MARESCHAL KEITH LAYS BOHEMIA UNDER CONTRIBUTION.

The king of Prussia, who, like Caesar, thought nothing was done while any thing was left undone, stayed no longer at Rosbach than till the routed forces of the French and Imperialists, whom he had defeated there on the fifth of November, were totally dispersed. Then he marched directly with the greatest part of his army for Silesia, and on the twenty-fourth of that month arrived at Naumburgh on the Queiss, a little river which runs into the Bobber, having in his route detached mareschal Keith, with the rest of his army, to clear Saxony from all the Austrian parties, and then to make an irruption into Bohemia, a service which he performed so effectually, as to raise large contributions in the circles of Satz and Leitmeritz, and even to give an alarm to Prague itself. His majesty reserved for himself only fifteen thousand men, with whom he advanced, with his usual rapidity, to Barchweitz, where, notwithstanding all that had happened at Schweidnitz and at Breslau, he was joined by twenty-four thousand more; part of them troops which he had ordered from Saxony, part the remains of the army lately commanded by the prince of Bevern, and part the late garrison of Schweidnitz, which had found means to escape from the Austrians, and accidentally joined their king upon his march.*

* While the Austrians were conducting them to prison, on
their route they chanced to hear of the victory their master
had gained at Rosbach. Animated by these tidings, they
unanimously rose upon the escort that guarded them, which
happening not to be very strong, they entirely dispersed.
Thus freed, they marched on, not very certain of their way,
in hopes to rejoin some corps of the Prussian troops, their
countrymen. The same fortune which freed them led them
directly to the army commanded by the king himself, which
was hastening to their relief, as well as to that of the
prince of Bevern. This unexpected meeting was equally
pleasing to both, the prisoners not having heard any thing
of his majesty’s march; and, at the same time, this lucky
incident, whilst it added a considerable strength to the
army, added likewise to its confidence, for the slightest
occurrence is construed into an omen by an army at the eve
of an engagement.

