FORE: Commencement of the Sixth Campaign.The Fortified Camp at Bunzelwitz.Skillful Engineering.Unintermitted Toil of the Soldiers.Retreat of the Russians.Loss of Schweidnitz.Peculiar Treatment of General Zastrow.Close of the Sixth Campaign.The King at Breslau.Desponding Letter to DArgens.Death of Elizabeth of Russia.Accession of Peter III.His Marriage with the Daughter of a Prussian General.Takes the Baptismal Name of Catharine.Assassination of Peter III.Curious Proclamation by the Empress.Commencement of the Seventh Campaign.Alliance of Russia with Prussia.Withdrawal from the Alliance.Termination of the War.But behold the caprice of Fortune. After a hundred preferences of my rivals, she smiles upon me, and packs off the hero of the hat and sword, whom the pope had blessed, and who had gone on pilgrimages. He skulks out of Saxony, panting like a dog whom the cook has flogged out of the kitchen.
FORE:I added that my niece had burned his ode from fear that it should be imputed to me. He believed me and thanked me; not, however, without some reproaches for having burned the best verses he had ever made.128Würben, in the centre, is like a citadel looking down upon Striegau Water. Heavy cannon, plenty of them, we have brought from Schweidnitz. We have four hundred and eighty cannon in all, and one hundred and eighty-two mines. Würben, our citadel and centre, is about five miles from Schweidnitz. Before our lines are palisades and chevaux-de-frise. Woods we have in abundance in our circuit, and axes for carpentries of that kind. There are four intrenched knolls; twenty-four big batteries capable of playing beautifully, all like pieces in a concert.168
FORE:But the assailants were already so near the walls that the shot passed harmlessly over their heads. Without firing a gun or uttering a sound, these well-drilled soldiers of Frederick William hewed down the palisades, tore out the chevaux-de-frise, and clambered over the glacis. With axe and petard they burst open the gates and surged into the city.FREDERICK IN THE GARDEN.
THREE:
THREE:The next morning, at an early hour, he again dashed off to the east, toward Glatz, a hundred miles distant, where a portion of the Prussian troops were in cantonments, under the young Prince Leopold. Within a week he had ridden over seven hundred miles, commencing his journey every morning as early as four oclock, and doing a vast amount of business by the way.
