第 44 节
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g at all; but mounted there on the Janus Hill; as on his saddle…horse; with face quite the other way;and for holster…pistol; has plucked out twenty…two cannon。 Clad verily in fire; Chimera…like; RIDING the Janus Hill; in that manner; left leg (or wing) of him spurning us into the abysses; right one ready to help at discretion!
Hildburghausen; I will hope; does his utmost; Soubise; Broglio; for certain do。 The French line is in front; next the Prussians: poor Generals of Dauphiness are panting to retrieve themselves。 But with regiments jammed in this astonishing way; and got collectively into the lion's throat; what can be done? Steady; rigid as iron clock…work; the Prussian line strides forward; at forty paces' distance delivers its first shock of lightning; bursts into platoon fire; and so continues; steady at the rate of five shots a minute;hard to endure by poor masses all in a coil。 〃The artillery tore down whole ranks of us;〃 says the Wutenberg Dragoon; 'His Letter in MULLER; p。 83。' 〃the Prussian musketry did terrible execution。〃
Things began %o waver very soon; French reeling back from the Prussian fire; Reichs troops rocking very uneasy; torn by such artillery; when; to crown the matter; Seidlitz; seeing all things rock to the due extent; bursts out of Tageswerben Hollow; terribly compact and furious; upon the rear of them。 Which sets all things into inextricable tumble; and the Battle is become a rout and a riding into ruin; no Battle ever more。 Lasted twenty…five minutes; this second act of it; or till half…past four: after which; the curtains rapidly descending (Night's curtain; were there no other) cover the remainder; the only stage…direction; EXEUNT OMNES。 Which for a 50 or 60;000; ridden over by Seidlitz Horse; was not quite an easy matter! They left; of killed and wounded; near 3;000; of prisoners; 5;000 (Generals among them 8; Officers 300): in sum; about 8;000; not to mention cannon; 67 or 72; with standards; flags; kettle…drums and meaner baggages AD LIBITUM in a manner。 The Prussian loss was; 165 killed; 376 wounded;between a sixteenth and a fifteenth part of theirs: in number the Prussians had been little more than one to three; 22;000 of all arms;not above half of whom ever came into the fire; Seidlitz and seven battalions doing all the fighting that was needed; St。 Germain tried to cover the retreat; but 〃got broken;〃 he says;Mayer bursting in on him;and soon went to slush like the others。
Seldom; almost never; not even at Crecy or Poictiers; was any Army better beaten。 And truly; we must say; seldom did any better deserve it; so far as the Chief Parties went。 Yes; Messieurs; this is the PETIT MARQUIS DE BRANDEBOURG; you will know this one; when you meet him again! The flight; the French part of it; was towards Freiburg Bridge; in full gallop; long after the chase had ceased; crossing of the Unstrut there; hoarse; many…voiced; all night; burning of the Bridge; found burnt; when Friedrich arrived next morning。 He had encamped at Obschutz; short way from the field itself。 French Army; Reichs Army; all was gone to staves; to utter chaotic wreck。 Hildburghausen went by Naumburg; crossed the Saale there; bent homewards through the Weimar Country; one wild flood of ruin; swift as it could go; at Erfurt 〃only one regiment was in rank; and marched through with drums beating。〃 His Army; which had been disgustingly unhappy from the first; and was now fallen fluid on these mad terms; flowed all away in different rills; each by the course straightest home; and Hildburghausen arriving at Bamberg; with hardly the ghost or mutilated skeleton of an Army; flung down his truncheon;〃A murrain on your Reichs Armies and regimental chaoses!〃and went indignantly home。 Reichs Army had to begin at the beginning again; and did not reappear on the scene till late next Year; under a new Commander; and with slightly improved conditions。
Dauphiness Proper was in no better case; and would have flowed home in like manner; had not home been so far; and the way unknown。 Twelve thousand of them rushed straggling through the Eichsfeld; plundering and harrying; like Cossacks or Calmucks: 〃Army blown asunder; over a circle of forty miles' radius;〃 writes St。 Germain: 〃had the Enemy pursued us; after I got broken 'burst in upon by Mayer and his Free…Corps people' we had been annihilated。 Never did Army behave worse; the first cannon…salvo decided our rout and our shame。〃 'St。 Germain to Verney: different Excerpts of Letters in the two weeks after Rossbach and before (given in Preuss; ii。 97)。'
