Upon one occasion she ordered a very rich silk dress directly from Lyons. The custom-house dues were heavy. The custom-house officer detained the dress until the dues should be paid. The haughty princess, exceedingly indignant, sent an order to him to bring the dress instantly to her, and she would pay the538 demand. As soon as he entered her apartment, she snatched the dress from his hands, and with her open palm gave him two slaps in the face, ordering him immediately to leave the house175307 Elsewhere, Frederick, speaking of these two winter campaigns, says: Winter campaigns are bad, and should always be avoided, except in cases of necessity. The best army in the world is liable to be ruined by them. I myself have made more winter campaigns than any general of this age. But there were reasons. In 1740 there were hardly above two Austrian regiments in Silesia, at the death of the Emperor Charles VI. Being determined to assert my right to that duchy, I had to try it at once, in winter, and carry the war, if possible, to the banks of the Neisse. Had I waited till spring, we must have begun the war between Crossen and Glogau. What was now to be gained by one march would then have cost us three or four campaigns. A sufficient reason, this, for campaigning in winter. If I did not succeed in the winter campaigns of 1742, a campaign which I made to deliver Moravia, then overrun by Austrians, it was because the French acted like fools, and the Saxons like traitors.64
TWO:At length the Austrians were routedutterly routedbroken, dispersed, and driven in wild confusion into the glooms of the forest. The victory of Frederick was complete. As a warrior, he was winning the title he so greatly coveted, of Frederick the Great.
TWO:It is almost touching, Mr. Carlyle writes, to reflect how unexpectedly, like a bolt out of the blue, all this had come upon Frederick, and how it overset his fine programme for the winter at Reinsberg, and for his life generally. Not the Peaceable magnanimities, but the Warlike, are the thing appointed Frederick this winter, and mainly henceforth. Those golden or soft radiances which we saw in him, admirable to Voltaire and to Frederick, and to an esurient philanthropic world, it is not218 those, it is the steel bright or stellar kind that are to become predominant in Fredericks existence; grim hail-storms, thunders, and tornado for an existence to him instead of the opulent genialities and halcyon weather anticipated by himself and others.A SLIGHT PLEASANTRY.
TWO:Wilhelmina, with flooded eyes, entered her carriage, bidding a final adieu to the home of her childhood, where she had passed through so many scenes, eventful and afflictive. Though she afterward visited Berlin, it was her home no more. The Crown Prince returned to Cüstrin, where he impatiently awaited his future destinies.
TWO: Incessant Marches and Battles.Letter from Frederick to DArgens.Letter to his Brother Henry.Berlin summoned to Surrender.Sacking of the City.Letter to DArgens.Desperate Resolves of Frederick.The Resort of Suicide.Remarkable Address of Frederick to his Generals.Bloody Battle of Torgau.Dismal Night-scene.Familiarity of the King with the Soldiers.Winter Quarters at Freiberg.Singular Letter to the Countess of Camas.Death of the Princess Amelia.Anecdotes of the King.His domestic Habits.His unscrupulous Measures to obtain Men and Money.Letter of Charlotte of Mecklenburg.
Fredericks Motives for the War.Marriage of William Augustus.Testimony of Lord Macaulay.Frederick and his Allies.Visit to Dresden.Military Energy.Charles Albert chosen Emperor.The Coronation.Effeminacy of the Saxon Princes.Disappointment and Vexation of Frederick.He withdraws in Chagrin.The Cantonment on the Elbe.Winter Campaigning.The Concentration at Chrudim. Battle of Hohenfriedberg.Religious Antagonism.Anecdote of the King.Retreat of the Austrians.Horrors of War.A slight Pleasantry.Sufferings of the Prussian Army.The Victory of Fontenoy.Fredericks Pecuniary Embarrassments.Executive Abilities of Maria Theresa.Inflexibility of the Austrian Queen.The Retreat to Silesia.The Surprise at Sohr.Military Genius of Frederick.Great Victory of Sohr.On the 10th of August there was a magnificent review of the Prussian army on the plain of Strehlin, to which all the foreign embassadors were invited. During the night of the 9th, General Schwerin and Prince Leopold, with eight thousand Prussian troops, horse and foot, arrived in the southwestern suburbs of Breslau, and, at six oclock in the morning, demanded simply a passage through the city for their regiments and baggage, on the march to attack a marauding band of the Austrians on the other side of the Oder.Ah! here you are. I am glad to see you. Then, taking a light, he carefully examined her from head to foot. After a moments silence, he added, How changed you are! I am sorry for you, on my word. You have not bread to eat, and but for me you might go a-begging. I am a poor man myself; not able to give you much; will do what I can. I will give you now and then twenty or thirty shillings, as my affairs permit. It will always be something to assuage your want. And you, madam, turning to the queen, will sometimes give her an old dress, for the poor child hasnt a shift to her back.
荣誉榜
THREE:CHAPTER VIII. DEVELOPMENTS OF CHARACTER.
THREE:
