band into such a mass of enemies seemed to be ter to his friend baron Suhm, dated June 6, the extreme of recklessness. On the 30th of August Frederick commenced his march from Dresden. Great caution was requisite, and great military skill, in so bold an adventure. On the 13th of September he reached Erfurt. The prince of Soubise, aware of the prowess of his antagonist, retired to the hills and intrenched himself, waiting until he could accumulate forces which would render victory certain. Frederick had now with him his second brother, Henry, who seems to have very fully secured his confidence. On the 16th of September the king wrote: 1736, had expressed the belief that, while the "My brother Henry has gone to see the duchess of Gotha to-day. I am so oppressed with grief that I would rather keep my sadness to myself. I have reason to congratulate my-immortal." self much on account of my brother Henry. He has behaved like an angel, as a soldier, and well toward me as a brother. I can not, unfortunately, say the same of the elder. He sulks at me, and has sulkily retired to Torgau, from which place he has gone to Wittenberg. I shall leave him to his caprices and to his bad conduct; and I prophesy nothing for the future unless the younger guide him." Now, however, Frederick, in that downward path through which the rejecters of Christianity invariably descend, had reached the point at which he renounced all belief in the immortality of the soul and in the existence of God. In a poetic epistle, addressed to marshal Keith, he declares himself a materialist, and affirms his unwavering conviction that the soul, which he says is but the result of the bodily organizaIn these hours of trouble the noble Wil- tion, perishes with that body. He declares helmina was as true to her brother as the mag-suicide to be the only remedy for man in his net to the pole. She was appalled by no dan-hour of extremity. gers, and roused all her energies to aid that brother struggling, with the world arrayed against him. The king appreciated his sister's love. In a poetic epistle, addressed to her, composed in these hours of adversity, he wrote: "O sweet and dear hope of my remaining days; O sister whose friendship, so fertile in resources, shares all my sorrows, and with a helpful arm assists me in the gulf! It is in vain that the destinies have overwhelmed me with disasters. If the crowd of kings have sworn my ruin, if the earth have opened to swallow me, you still love me, noble and affectionate sister. Loved by you, what is there of misfortune?" In conclusion he gives utterance to that gloomy creed of infidelity and atheism which he had adopted instead of the Christian faith. "Thus destiny with a deluge of torments fills the poisoned remnants of my days. The present is hideous to me, the future unknown. Do you say that I am the creature of a beneficent being? I see that all men are the sport of destiny. And if there do exist some gloomy and inexorable being who allows a despised herd of creatures to go on multiplying here, he values them as nothing. He looks down on our virtues, our misdeeds, on the horrors of war, and on all the cruel plagues which ravage earth, as a thing indifferent to him. Wherefore my sole refuge and only haven, loved sister, is in the arms of death." Twenty years before this Frederick, in a let 1 "Ainsi mon seul asile en mon unique port Wilhelmina, in her distress, in view of the peril of her brother, wrote to Voltaire, hoping that he might be persuaded to exert an influence in his favor. "The king, my brother," she wrote, "supports his misfortunes with a courage and a firmness worthy of him. I am in a frightful state, and will not survive the destruction of my house and family. That is the one consolation that remains to me. I can not write farther of it. My soul is so troubled that I know not what I am doing. To me there remains nothing but to follow his destiny if it is unfortunate. I have never piqued myself on being a philosopher, though I have made many efforts to become so. The small progress I made did teach me to despise grandeur and riches. But I could never find in philosophy any cure for the wounds of the heart, except that of getting done with our miseries by ceasing to live. The state I am in is worse than death. I see the greatest man of his age, my brother, my friend, reduced to the most frightful extremity. I see my whole family exposed to dangers and, perhaps, destruction. Would to Heaven I were alone loaded with all the miseries I have described to you." Five days after this letter was written to Voltaire by Wilhelmina, from Baireuth, Frederick, on the 17th of September, 1757, wrote his sister from near Erfurt. This letter, somewhat abbreviated, was as follows: "MY DEAREST SISTER,-I find no other consolation but in your precious letters. May Heav 1 Correspondance Familière et Amicale, tome i. p. 31. en' reward so much virtue and such heroic senti- | and not to survive the ruin of the family. Such ments! Since I wrote you last my misfortunes have but gone on accumulating. It seems as though destiny would discharge all its wrath and fury upon the poor country which I had to rule over. I have advanced this way to fall upon a corps of the allied army, which has run off and intrenched itself among hills, whither to follow, still more to attack them, all rules of war forbid. The moment I retire toward Saxony this whole swarm will be upon my heels. Happen what may, I am determined, at all risks, to fall upon whatever corps of the enemy approaches me nearest. I shall even bless Heaven for its mercy, if it grant me the favor to die sword in hand. "Should this hope fail me, you will allow that it would be too hard to crawl at the feet of a company of traitors to whom successful crimes have given the advantage to prescribe the law to me. If I had followed my own inclinations I should have put an end to myself 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. But no sooner had I hastened this way to face new enemies than Winterfield 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. As for you, my incomparable sister, I have not the heart to turn you from your resolves. We think alike, and I can not condemn in you the sentiments which I daily entertain. Life has been given us as a benefit. When it ceases to be such! I have nobody left in this world to attach me to it but you. My friends, the relations I loved most, are in the grave. In short, I have lost every thing. If you take the resolution which I have taken, we end together our misfortunes and our unhappiness. was the support which the king, in hours of adversity, found in that philosophy for which he had discarded the religion of Jesus Christ. On the 15th of September, two days before Frederick had written the despairing letter we have just given, Wilhelmina wrote again to him, in response to previous letters, and to his poetic epistle. "MY DEAREST BROTHER,-Your letter and the one you wrote to Voltaire have nearly killed me. What fatal resolutions, great God! Ah, my dear brother, you say you love me, and you drive a dagger into my heart. Your epistle, which I did receive, made me shed rivers of tears. I am now ashamed of such weakness. My misfortune would be so great that I should find worthier resources than tears. Your lot shall be mine. I shall not survive your misfortunes, or those of the house I belong to. You may calculate that such is my firm resolution. "But, after this avowal, allow me to entreat you to look back at what was the pitiable state of your enemy when you lay before Prague. It is the sudden whirl of fortune for both parties. The like can occur again when one is the least expecting it. Cæsar was the slave of pirates, and yet he became master of the world. A great genius like yours finds resources even when all is lost. "I suffer a thousand times more than I can tell you. Nevertheless, hope does not abandon me. I am obliged to finish. But I shall never cease to be, with the most profound respect, your WILHELMINA." On the 11th of October an express courier reached Frederick's camp with the alarming intelligence that an Austrian division of fifteen thousand men was on the march for Berlin. The city was but poorly fortified, and held a garrison of but four thousand troops. Frederick had no doubt that the Austrian army was acting in co-operation with other forces of the allies, advancing upon his metropolis from the east, his available troops and commenced a rapid march for the protection of his capital. In the mean time Wilhelmina had heard of this new peril. A rumor also had reached her that there had been a battle, and that her brother was wounded. The following letter reveals the anguish of her heart: "But it is time to end this long, dreary letter. I have had some leisure, and have used it to open to you a heart filled with admiration and gratitude toward you. Yes, my adorable sis-north, and west. Immediately he collected all ter, if Providence troubled itself about human affairs, you ought to be the happiest person in the universe. Your not being such confirms me in the sentiments expressed in my epistle." In his "epistle" Frederick had expressed the opinion that there was no God who took any interest in human affairs. He had also repeatedly expressed the resolve to Wilhelmina, and to Voltaire, to whom he had become partially reconciled, that he was prepared to commit suicide should events prove as disastrous as he had every reason to expect they would prove. He had also urged his sister to follow his example, "BAIREUTH, October 15, 1757. "MY DEAREST BROTHER,-Death and a thousand torments could not equal the frightful state I am in. There run reports that make me shudder. Some say that you are wounded, others that you are dangerously ill. In vain have I tormented myself to have news of you. I can get none. Oh, my dear brother, come what If I am to continue in this frightful uncertainty, I can not 1 "Heaven!" This was probably a slip of the pen. Frederick would have been perplexed to explain who or what he meant by "Heaven." It would, however, subsequently appear that he used the word as synony-may, I will not survive you. mous with fate or destiny. stand it. In the name of God, bid some one | General Soubise, though in command of a force write to me. It turned out that the rumor of the march upon Berlin was greatly exaggerated. General Haddick, with an Austrian force of but four thousand men, by a sudden rush through the woods, seized the suburbs of Berlin. The terrified garrison, supposing that an overwhelming force of the allied army was upon them, retreated, with the royal family and effects, to Spandau. General Haddick, having extorted a ransom of about one hundred and forty thousand dollars from the city, and "two dozen pair of