SKIRMISHES BETWEEN THE PRUSSIANS AND AUSTRIANS.

While the king of Prussia was taking these measures in Saxony, two skirmishes happened on the frontiers of Bohemia, between his troops and the Austrians. On the twentieth of February, a body of six thousand Austrians surrounded the little town of Hirschfeld, in Upper Lusatia, garrisoned by a battalion of Prussian foot. The first attack was made at four in the morning, on two redoubts without the gates, each of which was defended by two field pieces: and though the Austrians were several times repulsed, they at last made themselves masters of one of the redoubts, and carried off the two pieces of cannon. In their retreat they were pursued by the Prussians, who fell upon their rear, killed some, and took many prisoners: this affair cost the Austrians at least five hundred men. About a fortnight after, the prince of Bevern marched out of Zittau, with a body of near nine thousand men, in order to destroy the remaining strongholds possessed by the Austrians on the frontiers. In this expedition he took the Austrian magazine at Friedland in Bohemia, consisting of nine thousand sacks of meal, and great store of ammunition; and after making himself master of Reichenberg, he returned to Zittau. The van of his troops, consisting of an hundred and fifty hussars of the regiment of Putkammer, met with a body of six hundred Croats, sustained by two hundred Austrian dragoons of Bathiania, at their entering Bohemia; and immediately fell upon them sword in hand, killed about fifty, took thirty horses, and made ten dragoons prisoners. The Prussians, it is said, did not lose a single man on this occasion; and two soldiers only were slightly wounded, the Austrians having made but a slight resistance.



NEUTRALITY OF THE EMPEROR, AND BEHAVIOUR OF THE DUTCH.

Whatever the conduct of the court of Vienna might have been to the allies of Great Britain, still, however, proper regard was shown to the subjects of this crown: for an edict was published at Florence on the thirteenth of February, wherein his imperial majesty, as grand duke of Tuscany, declared his intention of observing the most scrupulous neutrality in the then situation of affairs. All the ports in that duchy were accordingly enjoined to pay a strict regard to this declaration, in all cases relating to the French or English ships in the Mediterranean. The good effects of this injunction soon appeared; for two prizes taken by the English having put into Porto Ferraro, the captains of two French privateers addressed themselves to the governor, alleging, that they were captures of a pirate, and requesting that they might be obliged to put to sea; but the governor prudently replied, that as they came in under English colours he would protect them, and forbade the privateers, at their peril, to commit any violence. They, however, little regarding the governor's orders, prepared for sailing, and sent their boats to cut out one of the prizes, The captain, firing at their boats, killed one of their men, which, alarming the sentinels, notice was sent to the governor; and he, in consequence, ordered the two privateers immediately to depart.—The conduct of the Dutch was rather cautious than spirited. Whilst his Prussian majesty was employed on the side of Bohemia and Saxony, the French auxiliaries began their march to harass his defenceless territories in the neighbourhood of the Low Countries. A free passage was demanded of the states-general through Namur and Maastricht, for the provisions, ammunition, and artillery belonging to this new army; and though the English ambassador remonstrated against their compliance, and represented it as a breach of the neutrality their high mightinesses declared they would observe, yet, after some hesitation, the demand was granted; and their inability to prevent the passage of the French troops, should it be attempted by force, pleaded in excuse of their conduct.

Scarce had the French army, commanded by the prince de Soubise, set foot in the territories of Juliers and Cologn, when they found themselves in possession of the duchy of Cloves and the country of Marck, where all things were left open to them, the Prussians, who evacuated their posts, taking their route along the river Lippe, in order to join some regiments from Magdeburgh, who were sent to facilitate their retreat. The distressed inhabitants, thus exposed to the calamities of war from an unprovoked enemy, were instantly ordered to furnish contributions, forage, and provisions for the use of their invaders; and what was still more terrifying to them, the partisan Fischer, whose cruelties the last war they still remembered with horror, was again let loose upon them by the inhumanity of the empress-queen. Wesel was immediately occupied by the French; Emmerick and Maseyk soon shared the same fate; and the city of Gueldres was besieged, the Prussians seeming resolved to defend this last place; to which end they opened the sluices, and laid the country under water. Those who retreated, filing off to the north-west of Paderborn, entered the county of Ritberg, the property of count Caunitz Ritberg, great chancellor to the empress-queen. After taking his castle, in which they found thirty pieces of cannon, they raised contributions in the district to the amount of forty thousand crowns. As the Prussians retired, the French took possession of the country they quitted in the name of the empress-queen, whose commissary attended them for that purpose. The general rendezvous of these troops, under prince Soubise, was appointed at Neuss, in the electorate of Cologn, where a large body of French was assembled by the first of April. The Austrians, in their turn, were not idle. Mareschal Brown visited the fortifications of Brinn and Koninsgratz; reviewed the army of the late prince Picolomini, now under the command of general Serbelloni; and put his own army in march for Kostlitz on the Elbe, where he proposed to establish his headquarters.



DECLARATION OF THE CZARINA AGAINST THE KING OF PRUSSIA.

During the recess of the armies, while the rigours of winter forced them to suspend their hostile operations, and the greatest preparations were making to open the campaign with all possible vigour, count Bestucheff, great chancellor of Russia, wrote a circular letter to the primate, senators, and ministers of the republic of Poland, setting forth, "That the empress of Russia was extremely affected with the king of Poland's distress, which she thought could not but excite the compassion of all other powers, but more especially of his allies: that the fatal consequences which might result from the rash step by the king of Prussia, not only with respect to the tranquillity of Europe in general, but of each power in particular, and more especially of the neighbouring countries, were so evident, that the interest and safety of the several princes rendered it absolutely necessary they should make it a common cause; not only to obtain proper satisfaction for those courts whose dominions had been so unjustly attacked, but likewise to prescribe such bounds to the king of Prussia as might secure them from any future apprehensions from so enterprising and restless a neighbour: that with this view the empress was determined to assist the king of Poland with a considerable body of troops, which were actually upon their march,* under the command of general Apraxin; and that, as there would be an absolute necessity for their marching through part of the territories of Poland, her imperial majesty hoped the republic would not fail to facilitate their march as much as possible."

* This letter was written in December, and the Russians, as we observed before, began their march in November.

She further recommended to the republic, to take some salutary measures for frustrating the designs of the king of Prussia, and restoring harmony among themselves, as the most conducive measure to these good purposes. In this, however, the Poles were so far from following her advice, that, though sure of being sacrificed in this contest, which side soever prevailed, they divided into parties with no less zeal than if they had as much to hope from the prevalence of one side, as to fear from that of the other. Some of the Palatines were for denying a passage to the Russians, and others were for affording them the utmost assistance in their power. With this cause of contention, others of a more private nature fatally concurred, by means of a misunderstanding between the prince Czartorinski and count Muisnec. Almost every inhabitant of Warsaw was involved in the quarrel; and the violence of these factions was so great that scarce a night passed without bloodshed, many dead bodies, chiefly Saxons, being found in the streets every morning.

In the meantime, Great Britain, unsettled in her ministry and councils at home, unsuccessful in her attempts abroad, judging peace, if it could be obtained on just and honourable terms, more eligible than a continental war, proposed several expedients to the empress-queen for restoring the tranquillity of Germany; but her answer was, "That whenever she perceived that the expedients proposed would indemnify her for the extraordinary expenses she had incurred in her own defence, repair the heavy losses sustained by her ally the king of Poland, and afford a proper security for their future safety, she would be ready to give the same proofs she had always given of her desire to restore peace; but it could not be expected she should listen to expedients of which the king of Prussia was to reap the whole ad vantage, after having begun the war, and wasted the dominions of a prince, who relied for his security upon the faith of treaties, and the appearance of harmony between them." Upon the receipt of this answer, the court of London made several proposals to the czarina, to interpose as mediatrix between the courts of Vienna and Berlin, but they were rejected with marks of displeasure and resentment. When sir Charles Hanbury Williams, the British ambassador, continued to urge his solicitations very strongly, and even with some hints of menaces, an answer was delivered to him, by order of the empress, purporting, "That her imperial majesty was astonished at his demand, after he had already been made acquainted with the measures she had taken to effect a reconciliation between the courts of Vienna and Berlin. He might easily conceive, as matters were then situated, that the earnestness with which he now urged the same propositions, must necessarily surprise her imperial majesty, as it showed but little regard to her former declaration. The empress, therefore, commanded his excellency to be told, that as her intentions contained in her first answer remained absolutely invariable, no ulterior propositions for a mediation would be listened to; and that as for the menaces made use of by his excellency, and particularly that the king of Prussia himself would soon attack the Russian army, such threats served only to weaken the ambassador's proposals; to confirm still more, were it possible, the empress in her resolutions; to justify them to the whole world, and to render the king of Prussia more blameable."



KING OF PRUSSIA ENTERS BOHEMIA.

The season now drawing on in which the troops of the contending powers would be able to take the field, and the alarming progress of the Russians being happily stopped, his Prussian majesty, whose maxim it has always been to keep the seat of war as far as possible from his own dominions, resolved to carry it into Bohemia, and there to attack the Austrians on all sides. To this end he ordered his armies in Saxony, Misnia, Lusatia, and Silesia, to enter Bohemia in four different and op-opposite places, nearly at the same time. The first of these he commanded in person, assisted by mareschal Keith; the second was led by prince Maurice of Anhault-Dessau, the third by prince Ferdinand of Brunswick-Bevern, and the fourth by mareschal Schwerin. In consequence of this plan, mareschal Schwerin's army entered Bohemia on the eighteenth of April, in five columns, at as many different places. The design was so well concerted, that the Austrians had not the least suspicion of their approach until they were past the frontiers, and then they filled the dangerous defile of Guelder-Oesle with pandours, to dispute that passage; but they were no sooner discovered than two battalions of Prussian grenadiers attacked them with their bayonets fixed, and routed them. The prince of Anhault passed the frontiers from Misnia, and penetrated into Bohemia on the twenty-first of April, without any resistance. The prince of Bevern, on the twentieth of the same month, having marched at the head of a body of the army, which was in Lusatia, from the quarters of cantonment near Zittau, possessed himself immediately of the first post on the frontier of Bohemia, at Krouttau and Grasenstein, without the loss of a single man; drove away the enemy the same day from Kratzen, and proceeded to Machendorf, near Reichenberg. The same morning Putkammer's hussars, who formed part of a corps, commanded by a colonel and major, routed some hundreds of the enemy's cuirassiers, posted before Kolin, under the conduct of prince Lichenstein, took three officers and upwards of sixty horse prisoners, and so dispersed the rest, that they were scarcely able to rally near Kratzen. Night coming on obliged the troops to remain in the open air till the next morning, when, at break of day, the Prussians marched in two columns by Habendorf, towards the enemy's army, amounting to twenty-eight thousand men, commanded by count Konigsegg, and posted near Roichenberg. As soon as the troops were formed, they advanced towards the enemy's cavalry, drawn up in three lines of about thirty squadrons. The two wings were sustained by the infantry, which was posted among felled trees and intrenchments. The Prussians immediately cannonaded the enemy's cavalry, who received it with resolution, having on their right hand a village, and on their left a wood whore they had intrenched themselves. But the prince of Bevern having caused fifteen squadrons of dragoons of the second line to advance, and the wood on his right to be attacked at the same time by the battalions of grenadiers of Kahlden and of Moellendorf, and by the regiment of the prince of Prussia, his dragoons, who, by clearing the ground and possessing the intrenchment, had their flanks covered, entirely routed the enemy's cavalry. In the meantime colonel Putkammer and major Schenfield, with their hussars, though flanked by the enemy's artillery, gave the Austrian horse grenadiers a very warm reception, whilst general Lestewitz, with the left wing of the Prussians, attacked the redoubts that covered Reichenberg. Though there were many defiles and rising grounds to pass, all occupied by the Austrians, yet the regiment of Darmstadt forced the redoubt, and put to flight and pursued the enemy, after some discharge of their artillery and small arms, from one eminence to another, for the distance of a mile, when they left off the pursuit. The action began at half an hour after six, and continued till eleven. About one thousand of the Austrians were killed and wounded; among the former were general Porporati and count Hohenfelds, and among the latter prince Lichtenstein and count Mansfeld. Twenty of their officers, and four hundred soldiers, were taken prisoners, and they also lost three standards. On the side of the Prussians seven subalterns and about an hundred men were killed, and sixteen officers and an hundred and fifty men wounded. After this battle mareschal Schwerin joined the prince of Bevern, made himself master of the greatest part of the circle of Buntzlau, and took a considerable magazine from the Austrians, whom he dislodged. The prince Anhault-Dessau, with his corps, drew near the king of Prussia's army; then the latter advanced as far as Budin, from whence the Austrians who had an advantageous camp there, retired to Westwarn, half way between Budin and Prague; and his Prussian majesty having passed the Egra, his army, and that of mareschal Schwerin, were so situated, as to be able to act jointly.

These advantages were but a prelude to a much more decisive victory, which the king himself gained a few days after. Preparing to enter Bohemia, at a distance from any of the corps commanded by his generals, he made a movement as if he had intended to march towards Egra. The enemy, deceived by this feint, and imagining he wras going to execute some design, distinct from the object of the other armies, detached a body of twenty thousand men to observe his motions; then he made a sudden and masterly movement to the left, by which he cut off all communication between that detachment and the main army of the Austrians, which, having been reinforced by the army of Moravia, by the remains of the corps lately defeated by the prince of Bevern, and by several regiments of the garrison of Prague, amounted to near a hundred thousand men. They were strongly intrenched on the banks of the Moldaw, to the north of Prague, in a camp so fortified by every advantage of nature, and every contrivance of art, as to be deemed almost impregnable. The left wing of the Austrians, thus situated, was guarded by the mountains of Ziscka, and the right extended as far as Herboholi; prince Charles of Lorraine, and mareschal Brown, who commanded them, seemed determined to maintain this advantageous post; but the king of Prussia overlooked all difficulties. Having thrown several bridges over the Moldaw on the fifth of May, he passed that river in the morning of the sixth, with thirty thousand men, leaving the rest of the army under the command of the prince of Anhault-Dessau; and being immediately joined by the troops under mareschal Schwerin and the prince of Bevern, resolved to attack the enemy on the same day. In consequence of this resolution, his army filed off on the left by Potschernitz; and at the same time count Brown wheeled to the right, to avoid being flanked. The Prussians continued their march to Richwitz, traversing several defiles and morasses, which for a little time separated the infantry from the rest of the army. The foot began the attack too precipitately, and were at first repulsed, but they soon recovered themselves. While the king of Prussia took the enemy in flank, mareschal Schwerin advanced to a marshy ground, which suddenly stopping his army, threatened to disconcert the whole plan of operation. In this emergency, he immediately dismounted, and taking the standard of the regiment in his hand, boldly entered the morass, crying out, "Let all brave Prussians follow me." Inspired by the example of this great commander, now eighty-two years of age, all the troops pressed forward, and though he was unfortunately killed by the first fire, their ardour abated not till they had totally defeated the enemy. Thus fell mareschal Schwerin, loaded with years and glory, an officer whose superior talents in the military art had been displayed in a long course of faithful service. In the meantime, the Prussian infantry, which had been separated in the march, forming themselves afresh, renewed the attack on the enemy's right, and entirely broke it, while their cavalry, after three charges, obliged that of the Austrians to retire in great confusion, the centre being at the same time totally routed. The left wing of the Prussians then marched immediately towards Michely, and being there joined by the horse, renewed their attack, while the enemy were retreating hastily towards Saszawar. Meanwhile the troops on the right of the Prussian army attacked the remains of the left wing of the Aus-trians, and made themselves masters of three batteries. But the behaviour of the infantry in the last attack was so successful, as to leave little room for this part of the cavalry to act. Prince Henry of Prussia, and the prince of Bevern, signalized themselves on this occasion in storming two batteries; prince Ferdinand of Brunswick took the left wing of the Austrians in flank, while the king with his left, and a body of cavalry, secured the passage of the Moldaw. In short, after a very long and obstinate engagement, and many signal examples of valour on both sides, the Austrians were forced to abandon the field of battle, leaving behind sixty pieces of cannon, all their tents, baggage, military chest, and, in a word, their whole camp. The weight of the battle fell upon the right wing of the Austrians, the remains of which, to the amount of ten or twelve thousand men, fled towards Beneschau, where they afterwards assembled under M. Pretlach, general of horse. The infantry retired towards Prague, and threw themselves into that city with their commanders, prince Charles of Lorraine, and mareschal Brown; but they were much harassed in their retreat by a detachment of the Prussians under mareschal Keith. The Prussians took, on this occasion, ten standards, and upwards of four thousand prisoners, thirty of whom were officers of rank. Their loss amounted to about two thousand five hundred killed, and about three thousand wounded. Among the former were general d'Amstel, the prince of Holstein-Beck, the colonels Goltze and Manstein, and lieutenant-colonel Boke. Among the latter, the generals Wenterfield, De la Mothe, Feuque, Hautcharmoy, Blankensee and Plettenberg. The number of the killed and wounded on the side of the Austrians was much greater. Among these last was mareschal Brown, who received a wound, which, from the chagrin he suffered, rather than from its own nature, proved mortal. The clay after the battle, colonel Meyer was detached with a battalion of Prussian pandours, and four hundred hussars, to destroy a very considerable and valuable magazine of the Austrians at Pilsen, and this service lie performed. He also completed the destruction of several others of less importance; by the loss of which, however, all possibility of subsistence was cut off from any succours the Austrians might have expected from the empire.



