Mr. Lally having reduced Cuddalore and fort St. David's,* resolved to extort a sum of money from the king of Tanjour, on pretence that, in the last war, he had granted an obligation to the French governor for a certain sum, which had never been paid.

* Cuddalore was in such a defenceless condition, that it could make no resistance; and there being no place in fort St. David's bomb-proof, nor any provisions or fresh water, the garrison surrendered in twelve days, on capitulation, after having sustained a severe bombardment.

Lally accordingly marched with a body of three thousand men into the dominions of Tanjour, and demanded seventy-two lacs of rupees. This extravagant demand being rejected, he plundered Negare, a trading town on the sea-coast, and afterwards invested the capital; but after he had prosecuted the siege until a breach was made, his provisions and ammunition beginning to fail, several vigorous sallies being made by the forces of the king of Tanjour, and the place well defended by European gunners, sent from the English garrison at Trichinopoly, he found himself obliged to raise the siege, and retreat with precipitation, leaving his cannon behind. He arrived at Carical about the middle of August, and from thence retired to Pondicherry towards the end of September. He afterwards cantoned his troops in the pre vince of Arcot, entered the city without opposition, and began to make preparations for the siege of Madras, which shall be recorded among the incidents of the succeeding year. In the meantime, the land-forces belonging to the East India company were so much out-numbered by the reinforcements which arrived with Mr. Lally, that they could not pretend to keep the field, out were obliged to remain on the defensive, and provide as well as they could for the security of fort St. George, and the other settlements in that part of India.



TRANSACTIONS on the CONTINENT of EUROPE.

Having particularized the events of the war which distinguished this year in America, Africa, and Asia—those remote scenes in which the interest of Great Britain was immediately and intimately concerned—it now remains to record the incidents of the military operations in Germany, supported by British subsidies, and enforced by British troops, to favour the abominable designs of an ally, from whose solitary friendship the British nation can never reap any solid benefit; and to defend a foreign elector, in whose behalf she had already lavished an immensity of treasure. Notwithstanding the bloodshed and lavages which had signalized the former campaign, the mutual losses of the belligerent powers, the incredible expense of money, the difficulty of recruiting armies thinned by sword and distemper, the scarcity of forage and provisions, the distresses of Saxony in particular, and the calamities of war, which desolated the greatest part of the empire—no proposition of peace was hinted by either of the parties concerned; but the powers at variance seemed to be exasperated against each other with the most implacable resentment. Jarring interests were harmonized, old prejudices rooted up, inveterate jealousies assuaged, and even inconsistencies reconciled, in connecting the confederacy which was now formed and established against the king of Prussia; and, on the other hand, the king of Great Britain seemed determined to employ the whole power and influence of his crown in supporting this monarch. Yet the members of the grand confederacy were differently actuated by disagreeing motives, which, in the sequel, operated for the preservation of his Prussian majesty, by preventing the full exertion of their united strength. The empress-queen, over and above her desire of retrieving Silesia, which was her primary aim, gave way to the suggestions of personal hatred and revenge, to the gratification of which she may be said to have sacrificed, in some measure, the interests of her family, as well as the repose of the empire, by admitting the natural enemies of her house into the Austrian Netherlands, and inviting them to invade the dominions of her co-states with a formidable army. France, true to her old political maxims, wished to see the house of Austria weakened by the divisions in the empire, which she accordingly fomented: for this reason it could not be her interest to effect the ruin of the house of Brandenburgh; and therefore she had, no doubt, set bounds to the prosecution of her schemes in concert with the court of Vienna. But her designs against Hanover amounted to absolute conquest. In pursuance of these, she sent an army of one hundred and twenty thousand men across the Rhine, instead of four and twenty thousand, which she had engaged to furnish by the original treaty with the empress-queen of Hungary, who is said to have shared in the spoils of the electorate. The czarina, by co-operating with the houses of Bourbon and Austria, gratified her personal disgust towards the Prussian monarch, augmented her finances by considerable subsidies from both, and perhaps amused herself with the hope of obtaining an establishment in the German empire; but whether she waivered in her own sentiments, or her ministry fluctuated between the promises of France and the presents of Great Britain, certain it is, her forces had not acted with vigour in Pomerania; and her general Apraxin, instead of prosecuting his advantage, had retreated immediately after the Prussians miscarried in their attack. He was indeed disgraced, and tried for having thus retired without orders; but in all probability, this trial was no other than a farce, acted to amuse the other confederates while the empress of Russia gained time to deliberate upon the offers that were made, and determine with regard to the advantages or disadvantages that might accrue to her from persevering in the engagements which she had contracted. As for the Swedes, although they had been instigated to hostilities against Prussia by the intrigues of France, and flattered with hopes of retrieving Pomerania, they prosecuted the war in such a dispirited and ineffectual manner, as plainly proved that either the ancient valour of that people was extinct, or that the nation was not heartily engaged in the quarrel.

When the Russian general Apraxin retreated from Pomerania, mareschal Lehwald, who commanded the Prussians in that country, was left at liberty to turn his arms against the Swedes, and accordingly drove them before him almost without opposition. By the beginning of January they had evacuated all Prussian Pomerania, and Lehwald invaded their dominions in his turn. He, in a little time, made himself master of all Swedish Pomerania, except Stralsund and the isle of Rugen, and possessed himself of several magazines which the enemy had erected. The Austrian army, after their defeat at Breslau, had retired into Bohemia, where they were cantoned, the head-quarters being fixed at Koningsgratz. The king of Prussia having cleared all his part of Silesia, except the town of Schweidnitz, which he circumscribed with a blockade, sent detachments from his army cantoned in the neighbourhood of Breslau, to penetrate into the Austrian or southern part of Silesia, where they surprised Troppau and Jaggernsdorf, while he himself remained at Breslau, entertaining his officers with concerts of music. Not that he suffered these amusements to divert his attention from subjects of greater importance. He laid Swedish Pomerania under contribution, and made a fresh demand of five hundred thousand crowns from the electorate of Saxony. Having received intimation that the duke of Mecklenburgh was employed in providing magazines for the French army, he detached a body of troops into that country, who not only secured the magazines, but levied considerable contributions; and the duke retired to Lubeck, attended by the French minister. The states of Saxony having proved a little dilatory in obeying his Prussian majesty's injunction, received a second intimation, importing that they should levy and deliver, within a certain time, eighteen thousand recruits for his army, pay into the hands of his commissary one year's revenue of the electorate in advance; and Leipsic was taxed with an extraordinary subsidy of eight hundred thousand crowns, on pain of military execution. The states were immediately convoked at Leipsic in order to deliberate on these demands; and the city being unable to pay such a considerable sum, the Prussian troops began to put their monarch's threats in execution. He justified these proceedings, by declaring that the enemy had practised the same violence and oppression on the territories of his allies; but how the practice of his declared enemies, in the countries which they had invaded and subdued in common course of war, should justify him in pillaging and oppressing a people with whom neither he nor his allies were at war, it is not easy to conceive. As little can we reconcile this conduct to the character of a prince, assuming the title of protector of the protestant religion, which is the established faith among those very Saxons who were subjected to such grievous impositions; impositions the more grievous and unmerited, as they had never taken any share in the present war, but cautiously avoided every step that might be construed into provocation, since the king of Prussia declared they might depend upon his protection.

{GEORGE II. 1727-1760}



STATE of the ARMIES on the CONTINENT.

Before we proceed to enumerate the events of the campaign, it may be necessary to inform the reader, that the forces brought into the field by the empress-queen of Hungary, and the states of the empire, the czarina, the kings of France and Sweden, fell very little short of three hundred thousand men; and all these were destined to act against the king of Prussia and the elector of Hanover. In opposition to this formidable confederacy, his Prussian majesty was, by tha subsidy from England, the spoils of Saxony, and the revenues of Brandenbourg, enabled to maintain an army of one hundred and forty thousand men: while the elector of Hanover assembled a body of sixty thousand men, composed of his own electoral troops, with the auxiliary mercenaries of Hesse-Cassel, Buckebourg, Saxe-Gotha, and Brunswick Wolfenbuttel, all of them maintained by the pay of Great Britain. At this juncture, indeed, there was no other fund for their subsistence, as the countries of Hanover and Hesse were possessed by the enemy, and in the former the government was entirely changed.



THE FRENCH KING CHANGES THE ADMINISTRATION OF HANOVER.

In the month of December in the preceding year, a fanner of the revenues from Paris arrived at Hanover, where he established his office, in order to act by virtue of powers from one John Faidy, to whom the French king granted the direction, receipt, and administration of all the duties and revenues of the electorate. This director was, by a decree of the council of state, empowered to receive the reveiraes, not only of Hanover, but also of all other countries that should be subjected to his most christian majesty in the course of the campaign; to remove the receivers who had been employed in any part of the direction, receipt, and administration of the duties and revenues of Hanover, and appoint others in their room. The French king, by the same decree, ordained, that all persons who had been intrusted under the preceding government, with titles, papers, accounts, registers, or estimates, relating to the administration of the revenues, should communicate them to John Faidy, or his attorneys; that the magistrates of the towns, districts, and commonalties, as well as those who directed the administration of particular states and provinces, should deliver to the said John Faidy, or his attorneys, the produce of six years of the duties and revenues belonging to the said towns, districts, and provinces, reckoning from the first of January in the year one thousand seven hundred and fifty-one, together with an authentic account of the sums they had paid during that term to the preceding sovereign, and of the charges necessarily incurred. It appears from the nature of this decree, which was dated on the eighteenth day of October, that immediately after the conventions of Closter-Seven and Bremenworden,* the court of Versailles had determined to change the government and system of the electorate, contrary to an express article of the capitulation granted to the city of Hanover, when it surrendered on the ninth day of August; and that the crown of France intended to take advantage of the cessation of arms, in seizing places and provinces which were not yet subdued; for, by the decree above-mentioned, the administration of John Faidy extended to the countries which might hereafter be conquered.

