untains, leaving the
defiles to Saxony and Silesia both unguarded.

As messenger after messenger arrived at Leitmeritz, with reports of
the movements of the troops, the astonishment and indignation of
Frederick rose higher and higher. The whole fruits of the campaign
were lost, by this astounding succession of blunders; and on
hearing that Zittau had been destroyed, and that the army had
arrived at Bautzen in the condition of a beaten and disheartened
force, he at once started, with the bulk of the army, by the Elbe
passes for that town; leaving Maurice of Dessau, with 10,000 men,
to secure the passes; and Keith to follow more slowly with the
baggage train and magazines.

On his arrival at Bautzen Frederick refused to speak to his
brother, but sent him a message saying that he deserved to be
brought before a court martial, which would sentence him and all
his generals to death; but that he should not carry the matter so
far, being unable to forget that the chief offender was his
brother. The prince resigned his command, and the king, in answer
to his letter to that effect, said that, in the situation created
by him, nothing was left but to try the last extremity.

"I must go and give battle," he wrote, "and if we cannot conquer,
we must all of us get ourselves killed."

Frederick, indeed, as his letters show, had fully made up his mind
that he would die in battle, rather than live beaten. The animosity
of his enemies was, to a large extent, personal to himself; and he
believed that they would, after his death, be inclined to give
better terms to Prussia than they would ever grant, while he lived.
For three weeks the king vainly tried to get the Austrians to give
battle, but Prince Karl and Daun remained on the hill from which
they had bombarded Zittau, and which they had now strongly
fortified.

Their barbarous and most useless bombardment of Zittau had done
their cause harm; for it roused a fierce cry of indignation
throughout Europe, even among their allies; excited public feeling
in England to the highest point in favour of Frederick; and created
a strong feeling of hostility to the Austrians throughout Saxony.

As soon as Keith and the waggon train arrived, bringing up the
Prussian strength to 56,000, the king started, on the 15th August
(1757), for Bernstadt; and then, to the stupefaction of the
Austrians--who had believed that they had either Saxony or Silesia
at their mercy, whenever they could make up t