ONE:On the 25th of August, 1756, the king wrote from Potsdam to his brother, the Prince of Prussia, and his sister Amelia, who were at Berlin, as follows:Berlin was almost defenseless. All Saxony was rising in arms behind Frederick. The invader of Silesia was in danger of having his own realms invaded and his own capital sacked. Frederick was thoroughly roused. But he never allowed himself to appear agitated or anxious. He ordered Leopold, the Old Dessauer, to march immediately, with all the troops he could rally, to the frontiers of Saxony. He even found it necessary to detach to the aid of Leopold some corps from his own enfeebled forces, now menaced by an Austrian army twice as large as he could oppose to them.
FORE: Matrimonial Intrigues.Letters from the King to his Son.Letter from Fritz to Grumkow.Letter to Wilhelmina.The Betrothal.Character of Elizabeth.Her cruel Reception by the Prussian Queen.Letter from Fritz to Wilhelmina.Disappointment and Anguish of Elizabeth.Studious Habits of Fritz.Continued Alienation of his Father.The Marriage.Life in the Castle at Reinsberg.
FORE: Frederick.Archenholtz describes it as a thing surpassable only by doomsday; clangorous rage of noise risen to the infinite; the boughs of the trees raining down upon you with horrid crash; the forest, with its echoes, bellowing far and near, and reverberating in universal death-peal, comparable to the trump of doom.157
FORE:On the 18th of January, 1742, Frederick visited Dresden, to confer with Augustus III., King of Poland, who was also Elector of Saxony, and whose realms were to be increased by the annexation of Moravia. His Polish majesty was a weak man, entirely devoted to pleasure. His irresolute mind, subjected to the dominant energies of the Prussian king, was as clay in the hands of the potter.
