RAISONNE SUR LA CONDUITE DES COURS DE VIENNE ET DE SAXE (compiled
from the MENZEL ORIGINALS, so soon as these were got hold of:
Berlin, Autumn, 1756). A solid and able Paper; rapidly done, by one
Count Herzberg, who rose high in after times. Reprinted, with many
other "Pieces" and "Passages," in Gesammelte Nachrichten
und Urkunden, --which is a "Collection" of such
(2 vols., 113 Nos. small 8vo, no Place, 1757, my Copy of it).]--are
by no means a luminous set of Documents to readers at this day.
Think what a study they were at Potsdam in 1753, while still in the
chaotic state; fished out, more or less at random, as Menzel could
lay hold of them, or be directed to them; the enigma clearing
itself only by intense inspection, and capability of seeing in
the dark!

It appears,--if you are curious on the anecdotic part,--

"Winterfeld was the first that got eye on this dangerous Saxon
Mystery; some Ex-Saxon, about to settle in Berlin, giving hint of
it to Winterfeld; who needed only a hint. So soon as Winterfeld
convinced himself that there was weight in the affair, he imparted
it to Friedrich: 'Scheme of partitioning, your Majesty, of picking
quarrel, then overwhelming and partitioning; most serious scheme,
Austrian-Russian as well as Saxon; going on steadily for years
past, and very lively at this time!' If true, Friedrich cannot but
admit that this is serious enough: important, thrice over, to
discover whether it is true;--and gives Winterfeld authority to
prosecute it to the bottom, in Dresden or wherever the secret may
lie. Who thereupon charged Mahlzahn, the Prussian Minister at
Dresden, to find some proper Menzel, and bestir himself.
How Mahlzahn has found his Menzel, and has bestirred himself, we