ur duties here are, and would despise us if we
did NOT do them;'--and, in short, our answer again is, in polite
forms, 'Pooh, pooh; you may go your way!' Upon which the Messenger is
blindfolded again; and Schmettau sets himself in hot earnest to clearing
out his goods from the Neustadt; building with huge intertwisted
cross-beams and stone and earth-masses a Battery at his own end of the
Bridge, batteries on each side of it, below and above;--locks the Gates;
and is passionately busy all Sunday,--though divine service goes on as
usual.

"Hardly were the Prussian guns got away, when Croat people in quantity
came in, and began building a Battery at their end of the Bridge, the
main defence-work being old Prussian meal-barrels, handily filled with
earth. 'If you fire one cannon-ball across on us,' said Schmettau, 'I
will bombard the Neustadt into flame in few minutes [I have only to aim
at our Hay Magazine yonder]: be warned! 'Nor did they once fire from
that side; Electoral Highness withal and Royal Palace being quite
contiguous behind the Prussian Bridge-Battery. Electoral Highness and
Household are politely treated, make polite answer to everything; intend
going down into the 'APOTHEKE' (Kitchen suite), or vaulted part of the
Palace, and will lodge there when the cannonade begins.

"This same SUNDAY, AUGUST 26th, Maguire arrived; and set instantly to
building his bridge at Pillnitz, a little way above Dresden: at Uebigau,
a little below Dresden, the Reichsfolk have another. Reichsfolk,
Zweibruck in person, come all in on Wednesday; post themselves there,
to north and west of the City. What is more important, the siege-guns,
a superb stock, are steadily floating, through the Pirna regions,
hitherward; get to hand on Friday next, the fifth day hence. [Tempelhof,
p. 210.] Korbitz (half-way out to Kesselsdorf) is Durchlaucht's
head-quarter:--Chief General is Durchlaucht, conspicuously he, at least
in theory, and shall have all the glory; though Maguire, glancing on
these cannon, were it nothing more, has probably a good deal to say.
Maguire too, I observe, takes post on that north or Kesselsdorf side;
contiguous for the Head General. Wehla and Brentano post themselves on
the south or up-stream side; it is they that hand in the siege-guns:
batteries are already everywhere marked out, 13 cannon-batteries and 5
howitzer. In short, from the morrow of that truculent Summons, Monday
morning to Thursday, there is hot stir of mult