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DECEMBER

      When on the fourth of November after various changes of positions the king of Prussia with but twenty-one thousand six hundred men, resumed his encampment on the heights of Rossbach, the Prince de Rohan Soubise, who commanded the French and Imperial army of more than sixty-four thousand, was sure of compelling him to surrender. On the morning of the fifth, the combined forces marched in flank to cut off his retreat. From the battlements of the old castle of Rossbach, Frederic gazed on their movement; at a glance, penetrated their design; and obeying the flush of his exulting mind, he on the instant made his dispositions for an attack. "Forward!" he cried, at half-past two; at three, not a Prussian remained in the village. He seemed to retreat towards Merseburg; but, concealed by the high land of Reichertswerben, the chivalrous Seidlitz with the Prussian cavalry, having turned the right of the enemy, planted his cannon on an eminence. Through the low ground beneath him they were marching in columns, in eager haste, their cavalry in front and at a distance from their infantry. A moment's delay, an inch of ground gained, and they would have come into line. But Seidlitz and his cavalry on their right, eight battalions of infantry on their left, with orders precise and exactly executed, bore down impetuously on the cumbrous columns, and routed them before they could form, and even before the larger part of the Prussian infantry could fire a shot. That victory at Rossbach gave to Prussia the consciousness of being a nation.
     To his minister Frederic sent word of this beginning of success; but far "more was necessary." He had but obtained freedom to seek new dangers; and hastening to relieve Schweidnitz, he wrote to a friend: "This for me has been a year of horror; to save the state I dare the impossible." But already Schweidnitz had surrendered. On the twenty-second of November, Prince Bevern was surprised and taken prisoner with a loss of eight thousand men. His successor in the command retreated to Glogau. On the twenty-fourth, Breslau was basely given up and nearly all its garrison entered the Austrian service. Silesia seemed restored to Maria Theresa. "Does hope expire," said Frederic, "the strong man must stand distinguished."
     Not till the second day of December did the drooping army from Glogau join the king. Every power was exerted to revive their confidence. By degrees, they catch something of his cheerful resoluteness; they share the spirit and the daring of the victors of Rossbach; they burn to efface their own ignominy. Yet the Austrian army of sixty thousand men, under Charles of Lorraine and Marshal Daun, veteran troops and more than double in number to the Prussians, were advancing, as if to crush them and end the war. "The Marquis of Brandenburg," said Voltaire, "will lose his hereditary states as well as those which he has won by conquest."

      Assembling his principal officers beneath a beech-tree, between Neumarkt and Leuthen, Frederic addressed them with a gush of eloquence: "While I was restraining the French and Imperialists, Charles of Lorraine has succeeded in conquering Schweidnitz, repulsing Prince Bevern, mastering Breslau. A part of Silesia, my capital, my stores of war, are lost; my disasters would be extreme had I not a boundless trust in your courage, firmness, and love of country. There is not one of you but has distinguished himself by some great and honorable deed. The moment for courage has come. Listen, then: I am resolved, against all rules of the art of war, to attack the nearly threefold stronger army of Charles of Lorraine wherever I may find it. There is no question of the number of the enemy nor of the strength of their position; we must beat them, or all of us find our graves before their batteries. Thus I think, thus I mean to act; announce my decision to all the officers of my army; prepare the privates for the scenes which are at hand; let them know I demand unqualified obedience. They are Prussians; they will not show themselves unworthy of the name. Does any one of you fear to share all dangers with me, he can this day retire; I never will reproach him." Then as the enthusiasm kindled around him, he continued, with a serene smile: "I know that not one of you will leave me. I rely on your true aid, and am assured of victory. If I fall, the country must reward you. Go, tell your regiments what you have heard from me." And he added, "The regiment of cavalry which shall not instantly at the order charge, shall be dismounted and sent into garrisons; the battalion of infantry that shall but falter shall lose its colors and its swords. Now farewell, friends; soon we shall have vanquished, or we shall see each other no more."
     This morning, December fifth, at half-past four, the army is in motion, the king in front, the troops to warlike strains singing --

Grant, Lord, that we may do with might
That which our hands shall find to do!

     "With men like these," said Frederic "God will give me the victory."
     The Austrians are animated by no common kindling impulse. The Prussians move as one being endowed with intelligence and sway by one will. Never has daring so combined with prudence as in the arrangements of Frederic. His eye seizes every advantage of place, and his maneuvers are inspired by the state of his force and the character of the ground. The hills and the valleys, the copses and the fallow land, the mists of morning and the clear light of noon, come to meet his dispositions, so that nature seems instinct with the resolve to conspire with his genius. Never have orders been so executed as his on this day; and never has military genius, in its necessity, so summoned invention to its rescue from despair. His line is formed to make an acute angle with that of the Austrians; as he moves forward, his left wing is kept disengaged; his right comes in contact with the enemy's left, outwings it, and attacks it in front and flank; the bodies which Lorraine sent to its support are defeated successively, before they can form and are rolled back in confused masses. Lorraine is compelled to change his front for the defence of Leuthen; the victorious Prussian army advances to continue the attack, now employing its left wing also. Leuthen is carried by storm, and the Austrians are driven to retreat, losing more than six thousand in killed and wounded, more than twenty-one thousand in prisoners. The battle, which began at half-past one, was finished at five. It is the masterpiece of genius; the greatest military deed thus far of the century. This victory confirms existence to the country where Kant and Lessing were carrying free inquiry to the sources of human knowledge. The soldiers know how the rescue of their nation hangs on that battle; and as a grenadier on the field of carnage begins to sing, "Thanks be to God," the whole army in the darkness of evening, standing amidst thousands of the dead, uplifts the hymn of praise.
 

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