was heard to say, "Let me fight but another such Victory, and
I may go to Petersburg with the news of it myself, with the staff in my
hand." The joy at Petersburg, striving not to be braggart or immodest,
was solemn, steady and superlative: a great feat indeed for Russia, this
Victory over such a King,--though a kind of grudge, that it was due
to Loudon, dwelt, in spite of Loudon's politic silence on that point,
unpleasantly in the background. The chase they had shamefully neglected.
It is said, certain Russian Officers, who had charge of that business
stept into a peasant's cottage to consult on it; contrived somehow to
find tolerable liquor there; and sat drinking instead. [Preuss, ii.
217.]

Chapter V.--SAXONY WITHOUT DEFENCE: SCHMETTAU SURRENDERS DRESDEN.

Friedrich's despair did not last quite four days. On the fourth
day,--day after leaving Reitwein,--there is this little Document, which
still exists, of more comfortable tenor: "My dear Major-General von
Wunsch,--Your Letter of the 16th to Lieutenant-General von Finck
punctually arrived here: and for the future, as I am now recovered from
my illness, you have to address your Reports directly to Myself.--F."
["Madlitz," on the road to Furstenwalde, "17th August:" in Preuss,
_Friedrich der Grosse; eine historische Portrait-Skizze_ (kind of
LECTURE, so let us call it, if again citing it; Lecture delivered, on
Friedrich's Birthday, to Majesty and Staff-Officers as Audience, Berlin,
24th January, 1855), p. 18.] Finding that, except Tottleben warily
reconnoitring with a few Cossacks, no Russians showed themselves at
Reitwein; that the Russians were encamping and intrenching on the
Wine-Hills south of Frankfurt, not meaning anything immediate,--he took
heart again; ranked his 23,000; sent for General Kleist from Pommern
with his Anti-Swedish handful (leave the Swedes alone, as usual in time
of crisis); considered that artilleries and furnishings could come to
him from Berlin, which is but 60 miles; that there still lay possibility
ahead, and that, though only a miracle could save him, he would try it
to the very last.

A great relief, this of coming to oneself again! "Till death, then;--rage
on, ye elements and black savageries!" Friedrich's humor is not
despondent, now or afterwards; though at this time it is very sad, very
angry, and, as it were, scorning even to hope: but he is at all times of
beautifully practical turn; and has, in his very despair, a sobrie