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II.

guard, with the colours, and all they found CHAP. there; and as the garrifon could afterwards make no resistance, they furrendered themselves r prifoners of war. This put an end to the whole 1741. affair: the Prussians obferved such an exact difcipline, that not a citizen was hurt, nor a house plundered, which very much added to the glory of the enterprize. This moft extraordinary and glorious attempt was all performed in little more than an hours time. The lofs of the Prussians was only about thirty or forty private men killed, and about fifty or fixty wounded, which was very inconfiderable in an affault of this kind. The Auftrians loft about 150 men; and the prifoners taken upon this occafion, were the Generals Wallis and Reyfki, of whom the latter was dangerously wounded; three colonels, one lieutenantcolonel, two majors, eleven captains, fourteen lieutenants, eight enfigns, one adjutant, one quarter-mafter, ninety-four ferjeants, and 931 foldiers, of whom 286 entered into the Prussian service. The Prufsians found in the place fifty brass cannon, a great quantity of powder, and the military cheft, with 23,000 florins in it.

NOTHING but the good-will, the vivacity and obedience of the Prussian troops, the difpofition for the whole attack, and the good order with which it was executed, could have fecured the Prufsians from a lofs much more confiderable; for it is playing a defperate game to attack fword in hand, but the more fo without cannon, and even without fcaling-ladders, to affault a place regularly fortified with a good covered way, well pallifadoed, with chevaux de frife, befides another pallifado at the foot of a rampart thirtyfour feet in height, very steep, and defended by a number of very fine pieces of ordnance; and Dd 2

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PART all this with four battalions and eighteen compaII. nies of grenadiers. Prince Leopold commanded

the first attack, and the Margrave Charles the 1741. fecond, whose measures were fo well concerted and conducted, that the centries did not fee the Prufsians till they had got over the pallifadoes. It is probable, that had the garrifon discovered the approach of the Prufsians, and taken to their arms fooner, the enterprize might have mifcarried; but the Prufsian forces made fuch extraor dinary dispatch, that they were actually on the march in the streets, before the garrifon, who little expected fuch an attack, were in a posture to defend their ramparts.

BOTH the nobility and burghers performed homage to his Prufsian majefty, which was received by Prince Leopold and the Margrave Charles. His majefty was so pleased at this expedition, that he ordered a treble difcharge of the artillery, and the forces in the town, and appointed Te Deum to be fung in all the churches the funday following.

THE reduction of this important place greatly facilitated the conqueft of Silefia, for Neifs and Brieg were the two only places, of confequence in Silefia, unfubjected to the power of his Pruffian majefty.

THE Pruffian ftorm thus impending over the head of her Hungarian majefty, though gloomy as the sky feemed above her, and ruinous as the landscape appeared below, there was ftill an opening through which a ray of hope had room to flatter and footh her difcontented mind; her dependance on the maritime powers, particularly his Britannic majefty, infpired her with a noble refolution to repel the force of her enemies, and preferve her dominions from the violation of

fo

fo many invaders. For this purpose, foon after CHAP. the furrender of Glogaw, the Auftrian army affem- II. bled about Olmutz in Moravia, under the command of Count Neuperg; and having received ad- 1741. vice that the King of Pruffia intended to attack Brieg and Niefs, it was thereupon refolved in a grand council of war, that the Austrian army hould march into Silefia, and endeavour to prevent the loss of those two fortreffes. Accordingly the army marched foon after, and his Pruffian majefty being informed that they were advanced into Silefia, and marching directly towards him, he immediately drew together all the troops he could, and made the neceffary difpofitions for a battle.

ON monday the 10th of April the two armies met, and engaged at Molwitz, a village about a league to the north of Neifs. The battle began about two o'clock in the afternoon, and was fharp and bloody on both fides: in the beginning the Auftrians drove back and put into disorder the left wing of the Pruffians, at which LieutenantGeneral Count Schulenbourg commanded, who had the misfortune to be killed at the firft onset; but the confusion was foon redreffed by fome regiments of foot fent to fupport the right wing, and by the grenadiers which his Pruffian majefty had intermixed with his horfe, upon information that the Auftrians were fuperior to him in cavalry.. The attack on the Pruffians right wing was as warm as that on the left, five fquadrons of Schulenbourg's dragoons having been almost all destroyed. The regiment of carabineers of Count Wartinflebin fuffered alfo very much, as did the first battalion of guards, which had fixteen officers killed or wounded out of twenty-five. The action lafted till fix in the evening, when the Auftrians thought proper to retire, which they

PART did in good order under the cannon of Niefs, II. leaving the field of battle to the Pruffians. The

whole lofs of the Auftrians, according to the Pruf1741. fian account, was 4,000, killed, wounded, or taken prifoners; and of the Prussians about 600 killed, and 1,200 wounded: though the Austrians agreed pretty nearly with this account, as to the number they had killed and wounded, yet they reported that the Prussians loft double the number. The officers of diftinction killed and wounded in this battle, were, on the fide of the Prussians, Lieutenant-General Count Schulenbourg, the Colonel Margrave Frederic of Brandenburg, Colonel Bork, Lieutenant-Colonel Fitzgerald, the Majors Knobelsdorf and Seckendorf, Mr Mullendorf, one of his majesty's pages, and the mafter of the king's houthold, killed; Field-Marfhal Schwerin, the Lieutenant-Generals Marcwitz and Kleift, Major-General Margrave Charles of Brandenburg, the Colonels Prince William, brother to the margrave, Wartenflebin, Rochau, and Fink, the king's aid de camp, and Major Bork, wounded. And on the fide of the Auftrians, the Generals Rimer and Goldi, the Colonel Count de Lanois, killed; Field-Marshal Neuperg, the Generals Brown, Grune, Kaihl, Lentulus, Frankenberg, and Prince Birkenfeld, wounded. .

THOUGH the Auftrians were obliged to retire, and for want of horses to leave ten pieces of can. non behind them, four of which they had taken from the Pruffians at the beginning of the action, the Pruffians had not much to boast of; and this was confirmed by the confequences: for the Auftrian army retired only behind the river Neifs, where they encamped, and the King of Pruffia did not think proper to attack them a fecond

II.

time; but after making himfelf mafter of all that CHAP part of Silefia to the north of the river Neifs, he continued encamped, fometimes at one place, fometimes at another, to the north of that river; 1741, and the Austrians continued in their camp, fometimes upon the fouth, and at other times on the north fide of the fame river: fo that nothing but fkirmishes happened for a confiderable time between the two armies, though they were frequently within a few leagues, and fometimes in fight of each other: but on the 23d of April his Pruffian majefty appeared before the town of Brieg, and the garrifon, after a short refiftance, furrendered on honourable terms.

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From the treaty of NYMPHEN-
BURGH to the treaty of HA-

NOVER.

W

HEN France, in conjunction with Spain and Sardinia, in the year 1734, had ravifhed the kingdoms of Naples and Sicily from CHAP. the emperor, and annexed thofe two powerful III. dominions to the poffeffions of the houfe of Bourbon; fhe reduced the forces of the house of Auftria by 40,000 men, and two millions and a half of annual revenue, which were added to the oppofite fcale: fhe now thought herself fecure, of laying the foundation of fuch debility in the house of Auftria, as would at leaft enable

her

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