The tidings of the death of the king’s mother reached him on the 2d of July, 1757. Sir Andrew Mitchell, the English embassador in Berlin, gives the following account of an interview he had with Frederick on that occasion:
“Yesterday, July 3d, the king sent for me, in the afternoon, the first time he has seen any body since the news came. I had the honor to remain with him in his closet. I must own I was most sensibly affected4 to see him indulging his grief, and giving way to the warmest filial affections; recalling to mind the many obligations he had to her late majesty5; all she had suffered, and how nobly she had borne it; the good she did to every body;419 the one comfort he now had, that he tried to make her last years more agreeable.”
SOPHIA DOROTHEA.
On the 1st of July, the day before the king heard of his mother’s death, he wrote to Wilhelmina, in reply to a letter from her which expressed great anxiety on his account:
“Dear sister, fear nothing on my score. Men are always in the hand of what we call destiny. Accidents will befall people walking on the streets, sitting in their room, lying on their bed; and there are many who escape the perils6 of war.”
Again, on the 5th of July, he wrote: “I write to apprise8 you, my dear sister, of the new grief that overwhelms us. We have no longer a mother. This loss puts the crown on my sorrows. I am obliged to act, and have not time to give free course to my tears. Judge, I pray you, of the situation of a feeling heart put to so severe a trial. All losses in the world are capable of being remedied, but those which death causes are beyond the reach of hope.”
On the 7th of July he wrote again to Wilhelmina. The letter420 reveals the anxiety of his heart, and his earnest desire to escape, if possible, from his embarrassments9. Wilhelmina had written, offering her services to endeavor to secure peace. The king replied:
“You are too good. I am ashamed to abuse your indulgence. But do, since you are willing, try and sound the French, and learn what conditions of peace they would demand. Send that Mirabeau103 to France. Willingly will I pay the expense. He may offer as much as five million thalers [$3,750,000] to the Favorite104 for peace alone.”
Soon after this, Frederick again wrote to his sister a letter which throws so much light upon his character that we give it almost entire:
“Leitmeritz, July 13, 1757.
“My dear Sister,—Your letter has arrived. I see in it your regrets for the irreparable loss we have had of the best and worthiest10 mother in this world. I am so overwhelmed by these blows from within and without that I feel myself in a sort of stupefaction.
“The French have seized upon Friesland, and are about to pass the Weser. They have instigated11 the Swedes to declare war against me. The Swedes are sending seventeen thousand men into Pomerania. The Russians are besieging12 Memel. General Schwald has them on his front and in his rear. The troops of the empire are also about to march. All this will force me to evacuate13 Bohemia so soon as that crowd of enemies gets into motion.
“I am firmly resolved on the utmost efforts to save my country. Happy the moment when I took to training myself in philosophy. There is nothing else that can sustain a soul in a situation like mine. I spread out to you, my dear sister, the detail of my sorrows. If these things regarded myself only, I could stand it with composure. But I am the bound guardian14 of the happiness of a people which has been put under my charge. There lies the sting of it. And I shall have to reproach myself with every fault if, by delay or by overhaste, I occasion the smallest accident.
“I am in the condition of a traveler who sees himself surrounded421 and ready to be assassinated15 by a troop of cut-throats, who intend to share his spoils. Since the league of Cambrai105 there is no example of such a conspiracy16 as that infamous17 triumvirate, Austria, France, Russia, now forms against me. Was it ever before seen that three great princes laid plot in concert to destroy a fourth who had done nothing against them? I have not had the least quarrel either with France or with Russia, still less with Sweden.
“Happy, my dear sister, is the obscure man whose good sense, from youth upward, has renounced18 all sorts of glory; who, in his safe and humble19 place, has none to envy him, and whose fortune does not excite the cupidity20 of scoundrels. But these reflections are vain. We have to be what our birth, which decides, has made us in entering upon this world.
“I beg a thousand pardons, my dear sister. In these three long pages I talk to you of nothing but my troubles and affairs. A strange abuse it would be of any other person’s friendship. But yours, my dear sister, is known to me; and I am persuaded that you are not impatient when I open to you my heart—a heart which is yours altogether, being filled with sentiments of the tenderest esteem21, with which I am, my dearest sister, your
“Frederick.”
At this time the whole disposable force of his Prussian majesty did not exceed eighty thousand men. There were marching against him combined armies of not less, in the aggregate22, than four hundred thousand. A part of the Prussian army, about thirty thousand strong, under the king’s eldest23 brother, Augustus William, Prince of Prussia, was sent north, especially to protect Zittau, a very fine town of about ten thousand inhabitants, where Frederick had gathered his chief magazines. Prince Charles, with seventy thousand Austrians, pursued this division. He outgeneraled the Prince of Prussia, drove him into wild country roads, took many prisoners, captured important fortresses24, and, opening a fire of red-hot shot upon Zittau, laid the whole place, with its magazines, in ashes. The Prince of422 Prussia, who witnessed the conflagration25 which he could not prevent, retreated precipitately26 toward Lobau, and thence to Bautzen, with his army in a deplorable condition of exhaustion28 and destitution29.
