Frederick headed thither rapidly; on the 18th of December he occupied Dresden.
This time, the King of Poland, Elector of Saxony, forced the hand of the new empress: "The Austrians and the Saxons have just sent ministers hither to negotiate for peace," said a letter to France from the King of Prussia; "so I have no course open but to sign.

Would that I might be fortunate enough to serve as the instrument of general pacification.
After discharging my duty towards the state I govern, and towards my family, no object will be nearer to my heart than that of being able to render myself of service to your Majesty's interests." Frederick the Great returned to Berlin covered with glory, and definitively master of Silesia.

"Learn once for all," he said at a later period, in his instructions to his successor, "that where a kingdom is concerned, you take when you can, and that you are never wrong when you are not obliged to hand over.

An insolent and a cynical maxim of brute force, which conquerors have put in practice at all times, without daring to set it up as a principle.
Whilst Berlin was in gala trim to celebrate the return of her monarch in triumph, Europe had her eyes fixed upon the unparalleled enterprise of a young man, winning, courageous, and frivolous as he was, attempting to recover by himself alone the throne of his fathers.

For nearly three years past, Charles Edward Stuart, son of Chevalier St.George, had been awaiting in France the fulfilment of the promises and hopes which had been flashed before his eyes.