s such as these had
little weight in the minister's general policy. His greatness lies in
the fact that he at once recognised the genius of Frederick the Great,
and resolved without jealousy or reserve to give him an energetic
support. On his entry into office he refused to ratify the Convention of
Closter-Seven, which had reduced Frederick to despair by throwing open
his realm to a French advance; protected his flank by gathering an
English and Hanoverian force on the Elbe, and on the counsel of the
Prussian king placed the best of his generals, the Prince of Brunswick,
at its head; while subsidy after subsidy was poured into Frederick's
exhausted treasury. Pitt's trust was met by the most brilliant display
of military genius which the modern world had as yet witnessed. In
November 1757, two months after his repulse at Kolin, Frederick flung
himself on a French army which had advanced into the heart of Germany,
and annihilated it in the victory of Rossbach. Before another month had
passed he hurried from the Saale to the Oder, and by a yet more signal
victory at Leuthen cleared Silesia of the Austrians. The victory of
Rossbach was destined to change the fortunes of the world by creating
the unity of Germany; its immediate effect was to force the French army
on the Elbe to fall back on the Rhine. Here Ferdinand of Brunswick,
reinforced with twenty thousand English soldiers, held them at bay
during the summer of 1758; while Frederick, foiled in an attack on
Moravia, drove the Russians back on Poland in the battle of Zorndorf.
His defeat however by the Austrian General Daun at Hochkirch proved the
first of a series of terrible misfortunes; and the year 1759 marks the
lowest point of his fortunes. A fresh advance of the Russian army forced
the king to attack it at Kunersdorf in August, and Frederick's repulse
ended in the utter rout of his army. For the moment all seemed lost, for
even Berlin lay open to the conqueror. A few days later the surrender
of Dresden gave Saxony to the Austrians; and at the close of the year an
attempt upon them at Plauen was foiled with terrible loss. But every
disaster was retrieved by the indomitable courage and tenacity of the
king, and winter found him as before master of Silesia and of all Saxony
save the ground which Daun's camp covered.

[Sidenote: Minden and Quiberon.]

The year which marked the lowest point of Frederick's fortunes was the
year of Pitt's greatest triumphs, the year of M