17th.—We determined to go on to Mannheim without resting, but I believe the lot of rash determinations is to be controverted, for before we reached Oppenheim, ye first post, the spring of my carriage snapped, and I bumped into the town in that delabré’d state. That place is now the Quartier-Général of some Prussian officer. There are stores in abundance, and a bridge of pontoons across the river for the facility of transporting the troops. We tied up the springs and got to Worms.
18th.—Reached Mannheim early in the day. The fortifications are put in the most trim state, the embrasures cut sharp and neat, the walls new-faced, and the ditches filled. The prettiest toy in grown life is the whole apparatus of military preparations, and I am not astonished at all young sovereigns liking war. If they have any sense, the evil is soon manifested, and they get cured by it. The Palatines have made an alteration in their dress: the crinières to the helmets were formerly white, but at the siege of Mayence when they worked in the trenches at night the white betrayed them to the enemy. Sir Benjamin[114] has certainly adopted many saving schemes in his system, but he has dressed the Bavarian officers like paupers.
19th.—So fatigued from the roughness of the roads that I lay down till dinner. The news from Toulon (if true) is very bad. The French beat the allies in a sortie, killed many English, and made prisoners of General O’Hara[115] and the Spanish Lieut.-Colonel. Poor O’Hara will end his merry life under the guillotine, as the savages will retaliate upon him the murder of one of the deputies from the Convention or army commissioner taken in Toulon. Ld. Moira and the emigrants are waiting at Jersey. It is yet a secret where the descent is to be made in France. People are grumbling at Ld. Howe’s inactivity. The garrison of Landau, so far from intending to capitulate, replied to the summons, “Que les Français ne cèdent jamais.”
Met Mr. Nott, whom I formerly knew in Switzerland. He came with an Irish Lord Longford; they are going to pass the winter at Neufchâtel.
Brucksal, 21st.—The roads extremely bad from Heidelberg. It was merely perverseness that made us come on them, for we knew the road to Heilbronn to be good.
THE ARMY OF CONDE
22nd.—Met 800 Austrians, fine strong men, though rather, for Germans, undersized. The interesting and brave little army of Condé have done wonders, but they are compelled to go into winter cantonments. Three hundred gentlemen fell in the course of two months, and nine out of one family are wounded. The Duc de Bourbon distinguished himself, and his son, the Duc d’Enghien, proved himself a worthy descendant of the grand Condé. Alas, what strange vicissitudes in their fortunes! Reached the post before Stuttgart early.
23rd.—Detained at Stuttgart: the horses were all employed with the army. The Duke of Würtemberg died since I was last here. His successor[116] is wrangling with his excellent widow about jewels, etc. The late Duke’s life would, if it were written, make an extraordinary romance. His amours were numerous, and to make them notorious he made the ladies who had received his homage appear at his Court in blue shoes. Mr. Stuart read me some letters he has received from France. The situation of the English at Nancy is quite deplorable. They were much frightened about a month ago; there was an alarm about the French; the inhabitants ran off. The finest old hock might have been purchased for four florins a bottle.
23rd.—Left Stuttgart with the intention of reaching Ulm at night; rather an arduous undertaking in December, without a moon, and the distance of four and a half German posts. We travelled on prosperously until eleven o’clock, when I proposed stopping, as I suffered much pain from my chest in consequence of a blow, and it was sore from a blister Farquhar had put on. But the fates were adverse and such good fortune as rest was not my lot. Even though we could not get post-horses, we set off with those belonging to some peasants, poor wretched animals exhausted by the labour of the day; it was really cruel to drag them out of their wretched shed, but it was as hard almost upon me. The consequence was that they could hardly get on; those to the servants’ carriage fell from weakness every five yards. At the top of a bleak hill l’essieu of our chaise, from a violent jolt, was broken. All hopes of advancing were useless, so we adopted the only method of getting on: we got into the servants’ carriage and left Josephe with the broken vehicle, and got on with the other as well as we could to Ulm. A smart frost came on, and the road, which was before soft mud, became a hard incrustation of ice. Got to Ulm at seven in the morning.
The twenty-fourth of December I passed in my bed; as I only got into it at eight o’clock in the morning, I thought myself entitled to a full twenty hours’ repose.