&c.;--substantially true, I doubt not; but little or nothing of it so definite and conclusively distinct as it ought, in all items, to have been by this time,--had poor Dryasdust known what he was doing.] These are, arithmetically precise, his resources,--PLUS only what may lie in his own head and heart, or funded in the other heads and hearts, especially in those 150,000, which he and his Fathers have been diligently disciplining, to good perfection, for four centuries come the time.
France, urged by Pompadour and the enthusiasms, was first in the field.
The French Army, in superb equipment, though privately in poorish state of discipline, took the road early in March; "March 26th and 27th," it crossed the German Border, Cleve Country and Koln Country; had been rumored of since January and February last, as terrifically grand; and here it now actually is, above 100,000 strong,--110,405, as the Army-Lists, flaming through all the Newspapers, teach mankind.
[_Helden-Geschichte,_ iv.

391; iii.

1073.] Bent mainly upon Prussia, it would seem; such the will of Pompadour.

Mainly upon Prussia; Marechal d'Estrees, crossing at Koln, made offers even to his Britannic Majesty to be forgiven in comparison; "Yield us a road through your Hanover, merely a road to those Halberstadt-Magdeburg parts, your Hanover shall have neutrality!" "Neutrality to Hanover ?" sighed Britannic Majesty: "Alas, am not I pledged by Treaty?
And, alas, withal, how is it possible, with that America hanging over us ?" and stood true.

Nor is this all, on the part of magnanimous France: there is a Soubise getting under way withal, Soubise and 30,000, who will reinforce the Reich's Armament, were it on foot, and be heard of by and by! So high runs French enthusiasm at present.