what to
do, had not

3. Soubise and Company, extremely elated with this Haddick Feat, come
out from their Hills, intent to deliver Saxony after all. So that
Friedrich has to turn back (October 26th-30th) through Leipzig again;
towards,--in fact towards ROSSBACH and NOVEMBER 5th, in his old Saale
Country, which does not prove so wearisome as formerly!

These are the cardinal dates; these let the reader recur to, if
necessary, and keep steadily in mind: it will then perhaps be possible
to intercalate, in a manner intelligible to him, what other lucent
phenomena there are; and these dismal wanderings, and miserablest two
months of Friedrich's life, will not be wholly a provoking blotch
of enigmatic darkness, but in some sort a thing with features in the
twilight of the Past.

I. FRIEDRICH'S MARCH TO ERFURT FROM DRESDEN--(31st August-13th
September, 1757).

The march to Erfurt was of twelve days, and without adventure to speak
of. Mayer and Free-Battalion had the vanguard, Friedrich there as usual;
main body, under Keith with Ferdinand and Moritz, following in several
columns: straight towards their goal; with steady despatch; for twelve
days;--weather often very wet. [Tempelhof, i. 229; Rodenbeck, i. 317
(not very correct): in Westphalen (ii. 20 &c.) a personal Diary of this
March, and of what followed on Duke Ferdinand's part.] Seidlitz, with
cavalry, had gone ahead, in search of one Turpin, a mighty hunter and
Hussar among the French, who was threatening Leipzig, threatening Halle:
but Turpin made off at sound of him, without trying fight; so that
Seidlitz had only to halt, and rejoin, hoping better luck another time.

A march altogether of the common type,--the stages of it not worth
marking except for special readers;--and of memorable to us offers only
this, if even this: at Rotha, in Leipzig Country, the eighth stage from
Dresden, Friedrich writes, willing to try for Peace if it be possible,

TO THE MARECHAL DUC DE RICHELIEU.

"ROTHA, 7th September, 1757.

"I feel, M. le Duc, that you have not been put in the post where you are
for the purpose of Negotiating. I am persuaded, however, that the Nephew
of the great Cardinal Richelieu is made for signing treaties no less
than for gaining battles. I address myself to you from an effect of the
esteem with which you inspire even those who do not intimately know you.

"'T is a small matter, Monsieur (IL S'AGIT D'UNE BAGATELLE): only to
make Peace, if peop