PRAGUE INVESTED.

The Prussians, following their blow, immediately invested Prague on both sides of the river, the king commanding on one side, and mareschal Keith on the other. In four days the whole city was surrounded with lines and intrenchments, by which all communication from without was entirely cut off: prince Charles of Lorraine and mareschal Brown, the two princes of Saxony, the prince of Modena, the duke d'Aremberg, count Lascy, and several other persons of great distinction, were shut up within the walls, together with above twenty thousand of the Austrian army, who had taken refuge in Prague after their defeat. Every thing continued quiet on both sides, scarce a cannon-shot being fired by either for some time after this blockade was formed; and in the meanwhile the Prussians made themselves masters of Cziscaberg, an eminence which commands the town, where the Austrians had a strong redoubt, continuing likewise to strengthen their works. Already they had made a sally, and taken some other ineffectual steps to recover this post; but a more decisive stroke was necessary. Accordingly, a design was formed of attacking the Prussian army in the night with a body of twelve thousand men, to be sustained by all the grenadiers, volunteers, pandours, and Hungarian infantry. In case an impression could be made on the king's lines, it was intended to open a way, sword in hand, through the camp of the besiegers, and to ease Prague of the multitude of forces locked up useless within the walls, serving only to consume the provisions of the garrison, and hasten the surrender of the place. Happily a deserter gave the prince of Prussia intelligence of the enemy's design about eleven o'clock at night. Proper measures were immediately taken for their reception, and, in less than a quarter of an hour, the whole army was under arms. This design was conducted with so much silence, that though the Prussians were warned of it, they could, discover nothing before the enemy had charged their advanced posts. Their attack was begun on the side of the little town, against mareschal Keith's camp, and the left wing of the Prussian army encamped on the Moldaw. From hence it is probable the Austrians proposed not only to destroy the batteries that were raising, but to attack the bridges of communication which the Prussians threw over the Moldaw, at about a quarter of a German mile above and below Prague, at Branig and Podbaba. The greatest alarm began about two o'clock, when the enemy hoped to have come silently and unexpectedly upon the miners, but they had left work about a quarter of an hour before. At the report of the first piece which they fired, the piquet of the third battalion of Prussian guards, to the number of an hundred men, who marched out of the camp to sustain the body which covered the works, was thrown into some confusion, from the darkness of the night, which prevented their distinguishing the Austrian troops from their own. Lieutenant Jork, detached with two platoons to reconnoitre the enemy, attempting to discover their disposition by kindling a fire, captain Rodig, by the light of this fire, perceived the enemy's situation, immediately formed the design of falling upon them in flank, and gave orders to his men to fire in platoons, which they performed, mutually repeating the signal given by their commander. The enemy fled with the greater precipitation, as they were ignorant of the weakness of the piquet, and as the shouting of the Prussian soldiers made them mistake it for a numerous body. Many of them deserted, many took shelter in Prague, and many more were driven into the river and drowned. At the same time this attack began, a regiment of horse-grenadiers fell upon a redoubt which the Prussians had thrown up, supported by the Hungarian infantry: they returned three times to the assault, and were as often beat back by the Prussians, whom they found it impossible to dislodge; though prince Ferdinand of Brunswick's battalion, which guarded this post, suffered extremely. During this attack the enemy kept an incessant fire with their musquetry upon the whole front of the Prussians, from the convent of St. Margaret to the river. At three in the morning the Prussians quitted their camp to engage the enemy. The battalion of Pannewitz attacked a building called the Red-house, situated at the bottom of a declivity, before Wellastowitz. The pandours who had taken possession of this house, fired upon them incessantly from all the doors and windows until they were dislodged; and the Prussian battalions were obliged to sustain the fire both of cannon and musquetry for above two hours, when the enemy retired to the city, except the pandours, who again took possession of the Red-house, which the Prussians were forced to abandon, because the artillery of Prague kept a continual fire upon it from the moment it was known to be in their hands. The Austrians left behind them many dead and wounded, besides deserters; and the Prussians, notwithstanding the loss of several officers and private men, made some prisoners. Prince Ferdinand, the king of Prussia's youngest brother, had a horse killed under Mm, and was slightly wounded in the face.

The Prussian works being completed, and heavy artillery arrived, four batteries, erected on the banks of the Moldaw, began to play with great fury. Near three hundred bombs, besides an infinity of ignited balls, were thrown into the city in the space of twenty-four hours. The scene was lamentable, houses, men, and horses wrapped in flames and reduced to ashes. The confusion within, together with the want of proper artillery and ammunition, obliged the Austrians to cease firing, and furnished his Prussian majesty with all the opportunity he could wish of pouring destruction upon this unfortunate city. The horrors of war seemed to have extinguished the principles of humanity. No regard was paid to the distress of the inhabitants; the Austrians obstinately maintained possession, and the Prussians practised every stratagem, every barbarous refinement, that constitutes the military art, to oblige them to capitulate. After the conflagration had lasted three days, and consumed a prodigious number of buildings, the principal inhabitants, burghers, and clergy, perceiving their city on the point of being reduced to a heap of rubbish, besought the commander, in a body, to hearken to terms; but he was deaf to the voice of pity, and, instead of being moved with their supplications, drove out twelve thousand persons, the least useful in defending the city. These, by order of his Prussian majesty, were again forced back, which soon produced so great a scarcity of provisions within the walls, that the Austrians were reduced to the necessity of eating horseflesh, forty horses being daily distributed to the troops, and the same food sold at four-pence a pound to the inhabitants. However, as there still remained great abundance of corn, they were far from being brought to the last extremity. Two vigorous and well-conducted sallies were made, but they proved unsuccessful. The only advantage resulting from them, was the perpetual alarm in which they kept the Prussian camp, and the vigilance required to guard against the attacks of a numerous, resolute, and desperate garrison.

{GEORGE II. 1727-1760}



COUNT DAUN COMMANDS THE AUSTRIANS.

