itate to rush upon
them with less than half the number of Prussians; a total defeat, the
first he had yet sustained, was the consequence. From this day it is
allowed that the Prussian infantry had no longer any superiority over
their enemies; henceforth the genius of their sovereign, the
confidence he inspired, and the dread entertained of him by his
adversaries, are the only advantages they have to depend upon. In the
second year of the war he writes to La Motte Fouque,--"Owing to the
great losses sustained, our infantry is very much degenerated from
what it formerly was, and must not be employed on difficult
undertakings." In the third year he says to the same,--"Care must be
taken not to render our people timid; they are too much so by nature
already."

Of this battle of Collin we must here report an anecdote
characteristic of what Frederick _then_ was. The left wing of the
Prussian army was obliquing in admirable order to the left, and
already gaining the right of the Austrians, according to the
prescribed disposition, when the king, at once losing patience in the
most unaccountable manner, sent directions to Prince Maurice of
Dessau, who commanded the infantry, ordering him to wheel up and
advance upon the enemy. The prince told the officer that the proposed
points had not yet been attained, and recommended that the oblique
march should still be continued. The king immediately came up in
person, and in haughty and overbearing style repeated the order, and,
when the Prince of Dessau attempted to explain, drew his sword, and in
a fiery and threatening tone exclaimed, "Will he (_er_) obey, and
immediately wheel up and advance?" The officers present were
terrified, fancying from his excited manner that he would be guilty of
some act of violence; but the prince, of course, bowed and obeyed,
and--the battle was soon lost.

Frederick, as an absolute king and commander, had, no doubt, many
advantages over the ill-combined coalition by which he was assailed;
but the mass of brute force was so great on the part of his
adversaries, that he was more than once on the very eve of being
crushed. At one time, indeed, he contemplated the commission of
suicide.

[Illustration: Frederick and the Austrians after Leuthen.]

The wonderful battles of Rossbach and Leuthen[1] reconciled him to
life. The former was not, as is well known, his work, as it was
almost gained before he well knew what was going on: it was due
principally t