He well knew that he was lost if a people's war in Saxony
and Bohemia should be aroused against him. This readiness, indicative
of the cautious general, to restrict himself to military forms, which
alone made the contest possible for him, may be reckoned among his
greatest qualities.
Louder and louder became the cry of sorrow and admiration with which
Germans and foreigners watched this death-struggle of the lion at bay.
As early as 1740 the young King had been praised by the Protestants as
the champion of freedom of conscience and enlightenment, against
intolerance and the Jesuits. When, a few months after the battle at
Kollin, he completely defeated the French at Rossbach, he became the
hero of Germany. A glad cry of joy broke out everywhere. For two
hundred years the French had done great wrong to the divided country;
now the German national idea began to revolt against the influence of
French culture, and the King, who himself greatly admired Parisian
poetry, had effectively routed the Parisian generals with German
musket balls. It was such a brilliant victory, such a humiliating
defeat of the hereditary enemy, that everywhere in Germany there was
hearty rejoicing. Even where the soldiers of a State were fighting
against King Frederick, the people at home in city and country
rejoiced at the blows he dealt in good old German fashion. And the
longer the war lasted, the more active became the faith in the King's
invincibility, and the higher rose the confidence of the Germans.
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