es for himself.
These truly are a wonderful series of marches, opulent in continual
promptitudes, audacities, contrivances;--done with shining talent,
certainly; and also with result shining, for the moment. And in a
Fabulous Epic I think Dresden would certainly have fallen to Friedrich,
and his crowd of enemies been left in a tumbled condition.

But the Epic of Reality cares nothing for such considerations; and
the time allowable for capture of Dresden is very brief. Had Daun,
on getting warning, been as prompt to return as he was to go, frankly
fronting at once the chances of the road, he might have been at Dresden
again perhaps within a week,--no Siege possible for Friedrich, hardly
the big guns got up from Magdeburg. But Friedrich calculated there would
be very considerable fettling and haggling on Daun's part; say a good
Fortnight of Siege allowed;--and that, by dead-lift effort of all hands,
the thing was feasible within that limit. On Friedrich's part, as we can
fancy, there was no want of effort; nor on his people's part,--in spite
of his complainings, say Retzow and the Opposition party; who insinuate
their own private belief of impossibility from the first. Which is
not confirmed by impartial judgments,--that of Archenholtz, and others
better. The truth is, Friedrich was within an inch of taking Dresden by
the first assault,--they say he actually could have taken it by storm
the first day; but shuddered at the thought of exposing poor Dresden to
sack and plunder; and hoped to get it by capitulation.

One of the rapidest and most furious Sieges anywhere on record. Filled
Europe with astonishment, expectancy, admiration, horror:--must be very
briefly recited here. The main chronological epochs, salient points of
crisis and successive phases of occurrence, will sufficiently indicate
it to the reader's fancy.

"It was Thursday Evening, 10th July, when Lacy got to his Reichsfolk,
and took breath behind Plauen Chasm. Maguire is Governor of Dresden. The
consternation of garrison and population was extreme. To Lacy himself it
did not seem conceivable that Friedrich could mean a Siege of Dresden.
Friedrich, that night, is beyond the River, in Daun's old impregnability
of Reichenberg: 'He has no siege-artillery,' thinks Lacy; 'no means, no
time.'

"Nevertheless, Saturday, next day after to-morrow,--behold, there is
Hulsen, come from Schlettau to our neighborhood, on our Austrian side
of the River. And at Kaditz yond