it is probable that he was disgusted
and sulky at having to rise so early, but this would hardly be a
sufficient explanation. The more probable conjecture is that, as he
was on notoriously bad terms with the duke, he was willing that the
latter should suffer a severe repulse at Minden, in the hope that
he would be deprived of his command, and he himself appointed
commander-in-chief of the allied army.

A few days after the battle, the exultation caused by the victory
at Minden was dashed by the news that a Prussian army, twenty-six
thousand strong, commanded by Wedel, had been beaten by the
Russians at Zuellichau; and ten days later by the still more
crushing news that Frederick himself, with fifty thousand men, had
been completely defeated by a Russian and Austrian army, ninety
thousand in number, at Kunersdorf, on the 11th of August.

At first the Prussians had beaten back the Russians with great
loss. The latter had rallied, and, joined by Loudon with the
Austrian divisions, had recovered the ground and beaten off the
Prussians with immense loss, the defeat being chiefly due to the
fact that the Prussian army had marched to the attack through woods
intersected with many streams; and that, instead of arriving on the
field of battle as a whole, they only came up at long intervals, so
that the first success could not be followed up, and the regiments
who made it were annihilated before help came.

The news came from Berlin. A letter had been received there from
the king, written on the night after the battle. He said that he
had but three thousand men collected round him, that the
circumstances were desperate, that he appointed his brother Prince
Henry general-in-chief, and that the army was to swear fidelity to
his nephew. The letter was understood to mean that Frederick
intended to put an end to his life. He knew that the enmity of his
foes was largely directed against him personally, and that far
easier terms might be obtained for the country were he out of the
way; and he was therefore determined not to survive irreparable
defeat. Indeed, he always carried a small tube of deadly poison on
his person.

Universal consternation was felt at the news. However, three days
later came the more cheering intelligence that twenty-three
thousand men had now gathered round him, and that he had again
taken the command. The loss in the battle, however, had been
terrible--six thousand had been killed, thirteen thousand wounde