He had sent to Berlin a second despatch very different from the first:--"Let the royal family leave Berlin.Send the archives to Potsdam.The town may make terms with the enemy."The defeat was, in truth, overwhelming.Of fifty thousand men who had that morning marched under the black eagles, not three thousand remained together.The King bethought him again of his corrosive sublimate, and wrote to bid adieu to his friends, and to give directions as to the measures to be taken in the event of his death:-"I have no resource left"--such is the language of one of his letters--"all is lost.I will not survive the ruin of my country.--Farewell for ever."But the mutual jealousies of the confederates prevented them from following up their victory.They lost a few days in loitering and squabbling; and a few days, improved by Frederic, were worth more than the years of other men.On the morning after the battle, he had got together eighteen thousand of his troops.Very soon his force amounted to thirty thousand.Guns were procured from the neighbouring fortresses; and there was again an army.Berlin was for the present safe; but calamities came pouring on the King in uninterrupted succession.One of his generals, with a large body of troops, was taken at Maxen; another was defeated at Meissen;and when at length the campaign of 1759 closed, in the midst of a rigorous winter, the situation of Prussia appeared desperate.The only consoling circumstance was, that, in the West, Ferdinand of Brunswick had been more fortunate than his master; and by a series of exploits, of which the battle of Minden was the most glorious, had removed all apprehension of danger on the side of France.
The fifth year was now about to commence.It seemed impossible that the Prussian territories, repeatedly devastated by hundreds of thousands of invaders, could longer support the contest.But the King carried on war as no European power has ever carried on war, except the Committee of Public Safety during the great agony of the French Revolution.He governed his kingdom as he would have governed a besieged town, not caring to what extent property was destroyed, or the pursuits of civil life suspended, so that he did but make head against the enemy.As long as there was a man left in Prussia, that man might carry a musket; as long as there was a horse left, that horse might draw artillery.The coin was debased, the civil functionaries were left unpaid; in some provinces civil government altogether ceased to exist.But there was still rye-bread and potatoes; there was still lead and gunpowder; and, while the means of sustaining and destroying life remained, Frederic was determined to fight it out to the very last.
The earlier part of the campaign of 1760 was unfavourable to him.
Berlin was again occupied by the enemy.Great contributions were levied on the inhabitants, and the royal palace was plundered.
But at length, after two years of calamity, victory came back to his arms.At Lignitz he gained a great battle over Laudohn; at Torgau, after a day of horrible carnage, he triumphed over Daun.
The fifth year closed, and still the event was in suspense.In the countries where the war had raged, the misery and exhaustion were more appalling than ever; but still there were left men and beasts, arms and food, and still Frederic fought on.In truth he had now been baited into savageness.His heart was ulcerated with hatred.The implacable resentment with which his enemies persecuted him, though originally provoked by his own unprincipled ambition, excited in him a thirst for vengeance which he did not even attempt to conceal."It is hard," he says in one of his letters, "for a man to bear what I bear.I begin to feel that, as the Italians say, revenge is a pleasure for the gods.My philosophy is worn out by suffering.I am no saint, like those of whom we read in the legends; and I will own that Ishould die content if only I could first inflict a portion of the misery which I endure."Borne up by such feelings, he struggled with various success, but constant glory, through the campaign of 1761.On the whole the result of this campaign was disastrous to Prussia.No great battle was gained by the enemy; but, in spite of the desperate bounds of the hunted tiger, the circle of pursuers was fast closing round him.Laudohn had surprised the important fortress of Schweidnitz.With that fortress half of Silesia, and the command of the most important defiles through the mountains had been transferred to the Austrians.The Russians had overpowered the King's generals in Pomerania.The country was so completely desolated that he began, by his own confession, to look round him with blank despair, unable to imagine where recruits, horses, or provisions were to be found.
Just at this time, two great events brought on a complete change in the relations of almost all the powers of Europe.One of those events was the retirement of Mr.Pitt from office; the other was the death of the Empress Elizabeth of Russia.
