66.] TO THE SAME (Wilsdruf, 19th November).

"The Austrians are packing off to Bohemia,--where, in reprisal for the incendiary operations they have done in my countries, I have burnt them two big magazines.

I render the beatified Hero's retreat as difficult as possible; and I hope he will come upon some bad adventures within a few days." [_OEuvres de Frederic,_ xxiii.

66.] SAME DAY AND PLACE, TO D'ARGENS.

A volley of most rough-paced off-hand Rhyming, direct from the heart; "Ode [as he afterwards terms it, or irrepressible extempore LILT] TO FORTUNE:" "MARQUIS, QUEL CHANGEMENT, what a change! I, a poor heretic creature, never blessed by the Holy Father; indeed, little frequenting Church, nor serving either Baal or the God of Israel; held down these many months, and reported by more than one shaven scoundrel [priest-pamphleteer at Vienna] to be quite extinct, and gone vagabond over the world,--see how capricious Fortune, after all her hundred preferences of my rivals, lifts me with helpful hand from the deep, and packs this Hero of the Hat and Sword,--whom Popes have blessed what they could, and who has walked in Pilgrimage before now [to Marienzell once, I believe, publicly at Vienna],--out of Saxony; panting, harassed goes he, like a stranger dog from some kitchen where the cook had flogged him out!" [Ib.