Whatever difficulties might have attended the conquest of Prague, certain it is, that the affairs of the empress-queen were in the most critical and desperate situation. Her grand army dispersed in parties, and dying for subsistence in small corps; their princes and commanders cooped up in Prague; that capital in imminent danger of being taken, the flourishing kingdom of Bohemia ready to fall into the hands of the conqueror; a considerable army on the point of surrendering prisoners of war; all the queen's hereditary dominions open and exposed, the whole fertile tract of country from Egra to the Moldaw in actual possession of the Prussians, the distance to the archduchy of Austria not very considerable, and secured only by the Danube; Vienna under the utmost apprehensions of a siege, and the imperial family ready to take refuge in Hungary; the Prussian forces deemed invincible, and the sanguine friends of that monarch already sharing with him, in imagination, the spoils of the ancient and illustrious house of Austria. Such was the aspect of affairs, and such the difficulties to be combated, when Leopold, count Daun, was appointed to the command of the Austrian forces, to stem the torrent of disgrace, and turn the fortune of the war. This general, tutored by long experience under the best officers of Europe, and the particular favourite of the great Kevenhuller, was now, for the first time, raised to act in chief, at the head of an army, on which depended the fate of Austria and the empire. Born of a noble family, he relied solely upon his own merit, without soliciting court favour; he aspired after the highest preferment, and succeeded by mere dint of superior worth. His progress from the station of a subaltern was slow and silent; his promotion to the chief command was received with universal esteem and applause. Cautious, steady, penetrating, and sagacious, he was opposed as another Fabius to the modern Hannibal, to check the fire and vigour of that monarch by prudent foresight and wary circumspection. Arriving at Romischbrod, within a few miles of Prague, the day after the late defeat, he halted to collect the fugitive corps and broken remains of the Austrian army, and soon drew together a force so considerable as to attract the notice of his Prussian majesty, who detached the prince of Bevern, with twenty battalions, and thirty squadrons, to attack him before numbers should render him formidable. Daun was too prudent to give battle, with dispirited troops, to an army flushed with victory. He retired on the first advice that the Prussians were advancing, and took post at Kolin, where he intrenched himself strongly, opened the way for the daily supply of recruits sent to his army, and inspired the garrison of Prague with fresh courage, in expectation of being soon relieved. Here he kept close within his camp, divided the Prussian force, by obliging the king to employ near half his army in watching his designs, weakened his efforts against Prague, harassed the enemy by cutting off their convoys, and restored by degrees the languishing and almost desponding spirits of his troops. Perfectly acquainted with the ardour and discipline of the Prussian forces, with the enterprising and impetuous disposition of that monarch, and sensible that his situation would prove irksome and embarrassing to the enemy, he improved it to the best advantage, seemed to foresee all the consequences, and directed every measure to produce them. Thus he retarded the enemy's operations, and assiduously avoided precipitating an action until the Prussian vigour should be exhausted, their strength impaired by losses and desertion, the first fire and ardour of their genius extinguished by continual fatigue and incessant alarms, and until the impression made on his own men, by the late defeat, should in some degree be effaced. The event justified Daun's conduct. His army grew every day more numerous, while his Prussian majesty began to express the utmost impatience at the length of the siege. When that monarch first invested Prague, it was on the presumption that the numerous forces within the walls would, by consuming all the provisions, oblige it to surrender in a few days; but perceiving that the Austrians had still a considerable quantity of corn, that count Daun's army was daily increasing, and would soon be powerful enough not only to cope with the detachment under the prince of Bevern, but in a condition to raise the siege, he determined to give the count battle with one part of his army, while he kept Prague blocked up with the other. The Austrians, amounting now to sixty thousand men, were deeply intrenched, and defended by a numerous train of artillery, placed on redoubts and batteries erected on the most advantageous posts. Every accessible part of the camp was fortified with lines and heavy pieces of battering cannon, and the foot of the hills secured by difficult defiles. Yet, strong as this situation might appear, formidable as the Austrian forces certainly were, his Prussian majesty undertook to dislodge them with a body of horse and foot not exceeding thirty-two thousand men.



KING OF PRUSSIA DEFEATED AT KOLIN.

On the thirteenth day of June, the king of Prussia quitted the camp before Prague, escorted by a few battalions and squadrons, with which he joined the prince of Bevern at Milkowitz, Mareschal Keith, it is said, strenuously opposed this measure, and advised either raising the siege entirely, and attacking the Austrians with the united forces of Prussia, or postponing the attack on the camp at Kolin, until his majesty should either gain possession of the city, or some attempts should be made to oblige him to quit his posts. From either measure an advantage would have resulted. With his whole army he might probably have defeated count Daun, or at least have obliged him to retreat. Had he continued within his lines at Prague, the Austrian general could not have constrained him to raise the siege without losing his own advantageous situation, and giving battle upon terms nearly equal. But the king, elated with success, impetuous in his valour, and confident of the superiority of his own troops in point of discipline, thought all resistance must sink under the weight of his victorious arm, and yield to that courage which had already surmounted such difficulties, disregarded the mareschal's sage counsel, and inarched up to the attack undaunted, and even assured of success. By the eighteenth the two armies were in sight, and his majesty found that count Daun had not only fortified his camp with all the heavy cannon of Olmutz, but was strongly reinforced with troops from Moravia and Austria, which had joined him after the king's departure from Prague. He found the Austrians drawn up in three lines upon the high grounds between Gen-litz, and St. John the Baptist. Difficult as it was to approach their situation, the Prussian infantry marched up with firmness, while shot was poured like hail from the enemy's batteries, and began the attack about three in the afternoon. They drove the Austrians with irresistible intrepidity from two eminences secured with heavy cannon, and two villages defended by several battalions; but, in attacking the third eminence, were flanked by the Austrian cavalry, by grape-shot poured from the batteries; and, after a violent conflict, and prodigious loss of men, thrown into disorder. Animated with the king's presence, they rallied, and returned with double ardour to the charge, but were a second time repulsed. Seven times successively did prince Ferdinand renew the attack, performing every duty of a great general and valiant soldier, though always with the same fortune. The inferiority of the Prussian infantry, the disadvantages of ground, where the cavalry could not act, the advantageous situation of the enemy, their numerous artillery, their intrenchments, numbers, and obstinacy, joined to the skill and conduct of their general, all conspired to defeat the hopes of the Prussians, to surmount their valour, and oblige them to retreat. The king then made a last and furious effort, at the head of the cavalry, on the enemy's left wing, but with as little success as all the former attacks. Every effort was made, and every attempt was productive only of greater losses and misfortunes. At last, after exposing his person in the most perilous situations, his Prussian majesty drew off his forces from the field of battle, retiring in such good order, in sight of the enemy, as prevented a pursuit, or the loss of his artillery and baggage. Almost all the officers on either side distinguished themselves; and count Daun, whose conduct emulated that of his Prussian majesty, received two slight wounds, and had a horse killed under him. The losses of both armies were very considerable; on that of the Prussians, the killed and wounded amounted to eight thousand; less pernicious, however, to his majesty's cause than the frequent desertion, and other innumerable ill consequences that ensued.

When the Prussian army arrived at Nimburgh, his majesty, leaving the command with the prince of Be-vern, took horse, and, escorted by twelve or fourteen hussars, set out for Prague, where he arrived next morning without halting, after having been the whole preceding day on horseback. Immediately he gave orders for sending off all his artillery, ammunition, and baggage; these were executed with so much expedition, that the tents were struck, and the army on their march, before the garrison were informed of the king's defeat. Thus terminated the battle of Kolin and siege of Prague, in which the acknowledged errors of his Prussian majesty were, in some measure, atoned by the candour with which he owned his mistake, both in a letter to the earl mareschal, [419] [See note 3 I, at the end of this Vol.] and in conversation with several of his general officers. Most people, indeed, imagined the king highly blameable for checking the ardour of his troops to stop and lay siege to Prague. They thought he should have pursued his conquests, over-run Austria, Moravia, and all the hereditary dominions, from which alone the empress-queen could draw speedy succours. A body of twenty or thirty thousand men would have blocked up Prague, while the remainder of the Prussian forces might have obliged the imperial family to retire from Vienna, and effectually prevented count Daun from assembling another army. It was universally expected he would have bent his march straight to this capital; but he dreaded leaving the numerous army in Prague behind, and it was of great importance to complete the conquest of Bohemia. The prince of Prussia marched all night with his corps to Nimburgh, where he joined the prince of Bevern, and mareschal Keith retreated next day. Count Brown having died before, of the wounds he received on the sixth of May, prince Charles of Lorraine sallied out with a large body of Austrians, and attacked the rear of the Prussians; but did no further mischief than killing about two hundred of their men. The siege of Prague being thus raised, the imprisoned Austrians received their deliverer, count Daun, with inexpressible joy, and their united forces became greatly superior to those of the king of Prussia, who was in a short time obliged to evacuate Bohemia, and take refuge in Saxony. The Austrians harassed him as much as possible in his retreat; but their armies, though superior in numbers, were not in a condition, from their late sufferings, to make any decisive attempt upon him, as the frontiers of Saxony abound with situations easily defended.



PREPARATIONS FOR THE DEFENCE OF HANOVER.

Having thus described the progress of the Prussians in Bohemia, we must cast our eyes on the transactions which distinguished the campaign in Westphalia. To guard against the storm which menaced Hanover in particular, orders were transmitted thither to recruit the troops that had been sent back from England, to augment each company, to remount the cavalry with the utmost expedition; not to suffer any horses to be conveyed out of the electorate; to furnish the magazines in that country with all things necessary for fifty thousand men. Of these, twenty-six thousand were to be Hanoverians, and, in consequence of engagements entered into for that purpose, twelve thousand Hessians, six thousand Brunswickers, two thousand Saxe-Gothans, and a thousand Lunenburghers, to be joined by a considerable body of Prussians, the whole commanded by his royal highness the duke of Cumberland. The king of England having published a manifesto, dated at Hanover, specifying his motives for taking the field in Westphalia, the troops of the confederated states that were to compose the allied army, under the name of an army of observation, began to assemble with all possible diligence near Bielefeldt. Thither the generals, appointed to command the several divisions, repaired to settle the plan of operations with their commander, the duke of Cumberland, who having left London on the ninth of April, arrived on the sixteenth at Hanover, and from thence repaired to the army, which, having been joined by three Prussian regiments that retired from Wesel, consisted of thirty-seven battalions and thirty-four squadrons. Of these, six battalions and six squadrons were posted at Bielefeldt, under the command of lieutenant-general baron de Sporcken; six battalions, under lieutenant-general de Block, at Hervorden; six battalions and four squadrons, under major-general Ledebour, between Hervorden and Minden; seven battalions and ten squadrons, under lieutenant-general d'Oberg, in the neighbourhood of Hamelen; and five battalions and four squadrons, under major-general de Hauss, near Nienburgh. The head-quarters of his royal highness were at Bielefeldt.



