Frederick’s Motives for the War.--Marriage of William Augustus.-- Testimony of Lord Macaulay.--Frederick and his Allies.--Visit to Dresden.--Military Energy.--Charles Albert chosen Emperor.--The Coronation.--Effeminacy of the Saxon Princes.--Disappointment and Vexation of Frederick.--He withdraws in Chagrin.--The Cantonment on the Elbe.--Winter Campaigning.--The Concentration at Chrudim. It was on the 11th of November, 1741, that Frederick, elated with his conquest of Silesia, had returned to Berlin. In commencing the enterprise he had said, “Ambition, interest, and the desire to make the world speak of me, vanquished all, and war was determined on.” He had, indeed, succeeded in making the “world speak” of him. He had suddenly become the most prominent man in Europe. Some extolled his exploits. Some expressed amazement at his perfidy. Many, recognizing his sagacity and his tremendous energy, sought his alliance. Embassadors from the various courts of Europe crowded his capital. Fourteen sovereign princes, with many foreigners of the highest rank, were counted among the number. The king was in high spirits. While studiously maturing his plans for the future, he assumed the air of a thoughtless man of fashion, and dazzled the eyes and bewildered the minds of his guests with feasts and pageants. [Illustration: FREDERICK THE GREAT. ÆT. 30] On the 7th of January, 1742, Frederick’s eldest brother, William Augustus, was married to Louisa Amelia, a younger sister of the king’s neglected wife, Elizabeth. The king himself graced the festival, in gorgeous attire, and very successfully plied all his wonderful arts of fascination. “He appeared,” says Bielfeld, “so young, so gay, so graceful, that I could not have refrained from loving him, even if he had been a stranger.” But, in the midst of these scenes of gayety, the king was contemplating the most complicated combinations of diplomacy. Europe was apparently thrown into a state of chaos. It was Frederick’s one predominant thought to see what advantages he could secure to Prussia from the general wreck and ruin. Lord Macaulay, speaking of these scenes, says: “The selfish rapacity of the King of Prussia gave the signal to his neighbors. His example quieted their sense of shame. The whole world sprang to arms. On the head of Frederick is all the blood which was shed in a war which raged during many years, and in every quarter of the globe--the blood of the column of Fontenoy, the blood of the brave mountaineers who were slaughtered at Culloden. The evils produced by this wickedness were felt in lands where the name of Prussia was unknown. In order that he might rob a neighbor whom he had promised to defend, black men fought on the coast of Coromandel, and red men scalped each other by the great lakes of North America.”