towards the Metal Mountains securing posts, gathering magazines,
for the crossing into Saxony there. There, it is thought, the tug
of war will probably be. Furious, and strenuous, it is not doubted,
on this Friedrich's part: but against such odds, what can he do?
With Austrians in front, with Russians to left, with French to
right and arear, not to mention Swedes and appendages: surely here,
if ever, is a lost King!--

It is by no means Friedrich's intention that Saxony itself shall
need to be invaded. Friedrich's habit is, as his enemies might by
this time be beginning to learn, not that of standing on the
defensive, but that of GOING on it, as the preferable method
wherever possible. March 24th, Friedrich had quitted Dresden City;
and for a month after (head-quarters Lockwitz, edge of the Pirna
Country), he had been shifting, redistributing, his cantoned Army,
--privately into the due Divisions, due readiness for march.
Which done, on fixed days, about the end of April, the whole Army,
he himself from Lockwitz, April 20th,--to the surprise of Austria
and the world, Friedrich in three grand Columns, Bevern out of the
Lausitz, King himself over the Metal Mountains, Schwerin out of
Schlesien, is marching with extraordinary rapidity direct for Prag;
in the notion that a right plunge into the heart of Bohemia will be
the best defence for Saxony and the other places under menace.

This is a most unexpected movement; which greatly astonishes the
world-theatre, pit, boxes and gallery alike (as Friedrich's sudden
movements often do); and which is, above all, interesting on the
stage itself, where the actors had been counting on a quite
opposite set of entries and activities! Feldmarschall Browne and
General Konigseck (not our old friend Konigseck, who used to dry-