not be gainsaid; it was for the French a complete and costly failure.
For three days after this the armies lay in position without fighting, the French well supplied with provisions and comforts from Breisach, the Bavarians suffering somewhat severely from want of food, and especially forage, as all their supplies had to be hauled from Villingen over the rough roads of the Black Forest. Enghien then decided to make use of the Glotter Tal to interrupt altogether this already unsatisfactory line of supply, and thus to force the Bavarians either to attack him at a serious disadvantage, or to retreat across the hills with the loss of their artillery and baggage and the disintegration of their army by famine and desertion. With this object, the Army of Weimar was drawn off on the morning of the 9th of August and marched round by Betzenhausen and Lehen to Langen Denzling. The infantry of the Army of France, then the trains, followed, while Enghien with his own cavalry faced Freiburg and the Loretto position.
|
| Emery Walker. sc. |
Before dawn on the 10th the advance guard of Turenne’s army was ascending the Glotter Tal. But Mercy had divined his adversary’s plan, and leaving a garrison to hold Freiburg, the Bavarian army had made a night march on the 9/10th to the Abbey of St Peter, whence on the morning of the 10th Mercy fell back to Graben, his nearest magazine in the mountains. Turenne’s advanced guard appeared from the Glotter Tal only to find a stubborn rearguard of cavalry in front of the abbey. A sharp action began, but Mercy hearing the drums and fifes of the French infantry in the Glotter Tal broke it off and continued his retreat in good order. Enghien thus obtained little material result from his manœuvre. Only two guns and such of Mercy’s wagons that were unable to keep up fell into the hands of the French. Enghien and Turenne did not continue the chase farther than Graben, and Mercy fell back unmolested to Rothenburg on the Tauber.
The moral results of this sanguinary fighting were, however, important and perhaps justified the sacrifice of so many valuable soldiers. Enghien’s pertinacity had not achieved a decision with the sword, but Mercy had been so severely punished that he was unable to interfere with his opponent’s new plan of campaign. This, which was carried out by the united armies and by reinforcements from France, while Turenne’s cavalry screened them by bold demonstrations on the Tauber, led to nothing less than the conquest of the Rhine Valley from Basel to Coblenz, a task which was achieved so rapidly that the Army of France and its victorious young leader were free to return to France in two months from the time of their appearance in Turenne’s quarters at Breisach.
FREIDANK (Vrîdanc), the name by which a Middle High
German didactic poet of the early 13th century is known. It has
been disputed whether the word, which is equivalent to “free-thought,”
is to be regarded as the poet’s real name or only as a
pseudonym; the latter is probably the case. Little is known of
Freidank’s life. He accompanied Frederick II. on his crusade
to the Holy Land, where, in the years 1228–1229, a portion at
least of his work was composed; and it is said that on his tomb
(if indeed it was not the tomb of another Freidank) at Treviso
there was inscribed, with allusion to the character of his style,
“he always spoke and never sang.” Wilhelm Grimm originated
the hypothesis that Freidank was to be identified with Walther
von der Vogelweide; but this is no longer tenable. Freidank’s
work bears the name of Bescheidenheit, i.e. “practical wisdom,”
“correct judgment,” and consists of a collection of proverbs,
pithy sayings, and moral and satirical reflections, arranged under
general heads. Its popularity till the end of the 16th century is
shown by the great number of MSS. extant.
Sebastian Brant published the Bescheidenheit in a modified form
in 1508. Wilhelm Grimm’s edition appeared in 1834 (2nd ed. 1860),
H. F. Bezzenberger’s in 1872. A later edition is by F. Sandvoss
(1877). The old Latin translation, Fridangi Discretio, was printed
by C. Lemcke in 1868; and there are two translations into modern
German, A. Bacmeister’s (1861) and K. Simrock’s (1867). See also
F. Pfeiffer, Über Freidank (Zur deutschen Literaturgeschichte, 1855),
and H. Paul, Über die ursprüngliche Anordnung von Freidanks Bescheidenheit
(1870).
FREIENWALDE, a town of Germany, in the kingdom of
Prussia, on the Oder, 28 m. N.E. of Berlin, on the Frankfort-Angermünde
railway. Pop. (1905) 7995. It has a small palace,
built by the Great Elector, an Evangelical and a Roman Catholic
church, and manufactures of furniture, machinery, &c. The
neighbouring forests and its medicinal springs make it a favourite
summer resort of the inhabitants of Berlin. A new tower commands
a fine view of the Oderbruch (see Oder). Freienwalde,
which must be distinguished from the smaller town of the same
name in Pomerania, first appears as a town in 1364.
FREIESLEBENITE, a rare mineral consisting of sulphantimonite
of silver and lead, (Pb, Ag2)5Sb4S11. The monoclinic
crystals are prismatic in habit, with deeply striated prism and
dome faces. The colour is steel-grey, and the lustre metallic;
hardness 212, specific gravity 6.2. It occurs with argentite,
chalybite and galena in the silver veins of the Himmelsfürst
mine at Freiberg, Saxony, where it has been known since 1720.
The species was named after J. K. Freiesleben, who had earlier
called it Schilf-Glaserz. Other localities are Hiendelaencina
near Guadalajara in Spain, Kapnik-Bánya in Hungary, and
Guanajuato in Mexico. A species separated from freieslebenite
by V. von Zepharovich in 1871, because of differences in crystalline
form, is known as diaphorite (from διαφορά, “difference”);
it is very similar to freieslebenite in appearance and has perhaps
the same chemical composition (or possibly Ag2PbSb2S5), but
is orthorhombic in crystallization. A third mineral also very
similar to freieslebenite in appearance is the orthorhombic
andorite, AgPbSb3S6, which is mined as a silver ore at Oruro in
Bolivia.
FREIGHT, (pronounced like “weight”; derived from the
Dutch vracht or vrecht, in Fr. fret, the Eng. “fraught” being the
same word, and formerly used for the same thing, but now
only as an adjective = “laden”), the lading or cargo of a ship,
and the hire paid for their transport (see Affreightment);
from the original sense of water-transport of goods the word has
also come to be used for land-transit (particularly in America,
by railroad), and by analogy for any load or burden.
FREILIGRATH, FERDINAND (1810–1876), German poet,
was born at Detmold on the 17th of June 1810. He was educated
at the gymnasium of his native town, and in his sixteenth year
was sent to Soest, with a view to preparing him for a commercial
career. Here he had also time and opportunity to acquire a
taste for French and English literature. The years from 1831
to 1836 he spent in a bank at Amsterdam, and 1837 to 1839 in
a business house at Barmen. In 1838 his Gedichte appeared
and met with such extraordinary success that he gave up the
