as threatening and fully equipped as before. Today we praise not only
the field operations of the King, but also the wise prudence with
which he handled his supplies. He knew very well how much he was
limited by having to consider the commissariat, and the thousands of
carts in which he had to take with him the provisions and the daily
supplies of the soldiers; but he also knew that this method was his
only salvation. Once, when after the battle of Rossbach he made the
astonishing march into Silesia--one hundred and eighty-nine miles in
fifteen days--he, in the greatest danger, abandoned his old method. He
made his way through the country as other armies did at that time,
and quartered his men upon the people. But he wisely returned at once
to his old plan. For as soon as his enemies learned to imitate this
free movement, he was certainly doomed. When the old militia in his
ancient provinces rose to arms again, helped to drive out the Swedes,
and bravely defended Colberg and Berlin, he accepted their assistance
without objection; but he took pains not to encourage a guerilla war;
and when his East Frisian peasantry revolted independently against the
French and were severely punished by them for it, he told them with
brutal frankness that it was their own fault, for war was a matter for
soldiers; the business of the peasants and citizens should be
uninterrupted industry, the payment of taxes, and the furnishing of
recruits. He well knew that he was lost if a people's war in Saxony
and Bohemia should be aroused against him. This readiness, indicative
of the cautious general, to restrict himself to military forms, which
alone made the contest possible for him, may be reckoned among his
greatest qualities.

Louder and louder became the cry of sorrow and admiration with which
Germans and foreigners watched this death-struggle of the lion at bay.
As early as 1740 the young King had been praised by the Protestants as
the champion of freedom of conscience and enlightenment, against
intolerance and the Jesuits. When, a few months after the battle at
Kollin, he completely defeated the French at Rossbach, he became the
hero of Germany. A glad cry of joy broke out everywhere. For two
hundred years the French had done great wrong to the divided country;
now the German national idea began to revolt against the influence of
French culture, and the King, who himself greatly admired Parisian
poetry, had effectively routed the Parisian