With which Frederick would have liked to see the European war ended altogether; but it went on, Austria, too, prospering.  He tries vainly to effect combinations to enforce peace.  George of England, having at last fairly got himself into the war, and through the battle of Dettingen, valorously enough; operations emerging in a Treaty of Worms (September 1743), mainly between England and Austria, which does not guarantee the Breslau Treaty.  An expressive silence!  “What was good to give is good to take.”  Is Frederick, then, not secure of Silesia?  If he must guard his own, he can no longer stand aside.  So the Worms Treaty begets an opposition treaty, chief parties Prussia, France, and Kaiser Karl Albert of Bavaria, signed at Frankfurt-on-Maine, May 1744.

Before which France has actually declared war on England, with whose troops her own have been fighting for a not inconsiderable time without declaration of war; and all the time fortifications in Silesia have been becoming realities.  Frederick will strike when his moment comes.

The imperative moment does come when Prince Karl, or, more properly, Traun, under cloak of Prince Karl, seems on the point of altogether crushing the French.  Frederick intervenes, in defence of the kaiser; swoops on Bohemia, captures Prag; in short, brings Prince Karl and Traun back at high speed, unhindered by French.  Thenceforward, not a successfully managed campaign on Frederick’s part, admirably conducted on the other side by Traun.  This campaign the king’s school in the art of war, and M. de Traun his teacher—­so Frederick himself admits.

Austria is now sure to invade Silesia; will Frederick not block the passes against Prince Karl, now having no Traun under his cloak?  Frederick will not—­one leaves the mouse-trap door open, pleasantly baited, moreover, into which mouse Karl will walk.  And so, three weeks after that remarkable battle of Fontenoy, in another quarter, very hard-won victory of Marechal Saxe over Britannic Majesty’s Martial Boy, comes battle of Hohenfriedberg.  A most decisive battle, “most decisive since Blenheim,” wrote Frederick, whose one desire now is peace.

Britannic Majesty makes peace for himself with Frederick, being like to have his hands full with a rising in the Scotch Highlands; Austria will not, being still resolute to recover Silesia—­rejects bait of Prussian support in imperial election for Wainz, Kaiser Karl being now dead.  What is kaisership without Silesia?  Prussia has no insulted kaiser to defend, desires no more than peace on the old Breslau terms properly ratified; but finances are low.  Grand Duke Franz is duly elected; but the empress queen will have Silesia.  Battle of Sohr does not convince her.  There must be another surprising last attempt by Saxony and Austria; settled by battles of Hennensdorf and Kesselsdorf.

So at last Frederick got the Peace of Dresden—­security, it is to be hoped, in Silesia, the thing for which he had really gone to war; leaving the rest of the European imbroglio to get itself settled in its own fashion after another two years of the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle.