In the grueling middle years of the Seven Years' War, Frederick the Great fights for Prussia's survival with one weapon above all others: speed. Carlyle follows him through marches, sieges, winter hardship, and diplomatic uncertainty, where a smaller army must somehow stand against Russians, Austrians, Reich forces, and the slow exhaustion of all sides. Encamped near Meissen and Schlettau, Frederick holds Saxony in a tense defensive posture even as danger multiplies on every front. The campaign turns on daring movements across the Elbe, failed efforts to force battle near Moritzburg and Radeburg, and the catastrophic loss of Fouquet at Landshut, where Loudon's attack exposes the fragility of Prussia's position in Silesia. Yet even disaster cannot still Frederick's inventiveness: he instantly shifts from crisis to counterstroke, planning new operations with deceptive boldness. Around him, Henri, Ferdinand, Lippe-Buckeburg, and others labor under impossible conditions, their successes and failures shaped by supply shortages, caution, and relentless pressure. At the same time, occupied towns like Leipzig endure crushing exactions, revealing the war's human and financial cost. Heroic, urgent, and exacting, this volume presents war as a test of nerve, statecraft, and endurance. This edition has been fully restored with modern typesetting, custom cover design.