"Waldau,
11th September, 1759" (Preuss, ii.; _Urkundenbuch,_ p. 45).] Friedrich's
unbearable feelings, of grief and indignation, in regard to all this
Dresden matter,--which are not expressed except coldly in business
form,--can be fancied by all readers. One of the most tragical bits
of ill-luck that ever befell him. A very sore stroke, in his present
condition; a signal loss and affront. And most of all, unbearable
to think how narrowly it has missed being a signal triumph;--missed
actually by a single hair's-breadth, which is as good as by a mile, or
by a thousand miles!

Soon after 9 o'clock that evening, Durchlaucht in person came rolling
through our battery and the herring-bone balks, to visit Electoral
Highness,--which was not quite the legal time either, Durchlaucht had
not been half an hour with Electoral Highness, when a breathless Courier
came in: "General Wunsch within ten miles [took Torgau in no time, as
Durchlaucht well knows, for a week past]; and will be here before we
sleep!" Durchlaucht plunged out, over the herring-bone balks again
(which many carpenters are busy lifting); and the Electoral Highnesses,
in like manner, hurry off to Toplitz that same night, about an hour
after. What a Tuesday Night! Poor Hoffman is dead at 8 o'clock; the
Saxon Royalties, since 11, are galloping for Pirna, for Toplitz;
Durchlaucht of Zweibruck we saw hurry off an hour before
them,--Capitulation signature not yet dry, and terms of it beginning to
be broken; and Wunsch reported to be within ten miles!

The Wunsch report is perfectly correct. Wunsch is at Grossenhayn this
evening; all in a fiery mood of swiftness, his people and he;--and
indeed it is, by chance, one of Wolfersdorf's impetuosities that has
sent the news so fast. Wunsch had been as swift with Torgau as he was
with Wittenberg: he blew out the poor Reichs Garrison there by instant
storm, and packed it off to Leipzig, under charge of "an Officer and
Trumpet:"--he had, greatly against his will, to rest two days there for
a few indispensable cannon from Magdeburg. Cannon once come, Wunsch,
burning for deliverance of Dresden, had again started at his swiftest,
"Monday, 3d September [death day of the Siege], very early."

"He is under 8,000; but he is determined to do it;--and would have done
it, think judges, half thinks Zweibruck himself: such a fire in that
Wunsch and his Corps as is very dangerous indeed. At 4 this morning,
Zweibruck heard of his being on ma