Here Frederick, with the remainder of the army from Leitmeritz, joined his brother, against whom he was greatly incensed30, attributing the disasters he had encountered to his incapacity. At four o’clock of the 30th of July the king met the Prince of Prussia and the other generals of the discomfited31 army. Both parties approached the designated spot on horseback. The king, who was accompanied by his suite32, upon his arrival within about two hundred feet of the place where his brother, with his officers, was awaiting him, without saluting33 the prince or recognizing him in the slightest degree, dismounted, and threw himself in a reclining posture34 upon the greensward. General Goltz was then sent with the following message to the prince:
“His majesty commands me to inform your royal highness that he has cause to be greatly discontented with you; that you deserve to have a court-martial held over you, which would sentence you and all your generals to death; but that his majesty will not carry the matter so far, being unable to forget that in the chief general he has a brother.”
Augustus William, overwhelmed by his disgrace, and yet angered by the rebuke35, coldly replied that he desired only that a court-martial should investigate the case and pronounce judgment36. The king forbade that any intercourse37 whatever should take place between his own troops, soldiers, or officers, and those of his brother, who, he declared, had utterly38 degraded themselves by the loss of all courage and ambition. The prince sent to the king General Schultz to obtain the countersign39 for the army. Frederick refused to receive him, saying “that he had no countersign to send to cowards.” Augustus William then went himself to present his official report and a list of his troops. Frederick took the papers without saying a word, and then turned his back upon his brother. This cruel treatment fell with crushing force upon the unhappy prince. Conscious of military failure, disgraced in the eyes of his generals and soldiers, and abandoned by the king, his health and spirits alike failed him. The next morning he wrote a sad, respectfully reproachful letter to423 Frederick, stating that his health rendered it necessary for him to retire for a season from the army to recruit. The reply of the king, which was dated Bautzen, July 30, 1757, shows how desperate he, at that time, considered the state of his affairs. Hopeless of victory, he seems to have sought only death.
“My dear Brother,—Your bad conduct has greatly injured my affairs. It is not the enemy, but your ill-concerted measures, which have done me this harm. My generals also are inexcusable, whether they gave you bad advice or only suffered you to come to such injudicious resolutions. In this sad situation it only remains41 for me to make a last attempt. I must hazard a battle. If we can not conquer, we must all of us have ourselves killed.
“I do not complain of your heart, but of your incapacity, and of the little judgment you have shown in making your decisions. A man who has but a few days to live need not dissemble. I wish you better fortune than mine has been, and that all the miseries42 and bad adventures you have had may teach you to treat important matters with greater care, sense, and resolution than you have hitherto done. The greatest part of the calamities43 which I now apprehend44 comes only from you. You and your children will suffer more from them than I shall. Be persuaded, nevertheless, that I have always loved you, and that with these sentiments I shall die.
Frederick.”
Upon the reception of this letter, the prince, without replying to it, verbally asked leave, through one of his officers, to throw up his commission and retire to his family in Berlin. The king scornfully replied, “Let him go; he is fit for nothing else.” In the deepest dejection the prince returned to his home. Rapidly his health failed, and before the year had passed away, as we shall have occasion hereafter to mention, he sank into the grave, deploring45 his unhappy lot.
Frederick speedily concentrated all his strength at Bautzen, and strove to draw the Austrians into a battle; but in vain. The heights upon which they were intrenched, bristling46 with cannon47, he could not venture to assail48. After three weeks of impatient man?uvring, Frederick gathered his force of fifty thousand424 men close in hand, and made a sudden rush upon Bernstadt, about fifty miles to the east of Bautzen. Here he surprised an Austrian division, scattered49 it to the winds, seized all its baggage, and took a number of prisoners. He also captured the field equipage, coach, horses, etc., of General Nadasti, who narrowly escaped.
The French, advancing from the Rhine on the west, were sweeping50 all opposition51 before them. They had overrun Hanover, and compelled the Duke of Brunswick, brother of George II., to withdraw, with his Hanoverian troops, from the alliance with the King of Prussia. This was a terrible blow to Frederick. It left him entirely52 alone to encounter his swarming54 enemies.
The Prince of Soubise had rendezvoused55 fifty thousand French and Saxon troops at Erfurt, about a hundred and seventy miles west of Dresden. He had also, scattered around at different posts, easily accessible, a hundred thousand more well-armed and well-disciplined troops. Frederick took twenty-three thousand men and marched to assail these foes56 in almost despairing battle. To plunge57 with so feeble a band into such a mass of enemies seemed to be the extreme of recklessness.
On the 30th of August Frederick commenced his march from Dresden. Great caution was requisite58, and great military skill, in so bold an adventure. On the 13th of September he reached Erfurt. The Prince of Soubise, aware of the prowess of his antagonist59, retired60 to the hills and intrenched himself, waiting until he could accumulate forces which would render victory certain. Frederick had now with him his second brother, Henry, who seems to have very fully40 secured his confidence. On the 16th of September the king wrote:
“My brother Henry has gone to see the Duchess of Gotha to-day. I am so oppressed with grief that I would rather keep my sadness to myself. I have reason to congratulate myself much on account of my brother Henry. He has behaved like an angel, as a soldier, and well toward me as a brother. I can not, unfortunately, say the same of the elder. He sulks at me, and has sulkily retired to Torgau, from which place he has gone to Wittenberg. I shall leave him to his caprices and to his bad conduct; and I prophesy61 nothing for the future unless the younger guide him.”
