Selon les dernières lettres du prince Ferdinand, les Français se mettent aussi en mouvement de tout côté. Il n'y a pas à douter que, selon un concert pris, les Russes ne fassent la même chose, ainsi que le prince Henri sera obligé de quitter nos parages, et le mois de juin pourra être fort critique et ouvrir de grandes scènes . . .
Eichel.
Auszug aus der Ausfertigung.
12105. UNTERREDUNG DES KÖNIGS MIT DEM GROSSBRITANNISCHEN GESANDTEN MITCHELL.
[Meissen, Mai 1760.]
Mitchell berichtet, Meissen 23. Mai (most secret), an Holdernesse, er habe dem Könige die Bitte vorgelegt, die 10 Schwadronen bei der Armee des Prinzen Ferdinand zu belassen.1 Der König hat dem gegenüber auf seine bedrängte Lage hingewiesen.
„The King of Prussia then entered into an enumeration of the armies that were to act against him this campaign: that the Austrian under the command of Marshall Daun amounted to 120000, that of the Empire to 20000 and the Russians to 60000. Of the Swedes he said nothing. That all he could oppose to this mighty force, was the army in Saxony, which he reckons 60000, that under Prince Henry, 35000 men, and the corps under the command of General Fouqué, on the frontiers of Silesia, consisting of 12 or 14 bataillons and 10 squadrons; from all which His Prussian Majesty concluded that, as his enemies had almost the superiority of 100000 men, they might, if a proper plan of operations was concerted, lay him under the necessity of so weakening the army here, by detachments, that at last it could not even the advantage of situation be able to resist the force constantly opposed to it. . . .
I submitted with great humility to His Prussian Majesty whether the sacrificing a present Utility, at the request of a faithful ally, might not be productive of greater advantages, especially when one had to do with a generous and well disposed people.
The King of Prussia replied with some vivacity that, though he was accountable to no Parliament, yet he owed protection to his subjects whom he was obliged to defend with his whole force, that they would have reason to complain if deprived of any part of it, in their present dangerous and critical situation, and that though he thought the event of the campaigne extremely doubtfull, yet he wished, whatever might happen, to be free from any reproach on the part of his own people ...“
Nach der Ausfertigung im Public Record Office zu London.
1 Vergl. Nr. 12093.