BOOK I.




CHAPTER I.

THE FESTIVAL.


The sufferings of the long war still continued; still stood Frederick
the Great with his army in the field; the tremendous struggle between
Prussia and Austria was yet undecided, and Silesia was still the apple
of discord for which Maria Theresa and Frederick II. had been striving
for years, and for which, in so many battles, the blood of German
brothers had been spilt.

Everywhere joy seemed extinguished; the light jest was hushed; each
one looked silently into the future, and none could tell in whose
favor this great contest would finally be decided, whether Austria or
Prussia would be victorious.

The year 1760, the fifth of the war, was particularly sad for Prussia;
it was marked in the history of Germany with tears and blood. Even
Berlin which, up to that time, had suffered but little from the
unhappy calamities of war, assumed now an earnest, mournful aspect,
and it seemed as if the bright humor and sarcastic wit which had
always characterized the inhabitants of this good city had now