Fortunately, however, for that heroic monarch, 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 her court, "that she would observe inviolably the peace concluded under the preceding reign, but had thought proper 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 difference in the state of the king's affairs, yet it must be regarded, all things considered, as an 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 prince.

Frederic, instead of being discouraged by the order sent for the return of the Russians, acted only with greater vigour. He attacked Daun the day after it arrived, but before the news had reached the Austrian camp, and drove him by terror no less than by force of arms, from the heights of Buckersdorff, with considerable loss. He then invested Schweidnitz, and obliged that muchcontested 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 victory obtained 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. Some parties penetrated into the heart of Franconia, and even as far as Suabia; ravaging the country, exacting heavy contributions, and spread

1 Berlin Gazette, Oct. 13, 1762.

2 Austrian and Prussian Accounts compared.

ing ruin and dismay on every side. Many of the princes and states found themselves obliged to sign a neutrality, in order to save their territories from farther ravages; and most others were so disabled by the late defeat in Saxony, or exhausted by the subsequent incursions, that no prospect remained of their being able to furnish, for the next campaign, any army under the imperial name and authority. The war, therefore, was seemingly left to be finished as it had been begun, by the single arms of Prussia and Austria.

During these transactions in Germany, so favourable to the allies of his Britannic majesty, the British arms were not inactive. The spirit with which Mr. Pitt had carried on the French war, and the obligation, under which the new ministers found themselves, of declaring war against Spain, rendered them sensible of the necessity of showing the people, and convincing their enemies, that neither the vigour of the nation, nor the wisdom of its councils, depended upon a single man. They accordingly made greater and more successful efforts than any under his administration, though the supplies fell short of those of the preceding year by one million. Without weakening the army in Westphalia, we have already seen them undertake the defence of Portugal, and defend it effectually. In like manner, without evacuating Belleisle, or abandoning our conquests on the continent of America, they drew troops from both; and, in pursuance of that line of policy which they had always recommended, sent out powerful armaments for the reduction of the French and Spanish islands in the West Indies.

An armament which had been prepared under the administration of Mr. Pitt was destined against Martinique, the largest and best fortified of the French Windward Islands. It was composed of nine thousand soldiers, headed by general Monckton, and eighteen ships of the line, beside frigates, fire-ships, and bomb-ketches, under the direction of rear-admiral Rodney. The troops were disembarked, without the loss of a man, in the neighbourhood of Fort Royal, the strongest place in the island; and by gaining, with incredible fortitude, possession of some eminences, named Tortenson and Garnier, by which it was commanded (and which were then ill fortified, but gallantly defended), the invaders soon made the governor sensible of the necessity of surrendering the citadel, in order to save the town from being laid in ashes '.

1 London Gazette, March 21, 1762.

On the reduction of Fort Royal (which capitulated on the fourth of February), M. de la Touche, the governor-general, retired to St. Pierre, a large and populous town on the same side of the island. He there seemed determined to make a last stand; but, through the earnest solicitations of the inhabitants, anxious for the preservation of their property, and envious of the prosperity which the planters of Guadaloupe enjoyed under the English government, he was prevailed upon to submit, and obtained terms of capitulation for the whole island, before the place was invested. With Martinique fell Grenada, St. Lucia, St. Vincent, and every other place belonging to France, or occupied by Frenchmen, though reputed neutral, in the extensive chain of the Caribbee Islands.

Before the success of this expedition was known in England, another armament was ready to sail. Its object was the Havannah, the principal sea-port in the island of Cuba, the key of the Gulf of Mexico, and the centre of the Spanish trade and navigation in the New World. The conception of the enterprise was great, as it struck immediately at the very basis of the enemy's power and the armament was equal to its object. It consisted of nineteen ships of the line, eighteen frigates and sloops, and about one hundred and fifty transports, with ten thousand soldiers on board, who were to be joined by four thousand men from North America. The command of the fleet was intrusted to admiral Pococke, whom we have seen distinguish himself in the East Indies. The land forces were under the direction of the earl of Albemarle. And the whole armament, which assembled off the north-west point of Hispaniola, and was conducted, for the sake of expedition, (with uncommon seamanship,) through the old channel of Bahama, arrived, on the sixth of June, in sight of those dreadful fortifications that were to be stormed.

