swift, do what we have agreed on!" [_OEuvres de Frederic,_ v. 67.]
Friedrich hands this to a Peasant, with instructions to let himself be
taken by the Russians, and give it up to save his life. Czernichef, it
is thought, got this Letter; and perhaps rumor itself, and the delays of
Daun, would, at any rate, have sent him across. Across he at once went,
with his 24,000, and burnt his Bridge. A vanished Czernichef;--though
Friedrich is not yet sure of it: and as for the wandering Austrian
Divisions, the Loudons, Lacys, all is dark to him.

So that, at Parchwitz, next morning (August 16th), the question,
"To Glogau? To Breslau?" must have been a kind of sphinx-enigma to
Friedrich; dark as that, and, in case of error, fatal. After some brief
paroxysm of consideration, Friedrich's reading was, "To Breslau, then!"
And, for hours, as the march went on, he was noticed "riding much
about," his anxieties visibly great. Till at Neumarkt (not far from the
Field of LEUTHEN), getting on the Heights there,--towards noon, I
will guess,--what a sight! Before this, he had come upon Austrian
Out-parties, Beck's or somebody's, who did not wait his attack: he saw,
at one point, "the whole Austrian Army on march (the tops of its
columns visible among the knolls, three miles off, impossible to say
whitherward);" and fared on all the faster, I suppose, such a bet
depending;--and, in fine, galloped to the Heights of Neumarkt for a
view: "Dare we believe it? Not an Austrian there!" And might be, for the
moment, the gladdest of Kings. Secure now of Breslau, of junction
with Henri: fairly winner of the bet;--and can at last pause, and take
breath, very needful to his poor Army, if not to himself, after such
a mortal spasm of sixteen days! Daun had taken the Liegnitz accident
without remark; usually a stoical man, especially in other people's
misfortunes; but could not conceal his painful astonishment on this
new occasion,--astonishment at unjust fortune, or at his own sluggardly
cunctations, is not said.

Next day (August 17th), Friedrich encamps at Hermannsdorf, head-quarter
the Schloss of Hermannsdorf, within seven miles of Breslau; continues a
fortnight there, resting his wearied people, himself not resting much,
watching the dismal miscellany of entanglements that yet remain, how
these will settle into groups,--especially what Daun and his Soltikof
will decide on. In about a fortnight, Daun's decision did become
visible; Soltikof's not in a f