The Austrians attacked his entrenchments with irresistible fury; and he himself having received two mortal wounds, and four thousand of his troops being slain, the remains of his army, amounting to seven thousand men, threw down their arms on the field, and surrendered prisoners of war. The reduction of Glatz, on which Laudohn fell like a thunder-bolt, was the immediate consequence of this decisive victory27.

The king of Prussia's defensive plan seemed now to be entirely ruined. One of his three armies was destroyed, and the victorious Laudohn was ready to lay siege to Breslaw, where he expected to be joined by the Russians, and enabled to complete the conquest of Silesia, the great object of the war. His Prussian majesty saw the danger, and while the fortitude of his spirit determined him to meet it without shrinking, his daring genius led him to hope, that the most important advantages might be drawn from the very bosom of misfortune. He accordingly quitted his strong camp on the frontiers of Saxony, and directed his march toward Silesia. Mareschal Daun pursued the same route, and by forced marches got the start of his heroic antagonist, who was more dilatory than usual.

The Austrian general had reached Gorlitz, and was pushing on to Lauban, when the gallant Frederic received the agreeable intelligence of his rapid progress, and, by one of the boldest acts of generalship recorded in the annals of war, wheeled into the opposite direction; repassed the Spree near Bautzen, and threw himself unexpectedly before Dresden. His appearance struck the garrison like the springing of a mine. But Macguire, the governor, being an officer of courage and experience, not only refused to surrender the place, but resolved to defend it to the last extremity; and as it had been strengthened by several additional fortifications, since it had fallen into the hands of the Austrians, it baffled all the desperate assaults of the Prussians, and

27. Prussian and Austrian Relations compared.

gloriously

gloriously held out against every mode of attack, until mareschal Daun returned from Silesia, and obliged the king to relinquish an enterprise, which deserved to have been crowned with the most brilliant success 28.

JULY 21.

JULY 30.

Chagrined at his disappointment, the Prussian monarch offered battle to Daun; but that cautious commander prudently declined the challenge, and took every measure to render an attack impracticable. In the meantime general Laudohn, having completed his preparations, laid siege to Breslaw, and attempted to intimidate the governor and the inhabitants into an immediate capitulation, by a pompous display of his strength. He set forth, that his forces consisted of fifty battalions and eighty squadrons; that the Russian army, amounting to seventy-five thousand men, was within three days march; that it was in vain for the governor to expect succour from the king of Prussia, then on the other side of the Elbe, and still more vain to look for relief from prince Henry, who must sink beneath the sword of the Russians, if he attempted to obstruct their progress. And he declared that the garrison must expect no terms, nor the inhabitants any favour, if they attempted to hold out.

Finding all his threats ineffectual, as the governor's reply was firm and manly, Laudohn endeavoured to put them in execution. He tried to carry the town by assault, while he thundered upon it, from an immense artillery, a shower of bombs and red-hot bullets. But the assault failed; and the awful bombardment affected only the wretched inhabitants, on whom it fell like the vengeance

28. It will detract little from the merit of this enterprise, to suppose, as has been insinuated, that the king of Prussia had an intention to march Into Silesia, till he found that Daun had got the start of him. But, if such had been really his purpose, there is no reason to suppose he would have permitted Daun to gain upon him a march of two days, as, on every other occasion, he exceeded the Austrians in the celerity of his motions. And his return was infinitely more rapid than his advance.

of

AUG. 5.

of heaven. At length an army was seen, and tremulous hope and convulsive fear shook, by turns, the hearts of the distracted citizens:-but it was not an army of Russians. A deliverer appeared in the person of prince Henry, whose peculiar fortune it was, with a happy conformity to his beneficent disposition, more frequently to save than to destroy. He had marched one hundred and twenty miles in five days with all his artillery and baggage. The Austrians abandoned the

siege on his approach29.

But the rapid march of prince Henry, and the relief of Breslaw, seemed only to retard for a moment the final ruin of the king of Prussia's affairs. Laudohn, lately victorious, and still formidable, though obliged to retire before the royal brother, kept Schweidnitz and Neiss under blockade, and anxiously waited the arrival of the Russians; when he hoped not only to receive the submission of those two places, but to return to the siege of the capital, and complete at one blow the conquest of Silesia.

