The Prince of Brunswick’s victory is, by all the skillful, thought a ‘chef d’oeuvre’, worthy of Turenne, Conde, or the most illustrious human butchers.  The French behaved better than at Rosbach, especially the Carabiniers Royaux, who could not be ‘entames’.  I wish the siege of Olmutz well over, and a victory after it; and that, with good news from America, which I think there is no reason to doubt of, must procure us a good peace at the end of the year.  The Prince of Prussia’s death is no public misfortune:  there was a jealousy and alienation between the King and him, which could never have been made up between the possessor of the crown and the next heir to it.  He will make something of his nephew, ‘s’il est du bois don’t on en fait’.  He is young enough to forgive, and to be forgiven, the possession and the expectative, at least for some years.

Adieu!  I am unwell, but affectionately yours.

LETTER CCXXVI

Blackheath, July 18, 1758.

My dear friend:  Yesterday I received your letter of the 4th; and my last will have informed you that I had received your former, concerning the Rhenish, about which I gave you instructions.  If ’vinum Mosellanum est omni tempore sanum’, as the Chapter of Treves asserts, what must this ‘vinum Rhenanum’ be, from its superior strength and age?  It must be the universal panacea.

Captain Howe is to sail forthwith somewhere or another, with about 8,000 land forces on board him; and what is much more, Edward the White Prince.  It is yet a secret where they are going; but I think it is no secret, that what 16,000 men and a great fleet could not do, will not be done by 8,000 men and a much smaller fleet.  About 8,500 horse, foot, and dragoons, are embarking, as fast as they can, for Embden, to reinforce Prince Ferdinand’s army; late and few, to be sure, but still better than never, and none.  The operations in Moravia go on slowly, and Olmutz seems to be a tough piece of work; I own I begin to be in pain for the King of Prussia; for the Russians now march in earnest, and Marechal Dann’s army is certainly superior in number to his.  God send him a good delivery!

You have a Danish army now in your neighborhood, and they say a very fine one; I presume you will go to see it, and, if you do, I would advise you to go when the Danish Monarch comes to review it himself; ’pour prendre langue de ce Seigneur’.  The rulers of the earth are all worth knowing; they suggest moral reflections:  and the respect that one naturally has for God’s vicegerents here on earth, is greatly increased by acquaintance with them.

Your card-tables are gone, and they inclose some suits of clothes, and some of these clothes inclose a letter.