of consequence; the earl of Stair being employed during the greater part of the summer in fruitless negociations with the Dutch, in order to induce them to fulfil their engagements with the late emperor. The campaign wast more active in Germany. The good fortune of the elector of Bavaria terminated with his elevation to the Imperial throne. The very day that he was elected emperor, under the pompous name of Charles VII. he received an account of the loss of Lintz, the capital of Upper-Austria, though defended by a garrison of ten thousand French troops. Kevenhuller, the Austrian general, who had performed this important service, having dislodged the French from all the strong holds of that country, entered the emperor's hereditary dominions; defeated mareschal Thoring at Memberg, and took Munich, the capital of Bavaria. In the mean time prince Lobkowitz, with eleven thousand foot, and five thousand horse, was appointed to observe the motions of the French in Bohemia; while prince Charles of Lorrain, at the head of thirty thousand infantry, and eighteen thousand cavalry, advanced against the Prussians and Saxons, who had invaded Moravia. They retired with precipitation, on his approach, and abandoned Olmutz, which they had taken. The retreat of the Prussians and Saxons was considered as an event of great importance by the Austrians, as it seemed to afford them an opportunity of uniting their whole force against the French under Belleisle and Broglio, who were too strong for prince Lobkowitz singly. But the active and enterprising king of Prussia, having received a reinforcement of thirty thousand men under the prince of Anhalt Dessau, marched to the assistance of his allies in Bohemia. By his expedition and generalship, he arrived before the intended junction could be formed; and, in order to prevent it, he gave battle to Prince Charles of Lorrain at Czaslaw. The disciplined 8. Smollett. troops troops on both sides were nearly equal; but the Austrians had the advantage of a large body of barbarous irregulars, Croats, Pandours, Talpaches, who engaged with incredible fury. The Prussians were broken: the king left the field; and a total defeat must have ensued, had not the lust of plunder seized the Austrian irregulars at the sight of the Prussian baggage. Their example infected the regulars of the Austrian right wing, who also gave over the pursuit. The Prussian infantry seized this opportunity to rally: they returned to the charge; and after an obstinate dispute,broke the main body of the Austrian army, and obliged prince Charles to retire with the loss of five thousand men. JUNE 11. The king of Prussia, whose loss was little inferior to that of the Austrians, sick of such bloody victories, and having some reason to suspect the sincerity of the court of France, began to turn his thoughts towards peace; and, no less politic than brave, he concluded at Breslaw, without consulting his allies, an advantageous treaty with the queen of Hungary. By this treaty the archduchess, Maria-Theresa, ceded to Frederic III. the Upper and Lower Silesia, with the county of Glatz; and he engaged to observe a strict neutrality during the war, and to withdraw his forces from her dominions within sixteen days after the signing of the articles. A treaty of peace was also concluded, nearly at the same time, between the queen of Hungary and Augustus III. king of Poland and elector of Saxony; by which she yielded to him certain places in the circles of Elbogen, Saltzer, Leutmeritz, and Buntzlaw in Bohemia. And he guaranteed to her the pos 'session of the rest of that kingdom'. Upon the court of France, like a clap of thunder, came the intelligence of the treaty of Breslaw and the news : 9. The Croats are the militia of Croatia. The Pandours are Sclavonians, who inhabit the confines of the Drave and Save: they wear a long cloak, carry several pistols in their girdle, and use beside a sabre and poinard.— The Talpaches are a sort of Hungarian infantry, armed with a musquet, two pistols and a sword. 10. Millot. Voltaire. Smollett. which followed it did not contribute to alleviate the consternation occasioned by that blow. The mareschals Belleisle and Broglio no sooner found themselves deserted by the Prussians, than they abandoned their magazines and heavy baggage, and retired with precipitation under the cannon of Prague. There they entrenched themselves, in a kind of peninsular meadow, formed by the winding of the river Moldaw; while the prince of Lorrain, having formed a junction with the Austrian army under Lobkowitz, encamped in sight of them, on the hills of Grisnitz. Finding themselves surrounded by superior forces, the French generals offered to evacuate Prague, Egra, and all the other places which they held in Bohemia, provided they were permitted to retire with their arms, ammunition and baggage. This proposal, though highly reasonable, was haughtily rejected by the queen of Hungary, who in. sisted on their surrendering prisoners of war. Belleisle, who had