



Produced by D.R. Thompson





HISTORY OF FRIEDRICH II. OF PRUSSIA

FREDERICK THE GREAT

By Thomas Carlyle




BOOK XX.--FRIEDRICH IS NOT TO BE OVERWHELMED: THE SEVEN-YEARS WAR
GRADUALLY ENDS--25th April, 1760-15th February, 1763.




Chapter I.--FIFTH CAMPAIGN OPENS.

There were yet, to the world's surprise and regret, Three Campaigns
of this War; but the Campaign 1760, which we are now upon, was what
produced or rendered possible the other two;--was the crisis of them,
and is now the only one that can require much narrative from us here.
Ill-luck, which, Friedrich complains, had followed him like his shadow,
in a strange and fateful manner, from the day of Kunersdorf and earlier,
does not yet cease its sad company; but, on the contrary, for long
months to come, is more constant than ever, baffling every effort of
his own, and from the distance sending him news of mere disaster and
discomfiture. It is in this Campaign, though not till far on in it,
that the long lane does prove to have a turning, and the Fortune of War
recovers its old impartial form. After which, things visibly languish:
and the hope of ruining such a Friedrich becomes problematic, the effort
to do it slackens also; the very will abating, on the Austrian part,
year by year, as of course the strength of their resources is still
more steadily doing. To the last, Friedrich, the weaker in material
resources, needs all his talent,--all his