jesty--["Did we ever SIGN anything?" whisper comfortably
Bruhl and he to one another];--expects, therefore, that his Prussian
Majesty will march on, whither he is bound; and leave him unmolested
here." [_Helden-Geschichte, _ iii. 774.]

That was Meagher's message; that is the purport of all his Polish
Majesty's Eleven Letters to Friedrich, which precede or follow,--
reiterating with a certain bovine obstinacy, insensible to time or
change, That such is Polish Majesty's fixed notion: "Strict neutrality,
friendship even; and leave me unmolested here." [In _OEuvres de
Frederic,_ iv. 235-260 ("29th August-10th September-18th September,"
1756), are collected now, the Eleven Letters, with their Answers.]
"Strict neutrality, yes: but disperse your Army, then," answers
Friedrich; send your Army back to its cantonments: I must myself
have the keeping of my Highway, lest I lose it, as in 1744." This is
Friedrich's answer; this at first, and for some time coming; though, as
the aspects change, and the dangerous elements heap themselves higher,
Friedrich's answer will rise with them, and his terms, like the Sibyl's,
become worse and worse. This is the utmost that Meagher, at Wilsdruf,
can make of it; and this, in conceivable circumstances, will grow less
and less.

Next day, September 9th, Friedrich, with some Battalions, entered
Dresden, most of his Column taking Camp near by; General Wylich had
entered yesterday, and is already Commandant there. Friedrich sends, by
Feldmarschall Keith, highest Officer of his Column, his homages to her
Polish Majesty:--nothing given us of Keith's Interview; except by a
side-wind, "That Majesty complained of those Prussian Sentries walking
about in certain of her corridors" (with an eye to Something, it may be
feared!)--of which, doubtless, Keith undertook to make report. Friedrich
himself waits upon the Junior Princes, who are left here: is polite and
gracious as ever, though strict, and with business enough; lodges, for
his own part, "in the Garden-House of Princess Moczinska;"--and next
morning leads off his Column, a short march eastward, to the Pirna
Country; where, on the right and on the left, Ferdinand at Cotta, Bevern
at Lohmen (if readers will look on their Map), he finds the other Two in
their due positions. Head-quarter is Gross-Sedlitz (westernmost skirt
of the Rock-region); and will have to continue so, much longer than had
been expected.

The Diplomatic world in Dresden is in grea