send eighty thousand men against Frederick and harry the Prussian coast with her fleet. France, which up to now had let herself be entreated, showed suddenly a hysterical zeal. By the invasion of Saxony, she shrieked, the Peace of Westphalia had been violated, shamefully violated, and the honour of all the guarantors of that peace demanded that they speedily unite to execute the evil-doer. A second Versailles Treaty arose, stating that France would contribute a hundred thousand men and pay twelve million gulden of yearly subsidy to Austria, until such time as the latter was once more secure in the possession of Silesia, and Prussia reduced to the dimensions she had before the Thirty Years’ War (according to which contract France ought still to be paying to this day). The war against Prussia, the alliance with Austria, was now so popular in Paris that the French Academy offered a prize for the best verses in praise of it; but the French government found the idea silly and suppressed the offer. And that was not all. Frederick found that he had fallen foul of the “Empire.” His act, they said, was a breach of peace of the “_Reich_.” The Emperor commanded him to cease his unheard-of and wicked sedition, to indemnify King Augustus and withdraw from Saxony. He ordered all Frederick’s generals to leave their godless lord, and not to partake in his hideous crime. And as all that did not in the slightest avail, the whole of Germany (that blind Germany!) rose against Frederick, sixty princes declared that his proceedings constituted a predatory attack, and an imperial punitive campaign was solemnly resolved upon. Sweden, one of the signatories to the Westphalian Peace, and in leading-strings to France, had perforce to resign herself to the conquest of Pomerania. And thus populations to the tune of a hundred million rose against some five; fourteen princes against one; seven hundred thousand of troops against two hundred and sixty thousand. Frederick was putting it mildly when he said he was risking his skin. Nobody had any doubt it would be all up with him in the shortest possible time.

It will give me the very greatest pleasure to cite from his letters of the period. They have a way of making one’s memory act in a contrary direction--namely, forward and not back, a distinctly thrilling kind of memory.

To the Marquis d’Argens in Berlin: “The French have gone mad. You cannot imagine the disgraceful things they are saying about me. You would think that the whole salvation of France depended on the house of Austria; and the Dauphine’s dreams have made much more impression than my manifesto against Saxony and the Austrians. In short, my dear friend, I deplore the consequences of the earthquake that has addled the brains of all the statesmen in Europe, and I wish them peace, health, and contentment.”

To Privy Counsellor von Knyphausen of the Paris legation: “It is due to the Austrian intrigues that I am obliged to recall you. When you will have left Paris, nothing will stem the tide of slander against me. My enemies will invent so many stories that the French will only see with their eyes and hear with their ears. Well, if they want to be my enemies, very well; it is their own choice.”

To his sister of Bayreuth: “But since things have been pushed to this point, we must hope now that Providence, if it deigns to mix in poor human affairs, will not permit the arrogance and malice of my enemies to triumph over my just cause.”

To Schwerin: “We shall have, my dear Marshal, to confront many foes--but I am not afraid. I have capital generals, admirable troops, and if heaven preserve my understanding I hope also to give a good account of myself.... But we must exert ourselves to the uttermost, we must crush our enemies, we must fear no numbers, but rather count it an honour that such a difficult task is ours to perform. We pay rope-dancers, but not men who merely walk on solid ground; so in this world all the glory is for those who triumph over difficulties. Farewell, my dear Marshal, I embrace you.”

To his sister Amalie: “The coming campaign is to me what Pharsalus was to the Romans, or Leuctra to the Greeks, or Denain to the French, or the siege of Vienna to the Austrians. Such epochs are decisive, they change the face of Europe. Before the decision one must endure fearful hazards; but afterwards the sky is again clear and bright. Our duty is now not to despair, but to foresee each event, and bear with quiet countenance what Providence vouchsafes us, without arrogance at good fortune, or depression at bad.”

To his sister of Bayreuth: “Germany is facing a severe crisis. I must defend her freedom, her privileges, and her religion. If I am defeated this time, it will be in this cause. But I am of good cheer; and however great the number of my foes, I have faith in the goodness of my cause, the admirable courage of my troops, and their steadfast will, from the commanding officer down to the lowest soldier.”

To the same: “I am in the position of a traveller surrounded by a band of rascals and about to be murdered in order that the murderers may divide their booty among themselves. Since the League of Cambrai there has been no instance of a conspiracy such as this villainous triumvirate has forged against me. The thing is contemptible, a disgrace to humanity and human morals. Has the world ever seen such a spectacle as three powerful princes banding themselves together to destroy a fourth who has never done them any harm? I have never had any differences either with France or with Russia, and certainly not with Sweden.... _O tempora, O mores!_ One might as well be living among tigers, leopards, and lynxes as in this supposedly so civilized century, contemporary of the murderers, thieves, and perjurers who govern this poor world. Happy is he, my dear sister, who lives unknown, and has been wise enough from his youth up to abjure any kind of fame! Since no one knows him, none can envy, and his happiness cannot make him the prey of every sharper.... They have laid a plot against me, and the court of Vienna has been pleased to insult me; this was more than my honour could endure. So the struggle begins and the band of rascals fling themselves upon me; such is my fate.”