The Havannah stands near the end of a small bay, which forms one of the most secure and capacious harbours in the world. The entrance into this harbour is by a narrow channel, strongly fortified on each side. The mouth of that channel, when visited by the English fleet under Pococke, was defended by two strong forts; on the east side, by one named the Moro, and on the west, by another called the Puntal. The Moro had towards the sea two bastions, and on the land-side two others, with a wide and deep ditch cut out of the rock. The Puntal, also surrounded by a ditch, cut in the same manner, was provided with casemates, and every way well calculated for cooperating with the Moro in defence of the harbour. It had

likewise some batteries that opened upon the country, and flanked part of the town wall. That wall, which was not in the best repair, twenty-one bastions not in a much better state, a dry ditch of no considerable width, and a covered way almost in ruins, formed the only defence of the city itself. It has therefore been thought, by some military men, that the operations ought to have commenced with the attack of the town by land; especially as it was impracticable to attack it by sea, the entrance of the harbour being not only defended by the forts, but by fourteen ships of the line, three of which were afterward sunk in the channel, and a boom laid across it.

But the earl of Albemarle thought otherwise, either from his ignorance of the state of the fortifications, or from seeing objects in a different light. The troops were therefore no sooner landed, and a body of the enemy that attempted to oppose their progress dispersed, than he began to form the siege of the Moro, which he deemed (perhaps justly) the grand object of the armament, as the reduction of it must infallibly be followed by the surrender of the city; whereas, if he had attacked the town first, his army might have been so weakened as to be unable to surmount the vigorous resistance of the fort, defended not only by the garrison, but by the flower of the inhabitants, zealous to save their own and the public treasure. A post was accordingly seized upon the higher ground, and batteries were erected, though with extreme difficulty. The earth was so thin on the face of the hill, that the troops could not easily cover their approaches; and it being necessary that the cannon and carriages should be dragged by the soldiers and sailors, up a bold declivity, from a rough and rocky shore, many of the men, in that painful labour, while parched with thirst beneath a burning sun, dropped down dead. At length every obstacle was surmounted. The batteries, disposed along a ridge on a level with the Moro, were opened with effect. The garrison had been repulsed, with great slaughter, in an attempt to destroy them; and the besiegers flattered themselves with the hope of a speedy period to their toils, when their principal battery took fire, and a work, which had employed six hundred men for sixteen days, was consumed in a few hours.

This accident was peculiarly discouraging, as it happened at a crisis when the hardships of the siege, and the diseases of the climate, had rendered two-thirds of the English army unfit for service. The seamen were not in a much better condition. Yet both soldiers and sailors, animated by that active and persevering

courage which so remarkably distinguishes the natives of Great Britain, applied themselves with vigour to the reparation of damages. Unfortunately another battery took fire. The besiegers, however, impelled by every motive of glory, interest, and ambition, continued their efforts with unabated ardour. At length, after conquering numerous difficulties, they gained possession of the covered way. They made a lodgment before the right bastion; and a mine being sprung, which threw down part of the works into the ditch, a breach was observed. Though small, the soldiers were ordered to storm it.

The attempt seemed desperate, as the Spanish garrison was still strong and the brave defence it had made allowed the besiegers no room to doubt of the vigilance, valour, and resolution of the commanders. But danger itself was only a stimulus to men who had so near a prospect of terminating their dreadful toils. They accordingly prepared for the assault with the utmost alacrity; and, mounting the breach under the command of lieutenant Forbes, supported by lieutenant-colonel Stuart, entered the fort with so much order and intrepidity, as entirely disconcerted the garrison. Four hundred of the Spaniards July 30. were cut in pieces, or perished in attempting to make their escape by water to the city: the rest threw down their arms and received quarter. The marquis Gonzalez, the second in command, was killed in bravely endeavouring to stop the flight of his countrymen; and Velasco, the governor, having collected a small body of resolute soldiers in an entrenchment around the flag-staff, gloriously fell in defending the ensign of Spain, which no entreaties could induce him to strike.

No sooner did the Spaniards in the town and the Puntal see the besiegers in possession of the Moro, than they directed all their fire against that place. Meanwhile the British troops, encouraged by their success, were vigorously employed in remounting the guns of the fort, and in erecting batteries upon an eminence that commanded the city. When this service was Aug. 10. completed, the earl, willing to prevent an unnecessary carnage, sent his aide-de-camp with a flag of truce, to summon the governor to surrender, as unavoidable destruction would otherwise fall upon the place. The haughty Spaniard replied, that he was under no uneasy apprehensions, and would hold out to extremity.

The next morning, however, the batteries were opened with such effect, that flags of truce appeared in every quarter of the city about noon, and a deputy was sent to the camp of the