* Six days after the convention was signed at Closter-Seven, another act of accommodation was concluded at Bremenworden, between the generals Sporcken and Villemur, relating to the release of prisoners, and some other points omitted in the convention.

With what regard to justice, then, could the French government charge the elector of Hanover with the infraction of articles? or what respect to good faith and humanity did the duke de Richelieu observe, in the order issued from Zell, towards the end of the year, importing, that as the treaty made with the country of Hanover had been rendered void by the violation of the articles signed at Closter-Seven, all the effects belonging to the officers, or others, employed in the Hanoverian army, should be confiscated for the use of his most christian majesty?

The landgrave of Hesse-Cassel, being desirous of averting a like storm from his dominions, not only promised to renounce all connexion with the kings of Great Britain and Prussia, but even solicited the court of France to receive him among the number of its dependents; for, on the eighteenth day of October, the minister of the duke de Deuxponts, delivered at Versailles, in the name of the landgrave, the plan of a treaty founded on the following conditions: The landgrave, after having expressed an ardent desire of attaching himself wholly to France, proposed these articles—That he should enter into no engagement against the king and his allies; and give no assistance, directly or indirectly, to the enemies of his majesty and his allies: that he should never give his vote, in the general or particular assemblies of the empire, against his majesty's interest; but, on the contrary, employ his interest, jointly with France, to quiet the troubles of the empire: that, for this end, his troops, which had served in the Hanoverian army, should engage in the service of France, on condition that they should not act in the present war against his Britannic majesty: that, immediately after the ratification of the treaty, his most christian majesty should restore the dominions of the landgrave in the same condition they were in when subdued by the French forces: that these dominions should be exempted from all further contributions, either in money, corn, forage, wood, or cattle, though already imposed on the subjects of Hesse; and the French troops pay for all the provisions with which they might be supplied; in which case the landgrave should exact no toll for warlike stores, provisions, or other articles of that nature, which might pass through his dominions: that the king of France should guarantee all his estates, all the rights of the house of Hesse-Cassel, particularly the act of assurance signed by his son, the hereditary prince, with regard to religion; use his interest with the emperor and the empress-queen, that, in consideration of the immense losses and damages his most serene highness had suffered since the French invaded his country, and of the great sums he should lose with England in arrears and subsidies by this accommodation, he might be excused from furnishing his contingent to the army of the empire, as well as from paying the Roman months granted by the diet of the empire; and if, in resentment of this convention, the states of his serene highness should be attacked, his most christian majesty should afford the most speedy and effectual succours.—These proposals will speak for themselves to the reader's apprehension; and if he is not blinded by the darkest mists of prejudice, exhibit a clear and distinct idea of a genuine German ally. The landgrave of Hesse-Cassel had been fed with the good things of England, even in time of peace, when his friendship could not avail, nor his aversion prejudice, the interests of Great Britain; but he was retained in that season of tranquillity as a friend, on whose services the most implicit dependence might be placed in any future storm or commotion. How far he merited this confidence and favour might have been determined by reflecting on his conduct during the former war: in the course of which his troops were hired to the king of Great Britain and his enemies alternately, as the scale of convenience happened to preponderate. Since the commencement of the present troubles, he had acted as a mercenary to Great Britain, although he was a principal in the dispute, and stood connected with her designs by solemn treaty, as well as by all the ties of gratitude and honour; but now that the cause of Hanover seemed to be on the decline, and his own dominions had suffered by the fate of the war, he not only appeared willing to abandon his benefactor and ally, but even sued to be enlisted in the service of his adversary. This intended defection was, however, prevented by a sudden turn of fortune, which he could not possibly foresee; and his troops continued to act in conjunction with the Hanoverians.



TREATY BETWEEN THE FRENCH KING AND THE DUKE OF BRUNSWICK.

The landgrave of Hesse-Cassel was not singular in making such advances to the French monarch. The duke of Brunswick, still more nearly connected with the king of Great Britain, used such uncommon expedition in detaching himself from the tottering fortune of Hanover, that in ten days after the convention of Closter-Seven, he had concluded a treaty with the courts of Vienna and Versailles; so that the negotiation must have been begun before that convention took place. On the twentieth day of September, his minister at Vienna, by virtue of full powers from the duke of Brunswick, accepted and signed the conditions which the French king and his Austrian ally thought proper to impose. These imported, that his most christian majesty should keep possession of the cities of Brunswick and Wolfenbuttel during the war, and make use of the artillery, arms, and military stores deposited in their arsenals: that the duke's forces, on their return from the camp of the duke of Cumberland, should be disbanded and disarmed; and take an oath that they should not, during the present war, serve against the king or his allies: that the duke should be permitted to maintain a battalion of foot, and two squadrons of horse, for the guard of his person and castles; but the regulations made by mareschal Richelieu and the intendant of his army, should subsist on their present footing: that the duke should furnish his contingent in money and troops, agreeably to the laws of the empire: that his forces should immediately join those which the Germanic body had assembled; and that he should order his minister at Ratisbon to vote conformably to the resolutions of the diet, approved and confirmed by the emperor. In consideration of all these concessions, the duke was restored to the favour of the French king, who graciously promised that neither his revenues nor his treasure should be touched, nor the administration of justice invaded; and that nothing further should be demanded, but winter-quarters for the regiments which should pass that season in the country of Brunswick. How scrupulously soever the duke might have intended to observe the articles of this treaty, his intentions were frustrated by the conduct of his brother prince Ferdinand, who, being invested with the command of the Hanoverian army, and ordered to resume the operations of war against the enemy, detained the troops of Brunswick, as well as his nephew the hereditary prince, notwithstanding the treaty which his brother had signed, and the injunctions which he had laid upon his son to quit the army, and make a tour to Holland, The duke wrote an expostulatory letter to prince Ferdinand, pathetically complaining that he had seduced his troops, decoyed his son, and disgraced his family; insisting upon the prince's pursuing his journey, as well as upon the return of the troops; and threatening, in case of non-compliance, to use other means that should be more effectual. [461] [See note 3 O, at the end of this Vol.] Notwithstanding this warm remonstrance, prince Ferdinand adhered to his plan. He detained the troops and the hereditary prince, who, being fond of the service, in a little time signalized himself by very extraordinary acts of bravery and conduct; and means were found to reconcile his father to measures that expressly contradicted his engagements with the courts of Vienna and Versailles.



DECREE OF THE AULIC COUNCIL.

The defeat of the French army at Rosbach, and the retreat of the Russians from Pomerania, had entirely changed the face of affairs in the empire. The French king was soon obliged to abandon his conquests on that sida of the Rhine, and his threats sounded no longer terrible in the ears of the Hanoverian and Prussian allies. As little formidable were the denunciations of the emperor, who had, by a decree of the Aulic council, communicated to the diet certain mandates, issued in the month of August in the preceding year, on pain of the ban of the empire, with avocatory letters annexed against the king of Great Britain, elector of Hanover, and the other princes acting in concert with the king of Prussia. The French court likewise published a virulent memorial, after the convention of Closter-Seven had been violated and set aside, drawing an invidious parallel between the conduct of the French king and the proceedings of his Britannic majesty; in which the latter is taxed with breach of faith, and almost every meanness that could stain the character of a monarch. In answer to the emperor's decree and this virulent charge, baron Gimmengen, the electoral minister of Brunswick-Lunenbourg, presented to the diet, in November, a long memorial, recapitulating the important services his sovereign had done the house of Austria, and the ungrateful returns he had reaped, in the queen's refusing to assist him, when his dominions were threatened with an invasion. He enumerated many instances in which she had assisted, encouraged, and even joined the enemies of the electorate, in contempt of her former engagements, and directly contrary to the constitution of the empire. He refuted every article of the charge which the French court had brought against him in their virulent libel, retorted the imputations of perfidy and ambition, and, with respect to France, justified every particular of his own conduct.



BREMEN TAKEN AND RETAKEN.

While the French and Hanoverian armies remained in their winter-quarters, the former at Zell, and the latter at Lemenbourg, divers petty enterprises were executed by detachments with various success. The Hanoverian general Juncheim, having taken post at Halberstadt and Quedlimbourg, from whence he made excursions even to the gates of Brunswick, and kept the French army in continual alarm, was visited by a large body of the enemy, who compelled him to retire to Achersleben, committed great excesses in the town of Halberstadt and its neighbourhood, and carried off hostages for the payment of contributions. General Hardenberg, another Hanoverian officer, having dislodged the French detachments that occupied Burgh, Vogelsack, and Ritterhude, and cleared the whole territory of Bremen, in the month of January the duke de Broglio assembled a considerable corps of troops that were cantoned at Ottersburg, Rothenburg, and the adjacent country, and advancing to Bremen, demanded admittance, threatening that, in case of a refusal, he would have recourse to extremities, and punish the inhabitants severely, should they make the least opposition. When their deputies waited upon him, to desire a short time for deliberation, he answered, "Not a moment—the duke de Richelieu's orders are peremptory, and admit of no delay." He accordingly ordered the cannon to advance; the wall was scaled, and the gates would have been forced open, had not the magistrates, at the earnest importunity of the people, resolved to comply with his demand. A second deputation was immediately despatched to the duke de Broglio, signifying their compliance; and the gates being opened, he marched into the city at midnight, after having promised upon his honour that no attempt should be made to the prejudice of its rights and prerogatives, and no outrage offered to the privileges of the regency, to the liberty, religion, and commerce of the inhabitants. This conquest, however, was of short duration. Prince Ferdinand of Brunswick being joined by a body of Prussian horse, under the command of prince George of Holstein-Gottorp, the whole army was put in motion, and advanced to the country of Bremen about the middle of February. The enemy were dislodged from Rothenburg, Ottersburg, and Verden, and they abandoned the city of Bremen at the approach of the Hanoverian general, who took possession of it without opposition.

