Now let us look for a moment at the province of Silesia, which, you will remember, Frederick the Great wickedly tore from Maria Theresa in the year 1741.[33] You will see from the map on page 38 of our first volume that Silesia forms a wedge between Bohemia and Hungary on the south, and Russian Poland on the east. Whoever holds Silesia can turn the line of the Oder, and pass behind the barrier fortresses which Germany has built upon her eastern front. He also holds the road northward to Berlin and southward to Vienna. At all costs the Germans must defend Silesia, not only because it is the key to Germany from the south-east, but because it is the German Lancashire, a great industrial province which supplies the empire with much of its cotton, linen, woollen, and metal manufactures. Should this province be captured, Germany would suffer a blow from which she could hardly recover. There is another but a less important reason why Silesia must be held by the Germans. Silesia is, as it were, a wedge between the Slav peoples of the east and those of Bohemia. Should Russia conquer Silesia, she would be able to join hands with the Slavs of Bohemia, and it is possible that they might rise in her favour. These Czechs,[34] as they are called, formerly dwelt in the Carpathians, but were driven westward into Bohemia about 570 A.D. They number about eight millions, and they speak a Slavonic language. About 37 per cent. of the population of Bohemia consists of Germans, and between them and the Czechs there is a bitter race enmity, which has grown greatly in recent years. [Footnote 26: _Kosh-tsyūsh´ko_, born 1746, died 1817. In 1794 he raised the standard of Polish independence at Cracow, defeated the Russians, and defended Warsaw for two months. He was defeated, and, after being imprisoned, was released and retired to Switzerland, where he died.] [Footnote 27: _P´shé-mee-sell_.] [Footnote 28: _Var´show_.] [Footnote 29: _Nā-ref´_.] [Footnote 30: _Var´tay_.] [Footnote 31: _Goom-bin´-nen_.] [Footnote 32: See p. 80, vol. i.] [Footnote 33: See p. 44, vol. i.] [Footnote 34: _Che_ch_s_. Pronounce the _ch_ underlined as in the Scottish word "loch."] CHAPTER IX. VICTORY AND DEFEAT. We must now learn something of the fighting that took place between the Russians and the Germans during the months of August and September.