h September), that is coming; and
the perceptible slight comfort there will be in fixing down a
loud-blustering, extensively fabulous blockhead, still fit for the
Nurseries, to one undeniable premeditated lie, and tar-marking him
therewith, for benefit of more serious readers." As shall be done, were
the 30th of September come!

Here is still something,--if it be not rather nothing, by a great
hand! Date uncertain; Camp-of-Chlum time, pretty far on:... "There are
continual foragings, on both sides; with parties mutually dashing out to
hinder the same. The Prussians have a detached post at Smirzitz; which
is much harassed by Hungarians lurking about, shooting our sentry and
the like. An inventive head contrives this expedient. Stuff a Prussian
uniform with straw; fix it up, by aid of ropes and check-strings, to
stand with musket shouldered, and even to glide about to right and left,
on judicious pulling. So it is done: straw man is made; set upon his
ropes, when the Tolpatches approach; and pensively saunters to and
fro,--his living comrades crouching in the bushes near by. Tolpatches
fire on the walking straw sentry; straw sentry falls flat; Tolpatches
rush in, esurient, triumphant; are exploded in a sharp blast of musketry
from the bushes all round, every wounded man made prisoner;--and come
no more back to that post." Friedrich himself records this little fact:
"slight pleasantry to relieve the reader's mind," says he, in narrating
it. [_OEuvres,_ iii. 123.]--Enough of those small matters, while so
many large are waiting.

June 26th, a month before Chlum, General Nassau had been detached, with
some 8 or 10,000, across Glatz Country, into Upper Silesia, to sweep
that clear again. Hautcharmoi, quitting the Frontier Towns, has joined,
raising him to 15,000; and Nassau is giving excellent account of the
multitudinous Pandour doggeries there; and will retake Kosel, and
have Upper Silesia swept before very long. [Kosel, "September 5th:"
Excellent, lucid and even entertaining Account of Nassau's Expedition,
in the form of DIARY (a model, of its kind), in _Feldzuge,_ iv. 257,
371, 532.] On the other hand, the Election matter (KAISERWAHL, a most
important point) is obviously in threatening, or even in desperate
state! That famed Middle-Rhine Army has gone to the--what shall we say?

JULY 5th-19th, MIDDLE-RHINE COUNTRY. "The first Election-news that
reaches Friedrich is from the Middle-Rhine Country, and of very
bad complexi