425 In these hours of trouble the noble Wilhelmina was as true to her brother as the magnet to the pole. She was appalled62 by no dangers, and roused all her energies to aid that brother, struggling, with the world arrayed against him. The king appreciated his sister’s love. In a poetic63 epistle addressed to her, composed in these hours of adversity, he wrote:
“Oh sweet and dear hope of my remaining days! oh sister whose friendship, so fertile in resources, shares all my sorrows, and with a helpful arm assists me in the gulf64! it is in vain that the destinies have overwhelmed me with disasters. If the crowd of kings have sworn my ruin, if the earth have opened to swallow me, you still love me, noble and affectionate sister. Loved by you, what is there of misfortune?”
In conclusion, he gives utterance65 to that gloomy creed66 of infidelity and atheism which he had adopted instead of the Christian67 faith. “Thus destiny with a deluge68 of torments69 fills the poisoned remnants of my days. The present is hideous70 to me, the future unknown. Do you say that I am the creature of a beneficent being? I see that all men are the sport of destiny. And if there do exist some gloomy and inexorable being who allows a despised herd71 of creatures to go on multiplying here, he values them as nothing. He looks down on our virtues72, our misdeeds, on the horrors of war, and on all the cruel plagues which ravage3 earth, as a thing indifferent to him. Wherefore my sole refuge and only haven74, loved sister, is in the arms of death.”106
Twenty years before this, Frederick, in a letter to his friend Baron75 Suhm, dated June 6, 1736, had expressed the belief that, while the majority of the world perished at death, a few very distinguished76 men might be immortal77.
“The thought alone,” he wrote, “of your death, my dear Suhm, affords me an argument in proof of the immortality78 of the soul. For is it possible that the spirit which acts in you with so much clearness, brightness, and intelligence, which is so different from matter and from body—that fine soul endowed with so many solid virtues and agreeable qualities—is it possible that this should not be immortal? No! I would maintain in solid argument that, if the greatest part of the world were to be annihilated79,426 you, Voltaire, Boileau, Newton, Wolfius, and some other geniuses of this order must be immortal.”107
Now, however, Frederick, in that downward path through which the rejecters of Christianity invariably descend80, had reached the point at which he renounced all belief in the immortality of the soul and in the existence of God. In a poetic epistle addressed to Marshal Keith, he declares himself a materialist81, and affirms his unwavering conviction that the soul, which he says is but the result of the bodily organization, perishes with that body. He declares suicide to be the only remedy for man in his hour of extremity82.
Wilhelmina, in her distress83 in view of the peril7 of her brother, wrote to Voltaire, hoping that he might be persuaded to exert an influence in his favor.
“The king, my brother,” she wrote, “supports his misfortunes with a courage and a firmness worthy84 of him. I am in a frightful85 state, and will not survive the destruction of my house and family. That is the one consolation86 that remains to me. I can not write farther of it. My soul is so troubled that I know not what I am doing. To me there remains nothing but to follow his destiny if it is unfortunate. I have never piqued87 myself on being a philosopher, though I have made many efforts to become so. The small progress I made did teach me to despise grandeur88 and riches. But I could never find in philosophy any cure for the wounds of the heart, except that of getting done with our miseries by ceasing to live. The state I am in is worse than death. I see the greatest man of his age, my brother, my friend, reduced to the most frightful extremity. I see my whole family exposed to dangers and, perhaps, destruction. Would to Heaven I were alone loaded with all the miseries I have described to you.”
Five days after this letter was written to Voltaire by Wilhelmina from Baireuth, Frederick, on the 17th of September, 1757, wrote his sister from near Erfurt. This letter, somewhat abbreviated89, was as follows:
“My dearest Sister,—I find no other consolation but in your precious letters. May Heaven108 reward so much virtue73 and such427 heroic sentiments! Since I wrote you last my misfortunes have but gone on accumulating. It seems as though destiny would discharge all its wrath90 and fury upon the poor country which I had to rule over. I have advanced this way to fall upon a corps91 of the allied92 army, which has run off and intrenched itself among hills, whither to follow, still more to attack them, all rules of war forbid. The moment I retire toward Saxony this whole swarm53 will be upon my heels. Happen what may, I am determined93, at all risks, to fall upon whatever corps of the enemy approaches me nearest. I shall even bless Heaven for its mercy if it grant me the favor to die sword in hand.
