t.

The reader is requested to look at Neisse; for besides the Tokay wine,
there will things arrive there.--Neisse River, let us again mention, is
one of four bearing that name, and all belonging to the Oder:--could not
they be labelled, then, or NUMBERED, in some way? This Neisse, which we
could call Neisse the FIRST (and which careful readers may as well make
acquaintance with on their Map, where too they will find Neisse the
SECOND, "the WUTHENDE or Roaring Neisse," and two others which concern
us less), rises in the "Western Snow-Mountains (SCHNEEGEBIRGE),"
Southwestern or Glatz district of the Giant Mountains; drains Glatz
County and grows big there; washes the Town of Glatz; then eastward
by Ottmachau, by Neisse Town; whence turning rather abruptly north or
northeast, it gets into the Oder not far south of Brieg.

Neisse as a Place of Arms, the chief Fortress of Silesia and the nearest
to Austria, is extremely desirable for Friedrich; but there is no hope
of it without some kind of Siege; and Friedrich determines to try in
that way. From Ottmachau, accordingly, and from the other sides, the
Siege-Artillery being now at hand, due force gathers itself round
Neisse, Schwerin taking charge; and for above a week there is
demonstrating and posting, summoning and parleying; and then, for three
days, with pauses intervening, there is extremely furious bombardment,
red-hot at times: "Will you yield, then?"--with steady negative from
Neisse. Friedrich's quarter is at Ottmachau, twelve miles off; from
which he can ride over, to see and superintend. The fury of his
bombardment, which naturally grieved him, testifies the intensity of his
wish. But it was to no purpose. The Commandant, Colonel von Roth (the
same who was proposed for Breslau lately, a wise head and a stout, famed
in defences) had "poured water on his ramparts," after well repairing
them,--made his ramparts all ice and glass;--and done much else. Would
the reader care to look for a moment? Here, from our waste Paper-masses,
is abundance, requiring only to be abridged:--

"JANUARY, 1741: MONDAY, 9th-WEDNESDAY, 11th. Monday, 9th, day when that
sputter at Ottmachau began,--Prussian light-troops appeared transiently
on the heights about Neisse, for the first time. Directly on sight of
whom, Commandant Roth assembled the Burghers of the place; took a new
Oath of Fidelity from one and all; admonished them to do their utmost,
as they should see him do. The able-bodied