is nonage [Son of the late poor Kaiser, and
left, shipwrecked in his seventeenth year], or rather in a sort of
subjection to his Ministers, and dull to the biddings of honor, may
give himself up as a slave to the imperious domination of the House of
Austria, and kiss the hand which oppressed his Father: I pardon it to
his youth and his ineptitude. But is that the example for me to follow?
No, dear Sister, you think too nobly to give me such mean (LACHE)
advice. Is Liberty, that precious prerogative, to be less dear to a
Sovereign in the eighteenth century than it was to Roman Patricians of
old? And where is it said, that Brutus and Cato should carry magnanimity
farther than Princes and Kings? Firmness consists in resisting
misfortune: but only cowards submit to the yoke, bear patiently their
chains, and support oppression tranquilly. Never, my dear Sister, could
I resolve upon such ignominy....

"If I had followed only my own inclinations, I should have ended it (JE
ME SERAIS DEPECHE) at once, after that unfortunate Battle which I lost.
But I felt that this would be weakness, and that it behooved me to
repair the evil which had happened. My attachment to the State awoke;
I said to myself, It is not in seasons of prosperity that it is rare to
find defenders, but in adversity. I made it a point of honor with
myself to redress all that had got out of square; in which I was not
unsuccessful; not even in the Lausitz [after those Zittau disasters]
last of all. But no sooner had I hastened this way to face new enemies,
than Winterfeld was beaten and killed near Gorlitz, than the French
entered the heart, of my States, than the Swedes blockaded Stettin.
Now there is nothing effective left for me to do: there are too many
enemies. Were I even to succeed in beating two armies, the third would
crush me. The enclosed Note [in cipher] will show you what I am still
about to try: it is the last attempt.

"The gratitude, the tender affection, which I feel towards you, that
friendship, true as the hills, constrains me to deal openly with you.
No, my divine Sister, I shall conceal nothing from you that I intend to
do; all my thoughts, all my resolutions shall be open and known to you
in time. I will precipitate nothing: but also it will be impossible for
me to change my sentiments....

"As for you, my incomparable Sister, I have not the heart to turn you
from your resolves. We think alike, and I cannot condemn in you the
sentiments wh