only continue their chant in
soft, broken, sobbing tones, but Benda was not angry; he dared not look
at them, lest they might see that his own stern eyes were veiled in
tears.
Frederick seemed more and more absorbed in himself--lost in painful
memories. But the loud hosannas resounded and awakened him from his
slumber; he dared no longer give himself up to brooding. He arose slowly
from his seat, and silent and alone, even as he had entered, he left the
church.
CHAPTER II. PRINCE HENRY.
Seven years had passed since Prince Henry had left his wife, to fight
with his brother against his enemies. During these long years of strife
and contest, neither the king nor the prince had returned to Berlin.
Like the king, he also had won for himself fame and glory upon the
battle-field. Much more fortunate than his brother, he had won many
victories, and had not sustained a single defeat with his army corps.
More successful in all his undertakings than Frederick, perhaps also
more deliberate and careful, he had always chosen the right hour
to attack the enemy, and was always prepared for any movement. His
thoughtfulness and energy had more than once released the king from
some disagreeable or dangerous position. To the masterly manner in which
Prince Henry managed to unite his forces with those of his brother after
the battle of Kunersdorf, the king owed his escape from the enemies
which then surrounded him. And to the great and glorious victory
gained by Prince Henry over the troops of the empire and of Austria at
Freiberg, the present happy peace was to be attributed. This battle had
subdued the courage of the Austrians, and had filled the generals of the
troops of the empire with such terror, that they declared at once their
unwillingness to continue the war, and their determination to return
with their forces to their different countries.
The battle of Freiberg was the last battle of the Seven Years' War. It
brought to Prince Henry such laurels as the king had gained at Leignitz
and Torgau; it placed him at his brother's side as an equal. Frederick
saw it without envy or bitterness, and rejoiced in the fulness of his
great soul, in his brother's fame. When he found himself, for the first
time after the Seven Years' War, surrounded at Berlin by the princes and
generals, he advanced with a cordial smile to his brother, and laying
his hand gently on his shoulder, said aloud:
"You see here, sirs, the only one amon
|