THE PRUSSIAN ARMY ENTERS SAXONY.

Both sides being thus prepared, and perhaps equally eager for action, the king of Prussia would no longer suspend his operations, and the storm fell first upon Saxony. He resolved to penetrate through that country into Bohemia; and even to take possession of it as a frontier, as well as for the convenience of ingress and egress to and from the Austrian dominions. Besides, he had reason to believe the king of Poland, elector of Saxony, was connected with the czarina and the empress-queen; therefore, he thought it would be impolitic to leave that prince in any condition to give him the least disturbance. His army entered the Saxon territory towards the latter end of August, when he published a declaration, importing, that the unjust conduct and dangerous views of the court of Vienna against his majesty’s dominions, laid him under the necessity of taking proper measures for protecting his territories and subjects; that for this purpose he could not forbear taking the disagreeable resolution to enter with his troops the hereditary dominions of his majesty the king of Poland, elector of Saxony; but he protested before God and man, that on account of his personal esteem, and friendship for that prince, he would not have proceeded to this extremity, had he not been forced to it by the laws of war, the fatality of the present conjuncture, and the necessity of providing for the defence and security of his subjects. He reminded the public of the tenderness with which he had treated the elector of Saxony, during the campaign of the year one thousand seven hundred and forty-four, and of the bad consequences resulting to that monarch from his engagements with the enemies of Prussia. He declared that the apprehensions of being exposed again to such enterprises, had obliged him to take those precautions which prudence dictated; but he protested in the most solemn manner, that he had no hostile views against his Polish majesty, or his dominions; that his troops did not enter Saxony as enemies, and he had taken care that they should observe the best order, and the most exact discipline; that he desired nothing more ardently than the happy minute that should procure him the satisfaction of restoring to his Polish majesty his hereditary dominions, which he had seized only as a sacred depositum. By his minister at Dresden, he had demanded a free passage for his forces through the Saxon dominions; and this the king of Poland was ready to grant, with reasonable limitations, to be settled by commissaries appointed for that purpose. But these were formalities which did not at all suit with his Prussian majesty’s disposition or design. Even before this requisition was made, a body of his troops, amounting to fifteen thousand, under the command of prince Ferdinand, brother to the duke of Brunswick, took possession of Leipsic on the twentieth day of September. Here he published a declaration, signifying that it was his Prussian majesty’s intention to consider and defend the inhabitants of that electorate as if they were his own subjects; and that he had given precise orders to his troops to observe the most exact discipline. As the first mark of his affection, he ordered them to provide the army with all sorts of provisions, according to a certain rate, on pain of military execution. That same evening notice was given to the corporation of merchants, that their deputies should pay all taxes and customs to the king of Prussia; then he took possession of the custom-house, and excise office, and ordered the magazines of corn and meal to be opened for the use of his soldiers.

The king of Poland, apprehensive of such a visitation, had ordered all the troops of his electorate to leave their quarters, and assemble in a strong camp marked out for them, between Pirna and Konigstein, which was intrenched, and provided with a numerous train of artillery. Thither the king of Poland repaired with his two sons Xaverius and Charles; but the queen and the rest of the royal family remained at Dresden. Of this capital his Prussian majesty, with the bulk of his army, took possession on the eighth day of September, when he was visited by lord Stormont, the English ambassador at that court, accompanied by count Salmour, a Saxon minister, who, in his master’s name, proposed a neutrality. The king of Prussia professed himself extremely well pleased with the proposal; and, as the most convincing proof of his neutrality, desired the king of Poland would separate his army, by ordering his troops to return to their former quarters. His Polish majesty did not like to be so tutored in his own dominions; he depended for his own safety more upon the valour and attachment of his troops thus assembled, than upon the friendship of a prince who had invaded his dominions, and sequestered his revenue, without provocation; and he trusted too much to the situation of his camp at Pirna, which was deemed impregnable. In the meantime, the king of Prussia fixed his headquarters at Seidlitz, about half a German league distant from Pirna, and posted his army in such a manner, as to be able to intercept all convoys of provisions designed for the Saxon camp; his forces extended on the right towards the frontiers of Bohemia, and the vanguard actually seized the passes that lead to the circles of Satzer and Leutmeritz, in that kingdom; while prince Ferdinand of Brunswick marched with a body of troops along the Elbe, and took post at this last place without opposition. At the same time, the king covered his own dominions, by assembling two considerable bodies in Upper and Lower Silesia, which occupied the passes that communicated with the circles of Buntzlau and Koningsgratz. Hostilities were commenced on the thirteenth day of September, by a detachment of Prussian hussars, who attacked an Austrian escort to a convoy of provisions, designed for the Saxon camp; and having routed them, carried off a considerable number of loaded waggons. The magazines at Dresden were filled with an immense quantity of provisions and forage for the Prussian army, and the bakers were ordered to prepare a vast quantity of bread, for which purpose thirty new ovens were erected. When the king of Prussia first arrived at Dresden, he lodged at the house of the countess Moczinska, and gave orders that the queen and royal family of Poland should be treated with all due veneration and respect: 387 [See note 3 C, at the end of this Vol.] even while the Saxon camp was blocked up on every side, he sometimes permitted a waggon, loaded with fresh provisions and game, to pass unmolested, for the use of his Polish majesty.

GEORGE II. 1727-1760