SKIRMISHES WITH THE FRENCH.

In the meantime, the French on the Lower Rhine continued filing off incessantly. The siege of Gueldres was converted into a blockade, occasioned by the difficulties the enemy found in raising batteries; and a party of Hanoverians having passed the Weser, as well to ravage the country of Paderborn as to reconnoitre the French, carried off several waggons loaded with wheat and oats, destined for the territories of the elector of Cologn. On the other hand, colonel Fischer having had an engagement with a small body of Hanoverians, in the county of Tecklenburgh, routed them, and made some prisoners. After several other petty skirmishes between the French and the Hanoverians, the duke of Cumberland altered the position of his camp, by placing it between Bielefeldt and Hervorden, in hopes of frustrating the design of the enemy; who, declining to attack him on the side of Bracwede, after having reconnoitred his situation several days, made a motion on their left, as if they meant to get between him and the Weser. This step was no sooner taken, than, on the thirteenth of June in the afternoon, having received advice that the enemy had caused a large body of troops, followed by a second, to march on his right to Burghotte, he ordered his army to march that evening towards Hervorden; and, at the same time, major-general Hardenberg marched with four battalions of grenadiers, and a regiment of horse, to reinforce that post. Count Schulenberg covered the left of the march with a battalion of grenadiers, a regiment of horse, and the light troops of Buckenburgh. The whole army marched in two columns. The right, composed of horse, and followed by two battalions, to cover their passage through the enclosures and defiles, passed by the right of Bielefeldt; and the left, consisting of infantry, marched by the left of the same town. The vanguard of the French army attacked the rear guard of the allies, commanded by major-general Einsiedel, very briskly, and at first put them into some confusion, but they immediately recovered themselves. This was in the beginning of the night. At break of day the enemy's reinforcements returned to the charge, but were again repulsed, nor could they once break through lieutenant-colonel Al-feldt's Hanoverian guards, which closed the army's march with a detachment of regular troops and a new raised corps of hunters.



DUKE OF CUMBERLAND PASSES THE WESER.

The allies encamped at Cofeldt on the fourteenth, and remained there all the next day, when the enemy's detachments advanced to the gates of Hervorden, and made a feint as if they would attack the town, after having summoned it to surrender; but they retired without attempting any thing further; and, in the meantime, the troops that were posted at Hervorden, and formed the rear guard, passed the Weser on the side of Remen, without any molestation, and encamped at Holtzuysen. A body of troops which had been left at Bielefeldt, to cover the duke's retreat, after some skirmishes with the French, rejoined the army in the neighbourhood of Herfort; and a few days after, his royal highness drew near his bridges on the Weser, and sent over his artillery, baggage, and ammunition. At the same time some detachments passed the river on the right, between Minden and Oldendorp, and marked out a new camp advantageously situated, having the Weser in front, and the right and left covered with eminences and marshes. There the army under his royal highness re-assembled, and the French fixed their head-quarters at Bielefeldt, which the Hanoverians had quitted, leaving in it only a part of a magazine, which had been set on fire. By this time the French were in such want of forage, that M. d'Etrees himself, the princes of the blood, and all the officers without exception, were obliged to send back part of their horses. However, on the tenth of June, their whole army, consisting of seventy battalions and forty squadrons, with fifty-two pieces of cannon, besides a body of cavalry left at Ruremonde for the conveniency of forage, was put in motion. In spite of almost impassable forests, famine, and every other obstacle that could be thrown in their way by a vigilant and experienced general, they at length surmounted all difficulties, and advanced into a country abounding with plenty, and unused to the ravages of war. It was imagined that the passage of the Weser, which defends Hanover from foreign attacks, would have been vigorously opposed by the army of the allies; but whether, in the present situation of affairs, it was thought advisable to act only upon the defensive, and not to begin the attack in a country that was not concerned as a principal in the war, or the duke of Cumberland found himself too weak to make head against the enemy, is a question we shall not pretend to determine. However that may have been, the whole French army passed the Weser on the tenth and eleventh of July, without the loss of a man. The manner of effecting this passage is thus related: mareschal d'Etrees, being informed that his magazines of provisions were well furnished, his ovens established, and the artillery and pontoons arrived at the destined places, ordered lieutenant-general Broglio, with ten battalions, twelve squadrons, and ten pieces of cannon, to march to Engheren; lieutenant-general M. de Chevert, with sixteen battalions, three brigades of carabineers, the royal hunters, and six hundred hussars, to march to Hervorden, and lieutenant-general marquis d'Armentieres, with twelve battalions, and ten squadrons, to march to Ulrickhausen. All these troops being arrived in their camp on the fourth of July, halted the fifth. On the sixth, twenty-two battalions, and thirty-two squadrons, under the command of the duke of Orleans, who was now arrived at the army, inarched to Ulrickhausen, from whence M. d'Armentieres had set out early in the morning, with the troops under his command, and by hasty marches got on the seventh, by eleven at night, to Blankenhoven, where he found the boats which had gone from Ahrensberg. The bridges were built, the cannon planted, and the intrenchments at the head of the bridges completed in the night between the seventh and eighth. The mareschal having sent away part of his baggage from Bielefeldt on the sixth, went in person on the seventh at eleven o'clock to Horn, and on the eighth to Braket. On advice that M. d'Armentieres had thrown his bridges across without opposition, and was at work on his intrenchments, he went on the ninth to Blankenhoven, to see the bridges and intrenchments; and afterwards advanced to examine the first position he intended for this army, and came down to the right side of the Weser to the abbey of Corvey, where he forded the river, with the princes of the blood, and their attendants. On the tenth in the morning he got on horseback by four o'clock, to see the duke of Orlean's division file off, which arrived at Corvey at ten o'clock; as also that of M. d'Armentieres, which arrived at eleven, and that of M. Souvre, which arrived at noon. The mareschal having examined the course of the river, caused the bridges of pontoons to be laid within gunshot of the abbey, where the viscount de Turenne passed that river in the year one thousand six hundred and seventy-three, and where the divisions under Broglio and Chevert now passed, it on the twelfth and thirteenth. These two generals being informed of what was to be done upon the Upper Weser, attacked Minden, and carried it, whilst a detachment of the French entered the country of East Friesland, under the command of the marquis d'Auvel; and, after taking possession of Lier, inarched on the right side of the Ems to Embden, the only sea-port the king of Prussia had, which at first seemed determined to make a defence; but the inhabitants were not agreed upon the methods to be taken for that purpose. They therefore met to deliberate, but in the meantime, their gates being shut, M. d'Auvel caused some cannon to be brought to beat them down; and the garrison, composed of four hundred Prussians, not being strong enough to defend the town, the soldiers mutinied against their officers, whereupon a capitulation was agreed on, and the gates were opened to the French commander, who made his troops enter with a great deal of order, assured the magistrates that care should be taken to make them observe a good discipline, and published two ordinances, one for the security of the religion and commerce of the city, and the other for prohibiting the exportation of corn and forage out of that principality. The inhabitants were; however, obliged to take an oath of allegiance to the French king.



BATTLE OF HASTENBECK.

