this is now to be Finck's affair, not his! That day, too
(for the Paper seems to be misdated), he signed, and despatched to
Schmettau, Commandant in Dresden, a Missive, which proved more fatal
than either of the others; and brought, or helped to bring, very bitter
fruits for him, before long:--

TO LIEUTENANT-GENERAL VON SCHMETTAU (at Dresden).

"REITWEIN, 14th [probably 13th] August, 1759.

"You will perhaps have heard of the Check [L'ECHEC, Kunersdorf to wit!]
I have met with from the Russian Army on the 13th [12th, if you have the
Almanac at hand] of this month. Though at bottom our affairs in regard
to the Enemy here are not desperate, I find I shall not now be able to
make any detachment for your assistance. Should the Austrians attempt
anything against Dresden, therefore, you will see if there are means
of maintaining yourself; failing which, it will behoove you to try and
obtain a favorable Capitulation,--to wit, Liberty to withdraw, with
the whole Garrison, Moneys, Magazines, Hospital and all that we have at
Dresden, either to Berlin or else-whither, so as to join some Corps of
my Troops.

"As a fit of illness [MALADIE, alas!] has come on me,--which I do not
think will have dangerous results,--I have for the present left the
command of my Troops to Lieutenant-General von Finck; whose Orders you
are to execute as if coming to you directly from myself. On this I
pray God to have you in his holy and worthy keeping.--F." [Preuss, ii.
_Urkundenbuch,_ p. 43.]

At Berlin, on this 13th,--with the Five Couriers coming in successively
(and not in the order of their despatch, but the fatal Fifth arriving
some time AHEAD of the Fourth, who still spoke of progress and
victory),--there was such a day as Sulzer (ACH MEIN LIEBER SULZER!)
had never seen in the world. "'Above 50,000 human beings on the Palace
Esplanade and streets about;' swaying hither and thither, in agony of
expectation, in alternate paroxysm of joy and of terror and woe; often
enough the opposite paroxysms simultaneous in the different groups, and
men crushed down in despair met by men leaping into the air for very
gladness:" Sulzer (whose sympathy is of very aesthetic type) "would
not, for any consideration, have missed such a scene." [_Briefe der
Schweitzer Bodmer, Sulzer, Gessner; aus Gleim's literarischen Nachlasse:
herausgegeben von Wilhelm Korte_ (Zurich, 1804), pp. 316-319.] The
"scene" is much obliged to you, MEIN LIEBER!--

Practically we fin