3d Nov. 1760. He Friedrich, at Elsnig, found every hut full of wounded, and their surgeries, and miseries silent or loud. himself took shelter in the little Church; passed the night there. Busy about many things;- -using the altar,' it seems, 'by way of writing-table' (self or secretaries kneeling, shall we fancy, on those new terms?), 'and the stairs of it as seat.' Of the final ZiethenLestwitz effort he would scarcely hear the musketry or cannonade, being so far away from it. At what hour, or from whom first, he learned that the Battle of Torgau had become Victory in the night-time, I know not: the Anecdote-Books send him out in his cloak, wandering up and down before daybreak; standing by the soldiers' fires; and at length, among the Woods, in the faint incipiency of dawn, meeting a Shadow which proves to be Ziethen himself in the body, with embraces and congratulations:-evidently mythical, though dramatic. Reach him the news soon did; and surely none could be welcomer. Headquarters change from the altarsteps in Elsnig Church to secular rooms in Torgau. Ziethen has already sped forth on the skirts of Lacy; whole Army follows next day; and, on the War-theatre it is, on the sudden, a total change of scene. Conceivable to readers without the details. Hopes there were of getting back Dresden itself; but that, on closer view, proved unattemptable. Dayn kept his Plauen Chasm, his few square miles of ground beyond; the rest of Saxony was Friedrich's, as heretofore. Loudon had tried hard on Kosel for a week; storming once, and a second time, very fiercely, Goltz being now near; but could make nothing of it; and, on wind of Goltz, went his way.11 The Russians, on sound 11 Hofbericht von der Belagerung von Kosel, im October 1760 (Seyfarth, Beylagen, ii. 798-104): began, 'October 21st;' ended, ‘at daybreak, October 27th.' 3d Nov. 1760. of Torgau, shouldered arms, and made for Poland. Daun, for his own share, went to Vienna this Winter; in need of surgery, and other things. The population there is rather disposed to be grumbly on its once heroic Fabius; wishes the Fabius were a little less cunctatory. But Imperial Majesty herself, one is proud to relate, drove out, in Old Roman spirit, some miles, to meet him, her defeated ever-honoured Daun, and to inquire graciously about his health, which is so important to the State. 12 Torgau was Daun's last Battle: Daun's last Battle; and, what is more to the joy of readers and their Editor here, was Friedrich's last, so that the remaining Two Campaigns may fairly be condensed to an extreme degree; and a few Chapters more will deliver us altogether from this painful element !— Daun lost at Torgau, by his own account, "about 11,000 men," should have said, according to Tempelhof, and even to neutral persons, 'above 12,000 killed and wounded, plus 8,000 prisoners, 45 cannon, 29 flags, 1 standard (or horse-flag),'13 which brings him to at least 20,000 minus;-the Prussian loss, heavy enough too, being, by Tempelhof's admission, 'between 13 and 14,000, of whom 4,000 prisoners.' The sore loss, not so computable in arithmetic, but less sore to Daun, perhaps, than to most people, is that of being beaten, and having one's Campaign reduced to water again. No Conquest of Saxony, any more than of Silesia, possible to Daun, this Year. In Silesia, thanks to Loudon, small thanks to Loudon's Chief, they have got Glatz: Kosel they could not get; fiery Loudon himself stormed and blazed to no purpose there, and had to 13 Tempelhof, iv. 213; Kausler, p. 726. 12 Archenholtz, ii. 179. 3d Nov. 1760. hurry home on sight of Goltz and relief. Glatz is the net sum-total. Daun knows all this; but in a stoical arithmetical manner, and refuses to be flurried by it. Friedrich, as we said, had hoped something might be done in Saxony on the defeated Daun;-perhaps Dresden itself be got back from him, and his Army altogether sent to winter in Bohemia again? But it proved otherwise. Daun showed not the least disposition to quit his Plauen Chasm, or fall into discouragement: and after some weeks of diligent trial, on Friedrich's part, and much running about in those central and Hill-ward parts, Friedrich found he would have to be content with his former allotment of Saxon territory, and to leave the Austrians quiet in theirs. Took winter-quarters accordingly, and let the Enemy take. Cantoned himself, in that Meissen-Freyberg Country, in front of the Austrians and their impassable Plauens and Chasms;-pretty much as in the past Year, only that the Two Armies lay at a greater distance, and were more peaceable, as if by mutual consent. Headquarter of the King is Leipzig; where the King did not arrive till December 8th,-such adjusting and arranging has he had, and incessant running to and fro. He lived in the Apel House, New Neumarkt, No. 16;'14 the same he had occupied in 1757, in the Rossbach time. "Ach! how lean your Majesty has "grown!" said the Mistress of it, at sight of him again (mythically, I should fancy, though it is in the Anecdote-Books). "Lean, ja wohl," answered he: "and "what wonder, with Three Women" (Theresa, Czarina, Pompadour) "hanging on the throat of me all this "while!" But we propose to look in upon him our14 Rödenbeck, ii. 65. 