“Should this hope fail me, you will allow that it would be too hard to crawl at the feet of a company of traitors94 to whom successful crimes have given the advantage to prescribe the law to me. If I had followed my own inclinations95 I should have put an end to myself at once after that unfortunate battle which I lost. But I felt that this would be weakness, and that it behooved96 me to repair the evil which had happened. But no sooner had I hastened this way to face new enemies than Winterfield was beaten and killed near Gorlitz; than the French entered the heart of my states; than the Swedes blockaded Stettin. Now there is nothing effective left for me to do. There are too many enemies. Were I even to succeed in beating two armies, the third would crush me. As for you, my incomparable sister, I have not the heart to turn you from your resolves. We think alike, and I can not condemn97 in you the sentiments which I daily entertain. Life has been given us as a benefit. When it ceases to be such— I have nobody left in this world to attach me to it but you. My friends, the relations I loved most, are in the grave. In short, I have lost every thing. If you take the resolution which I have taken, we end together our misfortunes and our unhappiness.
“But it is time to end this long, dreary98 letter. I have had some leisure, and have used it to open to you a heart filled with admiration99 and gratitude100 toward you. Yes, my adorable sister, if Providence101 troubled itself about human affairs, you ought to be the happiest person in the universe. Your not being such confirms me in the sentiments expressed in my epistle.”
In his “epistle” Frederick had expressed the opinion that428 there was no God who took any interest in human affairs. He had also repeatedly expressed the resolve to Wilhelmina, and to Voltaire, to whom he had become partially102 reconciled, that he was prepared to commit suicide should events prove as disastrous103 as he had every reason to expect they would prove. He had also urged his sister to follow his example, and not to survive the ruin of the family. Such was the support which the king, in hours of adversity, found in that philosophy for which he had discarded the religion of Jesus Christ.
On the 15th of September, two days before Frederick had written the despairing letter we have just given, Wilhelmina wrote again to him, in response to previous letters, and to his poetic epistle.
“My dearest Brother,—Your letter and the one you wrote to Voltaire have nearly killed me. What fatal resolutions, great God! Ah! my dear brother, you say you love me, and you drive a dagger104 into my heart. Your epistle, which I did receive, made me shed rivers of tears. I am now ashamed of such weakness. My misfortune would be so great that I should find worthier105 resources than tears. Your lot shall be mine. I shall not survive your misfortunes, or those of the house I belong to. You may calculate that such is my firm resolution.
“But, after this avowal106, allow me to entreat107 you to look back at what was the pitiable state of your enemy when you lay before Prague. It is the sudden whirl of fortune for both parties. The like can occur again when one is the least expecting it. C?sar was the slave of pirates, and yet he became master of the world. A great genius like yours finds resources even when all is lost.
“I suffer a thousand times more than I can tell you. Nevertheless, hope does not abandon me. I am obliged to finish. But I shall never cease to be, with the most profound respect, your
Wilhelmina.”
On the 11th of October an express courier reached Frederick’s camp with the alarming intelligence that an Austrian division of fifteen thousand men was on the march for Berlin. The city was but poorly fortified108, and held a garrison109 of but four thousand429 troops. Frederick had no doubt that the Austrian army was acting110 in co-operation with other forces of the allies, advancing upon his metropolis111 from the east, north, and west. Immediately he collected all his available troops and commenced a rapid march for the protection of his capital. In the mean time Wilhelmina had heard of this new peril. A rumor112 also had reached her that there had been a battle, and that her brother was wounded. The following letter reveals the anguish113 of her heart:
“Baireuth, October 15, 1757.
“My dearest Brother,—Death and a thousand torments could not equal the frightful state I am in. There run reports that make me shudder114. Some say that you are wounded, others that you are dangerously ill. In vain have I tormented115 myself to have news of you. I can get none. Oh, my dear brother, come what may, I will not survive you. If I am to continue in this frightful uncertainty116, I can not stand it. In the name of God, bid some one write to me.
“I know not what I have written. My heart is torn in pieces. I feel that by dint117 of disquietude and alarms I am losing my senses. Oh, my dear, adorable brother, have pity on me. The least thing that concerns you pierces me to the heart. Might I die a thousand deaths provided you lived and were happy! I can say no more. Grief chokes me. I can only repeat that your fate shall be mine; being, my dear brother, your
“Wilhelmina.”
It turned out that the rumor of the march upon Berlin was greatly exaggerated. General Haddick, with an Austrian force of but four thousand men, by a sudden rush through the woods, seized the suburbs of Berlin. The terrified garrison, supposing that an overwhelming force of the allied army was upon them, retreated, with the royal family and effects, to Spandau. General Haddick, having extorted118 a ransom119 of about one hundred and forty thousand dollars from the city, and “two dozen pair of gloves for the empress queen,” and learning that a division of Frederick’s army was fast approaching, fled precipitately. Hearing of this result, the king arrested his steps at Torgau, and returned to Leipsic. The Berliners asserted that “the two dozen pair of gloves were all gloves for the left hand.”
430 Frederick reached Leipsic on the 26th of October. The allied forces were rapidly concentrating in overwhelming numbers around him. On the 30th the king marched to the vicinity of Lutzen, where he encamped for the night. General Soubise, though in command of a force outnumbering that of the Prussians nearly three to one, retreated rapidly to the west before Frederick, and crossed the River Saale. Frederick followed, and effected the passage of the stream with but little opposition.
MAP OF THE CAMPAIGN OF ROSSBACH.
