323 FREDERICK AND WARHe was masterful in the way he conceived his enterprises, but
there was often something lacking in the final execution. He
was defective in sang-froid, and he carried into warfare a poet's
power of imagination. Thus we encounter excessive haste as at
Kolin and Torgau, and panic fear as at Mollwitz and Lobositz,
alternating with presumptuous underestimation of his enemies
as at Hochkirch and Maxen. (Berenhorst, 1845-7,1, 180)The air of Olympian serenity was an artifice, sustained by devices like
the one noticed by Prince Henry, of preparing 'spontaneous' verses
well in advance, so that they could be produced to general admira-
tion at time of crisis.
Frederick's courage, in the gross physical sense, was undoubted.
The horses killed under him, the bullet holes in his clothing, the snuff
box that was flattened at Kunersdorf, all testify that he carried
himself into the heaviest fire. Whereas Joseph II had to put himself in
training for war by sleeping for a time on a camp bed, Frederick
needed to make only the slightest adjustments in his usual habits
whenever he went on campaign. He pursued this spartan, hard-
driving way of life with all the more rigour because it sprang from
principle rather than from his natural inclinations. He got up at three
every morning, and he admitted to Catt, 'It costs me something, I tell
you, to rise so early. I am so tired that I long to stay in bed a few
minutes more, but I know my business would suffer' (Catt, 1884,
11-12; on this paradox see also Schwicheldt and Nivernais in Volz,
1926-7, I, 183, 284; also Yorke, 1913, III, 229; Zimmermann, 1788,
200-3; Guibert, 1803, I, 232).
As at Sans Souci, Frederick went about in the field clad in boots,
black breeches, and the plain coat of the Interims-Uniform of the First
Battalion of the Garde. He camped in the open field in the Silesian
Wars, but in the Seven Years War he spent most of the nights of the
military season in whatever house or hut came most readily to hand,
assigning one room to his staff, and reserving another for himself.
'Very often the sutlers' tents were standing immediately outside his
headquarters, and gambling, music and every kind of din was pro-
longed day and night. Immediately after table he liked to take a
solitary stroll through the scene, and enjoy the happy tumult' (Kal-
tenborn, 1790-1, I, 30-1). During some of the longer interludes in the
operations Frederick was fond of betaking himself to some monastery
or noble palace, like those at Seelowitz, Leitmeritz, Camenz, Griis-
sau, Rohnstock or Kunzendorf, where he found spacious accommoda-
tion and the possibility of good talk. He shunned the vicinity of great
towns until the campaign was safely over.
Frederick's remaining luxuries became of some importance to