gloves for the empress queen," and learning that a division of Frederick's army was fast approaching, fled precipitately. Hearing of this result, the king arrested his steps at Torgau and returned to Leipsic. The Berliners asserted that "the two dozen pair of gloves were all gloves for the left hand." outnumbering that of the Prussians nearly three to one, retreated rapidly to the west before Frederick, and crossed the river Saale. Frederick followed, and effected the passage of the stream with but little opposition. After some manoeuvring the hostile forces met upon a wide, dreary, undulating plain, with here and there a hillock, in the vicinity of Rossbach. Frederick had twenty thousand men. The French general, prince Soubise, had sixty thousand. The allies now felt sure of their prey. Their plan was to surround Frederick, destroy his army, and take him a prisoner. On the morning of the 5th of November the two hostile armies were nearly facing each other, a few miles west of the river Saale. A party of Austrians was sent by the general of the allies to destroy the bridges upon the river, in the rear of the Prussians, that their retreat might be cut off. Frederick, from a house-top, eagerly watched the movement of his foes. To his surprise and great satisfaction he soon saw the whole allied army commencing a circuitous march around his left to fall upon him in his rear. Instantly, and "like a change of scene in the opera," the Prussians were on the rapid march to the east, in as perfect order as if on parade. Taking advantage of an eminence, called James Hill, which concealed their movements from the allies, Frederick hurled his whole concenFrederick reached Leipsic on the 26th of Oc-trated force upon the flank of the van of the tober. The allied forces were rapidly concen- army on the advance. He thus greatly outtrating in overwhelming numbers around him. numbered his foes at the point of attack. The On the 30th the king marched to the vicinity enemy, taken by surprise, in their long line of of Lutzen, where he encamped for the night. I march, had no time to form. "Compact as a wall and with an incredible | the battle the king wrote as follows to Wilhelvelocity, Seidlitz, in the blaze of rapid steel, is mina. His letter was dated, "Near Weissenin upon them." From the first it was manifest fels." that the destruction of the advance guard was certain. The Prussian cavalry slashed through it again and again, throwing it into inextricable disorder. In less than half an hour this important portion of the allied troops was put to utter rout, " tumbling off the ground, plunging down hill in full flight, across its own infantry, or whatever obstacle, Seidlitz on the hips of it, and galloping madly over the horizon." And now the Prussian artillery, eighteen heavy guns, opened a rapid and murderous fire upon the disordered mass, struggling in vain to deploy in line of battle. Infantry, artillery, cavalry, all were at work, straining every nerve, one mighty mind controlling and guiding the terrible mechanism in its death-dealing blows. The French regiments were jammed together. The Prussians, at forty paces, opened a platoon fire of musketry, five shots a minute. At the same moment the impetuous Seidlitz, with his triumphant and resistless dragoons, plunged upon the rear. The centre of the allied army was thus annihilated. It was no longer a battle, but a rout and a massacre. In twenty minutes this second astonishing feat was accomplished.. "At last, my dear sister, I can announce you a bit of good news. You were doubtless aware that the Coopers with their circles had a mind to take Leipsic. I ran up and drove them beyond Saale. They called themselves 63,000 strong. Yesterday I went to reconnoitre them; could not attack them in the post they held. This rendered them rash. Today they came out to attack me. It was a battle after one's own heart. Thanks to God,' I have not one hundred men killed. My brother Henry and general Seidlitz have slight hurts. We have all the enemy's cannon. I am in full march to drive them over the Unstrut. You, my dear sister, my good, my divine, my affectionate sister, who deign to interest yourself in the fate of a brother who adores you, deign also to share my joy. The instant I have time I will tell you more. I embrace you with my whole heart. Adieu. F." Voltaire, speaking of this conflict, says, "It was the most inconceivable and complete rout and discomfiture of which history makes any mention. Thirty thousand French and twenty thousand imperial troops were there seen making a disgraceful and precipitate flight before five battalions and a few squadrons. The defeats of Agincourt, Cressy, and Poitiers were not so humiliating." The whole allied army was now put wildly to flight, in one of the most humiliating and disastrous retreats which has ever occurred. There is generally some slight diversity of statement in reference to the numbers engaged on such occasions. Frederick gives sixty-three thousand as the allied force. The allies lost, in killed, wounded, and missing, about ten thousand men. The loss of the Prussians was but five hundred. The French, in a tumultuous mass, fled to the west. Crossing the Unstrut River at Freiburg, they burned the bridge behind them. The Prussians rebuilt the bridge and vigorously pursued. The evening after As usual, Frederick wrote a poem upon the occasion. It