k remained
unshaken. With a smaller army and fewer allies Alexander demolished
Persia. "But happily," he said to himself, "there was no Alexander to
lead his enemies to victory."

Frederick did not despair, and yet he did not believe in the possibility
of triumph. He preferred an honorable death to a dishonorable peace. He
would rather fail amidst the proud ruins of Prussia, made great by his
hand, than return with her to their former petty insignificance. They
offered him peace, but a peace which compelled him to return the lands
he had conquered, and to pay to his victorious enemies the costs of the
war.

The king did not regard these mortifying propositions as worthy of
consideration, and he commanded his ambassador, whom he had sent to
Augsburg to treat with the enemy, to return immediately. "It is true,"
he said to his confidant, Le Catt, "all Europe is combined against
me--all the great powers have resolved upon my destruction. And England,
the only friend I did possess in Europe, has now abandoned me."

"But one has remained faithful."

"'Among the faithless, faithful only he' Among the innumerable false,
unmoved, unshaken, unseduced, unterrified, that is my sword. If the
exalted empresses are not my friends, the greater honor to my good sword
which has never failed me, and which shall go down with me into the dark
grave. If in Europe I have neither friends nor allies, I may find both
in other parts of the world. Asia may send me the troops which Europe
denies. If Russia is my enemy, who knows but for this reason Turkey
may become my ally? And who knows but an alliance with the so-called
unbelievers would be of more value to Prussia than a league with the
so-called believing Russians? They call themselves Christians, but their
weapons are lies, intrigues, deceit, and treachery. The Moslem, however,
is an honorable man and a brave soldier. If he calls his God Allah, and
his Christ Mohammed, God may call him to account. I have nothing to do
with it. What has faith to do with the kings of this world? Besides, I
believe the Turks and Tartars are better Christians than the Russians."

"Your majesty is really, then, thinking of an alliance with the Turks
and Tartars?" said Le Catt.

"I am thinking of it so earnestly," said the king, eagerly, "that day
and night I think of nothing else. I have spared no cost, no gold, no
labor, to bring it about. Once I had almost succeeded, and the Sublime
Porte was inclined to