After some man?uvring, the hostile forces met upon a wide, dreary, undulating plain, with here and there a hillock, in the vicinity of Rossbach. Frederick had twenty thousand men. The French general, Prince Soubise, had sixty thousand. The allies now felt sure of their prey120. Their plan was to surround Frederick, destroy his army, and take him a prisoner. On the morning of the 5th of November the two hostile armies were nearly facing each other, a few miles west of the River Saale. A party of Austrians was sent by the general of the allies to destroy the bridges upon the river in the rear of the Prussians, that their retreat might be cut off. Frederick, from a house-top, eagerly watched the movement of his foes. To his surprise and great431 satisfaction, he soon saw the whole allied army commencing a circuitous121 march around his left to fall upon him in his rear.
Instantly, and “like a change of scene in the opera,” the Prussians were on the rapid march to the east in as perfect order as if on parade. Taking advantage of an eminence122 called James Hill, which concealed123 their movements from the allies, Frederick hurled124 his whole concentrated force upon the flank of the van of the army on the advance. He thus greatly outnumbered his foes at the point of attack. The enemy, taken by surprise in their long line of march, had no time to form.
“Compact as a wall, and with an incredible velocity125, Seidlitz, in the blaze of rapid steel, is in upon them.” From the first it was manifest that the destruction of the advance-guard was certain. The Prussian cavalry126 slashed127 through it again and again, throwing it into inextricable disorder128. In less than half an hour this important portion of the allied troops was put to utter rout, “tumbling off the ground, plunging129 down hill in full flight, across its own infantry130, or whatever obstacle, Seidlitz on the hips131 of it, and galloping132 madly over the horizon.”
BATTLE OF ROSSBACH, NOVEMBER 5, 1757.
a a. First Position of Combined Army. b b. First Position of Prussian Camp. c c. Advance of Prussian Army. d d. Second Position of Combined Army. e e. Prussians retire to Rossbach. f. French Cavalry, under St. Germain. g g. March of Combined Army to attack Prussian Rear. h. Prussian Attack led by Seidlitz. i. Position of Prussian Guns.
And now the Prussian artillery133, eighteen heavy guns, opened a rapid and murderous fire upon the disordered mass, struggling in vain to deploy134 in line of battle. Infantry, artillery, cavalry,432 all were at work, straining every nerve, one mighty135 mind controlling and guiding the terrible mechanism136 in its death-dealing blows. The French regiments137 were jammed together. The Prussians, at forty paces, opened a platoon fire of musketry, five shots a minute. At the same moment the impetuous Seidlitz, with his triumphant138 and resistless dragoons, plunged139 upon the rear. The centre of the allied army was thus annihilated. It was no longer a battle, but a rout and a massacre140. In twenty minutes this second astonishing feat141 was accomplished142.
The whole allied army was now put wildly to flight, in one of the most humiliating and disastrous retreats which has ever occurred. There is generally some slight diversity of statement in reference to the numbers engaged on such occasions. Frederick gives sixty-three thousand as the allied force. The allies lost, in killed, wounded, and missing, about ten thousand men. The loss of the Prussians was but five hundred. The French, in a tumultuous mass, fled to the west. Crossing the Unstrut River at Freiburg, they burned the bridge behind them. The Prussians rebuilt the bridge, and vigorously pursued. The evening after the battle the king wrote as follows to Wilhelmina. His letter was dated “Near Weissenfels.”
“At last, my dear sister, I can announce to you a bit of good news. You were doubtless aware that the Coopers with their circles had a mind to take Leipsic. I ran up and drove them beyond Saale. They called themselves 63,000 strong. Yesterday I went to reconnoitre them; could not attack them in the post they held. This rendered them rash. To-day they came out to attack me. It was a battle after one’s own heart. Thanks to God,109 I have not one hundred men killed. My brother Henry and General Seidlitz have slight hurts. We have all the enemy’s cannon. I am in full march to drive them over the Unstrut. You, my dear sister, my good, my divine, my affectionate sister, who deign143 to interest yourself in the fate of a brother who adores you, deign also to share my joy. The instant I have time I will tell you more. I embrace you with my whole heart. Adieu.
F.”
Voltaire, speaking of this conflict, says, “It was the most inconceivable and complete rout and discomfiture144 of which history433 makes any mention. Thirty thousand French and twenty thousand imperial troops were there seen making a disgraceful and precipitate27 flight before five battalions145 and a few squadrons. The defeats of Agincourt, Cressy, and Poitiers were not so humiliating.”110
As usual, Frederick wrote a poem upon the occasion. It was vulgar and profane146. Carlyle says of it, “The author, with a wild burst of spiritual enthusiasm, sings the charms of the rearward part of certain men. He rises to the height of anti-biblical profanity, quoting Moses on the Hill of Vision; sinks to the bottomless of human or ultra-human depravity, quoting King Nicomedes’s experience on C?sar, happily known only to the learned. A most cynical147, profane affair; yet we must say, by way of parenthesis148, one which gives no countenance149 to Voltaire’s atrocities150 of rumor about Frederick himself in the matter.”111
The routed allies, exasperated151 and starving, and hating the Protestant inhabitants of the region through which they retreated, robbed and maltreated them without mercy. The woes152 which the defenseless inhabitants endured from the routed army in its flight no pen can adequately describe.
