74 THE SILESIAN WARS, 1740-56 000 Austrians under Griinne had in fact already accomplished a
union near Dresden. It would be some time yet before Frederick's
army could arrive on the scene, and meanwhile the Old Dessauer and
his Elbe-Armee seemed to be moving with intolerable slowness from
northern Saxony.
At last, on 13 December, Frederick learnt that the Old Dessauer
had just reached Meissen, and had drawn Lehwaldt to him on the
west bank of the Elbe. From there the combined force marched south
to do battle with the Saxons and Griinne near Dresden.
On the 15th the royal army made the passage at Meissen. Early in
the afternoon it was reported to Frederick that 'the whole sky seemed
to be in flames in the direction of Dresden' (Berenhorst, 1845-7, I,
128). At five in the evening an officer brought news of the great
victoiy of Kesselsdorf, in which the Old Dessauer had overcome the
25,000 Saxons and the 6,000 Austrians in a bloody frontal assault.
On the morning of 17 December the king met the Old Dessauer at
the Lerchenbusch outside Dresden. Frederick dismounted, took off his
hat, and embraced the veteran as a sign of reconciliation.
The Saxons and Austrians were at last willing to accept the
verdict of battle, and in the agreeable days before the arrival of the
Austrian plenipotentiary Frederick bought cartloads of porcelain for
the palace of Charlottenburg, and attended the opera Arminio by
Hasse, who was one of his favourite composers. On Christmas Day the
Peace of Dresden put an end to the war. Maria Theresa recognised
Frederick in his sovereignty over Silesia and Glatz, and gained in
return only Frederick's agreement to the election of her consort
Francis Stephen as Emperor of Germany.
Frederick truly believed that the peace would be a durable one,
but he reflected with satisfaction on what his army had achieved
during the campaigns of 1745. The cavaliy had made a powerful
contribution to the recent victoiy at Kesselsdorf, as well as at Hohen-
friedeberg and Soor, and the historians of the German General Staff
concluded at theend of the nineteenth century: 'King Frederick never
commanded a better infantry than in the Second Silesian War. These
troops were equalled only by the men of the first campaigns [1756-7]
of the Seven Years War' (Gr. Gstb., 1895, III, 253).
Frederick returned to Berlin looking rather older than his thirty-
three years. There was no sign of the plumpish prince of 1740, with the
luxuriant hair of chestnut brown. Now the king's complexion was
weatherbeaten, the cheeks had fallen in, and deep lines ran past the
corners of the mouth. This was nevertheless the highpoint of
Frederick's life (Koser, 1921, I, 538). Valori noticed: 'This last cam-
paign had given him the opportunity of deploying all the talents of a
great general. He now believed that he had all those qualities at his