was vulgar and profane. Carlyle (Frederick, vol. v. p. 168) says of it, "The author, with a wild burst of spiritual enthusiasm, sings the charms of the rearward part of certain men. He rises to the height of anti-biblical profanity, quoting Moses on the Hill of Vision; sinks to the bottomless of human or ultra-hu 1 The atheistic pen of Frederick will sometimes slip. 2 Memoires pour Servir à la Vie de M. De Voltaire. man depravity, quoting king Nicomedes's expe- | pigeons. They carried off all swine, cows, rience on Cæsar, happily known only to the sheep, and horses. They laid violent hands learned. A most cynical, profane affair; yet on the inhabitants, clapped swords, guns, and we must say, by way of parenthesis, one which pistols to their breasts, threatening to kill them gives no countenance to Voltaire's atrocities of unless they brought out whatever goods they rumor about Frederick himself in the matter." had; or hunted them out of their houses, shootThe routed allies, exasperated and starving, ing at them, cutting, sticking, and at last drivand hating the Protestant inhabitants of the ing them away, thereby to have freer room to region through which they retreated, robbed | rob and plunder. They flung out hay and othand maltreated them without mercy. The er harvest stock into the mud, and had it tramwoes which the defenseless inhabitants endured pled to ruin under the horses' feet." from the routed army in its flight no pen can adequately describe. An eye-witness writes, from near Weissenfels, in a report to the king of Poland, whose allies the French were, and whose territories they were ravaging: "The French army so handled this place as not only to take from its inhabitants, by open force, all bread and articles of food, but likewise all clothes, bed linens, and other portable goods. They also broke open, split to pieces, and emptied out all chests, boxes, presses, drawers; shot dead in the back-yards and on the roofs all manner of feathered stock, as hens, geese, "For a hundred miles around," writes St. Germain, "the country is plundered and harried as if fire from heaven had fallen on it. Scarcely have our plunderers and marauders left the houses standing.' This signal achievement raised the military fame of Frederick higher than ever before. Still it did not perceptibly diminish the enormous difficulties with which he was environed. Army after army was marching upon him. Even by a series of successful battles his forces might be annihilated. But the renown of the great victory of Rossbach will ever reverberate through the halls of history. M THE ROCK OF THE LEGION OF HONOR. BY BERTHOLD AUERBACH, AUTHOR OF "ON THE HEIGHTS,” ETO. CHAPTER IX. A TRANQUIL SPOT. looking out upon the landscape. She paid no regard to the looks of which she was the object, or to the casual observations which she happened to overhear. Some took her for a widow just out of mourning, and others for the young, newly married wife of the old gentleman who accompanied her. ONTHS have gone by. The steamboat stops at Fluelen, on the Lake of the Four Cantons, and from a carriage, whose arrival from Italy was unmistakable, Herr Merz and his daughter alighted, both looking sun-burnt and Her father had come across a former depruddy. A large quantity of luggage was car-uty, a member of the same political party, who ried on board the boat, and the Italian coachman thanked the gentleman and the lady with great fluency. And after the boat had shoved off he bade them good-by, accompanying his words with the most lively southern gesticulations. had joked Louise on not having fulfilled his expectation that she would get married. Herr Merz was now standing with the man on the other side of the boat, and they were engaged principally in talking over public affairs; they were neither of them in active life, but they On board the steamboat there was a promis- still retained a lively interest in political matcuous company speaking a great variety of lan- ters. Herr Merz's old acquaintance informed guages; but one common sentiment animated him that the daughter who had been betrothed the minds of all, as they gazed upon the grand during that first winter at the capital had now scenery and the cottages on the shores amidst three children, and that he was to meet the the steep cliffs. Each one received the im- next day in Lucerne his youngest married pression according to his own particular mood daughter, who had been on a wedding trip to and state, and the conversation was pitched Italy. He had five daughters who were all upon that peculiar key which is usual among married-the youngest to a manufacturer and people when music is playing. As then they the others to army and government officers. listen to the melody without being conscious He was lavish of his praise of the present genthat they are listening, so now a great variety eration of young men, differing in this from of subjects was talked of; but there was all many in our day; he said that they were less the time this accompanying feeling of the mag-romantic than we old men had been, more reanificent natural scenery around them, pervad-sonable and energetic. He made cautious ing all their converse, and often producing a but unevasible inquiries, how it had happened sudden silence. that Louise was still single. Not far from the helmsman Louise sat alone, Herr Merz could not but declare that this |