3d Nov. 1760. selves, in this Apel House, on more authentic terms, by and by. Read, meanwhile, these Two bits of Autograph, thrown off incidentally, at different places, in the previous busy journeyings over Meissen-Freyberg Country: 1. Friedrich to Marquis D'Argens (at Berlin). "Meissen, 10th November 1760. "I drove the enemy to the Gates of Dresden; they occupy their Camp of last Year; all my skill is not enough to 66 dislodge them," (Chasm of Plauen, a place impregnable, 'were it garrisoned by chimney-sweeps,' says the King once). "We have saved our reputation by the Day of Torgau: but "don't imagine our enemies are so disheartened as to desire "Peace. Duke Ferdinand's affairs are not in a good way" (missed Wesel, of which presently;—and, alas also, George II. died, this day gone a fortnight, which is far worse for us, if we knew it!)"I fear the French will preserve through Winter "the advantages they gained during the Campaign. "In a word, I see all black, as if I were at the bottom of a "tomb. Have some compassion on the situation I am in; con"ceive that I disguise nothing from you, and yet that I do not "detail to you all my embarrassments, my apprehensions and "troubles. Adieu, dear Marquis; write to me sometimes,—don't forget a poor devil, who curses ten times a day his fatal exist"ence, and could wish he already were in those Silent Countries "from which nobody returns with news.' "15 2. The Second, of different complexion, is a still more interesting little Autograph, date elsewhere, farther on, in those wanderings. Madame Camas, Widow of the Colonel Camas whom we knew twenty years ago, is "Queen's Ober-Hofmeisterinn (Lady in Chief),"—to whom the King's Letters are always pretty: 1 Euvres de Frédéric, xix. 204, 5. 3d Nov. 1760. Friedrich to Madame Camas (at Magdeburg, with the Queen's Majesty). "Neustadt, 18th November 1760. "I am exact in answering, and eager to satisfy you" (in that matter of the porcelain): "you shall have a breakfast-set, my good Mamma; six coffee-cups, very pretty, well diapered, "and tricked out with all the little embellishments which in 66 crease their value. On account of some pieces which they are "adding to the set, you will have to wait a few days; but I "flatter myself this delay will contribute to your satisfaction, "and produce for you a toy that will give you pleasure, and "make you remember your old Adorer. It is curious how old "people's habits agree. For four years past I have given up suppers, as incompatible with the Trade I am obliged to fol"low; and in marching days, my dinner consists of a cup of "chocolate. 66 "We hurried off, like fools, quite inflated with our Victory, "to try if we could not chase the Austrians out of Dresden: "they made a mockery of us from the tops of their mountains. “So I have withdrawn, like a bad little boy, to conceal myself, "out of spite, in one of the wretchedest villages in Saxony. "And here the first thing will be to drive the Circle gentle"men" (Reichs Army) "out of Freyberg into Chemnitz, and "get ourselves room to quarter and something to live upon. "It is, I swear to you, a dog of a life" (or even a she-dog, chienne de vie), "the like of which nobody but Don Quixote ever led before me. All this tumbling and toiling, and bother "and confusion that never ceases, has made me so old that you "would scarcely know me again. On the right side of my head "the hair is all gray; my teeth break and fall out; I have got 66 66 66 my face wrinkled like the falbalas of a petticoat; my back "bent like a fiddle-bow; and spirit sad and downcast like a "monk of La Trappe. I forewarn you of all this, lest, in case we should meet again in flesh and bone, you might feel your"self too violently shocked by my appearance. There remains "to me nothing but the heart,—which has undergone no change, "and which will preserve, so long as I breathe, its feelings |