RZWASSER), famed in war, your Majesty; here they coalesce; gray
ashlar houses (not without inhabitants unknown to us) looking on. Here
are the venerable walls and streets of Liegnitz; and the Castle which
defied Baty Khan and his Tartars, five hundred years ago. [1241, the
Invasion, and Battle here, of this unexpected Barbarian.]--Oh, your
Majesty, this Liegnitz, with its princely Castle, and wide rich
Territory, the bulk of the Silesian Lowland, whose is it if right were
done? Hm, his Majesty knows full well; in Seckendorf's presence, and
going on such an errand, we must not speak of certain things. But the
undisputed truth is, Duke Friedrich II., come of the Sovereign Piasts,
made that ERBVERBRUDERUNG, and his Grandson's Grandson died childless:
so the heirship fell to us, as the biggest wig in the most benighted
Chancery would have to grant;--only the Kaiser will not, never would;
the Kaiser plants his armed self on Schlesien, and will hear no
pleading. Jagerndorf too, which we purchased with our own money---No
more of that; it is too miserable! Very impossible too, while we have
Berg and Julich in the wind!--

At Liegnitz, Friedrich Wilhelm "reviews the garrison, cavalry and
infantry," before starting; then off for Glatz, some sixty miles before
we can dine. The goal is towards Bohemia, all this while; and his
Majesty, had he liked the mountain-passes, and unlevel ways of the Giant
Mountains, might have found a shorter road and a much more picturesque
one. Road abounding in gloomy valleys, intricate rock-labyrinths, haunts
of Sprite RUBEZAHL, sources of the Elbe and I know not what. Majesty
likes level roads, and interesting rock-labyrinths built by man rather
than by Nature. Majesty makes a wide sweep round to the east of all
that; leaves the Giant Mountains, and their intricacies, as a blue
Sierra far on his right,--had rather see Glatz Fortress than the caverns
of the Elbe; and will cross into Bohemia, where the Hills are fallen
lowest. At Glatz during dinner, numerous Nobilities are again in
waiting. Glatz is in Jagerndorf region; Jagerndorf, which we purchased
with our own money, is and remains ours, in spite of the mishaps of the
Thirty-Years War;--OURS, the darkest Chancery would be obliged to
say, from under the immensest wig! Patience, your Majesty; Time brings
roses!--

From Glatz, after viewing the works, drilling the guard a little, not to
speak of dining, and despatching the Nobilities, his Majesty tak