Before the news of Breslau reached him Frederick had declared to Bevern that he was firmly resolved to attack the enemy, but that it must be with their united forces, “else I am too weak and not much over 12,000 strong.” Next day, November 24th, at Naumburg on the Queiss the report reached him that Bevern had gained a victory. He therefore planned to catch Prince Charles in a net at Neumarkt by marching from Liegnitz to meet Bevern sallying forth from Breslau. He even hinted that Keith might surprise Prague, and wrote to Ferdinand: “With good fortune I flatter myself that I shall finish this business in a fortnight.” “The Almighty shows us one great mercy after another,” wrote Eichel. Next day they learned part of the truth, though rumour multiplied fourfold the Austrian loss of 6000. “Defend Breslau to the last man—on peril of your head,” was the sum of Frederick’s orders to his brother-in-law, accompanied by much military counsel and a promise of speedy aid. But soon the news came that Bevern was a prisoner, that his army had fled to Glogau, worst of all, that Breslau had capitulated without firing a shot. Thousands of the garrison voluntered to serve Maria Theresa. It is said that one battalion quitted the capital in a strength of nine officers and four men. After sixteen years Silesia seemed to be welcoming home its Queen. For a fortnight Frederick’s army had struggled along bad roads at the astonishing rate of nearly sixteen miles a day. They drew rein at Parchwitz, within two marches of Breslau. There on November 28th the King composed a short testament. “I will be buried at Sans Souci without pomp or ceremony—and by night,” was his decree. “... If the battle be won, my brother must none the less send a messenger to France with full powers to negotiate for peace.” The words show how completely he identified himself with Prussia amid circumstances so gloomy that Eichel forbore, ever after, to mention the document lest he should recall them to the mind of the King. Yet on the same day Frederick wrote one of his most characteristic letters to Wilhelmina, who had expressed her fear that the army vanquished at Rossbach would afflict Germany anew. “This is now our task,” ran his reply: “to put the Austrians to flight and to recover all that we have lost; and it is no trifle. However, I am undertaking it at the risk of what may follow. Neither Soubise nor the Imperialists will come back this year: as for the future, we must hope for peace, for indeed it seems as though our enemies had determined to destroy the human race.... I beg you to await the issue in these parts with patience; neither our anxiety nor our care make any difference to it, and nothing will happen except what pleases His Sacred Majesty Chance.... If I reach winter quarters, I shall have the honour of sending you a prodigious quantity of verse of every kind.”