But the King gave him to understand that it was now too late, and that the Rubicon was passed." [Friedrich's own Account (_OEuvres,_ ii.

57).] The secret is now out, therefore; Invasion of Silesia certain and close at hand.

"A day or two before marching," may have been this very day when Botta got his audience, the King assembled his Chief Generals, all things ready out in the Frankfurt-Crossen region yonder; and spoke to them as follows; briefly and to the point:-- "Gentlemen, I am undertaking a War, in which I have no allies but your valor and your good-will.

My cause is just; my resources are what we ourselves can do; and the issue lies in Fortune.

Remember continually the glory which your Ancestors acquired in the plains of Warsaw, at Fehrbellin, and in the Expedition to Preussen [across the Frische Haf on ice, that time].