By this time the court of Versailles, being dissatisfied with the conduct of the duke de Richelieu, had recalled that general from Germany, where his place was supplied by the count de Clermont, to the general satisfaction of the army, as well as the joy of the Hanoverian subjects, among whom Richelieu had committed many flagrant and inhuman acts of rapine and oppression. The new commander found his master's forces reduced to a deplorable condition, by the accidents of war, and distempers arising from hard duty, severe weather, and the want of necessaries. As he could not pretend, with such a wretched remnant, to oppose the designs of prince Ferdinand in the field, or even maintain the footing which his predecessor had gained, he found himself under the necessity of retiring with all possible expedition towards the Rhine. As the allies advanced, his troops retreated from their distant quarters with such precipitation, as to leave behind all their sick, together with a great part of their baggage and artillery, besides a great number of officers and soldiers, that fell into the hands of those parties by whom they were pursued. The inhabitants of Hanover, perceiving the French intended to abandon that city, were overwhelmed with the fear of being subjected to every species of violence and abuse; but their apprehensions were happily disappointed by the honour and integrity of the duke de Randan, the French governor, who not only took effectual measures for restraining the soldiers within the bounds of the most rigid discipline and moderation, but likewise exhibited a noble proof of generosity, almost without example. Instead of destroying his magazine of provisions, according to the usual practice of war, he ordered the whole to be either sold at a low price, or distributed among the poor of the city, who had been long exposed to the horrors of famine: an act of godlike humanity, which ought to dignify the character of that worthy nobleman above all the titles that military fame can deserve, or arbitrary monarchs bestow. The regency of Hanover were so deeply impressed with a sense of his heroic behaviour on this occasion, that they gratefully acknowledged it, in a letter of thanks to him and the count de Clermont; and on the day of solemn thanksgiving to heaven for their being delivered from their enemies, the clergy, in their sermons, did not fail to celebrate and extol the charity and benevolence of the duke de Randan. Such glorious testimonies, even from enemies, must have afforded the most exquisite pleasure to a mind endued with sensibility; and this, no doubt, may be termed one of the fairest triumphs of humanity.



THE FRENCH ABANDON HANOVER.

The two grand divisions of the French army, quartered at Zell and Hanover, retired in good order to Hamelen, where they collected all their troops, except those that were left in Hoya, and about four thousand men placed in garrison at Minden, to retard the operations of the combined army. Towards the latter end of February, prince Ferdinand of Brunswick, having received intelligence that the count de Chabot was posted with a considerable body of troops at Hoya, upon the Weser, detached the hereditary prince of Brunswick, with four battalions, and some light troops and dragoons, to dislodge them from that neighbourhood. This enterprise was executed with the utmost intrepidity. The hereditary prince passed the Weser at Bremen with part of his detachment, while the rest advanced on this side of the river: and the enemy, being attacked in front and rear, were in a little time forced, and thrown into confusion. The bridge being abandoned, and near seven hundred men taken prisoners, the count de Chabot threw himself, with two battalions, into the castle, where he resolved to support himself, in hope of being relieved. The regiment of Bretagne, and some detachments of dragoons, were actually on the march to his assistance. The hereditary prince being made acquainted with this circumstance, being also destitute of heavy artillery to besiege the place in form, and taking it for granted he should not be able to maintain the post after it might be taken, he listened to the terms of capitulation proposed by the French general, whose garrison was suffered to march out with the honours of war; but their cannon, stores, and ammunition were surrendered to the victor. This was the first exploit of the hereditary prince, whose valour and activity on many subsequent occasions shone with distinguished lustre. He had no sooner reduced Hoya, than he marched to the attack of Minden, which he invested on the fifth day of March, and on the fourteenth the garrison surrendered at discretion. After the reduction of this city, the combined army advanced towards Hamelen, where the French general had established his head-quarters; but he abandoned them at the approach of the allies, and leaving behind all his sick and wounded, with part of his magazines, retired without halting to Paderborn, and from thence to the Rhine, recalling in his march the troops that were in Embden, Cassel, and the land-graviate of Hesse, all which places were now evacuated. They were terribly harassed in their retreat by the Prussian hussars, and a body of light horse, distinguished by the name of Hanoverian hunters, who took a great number of prisoners, together with many baggage-waggons, and some artillery. Such was the precipitation of the enemy's retreat, that they could not find time to destroy all their magazines of provision and forage; and even forgot to call in the garrison of Vecht, a small fortress in the neighbourhood of Diepholt, who were made prisoners of war, and here was found a complete train of battering cannon and mortars. The count de Clermont, having reached the banks of the Rhine, distributed his forces into quarters of cantonment in Wesel and the adjoining country, while prince Ferdinand cantoned the allied army in the bishopric of Munster; here, however, he did not long remain inactive. In the latter end of May he ordered a detachment to pass the Rhine at Duysbourg, under the command of colonel Scheither, who executed his order without loss, defeated three battalions of the enemy, and took five pieces of cannon. In the beginning of June the whole army passed the Rhine on a bridge constructed for the occasion, defeated a body of French cavalry, and obtained divers other advantages in their march towards Wesel. Keiserwaert was surprised, the greater part of the garrison either killed or taken; and prince Ferdinand began to make preparations for the siege of Dusseldorp. In the meantime, the count de Clermont, being unable to stop the rapidity of his progress, was obliged to secure his troops with strong intrenchments, until he should be properly reinforced.



PRINCE FERDINAND DEFEATS THE FRENCH, &c.

The court of Versailles, though equally mortified and confounded at the turn of their affairs in Germany, did not sit tamely and behold this reverse; but exerted their usual spirit and expedition in retrieving the losses they had sustained. They assembled a body of troops at Hanau, under the direction of the prince de Soubise, who, it was said, had received orders to penetrate, by the way of Donawert, Ingoldstadt, and Arnberg, into Bohemia. In the meantime, reinforcements daily arrived in the camp of the count de Clermont; and, as repeated complaints had been made of the want of discipline and subordination in that army, measures were taken for reforming the troops by severity and example. The mareschal duke de Belleisle, who now acted as secretary at war with uncommon ability, wrote a letter, directed to all the colonels of infantry, threatening them, in the king's name, with the loss of their regiments, should they connive any longer at the scandalous practice of buying commissions; an abuse which had crept into the service under various pretexts, to the discouragement of merit, the relaxation of discipline, and the total extinction of laudable emulation. The prince of Clermont having quitted his strong camp at Rhinefeldt, retired to Nuys, a little higher up the river, and detached a considerable corps, under the command of the count de St. Germain, to take post at Creveldt, situated in a plain between his army and the camp of the allies, which fronted the town of Meurs. After several motions on both sides, prince Ferdinand resolved to attack the enemy, and forthwith made a disposition for this purpose. He assigned the command of the whole left wing, consisting of eighteen battalions and twenty-eight squadrons, to lieutenant-general Sporcken; the conduct of the right wing, composed of sixteen battalions and fourteen squadrons, was intrusted to the hereditary prince and major-general Wangenheim; the squadrons, with the addition of two regiments of Prussian dragoons, were under the immediate direction of the prince of Holstein, while the hereditary prince commanded the infantry. The light troops, consisting of five squadrons of hussars, were divided between the prince of Holstein and lieutenant-general Sporcken. Major Luckner's squadron, together with Scheither's corps, were ordered to observe the flank of the enemy's right, and with this view were posted in the village of Papendeick; and a battalion of the troops of Wolfenbuttel were left in the town of Hulste, to cover the rear of the army. Prince Ferdinand's design was to attack the enemy on their left flank; but the execution was rendered extremely difficult by the woods and ditches that embarrassed the route, and the numerous ditches that intersected this part of the country. On the twenty-third day of June, at four in the morning, the army began to move; the right advancing in two columns as far as St. Anthony, and the left marching up within half a league of Crevelt. The prince having viewed the position of the enemy from the steeple of St. Anthony, procured guides, and having received all the necessary hints of information, proceeded to the right, in order to charge the enemy's left flank by the villages of Worst and Anrath; but, in order to divide their attention, and keep them in suspense with respect to the nature of his principal attack, he directed the generals Sporcken and Oberg to advance against them by the way of Crevelt and St. Anthony, and, in particular, to make the most of their artillery, that, being employed in three different places at once, they might be prevented from sending any reinforcement to the left, where the chief attack was intended. These precautions being taken, prince Ferdinand, putting himself at the head of the grenadiers of the right wing, continued his march in two columns to the village of Anrath, where he fell in with an advanced party of the French, which, after a few discharges of musketry, retired to their camp and gave the alarm. In the meantime, both armies were drawn up in order of battle; the troops of the allies in the plain between the villages of Anrath and Willich, opposite to the French forces, whose left was covered with a wood. The action began about one in the afternoon, with a severe cannonading on the part of prince Ferdinand, which, though well supported, proved ineffectual in drawing the enemy from their cover; he therefore determined to dislodge them from the wood by dint of small arms. The hereditary prince immediately advanced with the whole front, and a very obstinate action ensued. Meanwhile, the cavalry on the right in vain attempted to penetrate the wood on the other side, where the enemy had raised two batteries, which were sustained by forty squadrons of horse. After a terrible fire had been maintained on both sides till five in the afternoon, the grenadiers forced the intrenchments in the wood, which were lined by the French infantry. These giving way, abandoned the wood in the utmost disorder; but the pursuit was checked by the conduct and resolution of the enemy's cavalry, which, notwithstanding a dreadful fire from the artillery of the allies, maintained their ground, and covered the foot in their retreat to Nuys. The success of the day was in a good measure owing to the artillery on the left and in the centre, with which the generals Sporcken and Oberg had done great execution, and employed the attention of the enemy on that side, while prince Ferdinand prosecuted his attack on the other quarter. It must be owned, however, that their right wing and centre retired in great order to Nuys, though the left was defeated, with the loss of some standards, colours, and pieces of cannon, and six thousand men killed, wounded, or taken prisoners.*

* Among the French officers who lost their lives in this engagement, was the count de Gisors, only son of the mareschal duke de Belleisle, and last hope of that illustrious family, a young nobleman of extraordinary accomplishments, who finished a short life of honour in the embrace of military glory, and fell gallantly fighting at the head of his own regiment, to the inexpressible grief of his aged father, and the universal regret of his country.

This victory, however, which cost the allies about fifteen hundred men, was not at all decisive in its consequences; and, indeed, the plan seemed only calculated to display the enterprising genius of the Hanoverian general. True it is, the French army took refuge under the cannon of Cologn, where they remained without hazarding any step for the relief of Dusseldorp, which prince Ferdinand immediately invested, and in a few days reduced, the garrison being allowed to march out with the honours of war, on condition that they should not, for the space of one year, carry arms against the allies.

{GEORGE II. 1727-1760}



PRINCE OF YSEMBOURG DEFEATED.

It was at this period that count de Clermont resigned his command, which was conferred upon M. de Contades, and the French army was considerably reinforced. He even threatened to attack prince Ferdinand in his turn, and made some motions with that design, but was prevented by the little river Erff, behind which the prince resolved to lie quiet, until he should be joined by the body of the British troops under the command of the duke of Marlborough, the first division of which had just landed at Embden. He flattered himself that the prince of Ysembourg, at the head of the Hessian troops, would find employment for the prince de Soubise, who had marched from Hanau, with a design to penetrate into the landgraviate of Hesse-Cassel: his vanguard had been already surprised and defeated by the militia of the country; and the prince Ysembourg was at the head of a considerable body of regular forces, assembled to oppose his further progress. Prince Ferdinand therefore hoped that the operations of the French general would be effectually impeded, until he himself, being joined by the British troops, should be in a condition to pass the Maese, transfer the seat of war into the enemy's country, thus make a diversion from the Rhine, and perhaps oblige the prince de Soubise to come to the assistance of the principal French army commanded by M. de Contades. He had formed a plan which would have answered these purposes effectually, and, in execution of it, marched to Ruremond on the Maese, when his measures were totally disconcerted by a variety of incidents which he could not foresee. The prince of Ysembourg was, on the twenty-third day of July, defeated at San-garshausen by the duke de Broglio, whom the prince de Soubise had detached against him with a number of troops greatly superior to that which the Hessian general commanded. The duke de Broglio, who commanded the corps that formed the vanguard of Soubise's army, having learned at Cassel that the Hessian troops, under the prince of Ysembourg, were retiring towards Munden, he advanced, on the twenty-third of July, with a body of eight thousand men, to the village of Sangarshausen, where he found them drawn up in order of battle, and forthwith made a disposition for the attack. At first his cavalry were repulsed by the Hessian horse, which charged the French infantry, and were broke in their turn. The Hessians, though greatly inferior in number to the enemy, made a very obstinate resistance, by favour of a rock in the Fulde that covered their right, and a wood by which their left was secured. The dispute was so obstinate, that the enemy's left was obliged to give ground; but the duke de Broglio, ordering a fresh corps to advance, changed the fortune of the day. The Hessians, overpowered by numbers, gave way; part plunged into the river, where many perished, and part threw themselves into the wood, through which they escaped from the pursuit of the hussars, who took above two hundred soldiers and fifty officers, including the count de Canitz, who was second in command. They likewise found on the field of battle seven pieces of cannon, and eight at Munden; but the carnage was pretty considerable, and nearly equal on both sides. The number of the killed and wounded, on the side of the French, exceeded two thousand; the loss of the Hessians was not so great. The prince of Ysembourg, having collected the remains of his little army, took post at Eimbeck, where he soon was reinforced, and found himself at the head of twelve thousand men; but, in consequence of this advantage, the enemy became masters of the Weser, and opened to themselves a free passage into Westphalia.



GENERAL IMHOFF DEFEATS M. DE CHEVERT.

The progress of prince Ferdinand upon the Maese, had been retarded by a long succession of heavy rains, which broke up the roads, and rendered the country impassable; and now the certain information of this unlucky check left him no alternative but a battle or a retreat across the Rhine: the first was carefully avoided by the enemy; the latter resolution, therefore, he found himself under a necessity to embrace. In his present position he was hampered by the French army on one wing, on the other by the fortress of Gueldres, the garrison of which had been lately reinforced, as well as by divers other posts, capable of obstructing the convoys and subsistence of the combined army; besides, he had reason to apprehend, that the prince de Soubise would endeavour to intercept the British troops in their march from Embden. Induced by these considerations, he determined to repass the Rhine, after having offered battle to the enemy, and made several motions for that purpose. Finding them averse to an engagement, he made his dispositions for forcing the strong pass of Waehtendonck, an island surrounded by Niers, of very difficult approach, and situated exactly in his route to the Rhine. This service was performed by the hereditary prince of Brunswick, who, perceiving the enemy had drawn up the bridge, rushed into the river at the head of his grenadiers, who drove them away with their bayonets, and cleared the bridges for the passage of the army towards Rhinebergen. At this place prince Ferdinand received intelligence that M. de Chevert, reputed one of the best officers in the French service, had passed the Lippe with fourteen battalions and several squadrons, to join the garrison of Wesel, and fall upon lieutenant-general Imhoff, who commanded a detached corps of the combined army at Meer, that he might be at hand to guard the bridge which the prince had thrown over the Rhine at Rees. His serene highness was extremely desirous of sending succours to general Imhoff; but the troops were too much fatigued to begin another march before morning; and the Rhine had overflowed its banks in such a manner as to render the bridge at Rees impassable, so that M. Imhoff was left to the resources of his own conduct and the bravery of his troops, consisting of six battalions and four squadrons, already weakened by the absence of different detachments. This general having received advice, on the fourth of August, that the enemy intended to pass the Lippe the same evening with a considerable train of artillery, in order to burn the bridge at Rees, decamped with a view to cover this place, and join two battalions which; had passed the Rhine in boats, under the command of general Zastrow, who reinforced him accordingly; but the enemy not appearing, he concluded the information was false, and resolved to resume his advantageous post at Meer. Of this he had no sooner repossessed himself, than his advanced guards were engaged with the enemy, who marched to the attack from Wesel, under the command of lieutenant-general de Chevert, consisting of the whole corps intended for the siege of Dusseldorp. Imhoffs front was covered by coppices and ditches, there being a rising ground on his right, from whence he could plainly discern the whole force that advanced against him, together with the manner of their approach. Perceiving them engaged in that difficult ground, he posted one regiment in a coppice, with orders to fall upon the left flank of the enemy, which appeared quite uncovered; and as soon as their fire began, advanced with the rest of his forces to attack them in front. The bayonet was used on this occasion, and the charge given with such impetuosity and resolution, that after a short resistance, the enemy fell into confusion, and fled towards Wesel, leaving on the spot eleven pieces of cannon, with a great number of waggons and other carriages; besides the killed and wounded, who amounted to a pretty considerable number, the victor took three hundred and fifty-four prisoners, including eleven officers; whereas, on his part the victory was purchased at a very small expense.



GENERAL OBERG DEFEATED by the FRENCH.

Immediately after this action, general Wangenheim passed the Rhine with several squadrons and battalions, to reinforce general Imhoff, and enable him to prosecute the advantage he had gained, while prince Ferdinand marched with the rest of the army to Santen: from whence he proceeded to Rhinebergen, where he intended to pass; but the river had overflowed to such a degree, that here, as well as at Rees, the shore was inaccessible; so that he found it necessary to march farther down the river, and lay a bridge at Griethuyzen. The enemy had contrived four vessels for the destruction of this bridge; but they were all taken before they could put the design in execution, and the whole army passed on the tenth day of August, without any loss or further interruption. At the same time the prince withdrew his garrison from Dusseldorp, of which the French immediately took possession. Immediately after his passage he received a letter from the duke of Marlborough, acquainting him that the British troops had arrived at Lingen, in their route to Coesfeldt: to which place general Imhoff was sent to receive them, with a strong detachment. Notwithstanding this junction, the two armies on the Rhine were so equally matched, that no stroke of importance was struck on either side during the remaining part of the campaign. M. de Contades, seeing no prospect of obtaining the least advantage over prince Ferdinand, detached prince Xaverius of Saxony with a strong reinforcement to the prince de Soubise, who had taken possession of Gottengen, and seemed determined to attack the prince of Ysembourg at Eimbeck. That this officer might be able to give him a proper reception, prince Ferdinand detached general Oberg with ten thousand men to Lipstadt, from whence, should occasion require, they might continue their march, and join the Hessians. The whole body, when thus reinforced, did not exceed twenty thousand men, of whom general Oberg now assumed the command: whereas the troops of Soubise were increased to the number of thirty thousand. The allies had taken post upon the river Fulde at Sangarshausen, where they hoped the French would attack them; but the design of Soubise was first to dislodge them from that advantageous situation. With this view, he made a motion, as if he had intended to turn the camp of the allies by the road of Munden. In order to prevent the execution of this supposed design, general Oberg decamped on the tenth of October, and, passing by the village of Landwernhagen, advanced towards Lutten-berg, where, understanding the enemy were at his heels, he forthwith formed his troops in order of battle, his right to the Fulde, and his left extending to a thicket upon an eminence, where he planted five field-pieces. The cavalry supported the wings in a third line, the village of Luttenberg was in the rear, and four pieces of cannon were mounted on a rising ground that flanked this village. The French having likewise passed Landwernhagen, posted their left towards the Fulde, their right extending far beyond the left of the allies, and their front being strengthened with above thirty pieces of cannon. At four in the afternoon the enemy began the battle with a severe cannonading, and at the same time the first line of their infantry attacked major-general Zastrow, who was posted on the left wing of the allies. This body of the French was repulsed; but in the same moment, a considerable line of cavalry advancing, charged the allies in front and flank. These were supported by a fresh body of infantry with cannon, which, after a warm dispute, obliged the confederates to give way; and general Oberg, in order to prevent a total defeat, made a disposition for a retreat, which was performed in tolerable order; not but that he suffered greatly, in passing through a defile, from the fire of the enemy's cannon, which was brought up and managed under the direction of the duke de Broglio. Having marched through Munden by midnight, the retiring army lay till morning under arms in the little plain near Grupen, on the other side of the Weser; but at day-break prosecuted their march, after having withdrawn the garrison from Munden, until they arrived in the neighbourhood of Guntersheim, where they encamped. In this engagement general Oberg lost about fifteen hundred men, his artillery, baggage, and ammunition. He was obliged to abandon a magazine of hay and straw at Munden, and leave part of his wounded men in that place to the humanity of the victor. But, after all, the French general reaped very little advantage from his victory.