An eye-witness writes from near Weissenfels, in a report to the King of Poland, whose allies the French were, and whose territories they were ravaging153:
“The French army so handled this place as not only to take from its inhabitants, by open force, all bread and articles of food, but likewise all clothes, bed-linens, and other portable goods. They also broke open, split to pieces, and emptied out all chests, boxes, presses, drawers; shot dead in the back-yards and on the roofs all manner of feathered stock, as hens, geese, pigeons. They carried off all swine, cows, sheep, and horses. They laid violent hands on the inhabitants, clapped swords, guns, and pistols to their breasts, threatening to kill them unless they brought out whatever goods they had; or hunted them out of their houses, shooting at them, cutting, sticking, and at last driving them away, thereby154 to have freer room to rob and plunder155. They flung out hay and other harvest stock into the mud, and had it trampled156 to ruin under the horses’ feet.”
“For a hundred miles around,” writes St. Germain, “the country434 is plundered157 and harried158 as if fire from heaven had fallen on it. Scarcely have our plunderers and marauders left the houses standing159.”
This signal achievement raised the military fame of Frederick higher than ever before. Still it did not perceptibly diminish the enormous difficulties with which he was environed. Army after army was marching upon him. Even by a series of successful battles his forces might be annihilated. But the renown160 of the great victory of Rossbach will ever reverberate161 through the halls of history.
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atheism
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| n.无神论，不信神 | |
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rout
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| n.溃退，溃败；v.击溃，打垮 | |
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ravage
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| vt.使...荒废，破坏...；n.破坏，掠夺，荒废 | |
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affected
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| adj.不自然的，假装的 | |
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majesty
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| n.雄伟，壮丽，庄严，威严；最高权威，王权 | |
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perils
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| 极大危险( peril的名词复数 )； 危险的事（或环境） | |
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peril
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| n.(严重的)危险；危险的事物 | |
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apprise
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| vt.通知，告知 | |
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embarrassments
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| n.尴尬( embarrassment的名词复数 )；难堪；局促不安；令人难堪或耻辱的事 | |
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worthiest
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| 应得某事物( worthy的最高级 )； 值得做某事； 可尊敬的； 有（某人或事物）的典型特征 | |
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instigated
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| v.使（某事物）开始或发生，鼓动( instigate的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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besieging
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| 包围，围困，围攻( besiege的现在分词 ) | |
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13
evacuate
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| v.遣送；搬空；抽出；排泄；大(小)便 | |
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14
guardian
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| n.监护人；守卫者，保护者 | |
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15
assassinated
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| v.暗杀( assassinate的过去式和过去分词 )；中伤；诋毁；破坏 | |
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16
conspiracy
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| n.阴谋，密谋，共谋 | |
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17
infamous
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| adj.声名狼藉的，臭名昭著的，邪恶的 | |
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renounced
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| v.声明放弃( renounce的过去式和过去分词 )；宣布放弃；宣布与…决裂；宣布摒弃 | |
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19
humble
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| adj.谦卑的，恭顺的；地位低下的；v.降低，贬低 | |
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cupidity
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| n.贪心，贪财 | |
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21
esteem
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| n.尊敬，尊重；vt.尊重，敬重；把…看作 | |
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22
aggregate
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| adj.总计的，集合的；n.总数；v.合计；集合 | |
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23
eldest
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| adj.最年长的，最年老的 | |
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fortresses
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| 堡垒，要塞( fortress的名词复数 ) | |
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25
conflagration
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| n.建筑物或森林大火 | |
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26
precipitately
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| adv.猛进地 | |
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27
precipitate
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| adj.突如其来的；vt.使突然发生；n.沉淀物 | |
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28
exhaustion
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| n.耗尽枯竭，疲惫，筋疲力尽，竭尽，详尽无遗的论述 | |
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29
destitution
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| n.穷困，缺乏，贫穷 | |
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30
incensed
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| 盛怒的 | |
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31
discomfited
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| v.使为难( discomfit的过去式和过去分词)；使狼狈；使挫折；挫败 | |
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32
suite
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| n.一套(家具)；套房；随从人员 | |
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33
saluting
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| v.欢迎，致敬( salute的现在分词 )；赞扬，赞颂 | |
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34
posture
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| n.姿势，姿态，心态，态度；v.作出某种姿势 | |
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35
rebuke
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| v.指责，非难，斥责 [反]praise | |
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36
judgment
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| n.审判；判断力，识别力，看法，意见 | |
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37
intercourse
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| n.性交；交流，交往，交际 | |
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38
utterly
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| adv.完全地，绝对地 | |
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39
countersign
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| v.副署，会签 | |
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40
fully
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| adv.完全地，全部地，彻底地；充分地 | |
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41
remains
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| n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹 | |
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42
miseries
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| n.痛苦( misery的名词复数 )；痛苦的事；穷困；常发牢骚的人 | |
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calamities
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| n.灾祸，灾难( calamity的名词复数 )；不幸之事 | |
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44
apprehend
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| vt.理解，领悟，逮捕，拘捕，忧虑 | |
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45
deploring
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| v.悲叹，痛惜，强烈反对( deplore的现在分词 ) | |
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46
bristling
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| a.竖立的 | |
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47
