put
matters in something of Chronological or Synoptical form, will suffice
him, or more than suffice. He is to understand that the grand tug of
War, this Year, gradually turns out not to be hereabouts, nor with Daun
and his adjacencies at all, but with the Russians, who arrive from the
opposite Northern quarter; and that all else will prove to be merely
prefatory and nugatory in comparison.

JANUARY 2d, 1759: FRANKFURT-ON-MAYN, THOUGH IT IS A REICHSTADT, FINDS
ITSELF SUDDENLY BECOME FRENCH. "Prince de Soubise lies between Mayn and
Lahn, with his 25,000; beautifully safe and convenient,--though ill off
for a place-of-arms in those parts. Opulent Frankfurt, on his right; how
handy would that be, were not Reichs Law so express! Marburg, Giessen
are outposts of his; on which side one of Ferdinand's people, Prince von
Ysenburg, watches him with an 8 or 10,000, capable of mischief in that
quarter.

"On the Eve of New-year's day, or on the auspicious Day itself, Soubise
requests, of the Frankfurt Authorities, permission for a regiment of his
to march through that Imperial City. To which, by law and theory, the
Imperial City can say Yes or No; but practically cannot, without grave
inconvenience, say other than Yes, though most Frankfurters wish it
could. 'Yes,' answer the Frankfurt Magnates; Yes surely, under the known
conditions. Tuesday, January 2d, about 5 in the morning, while all is
still dark in Frankfurt, regiment Nassau appears, accordingly, at the
Sachsenhausen Gate, Town-guard people all ready to receive it and escort
it through; and is admitted as usual. Quite as usual: but instead
of being escorted through, it orders, in calm peremptory voice, the
Town-guard, To ground arms; with calm rapidity proceeds to admit ten
other regiments or battalions, six of them German; seizes the artillery
on the Walls, seizes all the other Gates:--and poor Frankfurt finds
itself tied hand and foot, almost before it is out of bed! Done with
great exactitude, with the minimum of confusion, and without a hurt skin
to anybody. The Inhabitants stood silent, gazing; the Town-guard laid
down their arms, and went home. Totally against Law; but cleverly done;
perhaps Soubise's chief exploit in the world; certainly the one real
success the French have yet had.

"Soubise made haste to summon the Magistrates: 'Law of Necessity alone,
most honored Sirs! Reichs Law is clear against me. But all the more
shall private liberties, religions, properti