DEATH OF THE DUKE OF MARLBOROUGH.

By this time prince Ferdinand had retired into Westphalia, and fixed his head-quarters at Munster, while M. de Contades encamped near Ham upon the Lippe; so that, although he had obliged the French army to evacuate Hanover and Hesse in the beginning of the year, when they were weakened by death and distemper, and even driven them beyond the Rhine, where they sustained a defeat; yet they were soon put in a condition to baffle all his future endeavours, and penetrate again into Westphalia, where they established their winter-quarters, extending themselves in such a manner as to command the whole course of the Rhine on both sides, while the allies were disposed in the landgraviate of Hesse-Cassel, and in the bishoprics of Munster, Paderborn, and Hildesheim. The British troops had joined them so late in the season that they had no opportunity to signalize themselves in the field; yet the fatigues of the campaign, which they had severely felt, proved fatal to their commander, the duke of Marlborough, who died of a dysentery at Munster, universally lamented.



OPERATIONS OF THE KING OF PRUSSIA.

Having thus particularized the operations of the allied army since the commencement of the campaign, we shall now endeavour to trace the steps of the king of Prussia, from the period to which his army was assembled for action. Having collected his force as soon as the season would permit, he undertook the siege of Schweidnitz in form on the twenty-first day of March; and carried on his operations with such vigour, that in thirteen days the garrison surrendered themselves prisoners of war, after having lost one half of their number in the defence of the place. While one part of Lis troops were engaged in this service, he himself, at the head of another, advanced to the eastern frontier of Bohemia, and sent a detachment as far as Trautenaw, garrisoned by a body of Austrians, who, after an obstinate resistance, abandoned the place, and retreated towards their grand army. By this success he opened to himself a way into Bohemia, by which he poured in detachments of light troops, to raise contributions and harass the out-posts of the enemy. At the same time the baron de la Mothe Fouquet marched with another body against the Austrian general Jahnus, posted in the county of Glatz, whom he obliged to abandon all the posts he occupied in that country, and pursued as far as Nashod, within twenty miles of Koningsgratz, where the grand Austrian army was encamped, under the command of mareschal Daun, who had lately arrived from Vienna. Over and above these excursions, the king ordered a body of thirty thousand men to be assembled, to act under the command of his brother prince Henry,* an accomplished warrior, against the army of the empire, which the prince de Deux-ponts, with great difficulty, made a shift to form again near Bamberg, in Franconia.

* At this juncture the Prussian commandant of Dresden being admitted into the Japan palace, to see the curious porcelaine with which it is adorned, perceived a door built up; and ordering the passage to be opened, entered a large apartment, where he found three thousand tents, and other field utensils. These had been concealed here when the Prussians first took possession of the city; they were immediately seized by the commandant, and distributed among the troops of prince Henry's army.

The king of Prussia, whose designs were perhaps even greater than he cared to own, resolved to shift the theatre of the war, and penetrate into Moravia, a fertile country, which had hitherto been kept sacred from ravage and contribution. Having formed an army of fifty thousand choice troops, near Neiss, in Silesia, he divided them into three columns; the first commanded by mareschal Keith, the second by himself in person, and the third conducted by prince Maurice of Anhault-Dessau. In the latter end of April they began their march towards Moravia; and general De la Ville, who commanded a body of troops in that country, retired as they advanced, after having thrown a strong reinforcement into Olmutz, which the king was determined to besiege. Had he passed by this fortress, which was strongly fortified and well provided for a vigorous defence, he might have advanced to the gates of Vienna, and reduced the emperor to the necessity of suing for peace on his own terms; but it seems he was unwilling to deviate so far from the common maxims of war as to leave a fortified place in the rear; and, therefore, he determined to make himself master of it before he should proceed. For this purpose it was immediately invested: orders were issued to hasten up the heavy artillery, and mareschal Keith was appointed to superintend and direct the operations of the siege. Meanwhile the Austrian commander, count Daun, being informed of his Prussian majesty's motions and designs, quitted his camp at Leutomyssel in Bohemia, and entered Moravia by the way of Billa. Being still too weak to encounter the Prussians in the field, he extended his troops in the neighbourhood of the king's army, between Gewitz and Littau, in a mountainous situation, where he ran little or no risk of being attacked. Here he remained for some time in quiet, with the fertile country of Bohemia in his rear, from whence he drew plentiful supplies, and received daily reinforcements. His scheme was to relieve the besieged occasionally, to harass the besiegers, and to intercept their convoys from Silesia; and this scheme succeeded to his wish. Olmutz is so extensive in its works, and so peculiarly situated on the river Morava, that it could not be completely invested without weakening the posts of the besieging army, by extending them to a prodigious circuit; so that, in some parts, they were easily forced by detachments in the night, who fell upon them suddenly, and seldom failed to introduce into the place supplies of men, provisions, and ammunition. The forage in the neighbourhood of the city having been previously destroyed, the Prussian horse were obliged to make excursions at a great distance, consequently exposed to fatigue, and liable to surprise; and, in a word, the Prussians were not very expert in the art of town-taking.

Count Daun knew how to take advantage of these circumstances without hazarding a battle, to which the king provoked him in vain. While the garrison made repeated sallies to retard the operations of the besiegers, the' Austrian general harassed their foraging parties, fell upon different quarters of their army in the night, and kept them in continual alarm. Nevertheless, the king finished his first parallel; and proceeded with such vigour as seemed to promise a speedy reduction of the place, when his design was entirely frustrated by an untoward incident. Mareschal Daun, having received intelligence that a large convoy had set out from Silesia for the Prussian camp, resolved to seize this opportunity of compelling the king to desist from his enterprise. He sent general Jahnus, with a strong body of troops, towards Bahrn, and another detachment to Stadtoliebe, with instructions to attack the convoy on different sides; while he himself advanced towards the besiegers, as if he intended to give them battle. The king of Prussia, far from being deceived by this feint, began, from the motions of the Austrian general, to suspect his real scheme, and immediately despatched general Ziethen, with a strong reinforcement, to protect the convoy, which was escorted by eight battalions, and about four thousand men, who had been sick, and were just recovered. Before this officer joined them, the convoy had been attacked on the twenty-eighth day of June; but the assailants were repulsed with considerable loss. Mareschal Daun, however, took care that they should be immediately reinforced; and next day the attack was renewed with much greater effect. Four hundred waggons, guarded by four battalions, and about one thousand troopers, had just passed the defiles of Domstadt, when the Austrians charged them furiously on every side; the communication between the head and the rest of the convoy was cut off; and general Ziethen, after having exerted all his efforts for its preservation, being obliged to abandon the waggons, retired to Troppau. Thus the whole convoy fell into the hands of the enemy, who took above six hundred prisoners, together with general Putkammer; and the king of Prussia was obliged to relinquish his enterprise. This was a mortifying necessity to a prince of his high spirit, at a time when he saw himself on the eve of reducing the place, notwithstanding the gallant defence which had been made by general Marshal the governor. Nothing now remained but to raise the siege, and retire without loss in the face of a vigilant enemy, prepared to seize every opportunity of advantage: a task which, how hard soever it may appear, he performed with equal dexterity and success. Instead of retiring into Silesia, he resolved to avert the war from his own dominions, and take the route to Bohemia, the frontiers of which were left uncovered by mareschal Daun's last motion, when he advanced his quarters to Posnitz, in order to succour Olmutz the more effectually. After the king had taken his measures, he carefully concealed his design from the enemy, and, notwithstanding the loss of his convoy, prosecuted the operations of the siege with redoubled vigour till the first day of July, when he decamped in the night, and began his march to Bohemia. He himself, with one division, took the road to Konitz; and mareschal Keith having brought away all the artillery, except four mortars and one disabled cannon, pursued his march by the way of Littau to Muglitz and Tribau. Although his Prussian majesty had gained an entire march upon the Austrians, their light troops, commanded by the generals Buccow and Laudohn, did not fail to attend and harass his army in their retreat; but their endeavours were in a great measure frustrated by the conduct and circumspection of the Prussian commanders. After the rear of the army had passed the defiles of Krenau, general Lasci, who was posted at Gibau with a large body of Austrian troops, occupied the village of Krenau with a detachment of grenadiers, who were soon dislodged; and the Prussians pursued their march by Zwittau to Leutomyssel, where they seized a magazine of meal and forage. In the meantime general de Ratzow, who conducted the provisions and artillery, found the hills of Hollitz possessed by the enemy, who cannonaded him as he advanced; but mareschal Keith coming up, ordered them to be attacked in the rear, and they fled into a wood with precipitation, with the loss of six officers and three hundred men, who were taken prisoners. While' the mareschal was thus employed, the king proceeded from Leutomyssel to Koningsgratz, where general Buccow, who had got the start of him, was posted with seven thousand men behind the Elbe, and in the intrenchments which they had thrown up all around the city. The Prussian troops as they arrived passed over the little river Adler, and as the enemy had broken down the bridges over the Elbe, the king ordered them to be repaired with all expedition, being determined to attack the Austrian intrenchments; but general Buccow did not wait for his approach: he abandoned his intrenchments, and retired with his troops to Clumetz; so that the king took possession of the most important post of Koningsgratz without further opposition. An Austrian corps having taken post between him and Hollitz, in order to obstruct the march of the artillery, he advanced against them in person, and having driven them from the place, all his cannon, military stores, provisions, with fifteen hundred sick and wounded men, arrived in safety at Koningsgratz, where the whole army encamped. His intention was to transfer the seat of war from Moravia to Bohemia, where he should be able to maintain a more easy communication with his own dominions; but a more powerful motive soon obliged him to change his resolution.



