Majesty's service, should the march prove inevitable, and go that
way!"--"Well, perhaps!" I find Friedrich did dine, the second day
hence, with one of these Gentlemen; and lodged with the other.
Government at Breslau has ordered such Protest, on the part of the
Frontier populations and Official persons: and this is all that
comes of it.

During these hours, it chanced that the big Bell of Crossen dropped
from its steeple,--fulness of time, or entire rottenness of
axle-tree, being at last completed, at this fateful moment. Perhaps
an ominous thing? Friedrich, as Caesar and others have done,
cheerfully interprets the omen to his own advantage: "Sign that the
High is to be brought low!" says Friedrich. Were the march-routes,
wagon-trains, and multifarious adjustments perfect to the last item
here at Crossen, he will with much cheerfulness step into Silesia,
independent of all Grunberg Protests and fallen Bells.

On the second day he does actually cross; "the regiments marching
in, at different points; some reaching as far as 25 miles in."
It is Friday, 16th December, 1740; there has a game begun which
will last long! They went through the Village of Lasgen; that was
the first point of Silesian ground ("Circle of Schwiebus," our old
friend, is on the left near by); and "Schwerin's Regiment was the
foremost." Others cross more to the left or right; "marching
through the Village of Lessen," and other dim Villages and little
Towns, round and beyond Grunberg; all regiments and divisions
bearing upon Grunberg and the Great Road; but artistically
portioned out,--several miles in breadth (for the sake of
quarters), and, as is generally the rule, about a day's march in
length. This evening nearly the whole Army was on Silesian ground.