9677. UNTERREDUNG DES KÖNIGS MIT DEM GROSSBRITANNISCHEN MINISTER MITCHELL.
[Breslau, 8. Januar 1758.]
Mitchell berichtet an Holdernesse, Breslau 11. Januar: „I arrived here last Sunday160-1 evening and had the honour to wait on His Prussian Majesty that night. I found him pleased and happy, but not elated with the great and almost incredible success of his arms, he talks of the action of the 5th December and of what has followed since, with the modesty becoming a hero whose magnanimity is not to be affected with the smiles nor with the frowns of Fortune. . .“
Mitchell berichtet an Holdernesse, Breslau 11. Januar (private), er habe den König gebeten, so schnell wie möglich die gesammten Truppen Lehwaldt's nach Hannover zu senden. „The King . . . answered fairly that he would do every thing that was possible, but that he must first finish affairs with the Swedes, which he thought would be very soon at an end; and on this occasion he highly praised the conduct of maréchal Lehwaldt, and added that it would be impossible to send the infantry of that army to succour Prince Ferdinand, as they had kept the field ever since April last, but that he would send a great part of the dragoons and hussars160-2 . . .
I humbly begged [the King] that he would be pleased to form a plan of operations for the next campaign, which he promised to do, and at the same time he insisted on the necessity of sending a body of English troops160-3 to join the King's army, and said, if it was possible to keep Russia quiet, that the whole army of Lehwaldt should join with the King's, he likewise told me that he heard the Port was favourably disposed to make a diversion160-4 and hoped we would not fail on our part to improve those dispositions. . .“
Nach den Ausfertigungen im Public Record Office zu London.
160-1 8. Januar,
160-2 Vergl. S. 116.
160-3 Vergl. S. 41. 72. 108.
160-4 Vergl. S. 158.