the Great Elector's time (not to mention that of Karl XII.'s Army
out of Norway, after poor Karl XII. got shot); that of Napoleon
from Moscow; this of Belleisle, which is the only one brilliantly
conducted, and not ending in rout and annihilation.

"The troops rest in Eger for a week or two; then homeward through
the Ober-Pfalz:--'go all across the Rhine at Speyer' (5th February
next); the Bohemian Section of the Oriflamme making exit in this
manner. Not quite the eighth man of them left; five-eighths are
dead: and there are about 12,000 prisoners, gone to Hungary,--who
ran mostly to the Turks, such treatment had they, and were not
heard of again." [ Guerre de Boheme, ii. 221
(for this last fact). IB. 204, and Espagnac, i. 176 (for
particulars of the Retreat); and still better, Belleisle's own
Despatch and Private Letter (Eger, 2d January and 5th January,
1743), in Campagnes, vii. 1-21.]--
Ah, Belleisle, Belleisle!

The Army of the Oriflamme gets home in this sad manner; Germany not
cut in Four at all. "Implacable Austrian badgers," as we call them,
"gloomily indignant bears," how have they served this fine French
hunting-pack; and from hunted are become hunters, very dangerous to
contemplate! At Frankfurt, Belleisle, for his own part, pauses;
cannot, in this entirely down-broken state of body, serve his
Majesty farther in the military business; will do some needful
diplomatics with the Kaiser, and retire home to government of Metz,
till his worn-out health recover itself a little.


A GLANCE AT VIENNA, AND THEN AT BERLIN.