was a little unwise; as you (who were on the ground, and your King
not) knew it to be. An unwise Order;--perhaps not inexcusable in
the sudden circumstances. And perhaps a still more perfect Bayard
would have preferred obeying such a King in spirit, rather than in
letter, and thereby doing him vital service AGAINST his temporary
will? It is not doubted but Fouquet, left to himself and his
13,000, with the Fortresses and Garrisons about him, would have
maintained himself in Silesia till help came. The issue is,--
Fouquet has probably lost this fine King his Silesia, for the time
being; and beyond any question, has lost him 10,000 Prussian-
Spartan fighters, and a fine General whom he could ill spare!--In a
word, the Gate of Silesia is burst open; and Loudon has every
prospect of taking Glatz, which will keep it so.

What a thunder-bolt for Friedrich! One of the last pillars struck
away from his tottering affairs. "Inevitable, then? We are over
with it, then?" One may fancy Friedrich's reflections. But he
showed nothing of them to anybody; in a few hours, had his mind
composed, and new plans on the anvil. On the morrow of that
Austrian Joy-Firing,--morrow, or some day close on it (ought to
have been dated, but is not),--there went from him, to Magdeburg,
the Order: "Have me such and such quantities of Siege-Artillery in
a state of readiness." [Tempelhof, iv. 51.] Already meaning, it is
thought, or contemplating as possible a certain Siege, which
surprised everybody before long! A most inventive, enterprising
being; no end to his contrivances and unexpected outbreaks;
especially when you have him jammed into a corner, and fancy it is
all over with him!

"To no other General," says Tempelhof, "would such a notion of