earward of Daun, where we have seen Loudon about
to be very busy, Prince Henri and Fouquet have spun themselves out into
a long chain of posts, in length 300 miles or more, "from Landshut,
along the Bober, along the Queiss and Oder, through the Neumark,
abutting on Stettin and Colberg, to the Baltic Sea." [Tempelhof, iv.
21-24.] On that side, in aid of Loudon or otherwise, Daun can attempt
nothing; still less on the Katzenhauser-Schlettau side can he dream of
an attempt: only towards Brandenburg and Berlin--the Country on that
side, 50 or 60 miles of it, to eastward of Meissen, being vacant of
troops--is Daun's road open, were he enterprising, as Friedrich hopes
he is not. For some two weeks, Friedrich--not ready otherwise, it being
difficult to cross the River, if Lacy with his 30,000 should think of
interference--had to leave the cunctatory Feldmarschall this chance or
unlikely possibility. At the end of the second week ("June 14th," as we
shall mark by and by), the chance was withdrawn.

Daun and his Lacy are but one, and that by no means the most harassing,
of the many cares and anxieties which Friedrich has upon him in those
Seven Weeks, while waiting at Schlettau, reading the omens. Never
hitherto was the augury of any Campaign more indecipherable to him, or
so continually fluctuating with wild hopes, which proved visionary, and
with huge practical fears, of what he knew to be the real likelihood.
"Peace coming?" It is strange how long Friedrich clings to that fond
hope: "My Edelsheim is in the Bastille, or packed home in disgrace:
but will not the English and Choiseul make Peace? It is Choiseul's one
rational course; bankrupt as he is, and reduced to spoons and kettles.
In which case, what a beautiful effect might Duke Ferdinand produce,
if he marched to Eger, say to Eger, with his 50,000 Germans (Britannic
Majesty and Pitt so gracious), and twitched Daun by the skirt, whirling
Daun home to Bohemia in a hurry!" Then the Turks; the Danes,--"Might not
the Danes send us a trifle of Fleet to Colberg (since the English
never will), and keep our Russians at bay?"--"At lowest these hopes are
consolatory," says he once, suspecting them all (as, no doubt, he often
enough does), "and give us courage to look calmly for the opening of
this Campaign, the very idea of which has made me shudder!" ["To Prince
Henri:" in _Schoning,_ ii. 246 (3d April, 1760): ib. 263 (of the DANISH
outlook); &c. &c.]

Meanwhile, by the end of May