assumed the command in Prague, treated the imperious demand with disdain; assuring his master, that he apprehended nothing from the enemy but famine. And the Austrian generals, though less skilful than brave, made him sensible that their approaches were not to be slighted. By cutting off his supplies, they reduced him to the greatest necessities, while they wasted and harassed his troops by perpetual assaults. To permit the surrender of so fine an army, was deemed inconsistent with the honour and glory of the French na'tion as well as with its interest. Mareschal Maillebois, who commanded the French forces on the Rhine, had therefore orders to march to the relief of Prague, at the head of forty-two thousand men. When he arrived at Amberg, in the circle of Westphalia, he was joined by thirty thousand French and Imperialists from Bavaria, under Seckendorff and count Saxe. Thus reinforced, he entered Bohemia without resistance. Apprised of his danger, the prince of Lorrain turned the siege of Prague into a block ade, the care of which he committed to general Festitz, with eighteen thousand men, and advanced with the main body of his army toward the frontiers of the kingdom, in order to oppose Maillebois. At Hayd he was joined by the grand Austrian army under Kevenhuller, who had fol lowed count Saxe and Seckendorff from Bavaria. Meanwhile the mareschals Belle isle and Broglio had formed the design of joining the French army under Maillebois; and Festitz being too weak to oppose them, they broke out of Prague, and marched to Leutmerits. Maillebois was then in the neighbourhood of Egra; so that a junction seemed by no means impracticable. But prince Charles, by taking possession of the passes in the interposing mountains, utterly defeated their scheme. Maillebois was under the necessity of returning to the Palatinate, whither he was followed, and harassed on his march by the prince of Lorrain; while prince Lobkowitz, with a strong detachment, obliged Belleisle, and Broglio again to seek refuge in the capital of Bohemia. ост. 7. Soon after the siege of this important place was resumed Broglio made his escape in disguise, and took upon him the command of the French forces in the Palatinate, Maillebois being recalled; so that the fate of Prague, toward which the eyes of all Europe were now turned, rested solely on the courage and conduct of Belleisle and the small remains of that gallant army, which had given an emperor to Germany. All prospect of relief was cut off: a retreat seemed impracticable; and famine, accompanied with disease, its melancholy attendant, made cruel havock among the French troops. The intrepid spirit of Belleisle, however, which bore him up amid all his misfortunes, communicated itself to both his officers and soldiers, and few days passed without sallies, in which the French had generally the advantage. These sallies being chiefly occasioned by the zeal of the French in attacking the Austrian magazines in the neighbourhood of Prague, prince Lobkowitz, who conducted the the blockade of that city, ordered them to be guarded by the flower of his army, in hopes that famine would soon compel the enemy to surrender at discretion. Now it was that Belleisle made known the resources of his genius. Having secretly formed the design of a retreat, he had with wonderful diligence remounted his cavalry, and sent troops of them out every day to forage. At last, by making in one quarter of the town, a feint for a general forage, he marched out at another, with eleven thousand foot and three thousand horse, and got a day's march of prince Lobkowitz. The great extent of the walls of Prague had rendered this attempt the more practicable; and the better to amuse the enemy he left a small garrison in that city. He had ten leagues to march before he could reach the defiles. The ground was covered with snow, the cold excessively intense; all the inhabitants of the country were his enemies, and prince Lobkowitz, with an army of twelve thousand infantry and eight thousand cavalry, hung on his rear. Under all these disadvantages, however, he reached the defiles with his army unbroken. And with so much judgment had he planned his rout, that although the Austrians occupied all the passes on the two principal roads that led to Egra, he was enabled to continue his progress, by striking through frozen marshes, which had never perhaps before been trod by the foot of man; he himself always pointing the way, though confined to his coach or sedan by a violent rheumatism. After a fatiguing march of twelve days, he reached Egra, which was still in the hands of the French, and entered Alsace without the loss of a single man by the hands of the enemy, but of a thousand in consequence of the ri gour of the season". We must now turn our attention toward Italy, where the war raged, during this campaign, with no less violence than in Germany. I have already had occasion to observe, that on the death of the emperor Charles VI. the king of Spain put in a 11. Ibid. |