POLAND ON FIRE; DANTZIG STANDS SIEGE.

These are the news our Crown-Prince hears at Ruppin, in the first months
of his wedded life there. With what interest we may fancy. Brandenburg
is next neighbor; and these Polish troubles reach far enough;--the
ever-smoking house having taken fire; and all the street threatening
to get on blaze. Friedrich Wilhelm, nearest neighbor, stands anxious
to quench, carefully sweeping the hot coals across again from his
own borders; and will not interfere on one or the other side, for any
persuasion.

Dantzig, strong in confidence of French help, refuses to give up
Stanislaus when summoned; will stand siege rather. Stands siege, furious
lengthy siege,--with enthusiastic defence; "a Lady of Rank firing off
the first gun," against the Russian batteries. Of the Siege of Dantzig,
which made the next Spring and Summer loud for mankind (February-June,
1734), we shall say nothing,--our own poor field, which also grows loud
enough, lying far away from Dantzig,---except:

FIRST, That no French help came, or as good as none; the minatory
War-fleet having landed a poor 1,500 men, headed by the Comte de Plelo,
who had volunteered along with them; that they attempted one onslaught
on the Russian lines, and that Plelo was shot, and the rest were blown
to miscellaneous ruin, and had to disappear, not once getting into
Dantzig.

SECONDLY, That the Saxons, under Weissenfels, our poor old friend, with
proper siege-artillery, though not with enough, did, by effort (end
of May), get upon the scene; in which this is to be remarked, that
Weissenfels's siege-artillery "came by post;" two big mortars expressly
passing through Berlin, marked as part of the Duke of Weissenfels's
Luggage. And

THIRDLY, That Munnich, who had succeeded Lacy as Besieging General, and
was in hot haste, and had not artillery enough, made unheard-of assaults
(2,000 men, some say 4,000, lost in one night-attack upon a post they
call the Hagelberg; rash attack, much blamed by military men); [_OEuvres
de Frederic,_ xxvii. part 2d, p. 31.]--but nevertheless, having now
(by Russian Fleet, middle of June) got siege-artillery enough, advances
irrepressibly day by day.

So that at length, things being now desperate, Stanislaus, disguised as
a cattle-dealer, privately quitted Dantzig, night of 27th June, 1734;
got across the intricate mud-and-water difficulties of the Weichsel and
its mouths, flying perilously towards Preussen and Friedrich