where Bruehl's (Saxon)
dragoons had taken up their quarters by force, they set up a new
species of dragoonade, which was directed not so much against the
living as against marble statues and the sacred treasures of art. All
the articles of splendor, brilliancy, and luxury which had been
heaped up here, every thing which the royal love of the fine arts
had collected of what was beautiful and rare, was sacrificed to their
raging love of destruction. Gilded furniture, Venetian mirrors, large
porcelain vases from Japan, were smashed to pieces. The silk tapestry
was torn from the walls in shreds, the doors inlaid with beautiful
wood-mosaic were broken up with clubs, the most masterly and costly
paintings were cut in ribbons with knives. To be sure, it sometimes
happened that the officers rescued from the soldiers some costly vase,
some rare treasure or painting, and saved it from destruction,
but this was not to save the King of Prussia's property, but to
appropriate it to themselves, and carry it home with them.

Even the art-collection of Count Polignac, embracing the most splendid
and rare treasures of art in the palace of Charlottenburg, did not
escape this mania of destruction. This collection, containing among
other things the most beautiful Greek statues, had been purchased in
Rome by Gotzkowsky, and had afforded the king peculiar gratification,
and was a source of much enjoyment to him. In the eyes of some Saxon
officers, to whom this fact was known, it was sufficient reason for
its condemnation. They themselves led the most violent and destructive
of their soldiers into the halls where these magnificent treasures
were exposed, even helped them to break the marble statues, to dash
them down from their pedestals, to hew off their heads, arms, and
legs, and even carried their systematic malice so far as to order
the soldiers to grind into powder the fragments, so as to prevent any
restoration of the statues at a subsequent period.

The unfortunate inhabitants of Charlottenburg witnessed all this
abomination that was perpetrated in the royal palace with fear and
trembling, and in order to save their own persons and property from
similar outrage, they offered the enemy a contribution of fifteen
thousand dollars. The Saxons accepted the money, but, regardless of
every obligation usually considered sacredly binding, they only became
more savage and ferocious. With yells of rage they rushed into the
houses, and, when the