ck the Great," vol. ii., p. 246.]

Prince Henry, ashamed of his despondency, gave to this letter of his
brother the answer of a hero. He marched against the Russians, drove
them from Silesia, and raised the siege of Breslau, around which the
Austrians under Loudon were encamped. Tauentzein, with fearless energy
and with but three thousand Prussians, had fortified himself in Breslau
against this powerful enemy. So in the very beginning of the winter the
capital of Silesia had been retaken By Torgau the king had fought and
won his twelfth battle for the possession of Silesia--yes, fought and
won from his powerful and irreconcilable enemies. And all this had been
in vain, and almost without results. The prospect of peace seemed far
distant, and the hope of happiness for Frederick even as remote.

But now winter was upon them. This stern angel of peace had sheathed the
sword, and for the time ended the war.

While the pious Maria Theresa and her court ladies made it the mode to
prepare lint in their splendid saloons during the winter for the wounded
soldiers--while the Russian General Soltikow took up his winter quarters
at Poseu, and gave sumptuous feasts and banquets--Frederick withdrew to
Leipsic, in which city philosophy and learning were at that time most
flourishing. The Leipsigers indeed boasted that they had given an asylum
to poetry and art.

The warrior-hero was now changed for a few happy months into the
philosopher, the poet, and the scholar. Frederick's brow, contracted by
anxiety and care, was now smooth; his eye took again its wonted fire--a
smile was on his lip, and the hand which had so long brandished the
sword, gladly resumed the pen. He who had so long uttered only words of
command and calls to battle, now bowed over his flute and drew from
it the tenderest and most melting melodies. The evening concerts were
resumed. The musical friends and comrades of the king had been summoned
from Berlin; and that nothing might be wanting to make his happiness
complete, he had called his best-beloved friend, the Marquis d'Argens,
to his side.

D'Argens had much to tell of the siege of Berlin and the Russians--of
the firm defence of the burghers-of their patriotism and their courage.
Frederick's eyes glistened with emotion, and in the fulness of his
thankful heart he promised to stand by his faithful Berliners to the
end. But when D'Argens told of the desolation which the Russians had
wrought amongst the treasure