r, shot
having no effect at such a distance. There were various criticisms: some
real, as this; some imaginary, as that Friedrich grudged gunpowder, the
fact being that he had it not, except after carriage from Neisse, say a
hundred and twenty miles off,--Troppau, his last Silesian Town, or safe
place (his for the moment), is eighty miles;--and was obliged to waste
none of it.

Friedrich is not thought to shine in the sieging line as he does in
the fighting; which has some truth in it, though not very much. When
Friedrich laid himself to engineering, I observe, he did it well: see
Neisse, Graudenz, Magdeburg. His Balbi went wrong with the parallels, on
this occasion; many things went wrong: but the truly grievous thing was
his distance from Silesia and the supplies. A hundred and twenty
miles of hill-carriage, eighty of them disputable, for every shot of
ammunition and for every loaf of bread; this was hard to stand:--and
perhaps no War-apparatus but a Prussian, with a Friedrich for sole
chief-manager, could have stood it so long. Friedrich did stand it, in
a wonderfully tolerable manner; and was continuing to stand it, and make
fair progress; and it is not doubted he would have got Olmutz, had
not there another fact come on him, which proved to be of unmanageable
nature. The actual loss, namely, of one Convoy, after so many had
come safe, and when, as appears, there was now only one wanted and no
more!--Let us attend to this a little.

Had Daun, at Olmutz, been as a Duke of Cumberland relieving Tournay,
rushing into fight at Fontenoy, like a Hanover White-Horse, neck clothed
with thunder, and head destitute of knowledge,--how lucky had it been
for Friedrich! But Daun knows his trade better. Daun, though superior
in strength, sits on his Magazine, clear not to fight. By no art of
manoeuvring, had Friedrich much tried it, or hoped it, this time, could
Daun have been brought to give battle. As Fabins Cunctator he is here in
his right place; taking impregnable positions, no man with better skill
in that branch of business; pushing out parties on the Troppau road; and
patiently waiting till this dangerous Enemy, with such endless shifts in
him, come in sight perhaps of his last cartridge, or perhaps make
some stumble on the way towards that consummation. Daun is aware of
Friedrich's surprising qualities. Bos against Leo, Daun feels these
procedures to be altogether feline (FELIS-LEONINE); such stealthy
glidings about, dec