desired nothing so much as peace. Once or twice
there had been some faint hope that this might be brought about by
his favourite sister, Wilhelmina, who had been ceaseless in her
efforts to effect it; but the two empresses and the Pompadour were
alike bent on avenging themselves on the king, and the reverses
that they had suffered but increased their determination to
overwhelm him.

Great as Frederick's success had been, it did not blind him to the
fact that his position was almost hopeless. When the war began, he
had an army of a hundred and fifty thousand of the finest soldiers
in the world. The two campaigns had made frightful gaps in their
ranks. At Prague he had fought with eighty thousand men, at Leuthen
he had but thirty thousand. His little kingdom could scarcely
supply men to fill the places of those who had fallen, while his
enemies had teeming populations from which to gather ample
materials for fresh armies. It seemed, even to his hopeful spirit,
that all this could have but one ending; and that each success,
however great, weakened him more than his adversaries.

The winter's rest was, however, most welcome. For the moment there
was nothing to plan, nothing to do, save to order that the drilling
of the fresh levies should go on incessantly; in order that some,
at least, of the terrible gaps in the army might be filled up
before the campaign commenced in the spring.

1758 began badly, for early in January the Russians were on the
move. The empress had dismissed, and ordered to be tried by court
martial, the general who had done so little the previous year; had
appointed Field Marshal Fermor to command in his place, and ordered
him to advance instantly and to annex East Prussia in her name.

On the 16th of January he crossed the frontier, and six days later
entered Koenigsberg and issued a proclamation to the effect that
his august sovereign had now become mistress of East Prussia, and
that all men of official or social position must at once take the
oath of allegiance to her.

East Prussia had been devastated the year before by marauders, and
its hatred of Russia was intense; but the people were powerless to
resist. Some fled, leaving all behind them; but the majority were
forced to take the required oath, and for a time East Prussia
became a Russian province. Nevertheless its young men constantly
slipped away, when opportunity offered, to join the Prussian army;
and moneys were frequently collected b