cannon
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| n.大炮，火炮；飞机上的机关炮 | |
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48
assail
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| v.猛烈攻击，抨击，痛斥 | |
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49
scattered
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| adj.分散的，稀疏的；散步的；疏疏落落的 | |
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50
sweeping
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| adj.范围广大的，一扫无遗的 | |
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51
opposition
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| n.反对，敌对 | |
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52
entirely
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| ad.全部地，完整地；完全地，彻底地 | |
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53
swarm
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| n.(昆虫)等一大群；vi.成群飞舞；蜂拥而入 | |
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54
swarming
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| 密集( swarm的现在分词 )； 云集； 成群地移动； 蜜蜂或其他飞行昆虫成群地飞来飞去 | |
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55
rendezvoused
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| v.约会，会合( rendezvous的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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56
foes
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| 敌人，仇敌( foe的名词复数 ) | |
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57
plunge
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| v.跳入，(使)投入，(使)陷入；猛冲 | |
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58
requisite
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| adj.需要的，必不可少的；n.必需品 | |
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59
antagonist
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| n.敌人，对抗者，对手 | |
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60
retired
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| adj.隐退的，退休的，退役的 | |
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61
prophesy
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| v.预言；预示 | |
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62
appalled
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| v.使惊骇，使充满恐惧( appall的过去式和过去分词)adj.惊骇的；丧胆的 | |
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63
poetic
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| adj.富有诗意的，有诗人气质的，善于抒情的 | |
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64
gulf
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| n.海湾；深渊，鸿沟；分歧，隔阂 | |
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65
utterance
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| n.用言语表达，话语，言语 | |
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66
creed
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| n.信条；信念，纲领 | |
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67
Christian
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| adj.基督教徒的；n.基督教徒 | |
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68
deluge
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| n./vt.洪水，暴雨，使泛滥 | |
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69
torments
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| （肉体或精神上的）折磨，痛苦( torment的名词复数 )； 造成痛苦的事物[人] | |
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70
hideous
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| adj.丑陋的，可憎的，可怕的，恐怖的 | |
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71
herd
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| n.兽群，牧群；vt.使集中，把…赶在一起 | |
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72
virtues
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| 美德( virtue的名词复数 )； 德行； 优点； 长处 | |
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73
virtue
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| n.德行，美德；贞操；优点；功效，效力 | |
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74
haven
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| n.安全的地方，避难所，庇护所 | |
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75
baron
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| n.男爵；(商业界等)巨头，大王 | |
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76
distinguished
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| adj.卓越的，杰出的，著名的 | |
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77
immortal
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| adj.不朽的；永生的，不死的；神的 | |
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78
immortality
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| n.不死，不朽 | |
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79
annihilated
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| v.（彻底）消灭( annihilate的过去式和过去分词 )；使无效；废止；彻底击溃 | |
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80
descend
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| vt./vi.传下来，下来，下降 | |
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81
materialist
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| n. 唯物主义者 | |
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82
extremity
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| n.末端，尽头；尽力；终极；极度 | |
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83
distress
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| n.苦恼，痛苦，不舒适；不幸；vt.使悲痛 | |
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84
worthy
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| adj.(of)值得的，配得上的；有价值的 | |
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85
frightful
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| adj.可怕的；讨厌的 | |
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86
consolation
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| n.安慰，慰问 | |
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87
piqued
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| v.伤害…的自尊心( pique的过去式和过去分词 )；激起（好奇心） | |
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88
grandeur
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| n.伟大，崇高，宏伟，庄严，豪华 | |
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89
abbreviated
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| adj. 简短的，省略的 动词abbreviate的过去式和过去分词 | |
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90
wrath
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| n.愤怒，愤慨，暴怒 | |
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91
corps
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| n.(通信等兵种的)部队；(同类作的)一组 | |
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92
allied
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| adj.协约国的；同盟国的 | |
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93
determined
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| adj.坚定的；有决心的 | |
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94
traitors
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| 卖国贼( traitor的名词复数 )； 叛徒； 背叛者； 背信弃义的人 | |
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95
inclinations
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| 倾向( inclination的名词复数 )； 倾斜； 爱好； 斜坡 | |
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96
behooved
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| v.适宜( behoove的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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97
condemn
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| vt.谴责，指责；宣判(罪犯)，判刑 | |
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98
dreary
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| adj.令人沮丧的，沉闷的，单调乏味的 | |
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99
admiration
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| n.钦佩，赞美，羡慕 | |
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100
gratitude
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| adj.感激，感谢 | |
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101
providence
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| n.深谋远虑，天道，天意；远见；节约；上帝 | |
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102
partially
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| adv.部分地，从某些方面讲 | |
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103
disastrous
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| adj.灾难性的，造成灾害的；极坏的，很糟的 | |
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104
dagger
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| n.匕首，短剑，剑号 | |
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105
worthier
