nce Karl in person appeared; and on the
3d of July, had his whole Army with its luggages across; and had seized
the Lines of Lauterburg and Weissenburg (celebrated northern defence of
Elsass),--much to Coigny's amazement; and remained inexpugnable there,
with Elsass open to him, and to Coigny shut, for the present! [Adelung,
iv. 139-141.] Coigny made bitter wail, accusation, blame of Seckendorf,
blame of men and of things; even tried some fighting, Seckendorf too
doing feats, to recover those Lines of Weissenburg: but could not do it.
And, in fact, blazing to and fro in that excited rather than luminous
condition, could not do anything; except retire into the strong posts
of the background; and send express on express, swifter than the wind if
you can, to a victorious King overturning the Dutch Barrier: 'Help, your
Majesty, or we are lost; and France is--what shall I say!'"

"Admirable feat of Strategy! What a General, this Prince Karl!"
exclaimed mankind,--Cause-of-Liberty mankind with special enthusiasm;
and took to writing LIVES of Prince Karl, [For instance, _The Life of
his Highness Prince Charles of &c., with &c. &c._ (London, 1746); one
of the most distracted Blotches ever published under the name of
Book;--wakening thoughts of a public dimness very considerable indeed,
to which this could offer itself as lamp!] as well as tar-burning and
TE-DEUM-ing on an extensive scale. For it had sent the Cause of Liberty
bounding up again to the top of things, this of crossing the Rhine,
in such fashion. And, in effect, the Cause of Liberty, and Prince
Karl himself, had risen hereby to their acme or culminating point in
World-History; not to continue long at such height, little as they
dreamt of that, among their tar-burnings. The feat itself--contrived
by Nadasti, people say, and executed (what was the real difficulty) by
Traun--brought Prince Karl very great renown, this Year; and is praised
by Friedrich himself, now and afterwards, as masterly, as Julius
Caesar's method, and the proper way of crossing rivers (when executable)
in face of an enemy. And indeed Prince Karl, owing to Traun or not,
is highly respectable in the way of Generalship at present; and did in
these Five Months, from June onward, really considerable things. At his
very acme of Life, as well as of Generalship; which, alas, soon changed,
poor man; never to culminate again. He had got, at the beginning of the
Year, the high Maria Theresa's one Sister, Archd