At the opening of the campaign next year, every thing appeared very unfavourable for the King of Pruffia. His victory at Lowofitz had been attended with no other confequence than the surrender of the pafs of Pirna! the Auftrian army in Bohemia, commanded by Prince Charles of Lorrain and General Brown, amounted to 80,000 men; the Czarina fent 60,000 men under the command of Marshal Apraxin, affifted by a strong fleet, to invade the Ducal Pruffia; and the Swedes, in hopes of recovering what they had loft in Pomerania, joined the fame confederacy, being aided by 6000 troops of Mecklenburgh. His Pruffian Majefty, however, with a cool rapidity peculiar to himself, divided his army into three bodies, which at the fame time penetrated into Bohemia. The first was under Marshal Schwerin, and entered that country from Silefia. The fecond was under the Prince of Bevern, who marched from Lufatia, and bravely defeated a body of 28,000 Auftrians on the 21st of April. The laft body was commanded by the King of Pruffia himself, who, after a train of operations, the most judicious, perhaps, that can be met with in hiftory, joined his two Generals in Bohemia, and proceeded against the great body of Auftrians, who thought themselves impregnably encamped near Prague; but nothing could withstand the ardour of the Pruffians; for under all difadvantages they gained a complete victory over an hundred thousand of their enemies, about forty thousand of whom escaped to Prague, which was now invefted on all fides by his Pruffian Majefty. He had loft in the late battle his brave. General Schwerin, as the Auftrians had done General Brown, and he trufted chiefly to FieldMarthal Keith for the conduct of the fiege. It was in this fituation of affairs, which threatened the house of Auftria with ruin, that Count Daun, who 'till then had made no diftinguished figure in military hiftory, was appointed to the command of the Auftrian troops. This General collected the difperfed parties of the Auftrians, and while the King of Pruffia was endeavouring to make himself mafter of Prague by a tremendous bombardment, he took a ftrong poft near that city, and the Pruffian army not being numerous enough entirely to inveft it, he encouraged the garrison to make a vigorous defence, in hopes of being relieved. By this time his army was 60,000 ftrong, and the Emprefs-Queen looking upon Prague as the Bulwark of Vienna, was continually reinforcing it. His Pruffian Majefty knew the value of time, and too much defpifing the enemies he had lately conquered, came to a refolution of forcing Daun in his intrenchments at Colin, though they were by all but himfelf deemed impregnable. If he was guilty of any mistake that day, it was his undertaking that mighty attempt with no more than 23,000 men. This temerity can only be excused by the neceffity he was under of continuing the blockade of Prague; but, on the other hand, we are to confider what prodigious confequences would have attended his attempt, had it been fuccefsful, and likewife the neceffity of checking Daun's growing power, by which in time he himself might have been befieged by two armies, one without and the other within the city. His conduct and courage on this occafion exceeded all expectation. He carried his two brothers with him to the action, and never was valour more fignally, and more unsuccessfully employed. The battle lafted from three in the afternoon till it was dark. His Pruffian Majesty charged charged at the head of his own cavalry, but had neglected to bring along with him a fufficient number of infantry, or a train of artillery equal to his mighty enterprize. In fhort, he performed every thing but impoffibilities. He could not diflodge the Auftrians from their triply fortified camp, each entrenchment rifing above the other, and defended by an immenfe artillery, in a ground where cavalry, in which the Pruffian ftrength chiefly confifted, could fcarcely act. After fix attacks, the King, collecting all his force, made the concluding charge, which, though more furious, was as unavailing as the preceding; and perceiving that he could not gain his point, he ordered the Prince of Bevern to give the fignal for a retreat, faying, very cooly, We fball do better another time. If we view the merit of a great man in the light of philofophy, his Pruffian Majefty gained more honour by this defeat, than he did by all his preceding victories. It made not the smallest alteration in his countenance or his manner; nor did it even interrupt the courfe of his ufual amufements. Far from difguifing the indifcretion of his own conduct, he acknowledged it in the face of all Europe, and did fuch juftice to the courage of his enemies, that he feemed to envy Daun the glory of commanding fuch troops. His army spent the night after the battle near the place where it was fought, and he formed an almost instantaneous refolution of raifing the blockade of Prague. Many obvious motives determined him to that ftep; and amongst others was a fcarcity of ammunition, occafioned by the cafual blowing up of a large laboratory full of bombs. Though he had been on horfeback and in perpetual action all the day of the battle, yet that very night he fet out for his camp before Prague, Prague, escorted by no more than about a dozen Huffars, with orders for his army to follow him as foon as poffible. This they did without being harraffed by the Auftrians, though the Pruffian lofs in the late battle was near 8000 men, and all the Pruffian army, by a moft admirable difpofition, drew off from before Prague, without any lofs, and retreated towards Letomeritz. By this time the army, called that of Execution, was formed in the empire, with a view of executing the fentence of the diet of Ratifbon against the King of Pruffia. This army was compofed of the troops of the Princes of the Empire, many of whom were Proteftants; and fcarcely any of them fatisfied as to the justice of the caufe in which they fought; fo that the army in itself, which was commanded by the Prince of Saxe Hildbourghaufen was not formidable till it was joined by a large body of Auftrians, and by the French army under the Prince de Soubife, and then its numbers were double to thofe of the Pruffians. All Europe now thought that his Pruffian Majefty must be inevitably ruined; but he had resources in his own genius that placed him above the power of fortune. After his arrival at Letomeritz he omitted no opportunity of provoking Count Daun to a battle, and even made fome defperate efforts for that purpofe; but the mechanical manner in which Daun carried on war defeated all his views. Leaving part of his army at Barnftadel, under the Prince of Bevern, he and Marshal Keith proceeded with the reft to Erfurth, where they arrived the 14th of September. Upon this, the army of the empire retreated first to Gotha, and then to Eifenach, where it took fo advantageous a poft, that he found it impracticable to force them to a battle. In this fituation of things, his Pruffian Majefty bethought himself of one of those happy expedients that are fo common amongft great Generals, that, if attended with difappointment, bring no difgrace, and if with fuccefs, immortal glory. Under pretext of being deftitute of provifions, he retired to Naumburg, and fent Marfhal Keith with seven battalions to Leipfic. After this, he seemed to throw himself quite off his guard, and sent his troops into fuch quarters as could beft afford them fubfiftence, but privately made fuch difpofition of them that he could af femble them at a fhort warning. His enemies were not fo far impofed upon as not to imagine that he had fomething in view. But they miftook the object: they thought he intended to cover Magdeburgh, and that they in the mean time had a fair opportunity of reducing Leipfic, which place they actually fummoned Marshal Keith to furrender. Keith probably was in his Master's fecret, and made preparations for defending Leipfic to the last extremity. The Imperialifts and the French made difpofitions for befieging it, which was the precife fituation to which his Pruffian Majefty wanted to bring them. He was at this time to all appearance upon the brink of deftruction; but the reader will beft judge of his fituation, from a defcription of his perfon and condition printed at that time in the public papers as follows, "Many perfons who faw the King of Pruffia when he "paffed lately through Leipfic, cannot exprefs "how much he is altered. They fay he is fo "much worn away, that they scarce knew him. "This, indeed, is not to be wondered at; he hath not a body of iron like Charles XII. and he endures as great fatigues as he did. He is "as much on horfeback as Charles was, and "often |