With Frederick the Great: A Story of the Seven Years' War by G. A. Henty (best classic romance novels txt) 📗

news caused absolute dismay in Austria, and hastened the Swedes to conclude a peace with Frederick. They had throughout the war done little, but the peace set free the force that had been watching them; and which had regularly, every year, driven them back as fast as they endeavoured to invade Prussia on that side.

In July, however, the murder of Peter threw all into confusion again; but Catherine had no desire to renew the war, and it was evident that this was approaching its end. She therefore recalled her army, which had already joined that of the king. England and France, too, were negotiating terms of peace; and it was clear that Austria, single handed, could not hope to win back Silesia.

The king gained several small but important successes, and recaptured the important fortress of Schweidnitz. Then came long negotiations and, on the following February, a general peace was signed by all the Powers; Prussia retaining her frontiers, as at the beginning of the war.

From this time Fergus Drummond's life passed uneventfully. Every year he went to his old home with his wife, and as time went on brought his children to Scotland; and every winter he spent a fortnight at Berlin. When his second son reached the age of twelve, he sent him to school in England, and there prepared him to succeed to the Scottish estate. This he did not do for many years, entering the British army and winning the rank of colonel in the Peninsular war; and it was not until some years after the battle of Waterloo that, at the death of his father, he retired and settled down on the Scottish estates that were now his.

The rest of Colonel Drummond's family took their mother's nationality.

Fergus did not come in for the whole of the Eulenfurst estates, until thirty years after his marriage. He then took up his abode, with his wife, at the mansion where they had first met, near Dresden; and retaining a sufficient share of the estates to support his position, divided the remainder among his children, considering that the property was too large to be owned with advantage by any one person. His descendants are still large landowners in various parts of Saxony.

The king survived the signature of the peace for twenty-five years, during which he devoted himself to repairing the damage his country had suffered by the war; and by incessant care, and wise reforms, he succeeded in rendering Prussia far wealthier and more prosperous than it had been when he succeeded to the throne. Lindsay rose to the rank of general in the Prussian service, and his friendship with Fergus remained close and unbroken. The old Earl Marischal survived his younger brother for twenty years; and was, to the last, one of the king's dearest and most intimate friends.