Happy the people, says Montesquieu, whose annals are blank in history books. The annals of the nations are mainly composed of wars, tumult, and woe. For ten years Prussia enjoyed peace. During this happy period, when the days and the years glided by in tranquillity, there is little left for the historian to record. Frederick engaged vigorously in repairing the ruins left by the war. The burned Silesian villages were rebuilt; debts were paid; agriculture and commerce encouraged; the laws revised and reformed. A decree was issued that all lawsuits should be brought to a decision within a year after their beginning. Destruction of the Army of Prince Charles.Dismay in Vienna.Testimony of Napoleon I.Of Voltaire.Wretchedness of the King.Compromise rejected.New Preparations for War.Treaty between England and Prussia.Plan of the Campaign.Siege of Olmütz.Death of Prince Augustus William.The Baggage Train.The irreparable Disaster.Anxiety of Frederick for Wilhelmina.The March against the Russians.The Battle of Zorndorf.Anecdotes of Frederick.
Director
The army of General Daun, with its re-enforcements, amounted to one hundred thousand men. The Prussian garrison in the city numbered but ten thousand. The Prussian officer then in472 command, General Schmettau, emboldened by the approach of Frederick, repelled all proposals for capitulation.It seems that in England there were two parties in reference to the war. Sir Horace Walpole, in a letter under date of December 5th, 1760, wrote to Sir Horace Mann, at Florence:In October, 1723, when the prince was eleven years of age, his grandfather, George I., came to Berlin to visit his daughter and his son-in-law, the mother and father of Fritz. From the windows of his apartment he looked out with much interest upon Fritz, drilling his cadet company upon the esplanade in front of the palace. The clock-work precision of the movements of the boy soldiers greatly surprised him.