s.
Cantoned far and wide, spreading out from Pirna on both hands: on the
left or western hand, by Zwickau, Freyberg, Chemnitz, up to Leipzig,
Torgau; and on the right or northeast hand, by Zittau, Gorlitz, Bautzen,
to protect the Lausitz against Austrian inroads,--while a remote
Detachment, under Winterfeld, watches the Bober River with similar
views. [In _Helden-Geschichte, _iii. 948 et seq., a minute List by Place
and Regiment.] All which done, or settled to be done, Friedrich quits
Gross-Sedlitz, November 14th; and takes up his abode at Dresden for this
Winter.

Chapter VIII.--WINTER IN DRESDEN.

The Saxon Army is incorporated, then; its King gone under the horizon;
the Saxon Country has a Prussian Board set over it, to administer all
things of Government, especially to draw taxes and recruits from Saxony.
Torgau, seat of this new Board, has got fortified; "1,500 inhabitants
were requisitioned as spademen for that end, at first with
wages,"--latterly, I almost fear, without!

The Saxon Ministers are getting drilled, cashiered if necessary; and on
all hands, rigorous methods going forward;--till Saxony is completely
under grasp; in which state it was held very tight indeed, for the six
years coming. There is no detailing of all that; details, were they even
known to an Editor at such distance, would weary every reader. Enough to
understand that Friedrich has not on this occasion, as he did in 1744,
omitted to disarm Saxony, to hobble it in every limb, and have it,
at discretion, tied as with ropes to his interests and him.
[_Helden-Geschichte, _iii. 945-956.] His management was never accounted
cruel; and it was studiously the reverse of violent or irregular: but it
had to be rigorous as the facts were;--nor was it the worst, or reckoned
the worst, of Saxony's miseries in this time.

Poor Country, suffering for its Bruhl! In the Country, except for its
Bruhl, there was no sin against Prussia; the reverse rather. The Saxon
population, as Protestants, have no good-will to Austria and its aims
of aggrandizement. In Austrian spy-letters, now and afterwards, they are
described to us as "GUT PREUSSISCH;" "strong for Prussia, the most of
them, even in Dresden itself."

Whether Friedrich could have had much real hope to end the War this
Year, or scare it off from beginning, may be a question. If he had, it
is totally disappointed. The Saxon Government has brought ruin on itself
and Country, but it has been of great