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PART engage to receive no Auftrian garrison: all which II. conditions they agreed to, and the more readily, as intimidated at the approach of fo formidable 1740. an army. His majefty likewife promised his indulgence and protection to the roman catholics of the whole province of Silefia; but nevertheless, when he found any large magazines of corn or other provisions in their religious houses, he took the liberty to appropriate them to his own use, telling the reclufe devotees, " He never heard "that the apoftles, whofe example they pretend"ed to follow, had ever any magazines.'

The

Pruffians triumphantly continued their march, without any blood being fhed, till they arrived at the fmall caftle of Ottmachaw, fituated near the river Neifs, where there was an Auftrian garrifon of five complete companies of grenadiers, in all about 250 men. A Pruffian officer was fent to fummon the garrifon to furrender, and having advanced too near before he ordered the drummer to beat a parley, the Auftrians fired, and fhot the drummer and the officer's horfe dead upon the spot; but after a gallant refiftance of twenty-four hours, and the lofs of great part of their men, the brave Auftrians were obliged to furrender themselves prifoners of war. The Pruffians in this attack loft a major of engineers, and about forty private men. Near the fame place, and about the fame time, there was a fkirmish between a party of Pruffian huffars, and Prince Lichtenftein's regiment of dragoons, in which the Pruffian lieutenant and feveral huffars were cut to pieces; and afterwards, upon the approach of a large body of Pruffians, the Auftrians retired to the other fide of the river Neiss, where their troops grew daily more numerous, by the arrival of regiments from Hungary, Mo

ravia, and Bohemia, to form an army under the CHAP. command of Count Neuperg, to oppose the II. King of Pruffia; who thereupon fent orders to Berlin for the march of feveral other regiments into Silefia.

On the 7th of January his Pruffian majesty 1741. fummoned the town of Neifs to furrender; but the garrison, instead of complying, fired upon the colonel and trumpeter who were fent with the meffage: whereupon the Pruffians began to bombard the place, which they continued for three days; but from the inclemency of the weather, and deep fnows, the foldiers could not form the fiege, as the cold was too fevere to permit them to live in trenches: therefore after the bombardment they retired, and the King of Pruffia, with his brother Prince William, fet out for Berlin, where they arrived the 18th of the fame month, leaving the army in Silefia to the command of the Velt-Marshal Count Schwerin, who upon hearing that Lieutenant-General Brown, with a small body of Auftrian troops, had retreated towards Jagurndorf, continued his march in pursuit of the Auftrians, and the latter having left Jagurndorf and taken poft at Gratz upon the river Mora, the velt-marshal attacked them upon the 14th, and after some small refistance, paffed the river, and forced the enemy into Moravia.

THE Pruffians having thus made themselves mafters of Silefia, as far as the frontiers of Moravia, except great Glogaw, Niefs, and a few other places, which they could not befiege during the feverity of the winter; they turned towards the fouthernmost part of Silefia, bordering upon Hungary; where, in the beginning of February, Major-General de la Motte, with a

con

PART confiderable detachment from the Pruffian army, H. made himself mafter of Jabluncka, upon the river Elfe, near the Capathian mountains, after 1741. having granted the garrifon an honourable capitulation. Jabluncka is a strong town with a good fortrefs, and from its near fituation to Hungary, may be justly termed the key of Silefia into that kingdom. The Pruffians by this acquifition, made themselves masters of the whole province of Silefia, where they had already an army of 28,550 effective men, and those ordered to be in readinefs to march thither, amounting to 5,650, when joined, would compose an army of 34,200

men.

THE rigour of the feafon prevented the Pruffians from carrying on their defigns against the fortified places in Silefia; but on the 10th of February his Pruffian majefty joined his army at Scheidweidnitz, where he fixed his head quarters; and after having concerted a plan for the attack of Glogaw with Prince Leopold, who commanded the troops that formed the blockade there, on the 24th of February, his majesty sent the prince orders to carry this plan into execution, by immediately attacking the town fword in hand. Early the next morning his highness fent for the commandants of the Pruffian battallions, and declared to them, that the place must be taken the very next night. The difpofitions to be made for that purpose was given them in writing, and the captains that were to lead on the firit detachments were fhewed what places they were to enter at. During this interval of the attack, the Pruffians cleaned and fresh charged their arms, and made every other difpofition with the leaft poffible noife: night came on; at eight o'clock the troops began to put themfelves under

arms,

II.

arms, and the prince, having prepared every CHAP. thing for the purpose, ordered the troops to defile from the villages, where they were quartered, towards the town, where they arrived about ten, 1741. with the greatest order and filence imaginable, unperceived by the garrifon. At three quarters. after eleven, they all advanced very foftly to the foot of the glacis, where they arrived precifely as the clock ftruck twelve. That moment the troops, leaping over the firft pallifadoes, flung themselves into the covered way, and spreading to the right and left, killed or difarmed every Auftrian they found there. This gave the alarm, and the Prussians were exposed to a fire from the ramparts, which at the fame time alarmed the town; but this did not hinder the Prufsians from pushing on, for they inftantly defcended into the ditch, and advanced to the foot of the rampart, which was thirty-four foot high, with a flope of ten foot, and by confequence very troublesome to climb, efpecially after a fharp frost of two days which made it very flippery footing; notwithstanding which, and in fpite of the fire from the top, the Prufsians undertook the afcent: Prince Leopold and the Margrave Charles, with five or fix others, were the first that got to the top of the courtine, and were foon joined by the fecond battalion of Prince Leopold's regiment, and four companies of grenadiers, one of which companies feized a bastion on the right, and another did the fame on the left; whilft the prince, with the reft that had got up, marched to the gate of the caftle, which it was neceffary to break open, and a dozen carpenters were fet about it; but as foon as they had made fome holes in the gate, there came a fhower of bullets through from the grenadiers of the garrifon, who Vol. I, Dd

had

PART had pofted thither, headed by the Generals WalII. lis and Reyfki, but did not ftay long, for Prince

Leopold caufing the fire to be returned through 1741. the fame chafms in the gate, General Reyfki received two wounds in the rim of his belly, the grenadiers fled with all fpeed, and General Wallis was obliged to follow them; then the gate was laid open, and the Prufsians entered with drums beating into the caftle, and from thence into the town. Two other attacks having been carried on at the fame time, and executed with the fame vigour and difpatch, the three detachments arrived together in the ftreets of the city. All the refiftance that was made in the ramparts was defeated by the Prufsians, with bayonets fixed at the end of their mufquets. The con. fternation was very great among the garrifon, infomuch that four Prufsian grenadiers of Glafinap's regiment, which were the laft that came upon the ramparts, having miffed their company, went to the right inftead of the left, and came to the neck of a baftion where one of the

Auftrian captains was pofted with fifty-two men: the Prussians, being a little furprized at first, thought of retreating; but on a fudden they refolved to act the part of defperadoes, and attack them; accordingly they pufhed on with their bayonets, and called out to the Auftrians to lay down their arms, which ftruck them with fuch a pannic, and being deceived by the darknefs of the night, they obeyed; whereupon three of the grenadiers ftood centry over them, while the fourth went to feek a reinforcement, which he foon found. While the Prussian grenadiers were clearing the ramparts, the battalions entered the town by the avenues which the former had opened, and feized the governor's main

guard,

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