With this force, though greatly inferior in number to that of the enemy, he resolved to attack the Austrians, who were intrenched at Lissa, near Breslau. On the fourth of December he seized upon their ovens at Neu-marck, and upon a considerable magazine, guarded by two regiments of croats, who retired to a rising ground, where his majesty ordered his hussars to surround them, and send a trumpet to summon them to surrender themselves prisoners of war. Upon their refusal, the hussars of Ziethen fell upon them sabre in hand, and some hundreds of them having been cut in pieces, the rest threw down their arms, begging for quarter on their knees. After this seizure, and after having distributed to his army the bread prepared for his enemies, he began again the next morning his march towards Lissa. General Ziethen, who led the vanguard of light-horse, about seven in the morning fell in with a body of Austrian hussars, and three regiments of Saxon dragoons, which were the very best cavalry the enemy had left after the battle of the twenty-second. They had been detached by the Austrians, in order to retard the king’s march, and to conceal their own, till their batteries should be completed; for, as they held the small number of the Prussians in contempt, their intention was to have met the king two German miles from their intrenchments. The Austrian cavalry having been vigorously repulsed to a considerable distance, general Ziethen perceived that their whole army was forming. He immediately acquainted the king with what he had discovered, and his majesty, after having himself observed the disposition of the enemy, made his own with that sagacity and despatch for which he has always been remarkable. The action began by attacking a battery of forty pieces of large cannon, which covered the right wing of the enemy. The two battalions of guards, with the regiments of the margrave Charles and of Itzenplitz, marched up amidst a most terrible fire to the very mouths of the cannon, with their bayonets screwed. In this attack the Prussians sustained their greatest loss, though the battery was carried as soon almost as they could reach it; then the enemy’s artillery, now turned against themselves, played furiously upon them with their own powder. From that instant the two wings and the centre of the Prussians continued to drive the enemy before them, advancing all the time with that firm and regular pace for which they have always been renowned, without ever halting or giving way. The ground which the Austrians occupied was very advantageous, and every circumstance that could render it more so had been improved to the utmost by the diligence and skill of count Daun, who, remembering his former success, was emboldened to enter the lists again with his royal antagonist. The Prussians, however, no way terrified by the enemy’s situation nor their numbers, went calmly and dreadfully forward. It was almost impossible in the beginning for the Prussian cavalry to act, on account of the impediments of fallen trees, which the enemy had cut down and laid in the field of battle, to retard their approach; but a judicious disposition which the king made overcame that disadvantage. When he first formed his army, he had placed four battalions behind the cavalry of his right wing, foreseeing that general Nadasti, who was placed with a corps of reserve on the enemy’s left, designed to take him in flank. It happened as he had foreseen, this general’s horse attacked the king’s right wing with great fury; but he was received with so severe a fire from the four battalions, that he was obliged to retire in disorder. The enemy gave way on all sides; out at some distance recovered themselves, and rallied three times, animated by their officers, and by the superiority of their numbers. Every time they made a stand, the Prussians attacked them with redoubled vigour, and with success equal to their bravery. Towards night, the enemy, still retreating, fell into disorder. Their two wings fled in confusion; one of them, closely pressed by the king, retired towards Breslau, and took shelter under the cannon of that city; the other, pursued by the greatest part of the light cavalry, took their flight towards Canth and Schweidnitz. Six thousand Austrians fell in this engagement, and the Prussians, who had only five hundred men killed, and two thousand three hundred wounded, made upwards of ten thousand of the enemy prisoners, among whom were two hundred and ninety-one officers. They took also an hundred and sixteen cannon, fifty-one colours and standards, and four thousand waggons of ammunition and baggage. The consequences that followed this victory declared its importance. Future ages will read with astonishment, that the same prince, who but a few months before seemed on the verge of inevitable ruin, merely by the dint of his own abilities, without the assistance of any friend whatever, with troops perpetually harassed by long and painful marches, and by continual skirmishes and battles, not only retrieved his affairs, which almost every one, except himself, thought past redress; but, in the midst of winter, in countries where it was judged next to impossible for any troops to keep the field at that season, conquered the united force of France and the empire at Rosbach, on the fifth of November; and on the same day of the very next month, with a great part of the same army, was at Lissa, where he again triumphed over all the power of the house of Austria. Pursuing his advantage, he immediately invested Breslau, and within two days after this great victory every thing was in readiness to besiege it in form. His troops, flushed with success, were at first for storming it, but the king, knowing the strength of the garrison, which consisted of upwards of thirteen thousand men, and considering both the fatigues which his own soldiers had lately undergone, and the fatal consequences that might ensue, should they fail of success in this attempt, ordered the approaches to be carried on in the usual form. His commands were obeyed, and Breslau surrendered to him on the twentieth of December in the morning. The garrison, of which ten thousand bore arms, and between three and four thousand lay sick or wounded, were made prisoners of war. Fourteen of these prisoners were officers of high rank. The military chest, a vast treasure, with eighty pieces of cannon, fell into the hands of the victors, who lost only about twenty men in their approaches. During the siege, a magazine of powder was set on fire by a bomb, which occasioned great confusion among the besieged, and damaged one of the bastions. The strong fortress of Schweidnitz still remained in the enemy’s possession, defended by a garrison so numerous, that it might be compared to a small army, and whilst that continued so, the king of Prussia’s victories in Silesia were of no decisive effect. For this reason, though it was now the dead of winter, and the soldiers stood in need of repose, his majesty resolved, if possible, to become master of that place before the end of the year; but as a close siege was impracticable, a blockade was formed, as strictly as the rigour of the season would permit.*

* Such was the rigour of the season, that some hundreds of
the sentinels dropped down dead on their several posts,
unable to sustain the severity of the cold. The Germans lie
under the general reproach of paying very little regard to
the lives of their soldiers, and indeed this practice of
winter campaigns, in such a cold country, bespeaks very
little regard to the dictates of humanity.

It was not, however, till the beginning of the ensuing campaign that this place was taken. The Prussians opened their trenches before it on the third of April, one thousand seven hundred and fifty-eight, and erected two large batteries, which kept a continual fire upon the town. The artillery of the besiegers consisted of three hundred pieces of cannon, of different dimensions, and eighty mortars; an amazing artillery, and such as we have never heard of in former campaigns. On the night of the fourteenth, the Prussians carried one of the chief works by assault, and lodged themselves therein: the commandant capitulated the next day, with the garrison, which was now greatly reduced in number, being not half of what it amounted to at the beginning of the blockade. Thus, all the parts of Silesia which the king of Prussia had lost by one unfortunate blow, fell again into his possession; and his affairs, which but a few months before seemed irretrievable, were now re-established upon a firmer basis than ever. The Prussian parties not only re-possessed themselves of those parts of Silesia which belonged to their king, but penetrated into the Austrian division, reduced Jagerndorf, Troppau, Tretchen, and several other places, and left the empress-queen scarce any footing in that country, in which, a few days before, she reckoned her dominion perfectly established.