but
Infantry for the most part); and after fierce fight, done with good
talent on both sides, cuts it into utter ruin, as proposed. Thereby
he has left the Swedish Army as a mere head and tail WITHOUT body; has
entirely demolished the Swedish Army. [Stenzel, ii. 350-357.] Same feat
intrinsically as that done by Cromwell, on Hamilton and the Scots, in
1648. It was, so to speak, the last visit Sweden paid to Brandenburg, or
the last of any consequence; and ended the domination of the Swedes
in those quarters. A thing justly to be forever remembered by
Brandenburg;--on a smallish modern scale, the Bannockburn, Sempach,
Marathon, of Brandenburg. [See Pauli, v. 161-169; Stenzel, ii. 335,
340-347, 354; Kausler, _Atlas des plus memorables Batailles, Combats
et Sieges,_ or _Atlas der merkwurdigsten Schlachten, Treffen und
Belagerungen_ (German and French, Carlsruhe and Freiburg, 1831), p. 417,
Blatt 62.]

Exploit Second was four years later; in some sort a corollary to
this; and a winding-up of the Swedish business. The Swedes, in farther
prosecution of their Louis-Fourteenth speculation, had invaded Preussen
this time, and were doing sad havoc there. It was in the dead of winter,
Christmas, 1678, more than four hundred miles off; and the Swedes, to
say nothing of their other havoc, were in a case to take Konigsberg, and
ruin Prussia altogether, if not prevented. Friedrich Wilhelm starts
from Berlin, with the opening Year, on his long march; the Horse-troops
first, Foot to follow at their swiftest; he himself (his Wife, his
ever-true "Louisa," accompanying, as her wont was) travels, towards the
end, at the rate of "sixty miles a day." He gets in still in time, finds
Konigsberg unscathed. Nay it is even said, the Swedes are extensively
falling sick; having, after a long famine, found infinite "pigs, near
Insterburg," in those remote regions, and indulged in the fresh pork
overmuch.

I will not describe the subsequent manoeuvres, which would interest
nobody: enough if I say that on the 16th of January, 1679, it had become
of the highest moment for Friedrich Wilhelm to get from Carwe (Village
near Elbing) on the shore of the FRISCHE HAF, where he was, through
Konigsberg, to Gilge on the CURISCHE HAF, where the Swedes are,--in a
minimum of time. Distance, as the crow flies, is about a hundred
miles; road, which skirts the two HAFS [Pauli, v. 215-222; Stenzel, ii.
392-397.] (wide shallow WASHES, as we should name them), is of rou