In two days' time (November 7th); the French had got to Langensalza; fifty…five miles from the Battle…field of Rossbach; plundering; running; SACRE…DIEU…ing; a wild deluge of molten wreck; filling the Eichsfeld with its waste noises; making night hideous and day too;in the villages Placards were stuck up; appointing Nordhausen and Heiligenstadt for rallying place。 'Muller; p。 73。'
Soubise rode; with few attendants; all night towards Nordhausen; eighty miles off; foot of the Bracken Country; where the Richelieu resources are;Soubise with few attendants; face set towards the Brocken; himself; it is like; in a somewhat hag…ridden condition。
〃The joy of poor Teutschland at large;〃 says one of my Notes; 〃and how all Germans; Prussian and Anti…Prussian alike; flung up their caps; with unanimous LEBE…HOCH; at the news of Rossbach; has often been remarked; and indeed is still almost touching to see。 The perhaps bravest Nation in the world; though the least braggart; very certainly EIN TAPFERES VOLK (as their Goethe calls them); so long insulted; snubbed and trampled on; by a luckier; not a braver:has not your exultant Dauphiness got a beautiful little dose administered her; and is gone off in foul shrieks; and pangs of the interior;let no man ask whitherward! 'SI UN ALLEMAND PEUT AVOIR DE L'ESPRIT (Can a German possibly have sharpness of wits)?' Well; yes; it would seem: here is one German graduate who understands his medicine…chest; and the quality of patients! Dauphiness got no pity anywhere; plenty of epigrams; and mostly nothing but laughter even in Paris itself。 Napoleon long after; who much admires Friedrich; finds that this Victory of Rossbach was inevitable; 'but what fills me with astonishment and shame;' adds he; 'is that it was gained by six battalions and thirty squadrons 'seven properly; and thirty…eight' over such a multitude!' 'Montholon; MEMOIRES &C。 DE NAPOLEON (Napoleon's Precis des Guerres de Frrederic II。; vii。 210)。'It is well known; Napoleon; after Jena; as if Jena had not been enough for him; tore down the first Monument of Rossbach; some poor ashlar Pyramid or Pillar; raised by the neighborhood; with nothing more afflictive inscribed on it than a date; and sent it off in carts for Paris (where no stone of it ever arrived; the Thuringen carmen slinking off; and leaving it scattered in different places over the face of Thuringen in general); so that they had the trouble of a new one lately。〃 'Rodenbeck; Beitrage; i。 299; ib。 p。 385; Lithograph of the poor extinct Monument itself。'
From Friedrich the 〃Army of the Circles;〃 that is; Dauphiness and Company;called HOOPERS or 〃Coopers〃 (TONNELIERS); with a desperate attempt at wit by pun;get their Adieu in words withal。 This is the famed CONGE DE L'ARMEE DES CERCLES ET DES TONNELIERS; a short metrical Piece; called by Editors the most profane; most indecent; most &c。; and printed with asterisk veils thrown over the worst passages。 Who shall dare; searching and rummaging for insight into Friedrich; and complaining that there is none; to lift any portion of the veil; and say; 〃SeeFaugh!〃 The cynicism; truly; but also the irrepressible honest exultation; has a kind of epic completeness; and fulness of sincerity; and; at bottom; the thing is nothing like so wicked as careless commentators have given out。 Dare to look a little: …
〃ADIEU; GRANDS ERASEURS DE ROIS;〃 so it starts: 〃Adieu; grand crushers of Kings; arrogant wind…bags; Turpin; Broglio; Soubise; Hildburghausen with the gray beard; foolish still as when your beard was black in the Turk…War time:brisk journey to you all!〃 That is the first stanza; unexceptionable; had we room。 The second stanza is;with the veils partially lifted; with probably 〃MOISE〃 put into the first blank; and into the third something of or belonging to 〃CESAR;〃
〃Je vows ai vu comme 。。。 Dans des ronces en certain lieu Eut l'honneur de voir 。。。 Ou comme au gre de sa luxure Le bon Nicomede a l'ecart Aiguillonnait sa flamme impure Des 。。。〃
Enough to say; the Author; with a wild burst of spiritual enthusiasm; sings the charms of the rearward part of certain men; and what a royal ecstatic felicity there sometimes is in indisputable survey of the same。 He rises to the heights of Anti… Biblical profanity; quoting Moses on the Hill of Vision; sinks to the bottomless of human or ultra…human depravity; quoting King Nicomedes's experiences on Caesar (happily known only to the learned); and; in brief; recognizes that there is; on occasion; considerable beauty in that quarter of the human figure; when it turns on you opportunely。 A most cy