STATE OF THE CONFEDERACY.

At the close of the last campaign, the king of Prussia, having gained a petty advantage over the Imperialists under the command of mareschal Brown, and incorporated into his own troops a great part of the Saxon army taken prisoners at Pima, as was observed before, retired into winter-quarters, until the season should permit him to improve these advantages. His majesty and mareschal Keith wintered in Saxony, having their cantonments between Pirna and the frontier along the Elbe; and mareschal Schwerin, returning into Silesia, took up his quarters in the country of Glatz. In the meantime, the empress-queen, finding the force which she had sent out against the king of Prussia, was not sufficient to prevent his designs, made the necessary requisitions to her allies, for the auxiliaries they had engaged to furnish. In consequence of these requisitions, the czarina, true to her engagements, despatched above an hundred thousand of her troops, who began their march in the month of November, and proceeded to the borders of Lithuania, with design particularly to invade Ducal Prussia, whilst a strong fleet was equipped in the Baltic, to aid the operations of this numerous army. The Austrian army, assembled in Bohemia, amounted to upwards of fourscore thousand men, commanded by prince Charles of Lorraine and mareschal Brown. The Swedes had not yet openly declared themselves; but it was well known, that though their king was allied in blood and inclination to his Prussian majesty, yet the jealousy which the senate of Sweden entertained of their sovereign, and the hope of recovering their ancient possessions in Pomerania, by means of the present troubles, together with their old attachment to France, newly cemented by intrigues and subsidies, would certainly induce them to join the general confederacy. The duke of Mecklenburgh took the same party, and agreed to join the Swedish army, when it should be assembled, with six thousand men. Besides all these preparations against the king of Prussia, he was, in his quality of elector of Brandenburgh, put under the ban of the empire by the Aulic council; declared deprived of all his rights, privileges, and prerogatives; his fiefs were escheated into the exchequer of the empire; and all the circles accordingly ordered to furnish their respective contingencies for putting this sentence in execution.

In this dangerous situation, thus menaced on all sides, and seemingly on the very brink of inevitable destruction, the Prussian monarch owed his preservation to his own courage and activity. The Russians, knowing that the country they were to pass through in their way to Lithuania would not be able to subsist their prodigious numbers, had taken care to furnish themselves with provisions for their march, depending upon the resources they expected to find in Lithuania after their arrival in that country. These provisions were exhausted by the time they reached the borders of that province, where they found themselves suddenly and unexpectedly destitute of subsistence, either to return back or to proceed forward. The king of Prussia had, with great prudence and foresight, secured plenty to himself, and distress and famine to his enemies, by buying up all the corn and forage of the country which these last were entering. Notwithstanding these precautions, his Prussian majesty, to guard as much as could be against every possible event, sent a great number of gunners and matrasses from Pomerania to Memel, with three regiments of his troops, to reinforce the garrison of that place. He visited all the posts which his troops possessed in Silesia, and gave the necessary orders for their security. He repaired to Neiss, where he settled with mareschal Schwerin the general plan of the operations of the approaching campaign. There it was agreed, that the mareschal’s army in Silesia, which consisted of fifty thousand men, should have in constant view the motions of the royal army, by which its own were to be regulated, that they might both act in concert, as circumstances should require. At the same time, other armies were assembled by the king of Prussia in Lusatia and Voigt-land; twenty thousand men were collected at Zwickaw, on the frontiers of Bohemia, towards Egra, under the command of prince Maurice of Anhault-Dessau; and sixty thousand chosen troops began their march towards Great Seidlitz, where their head quarters were settled. In the meanwhile, the Austrian troops began to form on the frontiers of Saxony, where some of their detachments appeared, to watch the motions of the Prussians, who still continued to pursue their operations with great activity and resolution. All possible care was taken by the Prussians at Dresden to secure a retreat in case of a defeat. As only one regiment of Prussians could be spared to remain there in garrison, the burghers were disarmed, their arms deposited in the arsenal, and a detachment was posted at Konigstein, to oblige that fortress to observe a strict neutrality. All correspondence with the enemy was strictly prohibited; and it having been discovered that the countess of Ogilvie, one of the queen’s maids of honour, had disobeyed his majesty’s commands, she was arrested; but on the queen’s intercession afterwards released. The countess of Bruhl, lady of the Saxon prime minister, was also arrested by his Prussian majesty’s order; and on her making light of her confinement, and resolving to see company, she was ordered to quit the court, and retire from Saxony. M. Henwin, the French minister, was told that his presence was unnecessary at Dresden; and on his replying, that his master had commanded him to stay, he was again desired to depart; on which he thought proper to obey. The count de Wackerbath, minister of the cabinet, and grand master of the household to the prince royal of Poland, was arrested, and conducted to Custrin, by the express command of his majesty. The king of Prussia, having thrown two bridges over the Elbe, early in the spring, ordered the several districts of the electorate of Saxony to supply him with a great number of waggons, each drawn by four horses. The circles of Misnia and Leipsic were enjoined to furnish four hundred each, and the other circles in proportion.