PROGRESS OF THE RUSSIANS.

After the Russian troops under Apraxin had retreated from Pomerania in the course of the preceding year, and the czarina seemed ready to change her system, the courts of Vienna and Versailles had, by dint of subsidies, promises, presents, and intrigues, attached her, in all appearance, more firmly than ever to the confederacy, and even induced her to augment the number of troops destined to act against the Prussian monarch. She not only signed her accession in form to the quadruple alliance with the empress-queen and the kings of France and Sweden; but, in order to manifest her zeal to the common cause, she disgraced her chancellor, count Bestuchef, who was supposed averse to the war: she divided her forces into separate bodies, under the command of the generals Fermer and Browne, and ordered them to put their troops in motion in the middle of winter. Fermer accordingly began his march in the beginning of January, and on the twenty-second his light troops took possession of Koningsberg, the capital of Prussia, without opposition: for the king's forces had quitted that country in order to prosecute the war in the western parts of Pomerania. They did not, however, maintain themselves in this part of the country; but, after having ravaged some districts, returned to the main body, which halted on the Vistula, to the no small disturbance of the city of Dantzic. The resident of the czarina actually demanded that the magistrates should receive a Russian garrison; a demand which they not only peremptorily refused, but ordered all the citizens to arms, and took every other method to provide for their defence. At length, after some negotiation with general Fermer, the affair was compromised: he desisted from the demand, and part of his troops passed the Vistula, seemingly to invade Pomerania, in the eastern part of which count Dohna had assembled an army of Prussians to oppose their progress. But after they had pillaged the open country, they rejoined their main body; and general Fermer, turning to the left, advanced to Silesia in order to co-operate with the other Russian army commanded by Browne, who had taken his route through Poland, and already passed the Posna. By the first of July both bodies had reached the frontiers of Silesia, and some of their cossacks, penetrating into that province, had committed dreadful ravages, and overwhelmed the inhabitants with consternation. Count Bohna, with the Prussian army under his command, had attended their motions, and even passed the Oder at Frankfort, as if he had intended to give them battle; but he was too much inferior in number to hazard such a step, which became an object of his sovereign's own personal attention. Mareschal Daun had followed the king into Bohemia, and, on the twenty-second day of July, encamped on the hills of Libischau, a situation almost inaccessible, where he resolved to remain and watch the motions of the Prussian monarch, until some opportunity should offer of acting to advantage. Nature seems to have expressly formed this commander with talents to penetrate the designs, embarrass the genius, and check the impetuosity, of the Prussian monarch. He was justly compared to Fabius Maximus, distinguished by the epithet of Cunctator. He possessed all ihe vigilance, caution, and sagacity of that celebrated Roman. Like him, he hovered on the skirts of the enemy, harassing their parties, accustoming the soldiers to strict discipline, hard service, and the face of a formidable foe, and watching for opportunities, which he knew how to seize with equal courage and celerity.



THE PRUSSIANS DEFEAT THE RUSSIANS.

The king of Prussia, being induced by a concurrence of motives to stop the progress of the Russians in Silesia, made his dispositions for retreating from Bohemia, and on the twenty-fifth day of July quitted the camp at Koningsgratz. He was attended in his march by three thousand Austrian light troops, who did not fail to incommode his rear; but, notwithstanding these impediments, he passed the Mittau, proceeded on his route, and on the ninth day of August arrived at Landshut. From thence he hastened with a detachment towards Frankfort on the Oder, and joined the army commanded by lieutenant-general Dohna at Gorgas. Then the whole army passed the Oder by a bridge thrown over at Gatavise, and having rested one day, advanced to Dert-mitzel, where he encamped. The Russians, under general Fermer, were posted on the other side of the little river Mitzel, their right extending to the village of Zicker, and their left to Quertchem. The king being determined to hazard a battle, passed the Mitzel on the twenty-fifth in the morning, and turning the flank of the enemy, drew up his army in order of battle in the plain between the little river and the town of Zorndorf. The Russians, by whom he was outnumbered, did not decline the dispute; but as the ground did not permit them to extend themselves, they appeared in four lines, forming a front on every side, defended by cannon and a chevaux-de-frise, their right flank covered by the village of Zwicker. After a warm cannonade, the Prussian infantry were ordered to attack the village, and a body of grenadiers advanced to the assault; but this brigade unexpectedly giving way, occasioned a considerable opening in the line, and left the whole left flank of the infantry uncovered. Before the enemy could take advantage of this incident, the interval was filled up by the cavalry under the command of general Seydlitz; and the king, with his usual presence of mind, substituted another choice body of troops to carry on the attack. This began about noon, and continued for some time, during which both sides fought with equal courage and perseverance: at length general Seydlitz, having routed the Russian cavalry, fell upon the flank of the infantry with great fury, which being also dreadfully annoyed by the Prussian artillery, they abandoned the village, together with their military chest, and great part of their baggage. Notwithstanding this loss, which had greatly disordered their right wing, they continued to stand their ground, and terrible havoc was made among them, not only with the sword and bayonet, but also by the cannon, which were loaded with grape shot, and, being excellently served, did great execution. Towards evening the confusion among them increased to such a degree, that in all probability they would have been entirely routed, had they not been favoured by the approaching darkness, as well as by a particular operation which was very gallantly performed. One of the Russian generals perceiving the fortune of the day turned against him, rallied a select body of troops, and made a vigorous impression on the right wing of the Prussians. This effort diverted their attention so strongly to that quarter, that the right of the Russians enjoyed a respite, during which they retired in tolerable order, and occupied a new post on the right, where the rest of their forces were the more easily assembled. In this battle they are said to have lost above fifteen thousand men, thirty-seven colours, five standards, twelve mortars, the greater part of their baggage, and above one hundred pieces of cannon. Among the prisoners that fell into the hands of the victor, were several general officers, and a good number lost their lives on the field of battle. The victory cost the king above two thousand men, including some officers of distinction, particularly two aide-de-camps, who attended his own person, which he exposed without scruple to all the perils of the day. It would have redounded still more to his glory, had he put a stop to the carnage; for, after all resistance was at an end, the wretched Russians were hewn down without mercy. It must be owned, indeed, that the Prussian soldiers were, in a peculiar manner, exasperated against this enemy, because they had laid waste the country, burned the villages, ruined the peasants, and committed many horrid acts of barbarity, which the practice of war could not authorize. [467] [See note 3 P, at the end of this Vol.] The Prussian army passed the night under arms, and next morning the cannonade was renewed against the enemy, who, nevertheless, maintained their position without flinching. On the twenty-seventh, they seemed determined to hazard another action, and even attack the conquerors; instead of advancing, however, they took the route of Lands-berg; but afterwards turned off towards Vietzel, and posted themselves between the rivers Warta and that village. Immediately after the battle, general Fermer,* who had received a slight wound in the action, sent a trumpet with a letter to lieutenant-general Dohna, desiring a suspension of arms for two or three days to bury the dead, and take care of the wounded; and presenting to his Prussian majesty the humble request of general Browne, who was much weakened with the loss of blood, that he might have a passport, by virtue of which he could be removed to a place where he should find such accommodation as his situation required.

* General Fermer was of Scottish extract, and general Browne actually a native of North Britain.

In answer to this message, count Dohna gave the Russian general to understand, that as his Prussian majesty remained master of the field, he would give the necessary orders for interring the dead, and taking care of the wounded on both sides: he refused a suspension of arms, but granted the request of general Browne; and concluded his letter by complaining of the outrages which the Russian troops still continued to commit, in pillaging and burning the king's villages.

