Page:Poet Lore, volume 27, 1916.djvu/384

 case between Austria and Prussia, however, in single phrase, 'they won’t fight, and they won’t make up, and they keep nagging.’”

The entire correspondence of Motley is so fascinating that one is at a loss in the choice of quotations. On July 3, 1866, he explains in his letter to Lily:

“You are to remember that Benedek was a good corps commander in Italy. Whether he can handle 200,000 men as well as he did 40,000 there is the whole question, we used to hear occasionally in America. At first sight it looks as if he had been outgeneraled. The Prussians have been as nimble as cats. They have occupied Saxony, Electoral Hesse, Hanover, whisked three potentates off their thrones, neutralized at least 50,000 ‘Deutsche Krieger’ of the B. O. B. (Blessed Old Bund for convenience sake, I will henceforth denominate the Germanic Confederation) and are now in position on the heights of Northern Bohemia.”

In this letter Motley makes the prophecy that Benedek will be defeated and he adds a postscript on the following day “When these humble lines reach you, you will already know the details of yesterday’s great battle. Yet I know absolutely nothing at this moment, save a telegram published this morning from head quarters in an extra, ‘Wiener Zeitung’ and dated 10:50 p. m., 3rd of July, that the Austrian army after having had the advantage up to 2 p. m. was outflanked and forced back and that the headquarters are now at Swiniarek, on the turnpike to Hohenbruck. If you will look on the map you will see that this means I fear, that the Austrian army has retreated across the Elbe and given up its whole position.”

Dr. Servac Heller in describing the incident which forms the subject matter of this drama in his instructive book “War of 1866 in Bohemia, its origin, events and consequences,” published in Prague 1895 recites as follows:

“Steinmetz (Prussian General) did not want to commence an attack on Skalitz until the promised reinforcements of the German Crown Prince’s Guards would arrive. But when it became apparent that the Crown Prince’s army would not come on time, he changed his mind and ordered an attack with whatever forces he had on hand, and this is just about the same time that Benedek ordered the corps which he had stationed at Skalitz to retreat. Archduke Leopold (Austrian) stationed his divisions about Skalitz in such a way that Frang-