On Sunday, the twenty-fourth of July, the French, after having laid part of the electorate of Hanover under contribution, marched in three columns, with their artillery, towards the village of Latford, when major-general Furstenburgh, who commanded the out-ports in the village, sent an officer to inform the duke of Cumberland of their approach. His royal highness immediately reinforced those posts with a body of troops, under the command of lieutenant-general Sporcken; but finding it impossible to support the village, as it was commanded by the heights opposite to it, which were possessed by the enemy, and being sensible that it would be always in his power to retake it, from its situation in a bottom between two hills, he withdrew his post from Latford. The French then made two attacks, one at the point of the wood, and the other higher up in the same wood, opposite to the grenadiers commanded by major-general Hardenberg, but they failed in both; and though the fire of their artillery was very hot, they were obliged to retire. The French army encamping on the heights opposite to the duke of Cumberland's posts, the intelligence received, that M. d'Etrees had assembled all his troops, and was furnished with a very considerable train of artillery, left his royal highness no room to doubt of his intending to attack him. He, therefore, resolved to change his camp for a more advantageous situation, by drawing up his army on the eminence between the Weser and the woods, leaving the Hamelen river on his right, the village of Hasten-beck in his front, and his left close to the wood, at the point of which his royal highness had a battery of twelve pounders and haubitzers. There was a hollow way from the left of the village to the battery, and a morass on the other side of Hastenbeck to his right. Major-general Schulenberg, with the hunters, and two battalions of grenadiers, was posted in the corner of the wood upon the left of the battery; his royal highness ordered the village of Hastenbeck to be cleared to his front, to prevent it being in the power of the enemy to keep possession of it, and the ways by which the allies had a communication with that village during their encampment to be rendered impassable. In the evening-he withdrew all his outposts, and in this position the army lay upon their arms all night. On the twenty-fifth, in the morning, the French army marched forwards in columns, and began to cannonade the allies very severely, marching and counter-marching continually, and seeming to intend three attacks, on the right, the left, and the centre. In the evening their artillery appeared much superior to that of the allies. The army was again ordered to lie all night on their arms; his royal highness caused a battery at the end of the wood to be repaired; count Schulenberg to be reinforced with a battalion of grenadiers, and two field pieces of cannon; and that battery to be also supported by four more battalions of grenadiers, under the command of major-general Hardenberg. He likewise caused a battery to be erected of twelve six-pounders, behind the village of Hastenbeck, and took all the precautions he could think of to give the enemy a warm reception. As soon as it was day light, he mounted on horseback to reconnoitre the position of the enemy, whom he found in the same situation as the day before. At a little after five a very smart cannonading began against the battery behind the village, which was supported by the Hessian infantry and cavalry, who stood a most severe fire with surprising steadiness and resolution. Between seven and eight the firing of small arms began on the left of the allies, when his royal highness ordered major-general Behr, with three battalions of Brunswick, to sustain the grenadiers in the wood, if their assistance should be wanted; The cannonading continued above six hours, during which the troops, that were exposed to it, never once abated of their firmness. The fire of the small arms on the left increasing, and the French seeming to gain ground, his royal highness detached the colonels Darkenhausen and Bredenbach, with three Hanoverian battalions and six squadrons, round the wood by Afferde, who, towards the close of the day, drove several squadrons of the enemy back to their army, without giving them any opportunity to charge. At length the grenadiers in the wood, apprehensive of being surrounded, from the great numbers of the enemy that appeared there, and were marching round on that side, though they repulsed every thing that appeared in their front, thought it advisable to retire nearer the left of the army, a motion which gave the enemy an opportunity of possessing themselves of that battery without opposition. Here the hereditary prince of Brunswick distinguished himself at the head of a battalion of Wolfenbuttle guards, and another of Hanoverians, who attacked and repulsed, with their bayonets, a superior force of the enemy, and retook the battery. But the French being in possession of an eminence which commanded and flanked both the lines of the infantry and the battery of the allies, and where they were able to support their attack under the cover of a hill, his royal highness, considering the superior numbers of the enemy, near double to his, and the impossibility of dislodging them from their post, without exposing his own troops too much, ordered a retreat; in consequence of which his army retired, first to Hamelen, where he left a garrison, then to Nienburgh, and afterwards to Hoya; in the neighbourhood of which town, after sending away all the magazines, sick, and wounded, he encamped, in order to cover Bremen and Verden, and to preserve a communication with Stade, to which place the archives, and most valuable effects of Hanover had been removed. In this engagement, colonel Bredenbach attacked four brigades very strongly posted, with a battery of fourteen pieces of cannon, repulsed, and drove them down a precipice, and took all their artillery and ammunition; but preferring the care of his wounded to the glory of carrying away the cannon, he brought off only six, nailing up and destroying the rest. The loss of the allies in all the skirmishes, which lasted three days, was three hundred and twenty-seven men killed, nine hundred and seven wounded, and two hundred and twenty missing, or taken prisoners; whilst that of the French, according to their own accounts, amounted to fifteen hundred men.

The French, being left masters of the field, soon reduced Hamelen, which was far from being well fortified, obliged the garrison to capitulate, and took out of the town sixty brass cannon, several mortars, forty ovens, part of the equipage of the duke's army, and large quantities of provisions and ammunition, which they found in it, together with a great many sick and wounded, who, not being included in the capitulation, were made prisoners of war. Whether the court of France had any reason to find fault with the conduct of the mareschal d'Etrees, or whether its monarch was blindly guided by the counsels of his favourite the marquese de Pompadour, who, desirous to testify her gratitude to the man who had been one of the chief instruments of her high promotion, was glad of an opportunity to retrieve his shattered fortunes, and, at the same time, to add to her own already immense treasures, we shall not pretend to determine; though the event seems plainly to speak the last. Even at the time, no comparison was made between the military skill of the mareschal d'Etrees, and that of the duke de Richelieu; but, however that may have been, this last, who, if he had not shone in the character of a soldier, excelled all, or at least most of his contemporaries in the more refined arts of a courtier, was, just before the battle we have been speaking of, appointed to supersede the former in the command of the French army in Lower Saxony, where he arrived on the sixth of August, with the title of mareschal of France; and M. d'Etrees immediately resigned the command.

{GEORGE II. 1727-1760}



THE FRENCH TAKE POSSESSION OF HANOVER AND HESSE-CASSEL.

Immediately after the battle of Hastenbeck, the French sent a detachment of four thousand men to lay under contribution the countries of Hanover and Brunswick-Wolfenbuttel, as well as the duchies of Bremen and Verden; and two days after the arrival of this new commander, the duke de Chevreuse was detached with two thousand men to take possession of Hanover itself, with the title of governor of that city. He accordingly marched thither; and upon his arrival the Hanoverian garrison was disarmed, and left at liberty to retire where they pleased. About the same time M. de Con-tades, with a detachment from the French army, was sent to make himself master of the territories of Hesse-Cassel, where he found no opposition. He was met at Warberg by that prince's master of the horse, who declared, that they were ready to furnish the French army with all the succours the country could afford; and accordingly the magistrates of Cassel presented him with the keys as soon as he entered their city. Gottingen was ordered by M. d'Armentieres to prepare for him within a limited time, upon pain of military execution, four thousand pounds of white bread, two thousand bushels of oats, a greater quantity than could be found in the whole country, an hundred loads of hay, and other provisions.



THE FRENCH REDUCE VERDEN and BREMEN.

The duke of Cumberland remained encamped in the neighbourhood of Hoya till the twenty-fourth of August, when, upon advice that the enemy had laid two bridges over the Aller in the night, and had passed that river with a large body of troops, he ordered his army to march, to secure the important post and passage of Rothenbourg, lest they should attempt to march round on his left. He encamped that night at Hausen, having detached lieutenant-general Oberg, with eight battalions and six squadrons, to Ottersberg, to which place he marched next day, and encamped behind the Wummer, in a very strong situation, between Ottersberg and Eothenbourg. The French took possession of Verden on the twenty-sixth of August, and one of their detachments went on the twenty-ninth to Bremen, where the gates were immediately opened to them. The duke of Cumberland, now closely pressed on all sides, and in danger of having his communication with the Stade cut off, which the enemy was endeavouring to effect, by seizing upon all the posts round him, found it necessary to decamp again; to abandon Eothenbourg, of which the French immediately took possession; to retreat to Selsingen, where his head-quarters were, on the first of September; and from thence, on the third of the same month, to retire under the cannon of Stade. Here it was imagined that his army would have been able to maintain their ground between the Aller and the Elbe, till the severity of the season should put an end to the campaign. Accordingly, his royal highness, upon his taking this position, sent a detachment of his forces to Buck-Schantz, with some artillery, and orders to defend that place to the utmost; but as it could not possibly have held out many days, and as the French, who now hemmed him in on all sides, by making themselves masters of a little fort at the mouth of the river Swinga, would have cut off his communication with the Elbe, so that four English men of war, then in that river, could have been of no service to him, he was forced to accept of a mediation offered by the king of Denmark, by his minister the count de Lynar, and to sign the famous convention of Closter-Seven, [422] [See note 3K, at the end of this Vol.] by which thirty-eight thousand Hanoverians laid down their arms, and were dispersed into different quarters of cantonment.



CHAPTER XIV.