The king of Prussia had no sooner repulsed the enemy in one quarter, than his presence was required in another. When he quitted Bohemia, mareschal Daun, at the head of the Austrian army, and the prince de Deuxponts, who commanded the forces of the empire, advanced to the Elbe, in order to surround the king's brother, prince Henry, who, without immediate succour, would not have been able to preserve his footing in Saxony. The Prussian monarch, therefore, determined to support him with all possible expedition. In a few days after the battle he began his march from Custrin, with a reinforcement of twenty-four battalions and great part of his cavalry, and pursued his route with such unwearied diligence, that by the fifth day of September lie reached Torgau, and on the eleventh joined his brother. Mareschal Daun had posted himself at Stolpen, to the eastward of the Elbe, in order to preserve an easy communication with the army of the empire encamped in the neighbourhood of Koningstein, to favour the operations of general Laudohn, who had advanced through the Lower Lusatia to the frontiers of Brandenburgh; to make a diversion from the southern parts of Silesia, where a body of Austrian troops acted under the command of the generals Harsche and de Ville; and to interrupt the communication between prince Henry and the capital of Saxony. On the fifth day of September, the garrison in the strong fortress of Koningstein surrendered themselves prisoners of war, after a very feeble resistance, to the prince de Detixponts, who forthwith took possession of the strong camp at Pima. When the king of Prussia therefore arrived at Dresden, he found the army of the empire in this position, and mareschal Daun in a still stronger situation at Stolpen, with bridges of communication thrown over the Elbe, so that he could not attack them with any prospect of advantage. He had no other resolution to take but that of endeavouring to cut them off from supplies of provisions, and with this view he marched to Bautzen, which he occupied. This motion obliged the Austrian general to quit his camp at Stolpen, but he chose another of equal strength at Libau; yet he afterwards advanced to Rittlitz, that he might be at hand to seize the first favourable occasion of executing the resolution he had formed to attack the Prussians. The king having detached general Ratzow on his left, to take possession of Weissenberg, marched forwards with the body of his army, and posted himself in the neighbourhood of Hochkirchen, after having dislodged the Austrians from that village. Matters were now brought to such a delicate crisis, that a battle seemed inevitable, and equally desired by both parties, as an event that would determine whether the Austrians should be obliged to retreat for winter-quarters into Bohemia, or be enabled to maintain their ground in Saxony. In this situation mareschal Daun resolved to act offensively; and formed a scheme for attacking the right flank of the Prussians by surprise. This measure was suggested to him by an oversight of the Prussians, who had neglected to occupy the heights that commanded the village of Hochkirchen, which was only guarded by a few free companies. He determined to take the advantage of a very dark night, and to employ the flower of his whole army on this important service, well knowing, that should they penetrate through the flank of the enemy, the whole Prussian army would be disconcerted, and in all probability entirely ruined. Having taken his measures with wonderful secrecy and circumspection, the troops began to move in the night between the thirteenth and fourteenth of October, favoured by a thick fog, which greatly increased the darkness of the night. Their first care was to take possession of the hill that commanded Hochkirchen, from whence they poured down upon the village, of which they took possession, after having cut in pieces the free companies posted there. The action began in this quarter about four in the morning, and continued several hours with great fury, for, notwithstanding the impetuous efforts of the Austrian troops, and the confusion occasioned among the Prussians by the surprise, a vigorous stand was made by some general officers, who, with admirable expedition and presence of mind, assembled and arranged the troops as they could take to their arms, and led them up to the attack without distinction of regiment, place, or precedence. While the action was obstinately and desperately maintained in this place, amidst all the horrors of darkness, carnage, and confusion, the king being alarmed, exerted all his personal activity, address, and recollection, in drawing regularity from disorder, arranging the different corps, altering positions, reinforcing weak posts, encouraging the soldiery, and opposing the efforts of the enemy; for although they made their chief impression upon the right, by the village of Hochkirchen, mareschal Daun, in order to divide the attention of the king, made another attack upon the left, which was with difficulty sustained, and effectually prevented him from sending reinforcements to the right, where mareschal Keith, under the greatest disadvantages, bore the brunt of the enemy's chief endeavours. Thus the battle raged till nine in the morning, when this gallant officer was shot through the heart. Prince Francis of Brunswick had met with the same fate; prince Maurice of Anhault was wounded and taken prisoner, and many others were either slain or disabled. As the right wing had been surprised, the tents continued standing, and greatly embarrassed them in their defence. The soldiers had never been properly drawn up in order; the enemy still persevered in their attack with successive reinforcements and redoubled resolution; and a considerable slaughter was made by their artillery, which they had brought up to the heights of Hochkirchen. All these circumstances concurring, could not fail to increase the confusion and disaster of the Prussians; so that about ten the king was obliged to retire to Dobreschutz, with the loss of seven thousand men, of all his tents, and part of his baggage. Nor had the Austrian general much cause to boast of his victory. His loss of men was pretty nearly equal to that of the Prussian monarch; and, whatever reputation he might have acquired in foiling that enterprising prince, certainly his design did not take effect in its full extent, for the Prussians were next day in a condition to hazared another engagement. The king of Prussia had sustained no damage which he could not easily repair, except the death of mareschal Keith, which was doubtless an irreparable misfortune. [468] [See note 3 Q, at the end of this Vol.]

His Prussian majesty remained with his army ten days at Dobreschutz, during which he endeavoured to bring the Austrians to a second engagement; but count Daun declined the invitation, and kept his forces advantageously posted on eminences planted with artillery. His aim having been frustrated at Hochkirchen, where he fought with many advantages on his side, he would not hazard another battle upon equal terms, with such an enterprising enemy, rendered more vigilant by the check he had received, already reinforced from the army of prince Henry, and eager for an opportunity to retrieve the laurel which had been snatched from him by the wiles of stratagem, rather than by the hand of valour. Count Daun, having nothing more to hope from the active operations of his own army, contented himself with amusing the Prussian monarch in Lusatia, while the Austrian generals, Harsche and De Ville, should prosecute the reduction of Neiss and Cosel in Silesia, which they now actually invested. As the Prussian monarch could not spare detachments to oppose every different corps of his enemies that acted against him in different parts of his dominions, he resolved to make up in activity what he wanted in number, and, if possible, to raise the siege of Neiss in person. With this view he decamped from Dobreschutz, and, in sight of the enemy, marched to Goerlitz without the least interruption. From thence he proceeded towards Silesia with his usual expedition, notwithstanding all the endeavours and activity of general Laudohn, who harassed the rear of the Prussians, and gained some petty advantages over them.. Count Daun not only sent this detached corps to retard them in their march; but at the same time, by another route, detached a strong reinforcement to the army of the besiegers. In the meantime, having received intelligence that the army of prince Henry in Saxony was considerably weakened, he himself marched thither, in hopes of expelling the prince from that country, and reducing the capital in the king's absence. Indeed, his designs were still more extensive, for he proposed to reduce Dresden, Leipsic, and Torgau, at the same time; the first with the main body under his own direction, the second by the army of the empire under the prince de Deuxponts, and the third by a corps under general Haddick, while the forces directed by Laudohn should exclude the king from Lusatia. In execution of this plan he marched directly to the Elbe, which he passed at Pima, and advanced to Dresden, which he hoped would surrender without putting him to the trouble of a formal siege. The army of prince Henry had already retired to the westward of this capital before the prince de Deuxponts, who had found means to cut off his communication with Leipsic, and even invested that city. During these transactions general Haddick advanced against Torgau.

{GEORGE II. 1727-1760}



SUBURBS OF DRESDEN BURNT.

The field-mareschal count Daun appearing on the sixth day of November within sight of Dresden, at the head of sixty thousand men, encamped next day at Lockowitz, and on the eighth his advanced troops attacked the Prussian hussars and independent battalions, which were posted at Striessen and Gruenewiese. Count Schmettau, who commanded the garrison, amounting to ten thousand men, apprehensive that, in the course of skirmishing, the Austrian troops might enter the suburbs pell-mell, posted colonel Itzenplitz, with seven hundred men, in the redoubts that surrounded the suburbs, that in case of emergency they might support the irregulars; at the same time, as the houses that constituted the suburbs were generally so high as to overlook the ramparts and command the city, he prepared combustibles, and gave notice to the magistrates that they would be set on fire as soon as an Austrian should appear within the place. This must have been a dreadful declaration to the inhabitants of these suburbs, which compose one of the most elegant towns in Europe. In these houses, which were generally lofty and magnificent, the fashionable and wealthy class of people resided, and here a number of artists carried on a variety of curious manufactures. In vain the magistrates implored the mercy and forbearance of the Prussian governor, and represented, in the most submissive strain, that as they were unconcerned in the war, they hoped they should be exempted from the horrors of devastation. In vain the royal family, who remained at Dresden, conjured him to spare that last refuge of distressed royalty, and allow them at least a secure residence, since they were deprived of every other comfort. He continued inflexible, or rather determined to execute the orders of his master, which indeed he could not disobey with any regard to his own safety. On the ninth day of November, about noon, the Austrian vanguard attacked the advanced post of the garrison, repelled the hussars, drove the independent battalions into the suburbs, and forced three of the redoubts, while their cannon played upon the town. The governor, expecting a vigorous attack next day, recalled his troops within the city after they had set fire to the suburbs. At three in the morning the signal was made for this terrible conflagration, which in a little time reduced to ashes the beautiful suburbs of Pirna, which had so lately flourished as the seat of gaity, pleasure, and the ingenious arts. Every bosom warmed with benevolence must be affected at the recital of such calamities. It excites not only our compassion for the unhappy sufferers, but also our resentment against the perpetrators of such enormity. Next day mareschal Daun sent an officer to count Schmettau, with a message, expressing his surprise at the destruction of the suburbs in a royal residence, an act of inhumanity unheard of among christians. He desired to know if it was by the governor's order this measure was taken; and assured him, that he should be responsible in his person for whatever outrages had been or might be committed against a place in which a royal family resided. Schmettau gave him to understand, that he had orders to defend the town to the last extremity, and that the preservation of what remained depended entirely on the conduct of his excellency; for, should he think proper to attack the place, he (the governor) would defend himself from house to house, and from street to street, and even make his last effort in the royal palace, rather than abandon the city. He excused the destruction of the suburbs as a necessary measure, authorized by the practice of war; but he would have found it a difficult task to reconcile this step to the laws of eternal justice, and far less to the dictates of common humanity. Indeed, if the scene had happened in an enemy's country, or if no other step could have saved the lives and liberties of himself and his garrison, such a desperate remedy might have stood excused by the law of nature and of nations; but on this occasion he occupied a neutral city, over which he could exercise no other power and authority but that which he derived from illegal force and violence; nor was he at all reduced to the necessity of sacrificing the place to his own safety, inasmuch as he might have retired unmolested, by virtue of an honourable capitulation, which, however, he did not demand. Whether the peremptory order of a superior will, in foro conscientio, justify an officer who hath committed an illegal or inhuman action, is a question that an English reader will scarce leave to the determination of a German casuist with one hundred and fifty thousand armed men in his retinue. Be this as it will, Mr. Ponickau, the Saxon minister, immediately after this tragedy was acted, without waiting for his master's orders, presented a memorial to the diet of the empire, complaining of it as an action reserved for the history of the war which the king of Prussia had kindled in Germany, to be transmitted to future ages. He affirmed that, in execution of Schmettau's orders, the soldiers had dispersed themselves in the streets of the Pirna and Witchen suburbs, broke open the houses and shops, set fire to the combustibles, added fresh fuel, and then shut the doors; that the violence of the flames was kept up by red-hot balls fired into the houses, and along the streets; that the wretched inhabitants, who forsook their burning houses, were slain by the fire of the cannon and small arms; that those who endeavoured to save their persons and effects were pushed down and destroyed by the bayonets of the Prussian soldiers posted in the streets for that purpose: he enumerated particular instances of inhuman barbarity, and declared that a great number of people perished, either amidst the flames, or under the ruins of the houses. The destruction of two hundred and fifty elegant houses, and the total ruin of the inhabitants, were circumstances in themselves so deplorable, as to need no aggravation; but the account of the Saxon minister was shamefully exaggerated, and all the particular instances of cruelty false in every circumstance. Baron Plotho, the minister of Brandenburgh, did not fail to answer every article of the Saxon memorial, and refute the particulars therein alleged, in a fair detail, authenticated by certificates under the hands of the magistrates, judges, and principal inhabitants of Dresden. The most extraordinary part of this defence or vindication was the conclusion, in which the baron solemnly assured the diet, that the king of Prussia, from his great love to mankind, always felt the greatest emotion of soul, and the most exquisite concern, at the effusion of blood, the devastation of cities and countries, and the horrors of war, by which so many thousand fellow-creatures were overwhelmed; and that if his sincere and honest inclination to procure peace to Germany, his dear country, had met with the least regard, the present war, attended with such bloodshed and desolation, would have been prevented and avoided. He, therefore, declared that those who excited the present troubles, who, instead of extinguishing, threw oil upon the flames, must answer to God for the seas of blood that had been and would be shed, for the devastation of so many countries, and the entire ruin of so many innocent individuals. Such declarations cost nothing to those hardened politicians, who, feeling no internal check, are determined to sacrifice every consideration to the motives of rapacity and ambition. It would be happy, however, for mankind, were princes taught to believe that there is really an omnipotent and all-judging power, that will exact a severe account of their conduct, and punish them for their guilt, with out any respect to their persons; that pillaging a whole people is more cruel than robbing a single person; and that the massacre of thousands is, at least, as criminal as a private murder.



