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.