THE AUSTRIANS TAKE GABEL.

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

The king’s army made this retreat with all the success that could be wished; but the corps under the prince of Prussia had not the same good fortune. For the Austrians, immediately after their taking Gabel, sent a strong detachment against Zittau, a trading town in the circle of Upper Saxony, where the Prussians had large magazines, and a garrison of six battalions, and, in his sight, attacked it with uncommon rage. Paying no regard to the inhabitants as being friends or allies, but determined to reduce the place before the king of Prussia could have time to march to its relief, they no sooner arrived before it, than they bombarded and cannonaded it with such fury, that most of the garrison, finding themselves unable to resist, made their escape, and carried off as much as they could of the magazines, leaving only three or four hundred men in the town, under colonel Diricke, to hold it out as long as possible; which he accordingly did, till the whole place was almost destroyed. The cannonading began on the twenty-third of July, at eleven in the morning, and lasted till five in the evening. In this space of time four thousand balls, many of them red hot, were fired into this unfortunate city, with so little intermission, that it was soon set on fire in several places. In the confusion which the conflagration produced, the Austrians entered the town, and the inhabitants imagined that they had then nothing further to fear; and that their friends the Austrians would assist them in extinguishing the flames, and saving the place; but in this particular their expectations were disappointed. The pan-dours and Sclavonians, who rushed in with regular troops, made no distinction between the Prussians and the inhabitants of Zittau: instead of helping to quench the flames, they began to plunder the warehouses which the fire had not readied: so that all the valuable merchandise they contained was either carried off, or reduced to ashes. Upwards of six hundred houses, and almost all the public buildings, the cathedrals of St. John and St. James, the orphan house, eight parsonage-houses, eight schools, the town-house and every thing contained in it, the public weigh-house, the prison, the archives, and all the other documents of the town-council, the plate and other things of value presented to the town, from time to time, by the emperors, kings, and other princes and noblemen, were entirely destroyed, and more than four hundred citizens were killed in this assault. Of the whole town there was left standing only one hundred and thirty-eight houses, two churches, the council, library, and the salt-work. The queen of Poland was so affected by this melancholy account, that she is said to have fainted away upon hearing it. As this city belonged to their friend the king of Poland, the Austrians thought proper to publish an excuse for their conduct, ascribing it entirely to the necessity they were under, and the obstinate defence made by the Prussian garrison. But what excuses can atone for such barbarity?

GEORGE II. 1727-1760