IN SEARCH OF OLD FRITZ 257the earliest systematic history of the Seven Years War (Geschichte
des siebenjahrigen Krieges in Deutschland) appeared only towards
the end of the reign in 1783, and then merely in the shape of an
annotated translation of the exceptionally arid account of the Aus-
trian general Humphrey Evans Henry Lloyd, Much the best features
were the commentary and continuations by the translator, the dis-
tinguished Prussian gunner Georg Friedrich von Tempelhoff.
Frederick was already dead by the time of the publication of the
earliest schematic and detailed study of the Prussian army, by the
French diplomat Mirabeau, or rather his collaborator Jakob Mauvil-
lon (originally part of Sur la Monarchic Prussienne sous Fr6d£ric le
Grand, 1787, then published separately in London in 1788).
In Frederick's lifetime the most celebrated of the foreign com-
mentators was undoubtedly the young French officer Jacques-
Antoine Hippolyte de Guibert, author of the celebrated Essai Giniral
de Tactique of 1770. Guibert came to Prussia in the summer of 1773,
and he was received by Frederick in the Picture Gallery at Sans Souci.
Guibert was too overwhelmed by this first encounter to be able to
form a clear impression of the king, but in August he had the
opportunity to observe Frederick and his army during the Silesian
manoeuvres. Guibert's notes formed the basis of his Observations sur
la Constitution Militaire et Politique des Armies de sa Majesty
Prussienne (1778). This book was probably known to most of the
intending military pilgrims to Prussia in the later years of the reign,
and it became the subject of intense debate within Frederick's domin-
ions. Patriotic men were scandalised by what seemed to them to be
the superficiality of Guibert's writings, and indeed of the whole
genre.
For the stay-at-homes, a flavour of things Prussian was brought
direct to Paris by one of Frederick's former pages, the scapegrace
Johann Ernst Pirch. While on parade in Prussia he had let a red juice
dribble from his mouth, to convince the authorities that he was dying
from consumption, and he then betook himself to France as a major in
the hired regiment of Hesse-Darmstadt. 'He introduced a truly Prus-
sian discipline to this regiment, which made a great sensation at that
time, and drew the particular attention of the court of Versailles'
(Thiebault, 1813, III, 326). Pirch wrote an influential Essai de Tac-
tique in collaboration with a French officer, but he died in 1783 at the
age of thirty-eight of a polype au coeur. This time he gave a definitive
performance.
When the foreign officer sought out his Prussian counterparts, he
found that some of the more articulate of these men were severely
critical of Frederick's generalship and his management of the army. A
good deal of what they had to say was published only long afterwards,