headed as a traitor. Dressed in a beautiful gold-trimmed suit and silk stockings, he walked proudly to meet his death. He would not let any one bandage his eyes; he did it himself. But when he kneeled down and the headsman raised the sword, one of the judges exclaimed, “Mercy!” and his life was spared.
Frederick of Prussia, as the steward assured his listeners, could not become reconciled to the fact that the army of the Empress everywhere defeated the Elector’s regiments. He promised to win Bohemia back for him if in return the Elector would give him the portion between Silesia and the Elbe. On the first day of September, 1744, he was again before Prague, and stormed it so desperately that the commander of the garrison, General Hars, rather than see the city devastated, at once surrendered. But the Prussians, notwithstanding the promise they had given to Hars, ravaged unmercifully, and the damage done was estimated at millions. The people of Prague often thought of the French who had treated them so mildly. For ten weeks the
