ght think about it, a decidedly brilliant
feat of War: falling like a bolt out of the blue,--like three bolts,
suddenly coalescing over Prag, and striking it down. Friedrich himself,
though there is nothing of boast audible here or anywhere, was evidently
very well satisfied; and thought the aspects good. There is Prince Karl
whirling instantly back from his Strasburg Prospects; the general St.
Vitus Dance of Austrian things rising higher and higher in these home
parts:--reasonable hope that "in the course of one Campaign," proud
obstinate Austria might feel itself so wrung and screwed as to be glad
of Peace with neighbors not wishing War. That was the young
King's calculation at this time. And, had France done at all as it
promised,--or had the young King himself been considerably wiser than he
was,--he had not been disappointed in the way we shall see!

Friedrich admits he did not understand War at this period. His own
scheme now was: To move towards the southwest, there to abolish Bathyani
and his Tolpatches, who are busy gathering Magazines for Prince Karl's
advent; to seize the said Magazines, which will be very useful to us;
then advance straight towards the Passes of the Bohemian Mountains.
Towns of Furth, Waldmunchen, unfortunate Town of Cham (burnt by Trenck,
where masons are now busy); these stand successive in the grand Pass,
through which the highway runs; some hundred miles or so from where
we are: march, at one's swiftest, thitherward, Bathyani's Magazines to
help; and there await Prince Karl? It was Friedrich's own notion; not a
bad one, though not the best. The best, he admits, would have been:
To stay pretty much where he was; abolish Bathyani's Tolpatch people,
seizing their Magazines, and collecting others; in general, well rooting
and fencing himself in Prag, and in the Circles that lie thereabouts
upon the Elbe,--bounded to southward by the Sazawa (branch of the
Moldau), which runs parallel to the Elbe;--but well refusing to stir
much farther at such an advanced season of the year.

That second plan would have been the wisest:--then why not, follow it?
Too tame a plan for the youthful mind. Besides, we perceive, as indeed
is intimated by himself, he dreaded the force of public opinion in
France. "Aha, look at your King of Prussia again. Gone to conquer
Bohemia; and, except the Three Circles he himself is to have of it,
lets Bohemia go to the winds!" This sort of thing, Friedrich admits, he
dreaded