To Minister von Finckenstein: “Be not so fearful. Nothing is lost as yet and nothing desperate. So long as I am alive I will stand firm and defend myself like a lion.”

To his sister of Bayreuth: “We must all console ourselves with the thought that our century is an epoch in the history of the world, and that we have witnessed events so extraordinary that the course of things has not for long brought forth their like. That means much for our curious minds, but little for our happiness. Well, these villains of emperors, empresses, and kings are forcing me this coming year to dance upon a tight-rope. I console myself with the hope of giving one or another of them a good crack over the nose with the balance-pole. But when that is done, then peace must finally ensue. What a sacrifice of men! What horrible butchery! I shudder to think of it. But I must steel my heart and arm myself for murder and massacre; I must face the odds heroically; though they are always frightful when you see them close at hand.”

To Earl Marischal Keith: “You say my enemies malign me, even in the far-away Escorial. I am used to that. I hear nothing but untruths about myself. I have had more than my fill of the vulgar lies and contemptible libels spread by hatred and venom all over Europe. But one can get used to anything. Louis XIV must get just as sick of the flatteries that are poured into his ears as I am of the shameful things they say about me. These are unworthy weapons, which a great prince ought never to employ against his peers; for he inevitably lowers himself at the same time and exposes to the scorn of the vulgar things which it is to the common interest of princes to hold in honour.”

To Finckenstein: “It seems unhappily that we are not yet at the end of our task. We have too many enemies to be able to gain such superiority over them as to enforce peace. All Europe is marching against us; it seems to be the fashion to be our enemy, and a title of honour to contribute to our destruction.”

To Voltaire: “You, who do not fight yourself, do not for God’s sake laugh at others; be tranquil, be happy, that you have no persecutors, and learn to be care-free and enjoy the repose you have at last attained after chasing after it for sixty years.... Are you still, at sixty, so lacking in common sense? And learn, in your old age, how you ought to write to me. Please note that certain liberties are permitted to writers and wits; but when they become impertinent it is too much.... But enough, I have forgiven all, in a truly Christian spirit. On the whole, you have given me more pleasure than pain. Your writing has more power to cheer me than your scratches to hurt.... You cry out for peace so loudly that I am fain to tell you to turn that lofty impertinence of yours, which so well becomes you, against those who are responsible for the delay in concluding peace.... Despite all your efforts, I will never sign a peace save on conditions consonant with my country’s honour. The people of your native land, puffed up as they are with folly and vanity, may rely upon it that I mean what I say.”

To Ferdinand of Brunswick: “Unless France signs a peace with England we are hopelessly lost; we have too many enemies, too many people are disheartened by our disasters, and the morale of our troops has plainly deteriorated. There is nothing left but for you to think up an inscription for my tombstone. The great calamity will not come to pass before the middle of August; but by then all will be lost beyond repair. You know that I am usually not a pessimist; but now there is no possibility of seeing anything else but black.”

To d’Argens: “The French are amusing asses. I like an enemy that makes me laugh; I hate my grumpy Austrians, swollen with impudence and pride, no good for anything except to make one yawn.”

To the same: “You value life as a sybarite, I look at death like a stoic. Never will I survive that moment in which I am forced to sign a disadvantageous peace; no eloquence, no inducement, can drive me to subscribe to my own disgrace. I have told you, and I repeat: never will I put pen to a shameful peace. I am firmly resolved to stake all upon this campaign, to perform the most desperate deeds, to conquer or find an honourable end.”

“The defence,” says Rancke, “earned him high esteem in the states of Europe. In defending himself, King Frederick became the great man of his century.”--That is true, and yet not true--in so far, that is, as it considers Frederick’s war against Europe to have been a purely defensive one. The dispute among historians as to whether it really was that--and not rather a war of aggression--waxes louder than ever today; but the situation is far too complicated, too involved, to permit of a simple and final answer. In its very last analysis this gigantic struggle was an offensive war; for the young, the rising power is always, psychologically speaking, the aggressor, and the others, the existing powers, are on the defensive against it. Somewhat more superficially speaking, it was a defensive war, for Prussia was actually “encircled” and was to be destroyed with all possible speed. Then it was, again, an offensive war in that Frederick obligingly picked the quarrel. Yet, once more, it was a war of defence, for when the odds are one to five, that is tantamount to defence, even though it was the one who actually declared war against the five--or, rather, as a matter of fact, failed to declare it. And, fifthly, it was an offensive war: on the ground that the most desperate and difficult defence must always needs save itself by attacking. “Attack, attack! Keep on their heels! _Attaquez donc toujours!_” To that tune, instinctively, he had always disciplined his troops, he had even made it instinctive with them; and to it he carried on war, unmindful of the voices of those who urged him to keep on the defensive--in situations like that of the year 1759, when the Russians were on his left, and Daun on his right, and Sweden in his rear.