The French enter the Prussian Dominions, where they commit great Disorders..... Reflections on the Misconduct of the Allied Army..... Russian Fleet blocks up the Prussian Ports in the Baltic..... Russians take Memel..... Declaration of the King of Prussia on that occasion..... Army of the Empire raised with Difficulty..... The Austrians take Gabel..... and destroy Zittau..... The Prince of Prussia leaves the Army..... Communication between England and Ostend broke off..... Gueldres capitulates..... Skirmishes between the Prussians and Austrians..... and between the Prussians and Russians..... Mareschal Lehwald attacks the Russians in their Intrenchments near Norkitten..... Hasty Retreat of the Russians out of Prussia..... French and Imperialists take Gotha..... Action between the Prussians and Austrians near Goerlitz..... The French oblige Prince Ferdinand to retire..... Berlin laid under Contribution by the Austrians; and Leipsic subjected to military Execution by the Prussians..... Battle of Rosbach..... The Austrians take Schweidnitz; and defeat the Prince of Bevern near Breslau..... Mareschal Keith lays Bohemia under Contribution..... King of Prussia defeats the Austrians at Lissa; retakes Breslau and Schweidnitz, and becomes Master of all Silesia..... Hostilities of the Swedes in Pomerania..... Mareschal Lehwald forces the Swedes to retire...... Memorial presented to the Dutch by Colonel Yorke, relative to Ostend and Nieuport..... King of Prussia's Letter to the King of Great Britain..... His Britannic Majesty's Declaration..... Disputes concerning the Convention of Closter-Seven..... Progress of the Hanoverian Army..... Death of the Queen of Poland..... Transactions at Sea..... Fate of Captain Death..... Session opened..... Supplies granted..... Funds for raising the Supplies..... Messages from the King to the House of Commons..... Second Treaty with the King of Prussia..... Bill for fortifying Milford Haven..... Regulations with respect to Corn..... Bills for the Encouragement of Seamen, and for explaining the Militia Act..... Act for repairing London Bridge..... Act for ascertaining the Qualification of voting..... Bill for more effectually manning the Navy..... Amendments in the Habeas-Corpus Act..... Scheme in Favour of the Foundling Hospital..... Proceedings relative to the African Company..... Session closed..... Vigorous Preparations for War..... Death of the Princess Caroline..... Sea Engagement off Cape Francois..... Remarkable success of Captain Forest..... French evacuate Embden..... Success of Admiral Osborne..... French Fleet driven ashore in Basque Road..... Admiral Broderick's Ship burnt at Sea..... Descent at Cancalle-Bay..... Expedition against Cherbourg...... Descent at St. Maloes..... English defeated at St. Cas..... Captures from the Enemy..... Clamours of the Dutch Merchants on Account of the Capture of their Ships..... Their famous Petition to the States-general



THE FRENCH ENTER THE PRUSSIAN DOMINIONS.

The Hanoverians being now quite subdued, and the whole force of the French let loose against the king of Prussia by this treaty, mareschal Richelieu immediately ordered lieutenant-general Berchini to march with all possible expedition, with the troops under his command, to join the prince de Soubise: the gens-d'-arms, and other troops that were in the landgraviate of Hesse-Cassel, received the same order; and sixty battalions of foot, and the greatest part of the horse belonging to the French army, were directed to attack the Prussian territories. Mareschal Richelieu himself arrived at Brunswick on the fifteenth of September; and having, in a few days after, assembled an hundred and ten battalions, and an hundred and fifty squadrons, with an hundred pieces of cannon, near Wolfenbuttel, he entered the king of Prussia's dominions with his army on the twenty-seventh, twenty-eighth, and twenty-ninth of the same month, in three columns, which penetrated into Halberstadt and Brandenburgh, plundering the towns, exacting contributions, and committing many enormities, at which their general is said to have connived. In the meantime the duke of Cumberland returned to England, where he arrived on the eleventh of October, and shortly after resigned all his military commands.

Had the allied army, after the battle of Hastenbeck, marched directly to the Leine, as it might easily have done, and then taken post on the other side of Wolfenbuttel, Halberstadt, and Magdeburgh, it might have waited securely under the cannon of the latter place for the junction of the Prussian forces; instead of which, they injudiciously turned off to the Lower Weser, retiring successively from Hamelen to Nienburgh, Verden, Rothenburgh, Buxtehude, and lastly to Stade, where, for want of subsistence and elbow-room, the troops were all made prisoners of war at large. They made a march of an hundred and fifty miles to be cooped up in a nook, instead of taking the other route, which was only about an hundred miles, and would have led them to a place of safety. By this unaccountable conduct, the king of Prussia was not only deprived of the assistance of near forty thousand good troops, which, in the close of the campaign, might have put him upon an equality with the French and the army of the empire; but also exposed to, and actually invaded by, his numerous enemies on all sides, insomuch that his situation became now more dangerous than ever; and the fate which seemed to have threatened the empress a few months before, through his means, was, to all appearance, turned against himself. His ruin was predicted, nor could human prudence foresee how he might be extricated from his complicated distress; for, besides the invasion of his territories by the French under the duke de Richelieu, the Russians, who had made for a long time a dilatory march, and seemed uncertain of their own resolutions, all at once quickened their motions, and entered Ducal Prussia, under mareschal Apraxin and general Fermor, marking their progress by every inhumanity that unbridled cruelty, lust, and rapine, can be imagined capable of committing. A large body of Austrians entered Silesia, and penetrated as far as Breslau; then, turning back, they laid seige to the important fortress of Schweidnitz, the key of that country. A second body entered Lusa-tia, another quarter of the Prussian territories, and made themselves masters of Zittau. Twenty-two thousand Swedes penetrated into Prussian Pomerania, took the towns of Anclam and Demmin, and laid the whole country under contribution. The army of the empire, reinforced by that of prince Soubise, after many delays, was at last in full march to enter Saxony; and this motion left the Austrians at liberty to turn the greatest part of their forces to the reduction of Silesia. An Austrian general penetrating through Lusatia, passed by the Prussian armies, and suddenly presenting himself before the gates of Berlin, laid the whole country under contribution; and though he retired on the approach of a body of Prussians, yet he still found means to interrupt the communication of these last with Silesia. The Prussians, it is true, exerted themselves bravely on all sides, and their enemies fled before them; but whilst one body was pursuing, another gained upon them in some other part. The winter approached, their strength decayed, and their adversaries multiplied daily. Their king harassed, and almost spent with incessant fatigue both of body and of mind, was in a manner excluded from the empire. The greatest part of his dominions were either taken from him, or laid under contribution, and possessed by his enemies, who collected the public revenues, fattened on the contributions, and with the riches which they drew from the electorate of Hanover, and other conquests, defrayed the expenses of the war; and by the convention of Closter-Seven he was deprived of his allies, and left without any assistance whatever, excepting what the British parliament might think fit to supply. How different is this picture from that which the king of Prussia exhibited when he took arms to enter Saxony! But, in order to form a clear idea of these events, of the situation of his Prussian majesty, and of the steps he took to defeat the designs of his antagonists, and extricate himself from his great and numerous distresses, it will be proper now to take a view of the several transactions of his enemies, as well during his stay in Bohemia, as from the time of his leaving it, down to that which we are now speaking of.



A RUSSIAN FLEET BLOCKS UP THE PRUSSIAN PORTS IN THE BALTIC.

Whilst the king of Prussia was in Bohemia, the empress of Russia ordered notice to be given to all masters of ships, that if any of them were found assisting the Prussians, by the transportation of troops, artillery, and ammunition, they should be condemned as legal prizes; and her fleet, consisting of fifteen men of war and frigates, with two bomb-ketches, was sent to block up the Prussian ports in the Baltic, where it took several ships of that nation, which were employed in carrying provisions and merchandise from one port to another. One of these ships of war appearing before Memel, a town of Poland, but subject to Prussia, the commandant sent an officer to the captain, to know whether he came as a friend or an enemy? to which interrogation the Russian captain replied, that, notwithstanding the dispositions of the empress of both the Russias were sufficiently known, yet he would further explain them, by declaring that his orders, and those of the other Russian commanders, were, in conformity to the laws of war, to seize on all the Prussian vessels they met with on their cruise. Upon which the commandant of Memel immediately gave orders for pointing the cannon to fire upon all Russian ships that should approach that place.

