head of a big Army (on paper, almost a hundred and fifty
thousand, light troops and heavy)--virtually Commander-in-Chief; though
nominally our fine young friend Franz of Lorraine bears the title
of Commander, whom Seckendorf is to dry-nurse in the way sometimes
practised. Going to besiege Widdin, they say. So has the poor Kaiser
been advised. His wise old Eugene is now gone; [Died 30th April,
1736.] I fear his advisers,--a youngish Feldzeugmeister, Prince of
Hildburghausen, the chief favorite among them,--are none of the wisest.
All Protestants, we observe, these favorite Hildburghausens, Schmettaus,
Seckendorfs of his; and Vienna is an orthodox papal Court;--and there
is a Hofkriegsrath (Supreme Council of War), which has ruined many
a General, poking too meddlesomely into his affairs! On the whole,
Seckendorf will have his difficulties. Here is a scene, on the
Lower Donau, different enough from that at Oczakow, not far from
contemporaneous with it. The Austrian Army is at Kolitz, a march or two
beyond Belgrade:--

"KOLITZ, 2d JULY, 1737. This day, the Army not being on march, but
allowed to rest itself, Grand Duke Franz went into the woods to hunt.
Hunting up and down, he lost himself; did not return at evening; and, as
the night closed in and no Generalissimo visible, the Generalissimo AD
LATUS (such the title they had contrived for Seckendorf) was in much
alarm. Generalissimo AD LATUS ordered out his whole force of drummers,
trumpeters: To fling themselves, postwise, deeper and deeper into the
woods all round; to drum there, and blow, in ever-widening circle, in
prescribed notes, and with all energy, till the Grand Duke were found.
Grand Duke being found, Seckendorf remonstrated, rebuked; a thought
too earnestly, some say, his temper being flurried,"--voice snuffling
somewhat in alt, with lisp to help:--"so that the Grand Duke took
offence; flung off in a huff: and always looked askance on the
Feldmarschall from that time;" [See _Lebensgeschichte des Grafen van
Schmettau_ (by his Son: Berlin, 1806), i. 27.]--quitting him altogether
before long; and marching with Khevenhuller, Wallis, Hildburghausen, or
any of the subordinate Generals rather. Probably Widdin will not go
the road of Oczakow, nor the Austrians prosper like the Russians, this
summer.

Pollnitz, in Tobacco-Parliament, and in certain Berlin circles foolishly
agape about this new Feldmarschall, maintains always, Seckendorf will
come to nothing; which hi