encourage; but it was
in vain. The Saxon Bastard Princes "lived for days in any Schloss they
found comfortable;" complaining always that there was no victual for
their Troops; that the Prussians, always ahead, had eaten the country.
No end to haggling; and, except on Friedrich's part, no hearty beginning
to real business. "If you wish at all to be 'King of Moravia,' what is
this!" thinks Friedrich justly. Broglio, too, was unmanageable,--piqued
that Valori, not Broglio, had started the thing;--showed himself
captious, dark, hysterically effervescent, now over-cautious, and again
capable of rushing blindly headlong.

To Broglio the fact at Linz, which everybody saw to be momentous, was
overwhelming. Magnanimous Segur, and his Linz "all wedged with beams,"
what a road have they gone! Said so valiantly they would make defence;
and did it, scarcely for four days: January 24th; before this Expedition
could begin! True, M. le Marechal, too true:--and is that a reason
for hanging back in this Mahren business; or for pushing on in it,
double-quick, with all one's strength? "But our Conquests on the Donau,"
thinks Broglio, "what will become of them,--and of us!" To Broglio,
justly apprehensive about his own posture at Prag and on the Donau,
there never was such a chance of at once raking back all Austrians
homewards, post-haste out of those countries. But Broglio could by no
means see it so,--headstrong, blusterous, over-cautious and hysterically
headlong old gentleman; whose conduct at Prag here brought Strasburg
vividly to Friedrich's memory. Upon which, as upon the ghost of
Broglio's Breeches, Valori had to hear "incessant sarcasms" at this
time.

In a word, from February 5th, when Friedrich, according to bargain,
rendezvoused his Prussians at Wischau to begin this Expedition, till
April 5th, when he re-rendezvoused them (at the same Wischau, as
chanced) for the purpose of ending it and going home,--Friedrich,
wrestling his utmost with Human Stupidity, "MIT DER DUMMHEIT
[as Schiller sonorously says], against which the very gods are
unvictorious," had probably two of the most provoking months of his
Life, or of this First Silesian War, which was fruitful in such to him.
For the common cause he accomplished nearly nothing by this Moravian
Expedition. But, to his own mind, it was rich in experiences, as to the
Joint-Stock Principle, as to the Partners he now had. And it doubtless
quickened his steps towards getting personally