rd; it is those obliging Russians that have played all
the trumps, and reduced the Enemy to nothing. Only continue that wise
course,--and cart meal, with your whole strength, for the Russians!--

Safe behind the pools of Lieberose, Friedrich between them and Berlin,
lie those dear Russians; extending, Daun and they, like an impassable
military dike, with spurs of Outposts and cunningly devised Detachments,
far and wide,--from beyond Bober or utmost Crossen on the east, to
Hoyerswerda in Elbe Country on the west;--dike of eighty miles long,
and in some eastern parts of almost eighty broad; so elaborate is Daun's
detaching quality, in cases of moment. "The King's broken Army on
one side of us," calculates Daun; "Prince Henri's on the other;
incommunicative they; reduced to isolation, powerless either or both
of them against such odds. They shall wait there, please Heaven, till
Saxony be quite finished. Zweibruck, and our Detachments and Maguires,
let them finish Saxony, while Soltikof keeps the King busy. Saxony
finished, how will either Prince or King attempt to recover it! After
which, Silesia for us;--and we shall then be near our Magazines withal,
and this severe stress of carting will abate or cease." In fact, these
seem sound calculations: Friedrich is 24,000; Henri 38,000; the military
dike is, of Austrians 75,000, of Russians and Austrians together
120,000. Daun may fairly calculate on succeeding beautifully this Year:
Saxony his altogether; and in Silesia some Glogau or strong Town taken,
and Russians and Austrians wintering together in that Country.

If only Daun do not TOO much spare his trump cards! But there is such
a thing as excess on that side too: and perhaps it is even the more
ruinous kind,--and is certainly the more despised by good judges,
though the multitude of bad may notice it less. Daun is unwearied in
his vigilantes, in his infinite cartings of provision for himself
and Soltikof,--long chains of Magazines, big and little, at Guben,
at Gorlitz, at Bautzen, Zittau, Friedland; and does, aided by French
Montalembert, all that man can to keep those dear stupid Russians in
tune.

Daun's problem of carting provisions, and guarding his multifarious
posts, and sources of meal and defence, is not without its difficulties.
Especially with a Prince Henri opposite; who has a superlative
manoeuvring talent of his own, and an industry not inferior to Daun's
in that way. Accordingly, ever since August 11th-13