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| 应得某事物( worthy的比较级 )； 值得做某事； 可尊敬的； 有（某人或事物）的典型特征 | |
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106
avowal
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| n.公开宣称，坦白承认 | |
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107
entreat
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| v.恳求，恳请 | |
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108
fortified
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| adj. 加强的 | |
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109
garrison
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| n.卫戍部队；驻地，卫戍区；vt.派(兵)驻防 | |
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110
acting
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| n.演戏，行为，假装；adj.代理的，临时的，演出用的 | |
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111
metropolis
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| n.首府；大城市 | |
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112
rumor
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| n.谣言，谣传，传说 | |
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113
anguish
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| n.(尤指心灵上的)极度痛苦，烦恼 | |
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114
shudder
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| v.战粟，震动，剧烈地摇晃；n.战粟，抖动 | |
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115
tormented
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| 饱受折磨的 | |
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116
uncertainty
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| n.易变，靠不住，不确知，不确定的事物 | |
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117
dint
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| n.由于，靠；凹坑 | |
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118
extorted
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| v.敲诈( extort的过去式和过去分词 )；曲解 | |
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119
ransom
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| n.赎金，赎身；v.赎回，解救 | |
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120
prey
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| n.被掠食者，牺牲者，掠食；v.捕食，掠夺，折磨 | |
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121
circuitous
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| adj.迂回的路的，迂曲的，绕行的 | |
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122
eminence
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| n.卓越，显赫；高地，高处；名家 | |
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123
concealed
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| a.隐藏的，隐蔽的 | |
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124
hurled
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| v.猛投，用力掷( hurl的过去式和过去分词 )；大声叫骂 | |
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125
velocity
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| n.速度，速率 | |
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126
cavalry
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| n.骑兵；轻装甲部队 | |
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127
slashed
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| v.挥砍( slash的过去式和过去分词 )；鞭打；割破；削减 | |
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128
disorder
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| n.紊乱，混乱；骚动，骚乱；疾病，失调 | |
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129
plunging
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| adj.跳进的，突进的v.颠簸( plunge的现在分词 )；暴跌；骤降；突降 | |
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130
infantry
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| n.[总称]步兵(部队) | |
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131
hips
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| abbr.high impact polystyrene 高冲击强度聚苯乙烯，耐冲性聚苯乙烯n.臀部( hip的名词复数 )；[建筑学]屋脊；臀围（尺寸）；臀部…的 | |
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132
galloping
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| adj. 飞驰的, 急性的 动词gallop的现在分词形式 | |
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133
artillery
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| n.(军)火炮，大炮；炮兵(部队) | |
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134
deploy
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| v.（军）散开成战斗队形，布置，展开 | |
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135
mighty
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| adj.强有力的；巨大的 | |
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136
mechanism
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| n.机械装置；机构，结构 | |
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137
regiments
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| （军队的）团( regiment的名词复数 )； 大量的人或物 | |
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138
triumphant
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| adj.胜利的，成功的；狂欢的，喜悦的 | |
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139
plunged
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| v.颠簸( plunge的过去式和过去分词 )；暴跌；骤降；突降 | |
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140
massacre
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| n.残杀，大屠杀；v.残杀，集体屠杀 | |
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141
feat
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| n.功绩；武艺，技艺；adj.灵巧的，漂亮的，合适的 | |
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142
accomplished
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| adj.有才艺的；有造诣的；达到了的 | |
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143
deign
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| v. 屈尊, 惠允 ( 做某事) | |
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144
discomfiture
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| n.崩溃；大败；挫败；困惑 | |
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145
battalions
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| n.（陆军的）一营（大约有一千兵士）( battalion的名词复数 )；协同作战的部队；军队；（组织在一起工作的）队伍 | |
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146
profane
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| adj.亵神的，亵渎的；vt.亵渎，玷污 | |
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147
cynical
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| adj.(对人性或动机)怀疑的，不信世道向善的 | |
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148
parenthesis
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| n.圆括号，插入语，插曲，间歇，停歇 | |
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149
countenance
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| n.脸色，面容；面部表情；vt.支持，赞同 | |
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150
atrocities
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| n.邪恶，暴行( atrocity的名词复数 )；滔天大罪 | |
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151
exasperated
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| adj.恼怒的 | |
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152
woes
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| 困境( woe的名词复数 )； 悲伤； 我好苦哇； 某人就要倒霉 | |
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153
ravaging
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| 毁坏( ravage的现在分词 )； 蹂躏； 劫掠； 抢劫 | |
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154
thereby
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| adv.因此，从而 | |
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155
plunder
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| vt.劫掠财物，掠夺；n.劫掠物，赃物；劫掠 | |
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156
trampled
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| 踩( trample的过去式和过去分词 )； 践踏； 无视； 侵犯 | |
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157
plundered
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| 掠夺，抢劫( plunder的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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158
harried
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| v.使苦恼( harry的过去式和过去分词 )；不断烦扰；一再袭击；侵扰 | |
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159
standing
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| n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的 | |
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160
renown
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| n.声誉，名望 | |
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161
reverberate
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| v.使回响，使反响 | |
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