It was for this province
that he provoked the hostilities of Europe; and pride, as well as
interest, induced him to bend all his energies to regain it. Prince
Charles of Lorraine commanded the forces of Maria Theresa, which
numbered eighty thousand men. Frederic could only array against him an
army of thirty thousand. And yet, in spite of the disparity of forces,
and his desperate condition, he resolved to attack the enemy. His
generals remonstrated; but the hero gave full permission to all to
retire, if they pleased. None were found to shun the danger. Frederic,
like Napoleon, had the talent of exciting the enthusiasm of his
troops. He both encouraged and threatened them. He declared that any
cavalry regiment which did not, on being ordered, burst impetuously on
the foe, should after the battle, be dismounted, and converted into a
garrison regiment. But he had no reason to complain. On the 5th of
December, the day of the ever-memorable battle of Leuthen, he selected
an officer with fifty men as his body-guard. "I shall," said he,
"expose myself much to-day; you are not to leave me for an instant: if
I fall, cover me quickly with a mantle, place me in a wagon and tell
the fact to no one. The battle cannot be avoided, and must be won."
And he obtained a glorious victory. The Austrian general abandoned a
strong position, because he deemed it beneath his dignity to contend
with an inferior force in a fortified camp. His imprudence lost him
the battle. According to Napoleon, it was a masterpiece on the part of
the victor, and placed him in the first rank of generals. Twenty
thousand Austrians were either killed or taken. Breslau opened its
gates to the Prussians, and Silesia was reconquered. The king's fame
filled the world. Pictures of him were hung in almost every house. The
enthusiasm of Germany was not surpassed by that of England. London was
illuminated; the gay scions of aristocracy proposed to the Prussian
king to leave their country and join his army; an annual subsidy of
seven hundred thousand pounds was granted by government. The battle of
Leuthen was the most brilliant in Prussian annals; out the battle of
Rossbach, over the French, was attended by greater moral results. It
showed, for the first time for several centuries, that the Germans
were really a great people, and were a match for the French, hitherto
deemed invincible.

Early in the spring of 1758, Frederic was ready for a new campaign,
which was soon s