berty is to be saved at all?"--

And now, having opened the dust-bin so far, that the reader's fancy
might be stirred without affliction to his lungs and eyes, let us shut
it down again,--might we but hope forever! That is too fond a hope. But
the background or sustaining element made imaginable, the few events
deserving memory may surely go on at a much swifter pace.

Chapter II. -- CAMP OF STREHLEN.

Friedrich's Silesian Camps this Summer, Camp of Strehlen chiefly, were
among the strangest places in the world. Friedrich, as we have often
noticed, did not much pursue the defeated Austrians, at or near
Mollwitz, or press them towards flat ruin in their Silesian business: it
is clear he anxiously wished a bargain without farther exasperation; and
hoped he might get it by judicious patience. Brieg he took, with that
fine outburst of bombardment, which did not last a week: but Brieg
once his, he fell quiet again; kept encamping, here there, in that
Mollwitz-Neisse region, for above three months to come; not doing much,
beyond the indispensable; negotiating much, or rather negotiated with,
and waiting on events. [In Camp of Mollwitz (nearer Brieg than the
Battle-field was) till 28th May (after the Battle seven weeks); then to
Camp at Grotkau (28th May-9th June, twelve days); thence (9th June) to
Friedewalde, Herrnsdorf; to Strehlen (21st June-20th August, nine or
ten weeks in all). See _Helden-Geschichte_, i. 924, ii. 931; Rodenbeck,
Orlich, &c.]

Both Armies were reinforcing themselves; and Friedrich's, for obvious
reasons, in the first weeks especially, became much the stronger. Once
in May, and again afterwards, weary of the pace things went at, he had
resolved on having Neisse at once; on attacking Neipperg in his strong
camp there, and cutting short the tedious janglings and uncertainties.
He advanced to Grotkau accordingly, some twelve or fifteen miles nearer
Neisse (28th May,--stayed till 9th June), quite within wind of Neipperg
and his outposts; but found still, on closer inspection, that he had
better wait;--and do so withal at a greater distance from Neipperg and
his Pandour Swarms. He drew back therefore to Strehlen, northwestward,
rather farther from Neisse than before; and lay encamped there for nine
or ten weeks to come. Not till the beginning of August did there fall
out any military event (Pandour skirmishing in plenty, but nothing
to call an event); and not till the end of August any that pointed t