Major, killed here at Ottmachau, in
Schwerin's late tussle.

"You are greatly wanting to me here. So soon as you have talked that
business over, write to me about it. [What is the business? Whither is
the dusky Swan of Padua gone?] In all these three hundred miles I
have found no human creature comparable to the Swan of Padua. I would
willingly give ten cubic leagues of ground for a genius similar to
yours. But I perceive I was about entreating you to return fast, and
join me again,--while you are not yet arrived where your errand was.
Make haste to arrive, then; to execute your commission, and fly back to
me. I wish you had a Fortunatus Hat; it is the only thing defective in
your outfit.

"Adieu, dear Swan of Padua: think, I pray you, sometimes of those who
are getting themselves cut in slices [ECHINER, chined] for the sake
of glory here, and above all do not forget your friends who think a
thousand times of you.

"FREDERIC." [_OEuvres de Frederic,_ xviii. 28.]

The object of the dear Swan's journey, or even the whereabouts of
it, cannot be discovered without difficulty; and is not much worth
discovering. "Gone to Turin," we at last make out, "with secret
commissions:" [Denina, _La Prusse Litteraire_ (Berlin, 1790), i. 198. A
poor vague Book; only worth consulting in case of extremity.] desirable
to sound the Sardinian Majesty a little, who is Doorkeeper of the Alps,
between France and Austria, and opens to the best bidder? No great
things of a meaning in this mission, we can guess, or Algarotti had not
gone upon it,--though he is handy, at least, for keeping it unnoticed by
the Gazetteer species. Nor was the Swan successful, it would seem;
the more the pity for our Swan! However, he comes back safe; attends
Friedrich in Silesia; and in the course of next month readers will see
him, if any reader wished it.

Chapter VI. -- NEISSE IS BOMBARDED.

Neisse, which Friedrich calls a paltry hamlet (BICOQUE) is a pleasant
strongly fortified Town, then of perhaps 6 or 8,000 inhabitants, now of
double that number; stands on the right or south bank of the Neisse,--at
this day, on both banks. Pleasant broad streets, high strong houses,
mostly of stone. Pleasantly encircled by green Hills, northward
buttresses of the Giant Mountains; itself standing low and level,
on rich ground much inclined to be swampy. A lesser river, Biele,
or Bielau, coming from the South, flows leisurely enough into the
Neisse,--filling all the