The land-forces of the Russians had now lingered on their march upwards of six months; and it was pretty generally doubted, by those who were supposed to have the best intelligence, whether they ever were designed really to pass into the Prussian territories, not only on account of their long stay on the borders of Lithuania, but also because several of their cossacks had been severely punished for plundering the waggons of some Prussian peasants upon the frontiers of Courland, and the damage of the peasants compensated with money, though general Apraxin's army was at the same time greatly distressed by the want of provisions; when, on a sudden, they quickened their motions, and showed they were in earnest, determined to accomplish the ruin of Prussia. Their first act of hostility was the attack of Memel, which surrendered: and, by the articles of capitulation, it was agreed that the garrison should march out with all the honours of war, after having engaged not to serve against the empress, or any of her allies, for the space of one year.

His Prussian majesty, justly foreseeing the great enormities that were to be expected from these savage enemies, who were unaccustomed to make war, except upon nations as barbarous as themselves, who looked upon war only as an opportunity for plunder, and every country through which they happened to march as theirs by right of conquest, published the following declaration: "It is sufficiently known, that the king of Prussia, after the example of his glorious predecessors, has, ever since his accession to the crown, laid it down as a maxim to seek the friendship of the imperial court of Russia, and cultivate it by every method. His Prussian majesty hath had the satisfaction to live, for several successive years, in the strictest harmony with the reigning empress: and this happy union would be still subsisting, if evil-minded potentates had not broke it by their secret machinations, and carried things to such a height, that the ministers on both sides have been recalled, and the correspondence broken off. However melancholy these circumstances might be for the king, his majesty was nevertheless most attentive to prevent any thing that might increase the alienation of the Russian court. He hath been particularly careful, during the disturbances of the war that now unhappily rages, to avoid whatever might involve him in a difference with that court, notwithstanding the great grievances he hath to allege against it; and that it was publicly known the court of Vienna had at last drawn that of Russia into its destructive views, and made it serve as an instrument for favouring the schemes of Austria. His majesty hath given the whole world incontestible proofs, that he was under an indispensable necessity of having recourse to the measures he hath taken against the courts of Vienna and Saxony, who forced him by their conduct to take up arms for his defence. Yet, even since things have been brought to this extremity, the king hath offered to lay down his arms, if proper securities should be granted to him. His majesty hath not neglected to expose the artifices by which the imperial court of Russia hath been drawn into measures so opposite to the empress's sentiments, and which would excite the utmost indignation of that great princess, if the truth could be placed before her without disguise. The king did more: he suggested to her imperial majesty sufficient means either to excuse her not taking any part in the present war, or to avoid, upon the justest grounds, the execution of those engagements which the court of Vienna claimed by a manifest abuse of obligations, which they employed to palliate their unlawful views. It wholly depended upon the empress of Russia to extinguish the flames of the war, without unsheathing the sword, by pursuing the measures suggested by the king. This conduct would have immortalized her reign throughout all Europe. It would have gained her more lasting glory than can be acquired by the greatest triumphs. The king finds with regret, that all his precautions and care to maintain peace with the Russian empire are fruitless, and that the intrigues of his enemies have prevailed. His majesty sees all the considerations of friendship and good neighbourhood set aside by the imperial court of Russia, as well as the observance of its engagements with his majesty. He sees that court marching its troops through the territories of a foreign power, and, contrary to the tenor of treaties, in order to attack the king in his dominions; and thus taking part in a war, in which his enemies have involved the Russian empire. In such circumstances, the king hath no other part to take, but to employ the power which God hath intrusted to him in defending himself, protecting his subjects, and repelling every unjust attack. His majesty will never lose sight of the rules which are observed, even in the midst of war, among civilized nations. But if, contrary to all hope and expectation, these rules should be violated by the troops of Russia, if they commit in the king's territories disorders and excesses disallowed by the law of arms, his majesty must not be blamed if he makes reprisals in Saxony; and if, instead of that good order and rigorous discipline which have hitherto been observed by his army, avoiding all sorts of violence, he finds himself forced, contrary to his inclination, to suffer the provinces and subjects of Saxony to be treated in the same manner as his own territories shall be treated. As to the rest, the king will soon publish to the whole world the futility of the reasons alleged by the imperial court of Russia to justify its aggression; and as his majesty is forced upon making his defence, he has room to hope, with confidence, that the Lord of Hosts will bless his righteous arms: that he will disappoint the unjust enterprises of his enemies, and grant him his powerful assistance to enable him to make head against them."



ARMY OF THE EMPIRE RAISED.

When the king of Prussia was put under the ban of the empire, the several princes who compose that body were required, by the decree of the Aulic council, as we observed before, to furnish their respective contingents against him. Those who feared him looked upon this as a fair opportunity of reducing him; and those who stood in awe of the house of Austria were, through necessity, compelled to support that power which they dreaded. Besides, they were accustomed to the influence of a family in which the empire had, for a long time, been in a manner hereditary; and were also intimidated by the appearance of a confederacy the most formidable, perhaps, that the world had ever seen. Yet, notwithstanding all this, the contingents, both of men and money, were collected slowly; the troops were badly composed; and many of those, not only of the protestant princes, but also of the catholics, showed the utmost reluctance to act against his Prussian majesty, which, indeed, none of them would have been able to do had it not been for the assistance of the French under the prince de Soubise. The elector palatine lost above a thousand men by desertion. Four thousand of the troops belonging to the duke of Wirtemberg being delivered to the French commissary on the twenty-fourth of June, were immediately reviewed; but the review was scarcely finished, when they began to cry aloud that they were sold. Next morning thirty of them deserted at once, and were soon followed by parties of twenty and thirty each, who forced their way through the detachments that guarded the gates of Stutgard, and in the evening the mutiny became general. They fired upon the officers in their barracks, and let their general know that if he did not immediately withdraw, they would put him to death. Meanwhile, some of the officers having pursued the deserters, brought back a part of them prisoners, when the rest of the soldiers declared, that if they were not immediately released, they would set fire to the stadthouse and barracks; upon which the prisoners were set at liberty late in the evening. Next morning the soldiers assembled, and having seized some of the officers, three or four hundred of them marched out of the town at that time, with the music of the regiments playing before them; and in this manner near-three thousand of them filed off, and the remainder were afterwards discharged.



THE AUSTRIANS TAKE GABEL.

The king of Prussia, upon his leaving Bohemia after the battle of Kolin, retired towards Saxony, as we observed before; and having sent his heavy artillery and mortars up the Elbe to Dresden, fixed his camp on the banks of the river, at Leitmeritz, where his main army was strongly intrenched, whilst mareschal Keith, with the troops under his command, encamped on the opposite shore; a free communication being kept open by means of a bridge. At the same time detachments were ordered to secure the passes into Saxony. As this position of the king of Prussia prevented the Austrians from being able to penetrate into Saxony by the way of the Elbe, they moved, by slow marches, into the circle of Buntzla, and, at last, with a detachment commanded by the duke d'Aremberg and M. Macguire, on the eighteenth! of June fell suddenly upon, and took the important post at Gabel, situated between Boemish Leypa and Zittau, after an obstinate defence made by the Prussian garrison, under major-general Putkammer, consisting of four battalions, who were obliged to surrender prisoners of war. The Austrians having by this motion gained a march towards Lusatia, upon a corps which had been detached under the command of the prince of Prussia to watch them, his Prussian majesty thought proper to leave Leitmeritz on the twentieth in the morning, and lay that night at Lickowitz, a village opposite to Leitmeritz, of which a battalion of his troops still kept possession, while the rest of his army remained encamped in the plain before that place. Next morning, at break of day, prince Henry decamped, and made so good a disposition for his retreat, that he did not lose a single man, though he marched in sight of the whole body of Austrian irregulars. He passed the bridge at Leitmeritz, after withdrawing the battalion that was in the town, and having burnt the bridge, the whole army united, and made a small movement towards the passes of the mountains; the king then lying at Sulowitz, near the field where the battle of Lowoschutz was fought on the first of October of the preceding year. The heavy baggage was sent on in the afternoon, with a proper escort; and in the morning of the twenty-second the army marched in two columns, and encamped on the high grounds at Lusechitz, a little beyond Lenai, where it halted on the twenty-third. No attack was made upon the rear-guard, though great numbers of Austrian hussars, and other irregulars, had appeared the evening before within cannon-shot of the Prussian camp. On the twenty-fourth the army marched to Nellendorf; on the twenty-fifth, it encamped near Cotta, on the twenty-sixth near Pirna, where it halted the next day; and on the twenty-eighth it crossed the river near that place, and entered Lusatia, where, by the end of the month, it encamped at Bautzen.