The main body of the Russian army, under count Czernichew, had actually reached the frontiers of that province, and wanted only a few days unobstructed march to form the much feared and desired junction. Another body of Russians had entered Pomerania, where the Prussian forces did not exceed five thousand horse and. foot, and threatened to invest Colberg; while the Swedes resumed their operations in the same country, with an army of twenty thousand men.

A plan of mere defence, in such circumstances, must have proved altogether ineffectual. Silesia was in danger of being instantly subdued, by the junction of the Austrians and Russians. The king of Prussia, therefore, marched thither without delay: and left mareschal Daun, who had the start of him at setting out, considerably behind. He passed five rivers, the Elbe, the Spree, the Neiss, the Quiess, and the Bober, with a nu

29. London Gazette, Sept. 9, 1760.

merous

merous army, clogged with its heavy artillery, and above two thousand waggons: and while one body of forces hung on his flank, another on his rear, and a third presented itself in front, he traversed a tract of country near two hundred miles in extent, under all those perils and difficulties, with a celerity that would have rendered memorable the march of a detachment of light troops. But he was not able, with all his activity, to bring Laudohn to action, before that general was joined by the Austrian armies under Daun and Lacy. And by the forces of these three generals, which occupied an immense extent of ground, he was in danger of being surrounded in his camp at Lignitz. In vain did he attempt, by various movements, to divide the enemy's strength, to turn their flanks, or attack them under any other disadvantage: the nature of the ground, and the skill of the Austrian generals, rendered abortive all the suggestions of ingenuity.

While thus circumstanced, his Prussian majesty received intelligence, that the Russian army, under count Czernichew, was ready to pass the Oder at Auras. As the least of two dangers, he resolved to attack the Austrians before the arrival of a new enemy. Meanwhile. mareschal Daun, having reconnoitered the king's situa tion at Lignitz, had formed a design of attacking him by surprise, in the night, with the united strength of the

three Austrian armies.

And he had communicated his

design to the two other generals.

Of this design, it is probable, the Prussian monarch was not ignorant, as on the same night that it was to have taken effect, he quitted his camp, with the utmost privacy, and occupied an advantageous post, on the heights of Psaffendorff, by which general Laudohn was to advance. Daun, with no less caution, made his approaches toward the Prussian camp; but to his astonishment, on his arrival, he found no enemy there. When day broke, however, he could perceive at a distance the rising of a thick smoke, which left him little room to doubt in what business the king was engaged, or for what purpose he had quitted his station.

As

As Laudohn was eagerly pressing on to Lignitz, and feeding his heart with splendid hopes of the glory which he should acquire, by his distinguished share in the action that was to determine the fate of the illustrious Frede-ric, he was furiously attacked about three o'clock in the morning, by the Prussian army, drawn up in order of battle; and obliged to retire, after an obstinate dispute, with the loss of eight thousand men. Nor could mareschal Daun possibly come to his assistance. His Prus

sian majesty, who exposed his own person in a remarkable manner in order to animate his troops, was unguarded in nothing else. He had secured his rear so effectually with a strong body of reserve, and by a numerous artillery, judiciously planted on the heights of Psaffendorff, as to render an attack altogether impracti cable. Daun therefore found himself under the neces sity of remaining inactive, and of waiting, in anxious suspense, the issue of the momentous combat. It was finally decided by six o'clock, when the Austrians gave way on all sides, and were pursued as far as the Katsbach, a river that falls into the Oder a little below Lignitz. The king did not chuse to push his advantage farther, lest he should afford the wily and watchful Daun an opportunity of disjoining his army3o.

By this victory, the Prussian monarch not only rescued himself from the most imminent danger, but prevented the long dreaded junction of the Russian and Austrian armies in Silesia; for count Czernichew was so much intimidated at the defeat of the Austrians, that he immediately repassed the Oder. Having joined his bro. ther Henry at Newmarke, and opened a communication with Breslaw, the king therefore marched against mareschal Daun, who had formed the blockade of Schweidnitz; routed a body of the enemy under general Beck, and obliged the grand Austrian army, under Daun, to forego its purpose, and take refuge in the mountains of Landshut.

30. Prussian and Austrian Accounts, in London and Foreign Gazettes, compared.

What