What friends he had were not worthy of the name. England regarded him as her soldier against France, she was satisfied to have him hold France in check in Europe while she quietly annexed the French colonies in the New World; but, in the interests of business, she refused to relieve him in the Baltic, against Russia; she paid subsidies as long as it pleased her, and when it pleased her no longer she left off. As we know, the war lasted seven years--seven is always the number of years the princes and the miller’s sons have to serve in the fairy-tale; but it was a seven years’ test a little severer than ever falls to their lot; it was, without exaggeration, the severest test ever a human soul has had to stand upon this earth. To stand it required such passive and active qualities, such a measure of endurance and patience, of inventive and resourceful energy, as neither before nor since, to my knowledge, a man has ever displayed or had occasion to display. Seven years long did King Frederick march hither and yon, fighting, beating here one enemy and there another, being beaten himself too, sometimes almost destroyed; staggering erect again because he thought of something else which might still be tried; trying it, with incredible, improbable success and coming safe off once more. Always in his shabby uniform, booted and spurred, with his uniform hat on his head, breathing, year in, year out, the dust of his own troops, in an atmosphere of sweat, leather, blood, and powder smoke, he would walk up and down in his tent, between two battles, a dismal defeat and an incredible victory, and play on his flute, or scribble French verses, or write quarrelsome letters to Voltaire. His mother died, without his even seeing her; he felt now more forsaken than ever. His favourite sister died--“_mon Dieu, ma sœur de Bayreuth!_”--and his anguish at the loss testifies to the tenderness of his iniquitous heart. In time he himself became grotesque; he was not unconscious of the frightful comicality of his existence, he compared himself with Don Quixote, with the Wandering Jew. “The ox must plough the furrow,” he would say, “the nightingale must sing, the dolphin swim, and I--I must make war.” He imagined himself condemned to carry on war up to the day of judgment; he became a spectre to himself. The dreadful weariness of spectres he knew, their pathetic yearning for rest. “The happy dead! They are saved from all cares and troubles.” He kept poison always upon him for the last emergency; but though the last emergency seemed many times to have arrived, he did not take it, for always some other plan occurred to him, and the emergency passed. Beneath the frightful punishment, the cruel vicissitudes, the ceaseless tension, “the nicest little creature in the kingdom” aged rapidly. He lost his teeth, his hair went white on one side, his back got bent, his figure leaner and leaner, he suffered from gout. And besides that, from diarrhœa. It was, in fact, the tortures of the damned he suffered. But his fame grew apace--his transgression, his breach of the rights of nations were forgotten, but his fame as of the chosen of God grew and spread like a tree and overshadowed the century. It was not alone that he routed the hosts of Marshal Soubise at Rossbach--that same Marshal Soubise who stole Alsace and set fire to the Palatinate--and became a hero to all Germany, a symbol round which their torn loyalties might once more twine. His deeds, and his sufferings, won him the sympathies of the people of all nations. Yes, his defeats not less than his victories occupied near and far the hearts of men, and the grotesque, the Quixotic flavour, in his personality helped magnify him in the popular eye and elevate him to a legendary fame: his picture, with the wry mouth, the sparkling blue eyes, the three-cornered hat, the cane, the star, the shoulder-cord--it hung in cottage and hall; while he still lived he was a hero of legend. From now on he was called _der alte Fritz_: an awe-inspiring name, to anybody with a sense of awe; for it is really in the highest degree awe-inspiring to find the dæmon become a household word and given a nickname.

He had outlived the hate, the psychic resistance, of the world; and thereby had withdrawn an indispensable prop from the morale of his foes. The rest was done by his radicalism, his readiness to go all lengths, the depth of his resolution, which seemed to his opponents at once so offensive and so frightful, like a strange and savage dog--in the end they all shuddered before him. His moral advantage was that it was always, with him, a matter of life and death, and that gave him a sense of absolute values of which the others knew nothing. I will not speak of his genius as a strategist, being a layman in that field. And I wish not to speak of his “luck”; for it is always stupid to distinguish luck from a man’s other merits and count it as undeserved, instead of part of all the rest. Still, if you like, he was lucky. He was on the brink of destruction when Elizabeth of Russia surrendered to her love-affairs and left a poor simpleton named Peter to reign, said Peter admiring Frederick to the point of idolatry, so that he struck a peace with him at once. But the King had to win a few more battles before the others saw at last that it was hopeless, and retired from the field tired out. He went back home.