THE PRUSSIANS RAISE THE SIEGE OF NEISS, AND RELIEVE DRESDEN.

While count Daun was employed in making a fruitless attempt upon the capital of Saxony, the king of Prussia proceeded in his march to Neiss, which was completely invested on the third day of October. The operations of the siege were carried on with great vigour by the Austrian general De Harsche, and the place was as vigorously defended by the Prussian governor, Theskau, till the first day of November, when the Prussian monarch approached, and obliged the besiegers to abandon their enterprise. M. de Harsche having raised the siege, the king detached general Pouquet with a body of troops across the river Neiss, and immediately the blockade of Cosel was likewise abandoned. De Harsche retired to Bohemia, and De Ville hovered about Jagernsdorf. The fortress of Neiss was no sooner relieved, than the king of Prussia began his march on his return to Saxony, where his immediate presence was required. At the same time, the two bodies under the generals Dohna and Wedel penetrated by different routes into that country. The former had been left at Custrin, to watch the motions of the Russians, who had by this time retreated to the Vistula, and even crossed that river at Thorn; and the other had, during the campaign, observed the Swedes, who had now entirely evacuated the Prussian territories, so that Wedel was at liberty to co-operate with the king in Saxony. He accordingly marched to Torgau, the siege of which had been undertaken by the Austrian general Haddick, who was repulsed by Wedel, and even pursued to the neighbourhood of Eulenbourg. Wedel, being afterwards joined by Dohna, drove him from thence with considerable loss, and then raised the siege of Leipsic. Meanwhile, the king prosecuted his march towards the capital of Saxony, driving before him the body of Austrian troops under Laudohn, who retreated to Zittau. On the tenth day of November count Daun retired from Dresden, and with the army of the empire fell back towards Bohemia; and on the twentieth the king arrived in that city, where he approved of the governor's conduct. The Russian general foreseeing that he should not be able to maintain his ground during the winter in Poinerania, unless he could secure some sea-port on the Baltic, by which he might be supplied with provisions, detached general Palmbach, with fifteen thousand men, to besiege the town of Colberg, an inconsiderable place, very meanly fortified. It was accordingly invested on the third day of October; but the besiegers were either so ill provided with proper implements, or so little acquainted with operations of this nature, that the garrison, though feeble, maintained the place against all their attacks for six-and-twenty days; at the expiration of which they abandoned their enterprise, and cruelly ravaged the open country in their retreat. Thus, by the activity and valour of the Prussian monarch, his generals and officers, six sieges were raised almost at the same period, namely, those of Colberg, Neiss, Cosel, Torgau, Leipsic, and Dresden.



INHABITANTS OF SAXONY OPPRESSED.

The variety of fortune which the king of Prussia experienced in the course of this campaign was very remarkable; but the spirit of his conduct, and the rapidity of his motions, were altogether without example. In the former campaign we were dazzled with the lustre of his victories; in this we admire his fortitude and skill in stemming the different torrents of adversity, and rising superior to his evil fortune. One can hardly without astonishment recollect, that in the course of a few months he invaded Moravia, invested Olmutz, and was obliged to relinquish that design, that he marched through an enemy's country, in the face of a great army, which, though it harassed him in his retreat, could not, in a route of an hundred miles, obtain any advantage over him; that in spite of his disaster at Olmutz, and the difficulties of such a march, he penetrated into Bohemia, drove the enemy from Koningsgratz, executed another dangerous and fatiguing march to the Oder, defeated a great army of Russians, and returned by the way of Saxony, from whence he drove the Austrian and Imperial armies; that after his defeat at Hochkirchen, where he lost two of his best generals, and was obliged to leave his tents standing, he baffled the vigilance and superior number of the victorious army, rushed like a whirlwind to the relief of Silesia, invaded by an Austrian army, which he compelled to retire with precipitation from that province; that, with the same rapidity of motion, he wheeled about to Saxony, and once more rescued it from the hands of his adversaries; that in one campaign he made twice the circuit of his dominions, relieved them all in their turns, and kept all his possessions entire against the united efforts of numerous armies, conducted by generals of consummate skill and undaunted resolution. His character would have been still more complete, if his moderation had been equal to his courage; but in this particular we cannot applaud his conduct. Incensed by the persecuting spirit of his enemies, he wrecked his vengeance on those who had done him no injury; and the cruelties which the Russians had committed in his dominions were retaliated upon the unfortunate inhabitants of Saxony. In the latter end of September, the president of the Prussian military directory sent a letter to the magistrates of Leipsic, requiring them, in the king's name, to pay a new contribution of six hundred thousand crowns, and to begin immediately with the payment of one-third part, on pain of military execution. In answer to this demand, the magistrates represented that the city having been exhausted by the enormous contributions already raised, was absolutely incapable of furnishing further supplies; that the trade was stagnated and ruined, and the inhabitants so impoverished, that they could no longer pay the ordinary taxes. This remonstrance made no impression. At five in the morning the Prussian soldiers assembled, and were posted in all the streets, squares, market-places, cemeteries, towers, and steeples; then the gates being shut, in order to exclude the populace of the suburbs from the city, the senators were brought into the town-hall, and accosted by general Hauss, who told them, the king his master would have money; and, if they refused to part with it, the city should be plundered. To this peremptory address they replied to this effect:—"We have no more money,—we have nothing left but life; and we recommend ourselves to the king's mercy." In consequence of this declaration, dispositions were made for giving up the city to be plundered. Cannon were planted in all the streets, the inhabitants were ordered to remain within doors, and every house resounded with dismal cries and lamentations. The dreaded pillage, however, was converted into a regular exaction. A party of soldiers, commanded by a subaltern, went from house to house, signifying to every burgher, that he should produce all his specie, on pain of immediate pillage and massacre; and every inhabitant delivered up his all without further hesitation. About six in the evening, the soldiers returned to their quarters; but the magistrates were detained in confinement, and all the citizens were overwhelmed with grief and consternation. Happy Britain, who knowest such grievances only by report! When the king of Prussia first entered Saxony, at the beginning of the war, he declared he had no design to make a conquest of that electorate, but only to keep it as a depositum for the security of his own dominions, until he could oblige his enemies to acquiesce in reasonable terms of peace; but upon his last arrival at Dresden he adopted a new resolution. In the beginning of December, the Prussian directory of war issued a decree to the deputies of the states of the electorate, demanding a certain quantity of flour and forage, according to the convention formerly settled; at the same time signifying, that though the king of Prussia had hitherto treated the electorate as a country taken under his special protection, the face of affairs was now changed in such a manner, that for the future he would consider it in no other light than that of a conquered country. The Russians had seized in Prussia all the estates and effects belonging to the king's officers: a retaliation was now made upon the effects of the Saxon officers, who served in the Russian army. Seals were put on all the cabinets containing papers belonging to the privy-counsellors of his Polish majesty, and they themselves ordered to depart for Warsaw at a very short warning. Though the city had been impoverished by former exactions, and very lately subjected to military execution, the king of Prussia demanded fresh contributions, and even extorted them by dint of severities that shock humanity. He surrounded the exchange with soldiers, and confining the merchants to straw beds and naked apartments, obliged them to draw bills for very large sums on their foreign correspondents: a method of proceeding much more suitable to the despotism of a Persian sophi towards a conquered people who professed a different faith, than reconcileable to the character of a protestant prince towards a peaceable nation of brethren, with whom he was connected by the common ties of neighbourhood and religion. Even if they had acted as declared enemies, and been subdued with arms in their hands, the excesses of war on the side of the conqueror ought to have ceased with the hostilities of the conquered, who, by submitting to his sway, would have become his subjects, and in that capacity had a claim to his protection. To retaliate upon the Saxons, who had espoused no quarrel, the barbarities committed by the Russians, with whom he was actually at war; and to treat as a conquered province a neutral country, which his enemies had entered by violence, and been obliged to evacuate by force of arms, was a species of conduct founded on pretences which overturn all right, and confound all reason.