Opulent Frankfurt, on his right; how handy would that be, were not
Reichs Law so express! Marburg, Giessen are outposts of his;
on which side one of Ferdinand's people, Prince von Ysenburg,
watches him with an 8 or 10,000, capable of mischief in
that quarter.

"On the Eve of New-year's day, or on the auspicious Day itself,
Soubise requests, of the Frankfurt Authorities, permission for a
regiment of his to march through that Imperial City. To which, by
law and theory, the Imperial City can say Yes or No;
but practically cannot, without grave inconvenience, say other than
Yes, though most Frankfurters wish it could. 'Yes,' answer the
Frankfurt Magnates; Yes surely, under the known conditions.
Tuesday, January 2d, about 5 in the morning, while all is still
dark in Frankfurt, regiment Nassau appears, accordingly, at the
Sachsenhausen Gate, Town-guard people all ready to receive it and
escort it through; and is admitted as usual. Quite as usual: but
instead of being escorted through, it orders, in calm peremptory
voice, the Town-guard, To ground arms; with calm rapidity proceeds
to admit ten other regiments or battalions, six of them German;
seizes the artillery on the Walls, seizes all the other Gates:--and
poor Frankfurt finds itself tied hand and foot, almost before it is
out of bed! Done with great exactitude, with the minimum of
confusion, and without a hurt skin to anybody. The Inhabitants
stood silent, gazing; the Town-guard laid down their arms, and went
home. Totally against Law; but cleverly done; perhaps Soubise's
chief exploit in the world; certainly the one real success the
French have yet had.

"Soubise made haste to summon the Magistrates: 'Law of Necessity