FORE:The country people hardly knew such a thing as bread. Many had never tasted such a delicacy. Few villages possessed an oven. A weaving-loom was rare; a spinning-wheel unknown. The main article of furniture in this bare scene of squalor was a crucifix, and a vessel of holy water under it. It was a desolate land, without discipline, without law, without a master. On nine thousand English square miles lived five hundred thousand soulsnot fifty-five to the square mile.188Frederick was so busy cantoning his troops that he did not take possession of his head-quarters in Leipsic until the 8th of December. He occupied the Apel House, No. 16 Neumarkt Street, the same which he had occupied before the battle of Rossbach. The same mistress kept the house as before. Upon seeing the king, the good woman exclaimed, in astonishment, How lean your majesty has grown!
FORE:Now thank God, one and all, With heart, with voice, with hands, Who wonders great hath done To us and to all lands.115
FORE:
THREE:549 Frederick had cultivated a supreme indifference to public opinion. Not believing in any God, in any future retribution, or in any immortality, and regarding men merely as the insects of an hour, like the myriad polyps which, beneath the ocean, rear their stupendous structures and perish, his sense of right and wrong must necessarily have been very different from that which a believer in the Christian faith is accustomed to cherish. In allusion to this subject, he writes:
THREE: Incessant Marches and Battles.Letter from Frederick to DArgens.Letter to his Brother Henry.Berlin summoned to Surrender.Sacking of the City.Letter to DArgens.Desperate Resolves of Frederick.The Resort of Suicide.Remarkable Address of Frederick to his Generals.Bloody Battle of Torgau.Dismal Night-scene.Familiarity of the King with the Soldiers.Winter Quarters at Freiberg.Singular Letter to the Countess of Camas.Death of the Princess Amelia.Anecdotes of the King.His domestic Habits.His unscrupulous Measures to obtain Men and Money.Letter of Charlotte of Mecklenburg.Fredericks treatment of the unfortunate General Zastrow, who was in command at Schweidnitz, was quite peculiar. Very generously he wrote to him:
