g done many a heavy mile of it
in his time; and whose skin, one hopes, is of the due thickness against
undue spurring.

Old Dessauer wishes two things: bread to live upon; and a sure Bridge
over the Elbe whereby Friedrich may join him. Old Dessauer makes for
Torgau, far north, where is both an Elbe Bridge and a Magazine; which he
takes; Torgau and pertinents now his. But it is far down the Elbe, far
off from Bautzen and Friedrich: "A nearer Bridge and rendezvous, your
Highness! Meissen [where they make the china, only fifty miles from me,
and twenty from Dresden], let that be the Bridge, now that you have got
victual. And speedy; for Heaven's sake, speedy!" Friedrich pushes out
General Lehwald from Bautzen, with 4,000 men, towards Meissen Bridge;
Lehwald does not himself meddle with the Bridge, only fires shot across
upon the Saxon party, till the Old Dessauer, on the other bank, come
up;--and the Old Dessauer, impatience thinks, will never come. "Three
days in Torgau, yes, Your Majesty: I had bread to bake, and the very
ovens had to be built." A solid old roadster, with his own modes of
trotting; needs thickness of skin. [Friedrich's Letters to Leopold, in
Orlich, ii. 431, 435 (6th-10th December, 1745).]

At long last, on Sunday, 12th December, about two P.M., the Old Dessauer
does appear; or General Gessler, his vanguard, does appear,--Gessler of
the sixty-seven standards,--"always about an hour ahead." Gessler has
summoned Meissen; has not got it, is haggling with it about terms, when,
towards sunset of the short day, Old Dessauer himself arrives. Whereupon
the Saxon Commandant quits the Bridge (not much breaking it); and glides
off in the dark, clear out of Meissen, towards Dresden,--chased, but
successfully defending himself. [See Plan, p. 10.] "Had he but stood out
for two days!" say the Saxons,--"Prince Karl had then been up, and much
might have been different." Well, Friedrich too would have been up,
and it had most likely been the same on a larger scale. But the Saxon
Commandant did not stand out; he glided off, safe; joined Rutowski and
Grune, who are lying about Wilsdruf, six or seven miles on the hither
side of Dresden, and eagerly waiting for Prince Karl. "Bridge and Town
of Meissen are your Majesty's," reports the Old Dessauer that night:
upon which Friedrich instantly rises, hastening thitherward. Lehwald
comes across Meissen Bridge, effects the desired junction; and all
Monday the Old Dessauer defiles t