Although Prussia had left Austria unsuccored during this war, many of her subjects were animated with a desire to aid their Austrian brethren. Schill, unable to restrain his impetuosity, quitted Berlin on the 28th of April, for that purpose, with his regiment of hussars. His conduct, although condemned by a sentence of the court-martial, was universally applauded. Dornberg, an officer of Jerome's guard, revolted simultaneously in Hesse, but was betrayed by a false friend at the moment in which Jerome's person was to have been seized, and was compelled to fly for his life. Schill merely advanced as far as Wittenberg and Halberstadt, was again driven northward to Wismar, and finally to Stralsund, by the superior forces of Westphalia and Holland. In a bloody street-fight at Stralsund he split General Carteret's, the Dutch general's head, and was himself killed by a cannon-ball. Thus fell this young hero, true to his motto, "Better a terrible end than endless terror." The Dutch cut off his head, preserved it in spirits of wine, and placed it publicly in the Leyden library, where it remained until 1837, when it was buried at Brunswick in the grave of his faithful followers. Five hundred of his men, under Lieutenant Brunow, escaped by forcing their way through the enemy. Of the prisoners taken on this occasion, eleven officers were, by Napoleon's command, shot at Wesel, fourteen subalterns and soldiers at Brunswick, the rest, about six hundred in number, were sent in chains to Toulon and condemned to the galleys.[12] Dörnberg fled to England. Katt, another patriot, assembled a number of veterans at Stendal and advanced as far as Magdeburg, but was compelled to flee to the Brunswickers in Bohemia. What might not have been the result had the plan of the Archduke Charles to march rapidly through Franconia been followed on the opening of the campaign?
William, duke of Brunswick, the son of the hapless Duke Ferdinand, had quitted Oels, his sole possession, for Bohemia, where he had collected a force two thousand strong, known as the black Brunswickers on account of the color of their uniform and the death's head on their helmets, with which he resolved to avenge his father's death. Victorious in petty engagements over the Saxons at Zittau and over the French under Junot at Berneck, he refused to recognize the armistice between Austria and France, and, fighting his way through the enemy, surprised Leipzig by night and there provided himself with ammunition and stores. He was awaited at Halberstadt by the Westphalians under Wellingerode, whom, notwithstanding their numerical superiority, he completely defeated during the night of the 30th of July. Two days later he was attacked in Brunswick, in his father's home, by an enemy three times his superior, by the Westphalians under Rewbel, who advanced from Celle while the Saxons and Dutch pursued him from Erfurt. Aided by his brave citizens, many of whom followed his fortunes, he was again victorious and was enabled by a speedy retreat, in which he broke down all the bridges to his rear, to escape to Elsfleth, whence he sailed to England.
In August, an English army, forty thousand strong, landed on the island of Walcheren and attempted to create a diversion in Holland, but its ranks were speedily thinned by disease, it did not venture up the country and finally returned to England. The English, nevertheless, displayed henceforward immense activity in the Peninsula, where, aided by the brave and high-spirited population,[13] they did great detriment to the French. In the English army in the Peninsula were several thousand Germans, principally Hanoverian refugees. There were also numerous deserters from the Rhenish confederated troops, sent by Napoleon into Spain.
During the war in June, the king of Wurtemberg took possession of Mergentheim, the chief seat of the Teutonic order, which had, up to the present period, remained unsecularized. The surprised inhabitants received the new Protestant authorities with demonstrations of rage and revolted. They were the last and the only ones among all the secularized or mediatized estates of the Empire that boldly attempted opposition. They were naturally overpowered without much difficulty and were cruelly punished. About thirty of them were shot by the soldiery; six were executed; several wealthy burgesses and peasants were condemned as criminals to work in chains in the new royal gardens at Stuttgard. Thus miserably terminated the celebrated Teutonic order.
[Footnote 1: The whole of the revenues of Prussia were confiscated by the French until 1808. The contribution of one hundred and forty millions was, nevertheless, to be paid, and the French garrisons in the Prussian fortresses of Glogau, Küstrin, and Stettin were to be maintained at the expense of Prussia. The suppression of the monasteries in Silesia was far from lucrative, the commissioners, who were irresponsible, carrying on a system of pillage, and landed property having greatly fallen in value. The most extraordinary imposts of every description were resorted to for the purpose of raising a revenue, among other means, a third of all the gold and silver in the country was called in. A coinage, still more debased, was issued, and one more inferior still was smuggled into the country by English coiners. In 1808, silver money fell two-thirds of its current value and was even refused acceptance at that price.—The French, moreover, lorded over the country with redoubled insolence, broke every treaty, increased their garrisons, and occasionally laid the most inopportune commands, in the form of a request, upon the king; as, for instance, to lay under embargo and deliver up to them a number of English merchantmen that had been driven into the Prussian harbors by a dreadful storm. Blücher, at that time governor of Pomerania, restrained his fiery nature and patiently endured their insolence, while silently brooding over deep and implacable revenge.]
[Footnote 2: When marching with his pupils out of Berlin, he would ask the fresh ones as he passed beneath the Bradenburg gate, "What are you thinking of now?" If the boy did not know what to answer, he would give him a box on the ear, saying as he did so, "You should think of this, how you can bring back the four fine statues of horses that once stood over this gate and were carried by the French to Paris.">[
[Footnote 3: Decree of 16th December, 1808: "A certain Stein, who is attempting to create disturbances, is herewith declared the enemy of France; his property shall be placed under sequestration, and his person shall be secured." The Allgemeine Zeitung warns, at the same time, in its 330th number, all German savants not to give way to patriotic enthusiasm and to follow in John Müller's footsteps.]
[Footnote 4: Bignon's History of France.]
[Footnote 5: He undertook the chief command with extreme unwillingness and had long advised against the war, the time not having yet arrived, Prussia being still adverse, Germany not as yet restored to her senses, and experience having already proved to him how little he could act as his judgment directed. How often had he not been made use of and then suddenly neglected, been restrained, in the midst of his operations, by secret orders, been permitted to conduct the first or only the second part of a campaign, been placed in a subaltern position when the chief command was rightfully his, or been forced to accept of it when all was irremediably lost. Even on this occasion the first measure advised by him, that of pushing rapidly through Bohemia and Franconia, met with opposition. On the Maine and on the Weser alone was there a hope of inspiring the people with enthusiasm, not in Bavaria, where the hatred of the Austrians was irradicably rooted. It, nevertheless, pleased the military advisers of the emperor at Vienna to order the army to advance slowly through Bavaria.]
[Footnote 6: "None of my soldiers accompany me. You will know how to value this mark of confidence."—Napoleon's Address to the Bavarians. Bölderndorf's Bavarian Campaigns. "I am alone among you and have not a Frenchman around my person. This is an unparalleled honor paid by me to you."—Napoleon's Address to the Würtemberg troops. Arndt wrote at that time: