- THREE:Go, my sister, go; Sweden waits you, Sweden wishes you. ONE: Destruction of the Army of Prince Charles.Dismay in Vienna.Testimony of Napoleon I.Of Voltaire.Wretchedness of the King.Compromise rejected.New Preparations for War.Treaty between England and Prussia.Plan of the Campaign.Siege of Olmütz.Death of Prince Augustus William.The Baggage Train.The irreparable Disaster.Anxiety of Frederick for Wilhelmina.The March against the Russians.The Battle of Zorndorf.Anecdotes of Frederick.The king, with a very complaisant smile, said, Russia, my good sirIt is not proper for me to explain myself, but I have means to keep the Russians employed. GET AWESOME FEATURE LIST
- THREE:It was there that I saw one of the most amiable men in the world, who forms the charm of society, who would be every where sought after if he were not a king; a philosopher without austerity, full of sweetness, complaisance, and obliging waysnot remembering that he is king when he meets his friends; indeed, so completely forgetting it that he made me too almost forget it, and I needed an effort of memory to recollect that I here saw, sitting at the foot of my bed, a sovereign who had an army of a hundred thousand men.In May the King of Poland returned the visit of Frederick William. He came with a numerous retinue and in great splendor. During the past year his unhappy wife had died; and he, then fifty-five years of age, was seeking to bargain for the hand of Wilhelmina, hoping, by an alliance with Prussia, to promote53 some of his political schemes. The wicked old Polish king was much broken by age and his terrible debaucheries. He had recently suffered the amputation of two toes from an ulcerated foot, which no medical skill could cure. He was brought into the palace at Berlin in a sedan, covered with red velvet embroidered with gold. Wilhelmina had no suspicion of the object of his visit, and was somewhat surprised by the intensity of his gaze and his glowing compliments. Diplomatic obstacles arose which silenced the question of the marriage before Wilhelmina knew that it had been contemplated. ONE:On the morning of the 9th of November Frederick set out for Berlin, visiting Glogau by the way. On the 11th he entered Berlin, where he was received by the whole population with enthusiastic demonstrations of joy. For a short time he probably thought that through guile he had triumphed, and that his troubles were now at an end. But such victories, under the providence of God, are always of short duration. Frederick soon found that his troubles had but just begun. He had entered295 upon a career of toil, care, and peril, from which he was to have no escape until he was ready to sink into his grave.The exigency demanded the most decisive action. Frederick promptly gathered his army, and dashed across the Moldau, resolved, with the energies of despair, to smite down the troops of Prince Charles; but no foe could be found. For four days he sought for them in vain. He then learned that the Austrian army had crossed the Moldau several miles north of him, thus cutting off his communications with Prague. GET AWESOME FEATURE LIST
- THREE:The audacious duplicity of this ambitious young king was still more conspicuously developed by his entering into a secret correspondence with the court of Austria, through certain generals in the Austrian army. And that he might the more effectually disguise his treachery from his allies, the French, he requested Lord Hyndford to write dispatches to various courts292to Presburg, to England, to Dresdencomplaining that Frederick was deaf to all proposals; that nothing could influence him to enter into terms of reconciliation with Austria. It was to be so arranged that the couriers carrying these dispatches of falsehood should be captured by the French, so that these documents should be carried to the French court. ONE:Take it down, said the king, and hang it lower, that the people may not hurt their necks in looking at it.After a long search, I at length found him in a tower of a church, with a telescope in his hand. Never had I seen him in so much perplexity and anxiety as at this moment. The order he gave me was, You must get out of this scrape as well as you can. I had hardly got back to my post when his adjutant337 followed me with a new order to cross the town, and to remain on horseback with my squadron in the opposite suburb. GET AWESOME FEATURE LIST
THREE:The Crown Prince, with what degree of sincerity we know not, was now in tears. Prostrating himself before his majesty, he kissed his feet. The king, much moved, was in tears also, and retired to another room.
THREE:Certainly, replied the king, in his most courteous tones; and if he had not come, how could I have paid back the M?hren business of last year?
THREE:
