in hopes, "that the allied courts will, on their parts, also prefer the restoration of peace and tranquillity, to the advantages which they might expect from the continuance of hostilities-but which they cannot obtain, unless by a continuation of the effusion of human blood16!”

This declaration, however, was not made merely from motives of humanity. Beside an extravagant admiration of the character of the king of Prussia, Peter was ambitious of recovering from Denmark the duchy of Sleswick, to which he had pretensions as duke of Holstein. He therefore ordered a cessation of arms, on receiving an unsatisfactory answer to his memorial from the courts of Vienna and Versailles; and he entered, soon after, into an alliance with the illustrious Frederic, without stipulating any thing in favour of his former confederates. He even joined part of his forces to those of his new ally, in order to drive the Austrians out of Silesia, while he commanded another army to march toward Holstein. Sweden followed the example of Russia in concluding a peace with the court of Berlin. The king of Prussia did not fail to profit by this great revolution in his favour. That load of power which had so long oppressed him, and against which he had borne up with such unexampled fortitude, being now much lightened, he was again enabled to indulge the ardour of his genius and to act with vigour against his remaining enemies. His first object was the recovery of Schweidnitz, the next the expulsion of the Austrians out of Silesia. And in the attainment of these important ends, he was greatly assisted by the valour and military skill of his brother, who gained a signal victory over the Austrians and Imperialists near Freyberg in Saxony.

MAY 12.

In consequence of this victory, prince Henry remained so fully master of Saxony, that the Austrians found it necessary to withdraw a body of troops from their armies

16 Printed memorial.

in Silesia, in order to prevent his making irruptions into the heart of Bohemia. Mareschal Daun, however, with a large army, still occupied certain eminences in the neighbourhood of Schweidnitz, by which he was enabled to protect that city. The king of Prussia resolved to force him to abandon those posts. And he succeeded; though not by a direct attack, which he found to be impracticable, but by a series of masterly movements, which made the cautious Daun apprehensive for the safety of his principal magazine, and even that his communication with Bohemia might be cut off. He accordingly fell back to the frontiers of Silesia, and left Schweidnitz uncovered ".

His Prussian majesty immediately prepared to invest that place with a numerous army. In the meantime, different bodies of his troops, some on the side of Saxony, others on that of Silesia, penetrated deep into Bohemia; laid many parts of the country under contribution, and spread universal alarm. A body of Russian irregulars also made an irruption into Bohemia, and retaliated on the Austrians those cruel ravages, which, at the instigation of the court of Vienna, the same barbarous enemy had formerly committed on the Prussian dominions.

But the gallant Frederic, while conducting with equal spirit and ability, that bold line of operations which un expected circumstances had enabled him to form, was threatened with a sudden reverse of fortune, in conse. quence of a new revolution in Russia. Peter III, in his rage for innovation, made more new regulations in a few weeks, than a prudent prince would have hazarded in a long reign. His first measures, as we have seen, were truly laudable, and seemed well calculated to procure him the affections of his people; but, being of a rash and irregular turn of mind, he in many instances shocked their prejudices, even while he consulted their

17. Prussian and Austrian accounts compared. YOL. V.

3 B

interests.

interests. He disgusted both the army and the church, the two chief pillars of absolute sway; the former, by the manifest preference which he gave to his Holstein guards, and to all officers of that country; the latter, by his contempt of the Greek con.munion, having been bred a Lutheran, and by certain innovations in regard to images; but more especially by an attempt to moderate the reve nues of the clergy, and an order that they should no longer be "distinguished by beards."

These were high causes of discontent, and threatened the throne with all the violence of civil war. But Peter's misfortunes immediately arose from a matrimonial feud -from the bosom of his own family. He had long slighted his consort, Catharine, of the house of Anhalt Zerbst, (a woman of a masculine disposition and sound understanding, by whose councils he might have profitted) and now openly lived with the countess of Worontzoff, niece to the chancellor of that name. To this lady he seemed devoted with so strong a passion, that it was generally believed he had some thoughts of shutting the empress up in a convent, and of raising the countess to the partnership of his throne. The dissatisfied part of the nobility, clergy, and chief officers of the JUNE 28. army, taking advantage of that domestic dissention, assembled in the absence of the czar, deposed him formally, and invested Catharine with the Imperial ensigns.

