Much is coming up the Elbe; indispensable Highway for this
Enterprise. Three months' provisions, endless artillery and
provender, is on the Elbe; 480 big boats, with immense VORSPANN (of
trace-horses, dreadful swearing, too, as I have heard), will pass
through the middle of Dresden: not landing by any means. "No, be
assured of it, ye Dresdeners, all flurried, palisaded, barricaded;
no hair of you shall be harmed." After a day or two, the flurry of
Saxony subsided; Prussians, under strict discipline, molest no
private person; pay their way; keep well aloof, to south and to
north, of Dresden (all but the necessary ammunition-escorts do);--
and require of the Official people nothing but what the Law of the
Reich authorizes to "Imperial Auxiliaries" in such case.
"The Saxons themselves," Friedrich observes, "had some 40,000, but
scattered about; King in Warsaw:--dreadful terror; making COUPURES
and TETES-DE-PONT;--could have made no defence." Had we diligently
spent eight days on them! reflects he afterwards. "To seize Saxony
[and hobble it with ropes, so that at any time you could pin it
motionless, and even, if need were, milk the substance out of it],
would not have detained us eight days." [ OEuvres de
Frederic, iii. 53.] Which would have been the true
plan, had we known what was getting ready there! Certain it is,
Friedrich did no mischief, paid for everything; anxious to keep
well with Saxony; hoping always they might join him again, in such
a Cause. "Cause dear to every Patriot German Prince," urges
Friedrich,--though Bruhl, and the Polish, once "Moravian," Majesty
are of a very different opinion:--

"Maria Theresa, her thoughts at hearing of it may be imagined:
'The Evil Genius of my House afoot again! My high projects on
Elsass and Lorraine; Husband for Kaiser, Elsass for the Reich and