im. He had hitherto been unconquered; his enemies were beaten
whenever he had fallen upon them with the irresistible instrument
in his hand--his army. This was his hope, his only one. If this
well-tested power did not fail him now, he might save his State.

But in his first encounter with the Austrians, his old enemies, he saw
that they also had learnt of him and had become different. To the
uttermost did he exert his power, and at Collin it failed him. The 18th
of June, 1757, was the most fatal day in Frederic's life; he found
there what twice in this war tore the victory from him: that he had too
little estimated his enemies, and had expected what was beyond human
powers of his valiant army. After being stunned for a short time,
Frederic roused himself with fresh energy. From an offensive he was
driven to a desperate defensive war: on all sides the enemy broke into
his little country; he was in deadly struggle with every great Power of
the Continent, the master of only four millions of men, and a conquered
army. Now he proved his generalship by the way in which, after his
losses, he retreated from the enemy, then pounced upon and beat them,
when they least expected him, by throwing himself now against one, and
now against another army, unsurpassed in his dispositions,
inexhaustible in his expedients, and unequalled as leader of his
troops. Thus he maintained himself, one against five, against Austria,
Russia, and France, each one of which exceeded him in strength; and at
the same time against Sweden and the German troops of the Empire. Five
long years did he struggle against this enormous preponderance of
power,--each spring in danger of being crushed by the masses alone, and
each autumn again in safety. A loud cry of admiration and sympathy
echoed through Europe; and among the first unwilling eulogisers were
his most violent enemies. It was just in these years of changing
fortune, when the King himself was experiencing the bitter chances of
the fortunes of war, that his generalship became the astonishment of
all the armies of Europe. The method in which he arrayed his lines
against the enemy, always the quickest and most skilful; how he so
often, by moving in echelon, pressed back the weakest wing of the
enemy, outflanked and crushed it; how his newly created cavalry, which
had become the first in the world, charged upon the enemy, broke their
ranks and burst through their hosts,--all this was considered
everywhere a