The new empress marched at the head of the malecontents in quest of her husband. Peter was solacing himself with his mistress at one of his houses of pleasure, and expressed the utmost surprise at being told the sceptre was departed from him. When convinced of the fatal truth, he attempted to escape to Holstein, but was seized and thrown into prison; where he expired a few days after, of what was called an hæmorrhoidal cholic, ta which he was said to have been subject. His death,

18. Manifesto of the empress Catharine II. on her exaltation to the throne of Russia, as independent sovereign, &c.

by

by reason of the steps that had preceded it, occasioned no speculation. It was, indeed, an event universally expected. Princes, dethroned by their subjects, are seldom allowed to languish long in the gloom of a dungeon. The jealousy of the successor, or the fears of some principal conspirator, commonly make few their moments of trouble.

Catharine II. since so much celebrated for her liberal polity, began her reign with flattering prejudices. Though a foreigner herself, she wisely dismissed all foreigners from her service and confidence. She sent away the Holstein guards, and chose Russians in their stead: she restored to the clergy their revenues; and, what was of no less importance, the privilege of wearing beards. She conferred all the great offices of state on native Russians, and threw herself wholly on the affections of that people to whom she owed her elevation.

The wisdom of this policy was not disputed. But it was feared, by one part of Europe, and hoped by another, that Catharine would introduce a total change of system also in regard to foreign affairs; for the peace and alliance with the king of Prussia were very unpopular measures in Russia. Every thing, in a word, seemed to threaten the illustrious Frederic with a renewal of his former difficulties and distresses.

Fortunately, however, for that heroic prince the new empress, independent of personal regard, did not think her situation sufficiently secure to engage in foreign hostilities. She therefore declared to the Prussian minister at the court of Petersburgh, "That she was resolved to "observe inviolably, in all points, the perpetual peace "concluded under the preceding reign; but that she had "thought proper nevertheless, to order back to Russia, "by the nearest roads, all her troops in Silesia, Prussia, "and Pomerania." And although this change, from a strict alliance to a mere neutrality, made no small dif ference in the state of the king of Prussia's affairs, yet must it be regarded, all things considered, as an

escape

escape scarcely less wonderful than the former; especially as all the important places which the Russians had with so much bloodshed acquired, were faithfully restored to that monarch.

His Prussian majesty, instead of being discouraged by the order sent for the return of the Russians, accordingly acted only with more vigour. He attacked mareschal Daun the day after it arrived, but before the news had reached the Austrian camp, and drove him, by terror, no less than force of arms, from the heights of Buckersdorff, with considerable loss. He next invested Schweidnitz in person; and obliged that much contested town, though defended by a garrison of nine thousand men, to surrender, after a siege of two months, in spite of the utmost efforts of Laudohn and Daun to obstruct his operations'.

No sooner did the warlike king find himself master of Schweidnitz, and eventually of all Silesia, than he began to turn his eye toward Saxony. He reinforced his brother's army in that electorate, and made preparations, which seemed to indicate a design of laying siege to Dresden.

These preparations, and the decisive victory gained by prince Henry over the Imperialists and Austrians near Freyberg, induced the court of Vienna to conclude a cessation of hostilities with his Prussian majesty, for Saxony and Silesia. In consequence of this impolitic and partial truce, which provided neither for the safety of the dominions of the house of Austria, nor of those members of the empire that were attached to its interests, one body of the Prussian army broke into Bohemia; advanced nearly to the gates of Prague, and destroyed a valuable magazine; while another fell upon the same country in a different quarter, and laid the greater part of the town of Egra in ashes, by a shower of bombs and red-hot bullets 20. Some parties penetrated into the heart

19. Berlin Gazette, Oct. 13, 1762.

20. Austrian and Prussian accounts compared.

of