Laudobn retreats.

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new.

HIS victory was pursued with. as much rapidity as it was obtained with courage and addrefs. Baron Laudohn immediately turned back from Landshut, and fell like a ftorm Glatz. Glatz confifts upon of two fortreffes, the old and the The old was taken by ftorm; the new furrendered at difcretion. Two thousand brave men and some good works could not defend it against the impetuofity of the Auf trians. One hundred and one pieces of brass cannon were taken. Im menfe magazines, of provifion and military ftores piled up in this frontier place to favour in better times an irruption into Bohemia, fell into the hands of the conqueror. Every thing gave way. The poffeffion of Glatz laid all Silefia open, and the Auftrians might turn their arms upon any fide without the leaft danger to the freedom of their retreat. Neither was there any fort of army to give the least obstruction. The King of Pruffia held down by M. Daun, was in Saxony. Prince Henry was also at a great distance towards Cuftrin. If that prince attempted to move to the relief of Silefia, he laid open Brandenburgh, and even Berlin itself to the irruptions of the Ruffians. If he remained in his poft, Silefia was inevitably loft. Even his speediest march feemed by no means a certain way to relieve it. The king

was yet further diftant; and any motion of his threatened to fhake and unhinge the whole scheme of his defence; expofing at once Saxony and Berlin. The lofs of his third army, fmall as that army was, laid him under difficulties that feemed infuperable.

Favoured by the fe circumftances, Laudohn had only to chufe what direction he should give his arms. Silefia, as has been obferved, lay open before him. He had threatened Schweidnitz; but he saw that Breflau was a place of greater confe quence, much more eafily reduced and that the poffeffion of it facilitated a junction with the Ruffians; a point on which the ultimate improvement of his victory wholly depended. The place befides is of fo great extent, and the works of fo little comparative ftrength, that he had no fmall hopes of maftering it before Prince Henry could come. if he should at all attempt to come to its relief.

He therefore delayed no longer than the march of his heavy artillery and the neceffary preparatives required, to lay fiege to the capital of Silefia, of whofe fafety the most fanguine friends of his Pruffian majefty began to defpair.

But in the interval between the

battle of Landshut and the commencement of the fiege of Bref lau, the King of Pruffia was not

idle. His thoughts were continually employed to repair this difafter; all ordinary refources were impracticable or ineffectual. His genius alone could enter the lifts with his ill fortune. Placing therefore his hopes in himfelf, he aimed by a daring and unexpected ftroke, to draw even from fo fevere a mif fortune fome new and more brilliant advantages.

2d July. In purfuance of the plan he had laid, he difpofed all things for a march towards Silefia, and had paffed the Elbe and penetrated through a woody country without oppofition; had the enemy been apprifed of his march as early as he began it, it had been attended with great and unfurmountable difficulties. Marshal Daun no fooner had advice of his march, than he alfo immediately moved with the utmost expedition at the head of his main army towards Silefia, leaving the army of the Empire, and a body under general Lacy, to awe Saxony in his

abfence.

The two armies continued their rout through Lufatia; that of the King of Pruffia a little to the northward, that of Marshal Daun to the fouthward; both apparently pufhing towards the fame object, and with equal eagerness. But as the army of the marshal had rather the fhorter cut to make, and as he moved with far greater and more unaffected diligence, he got very confiderably the ftart of the king.

When his majefty was ap8th July prifed that Martha Daun had gained full two days march upon him; that he had actually arrived at Gorlitz, and was pushing by forced marches to Lauban; his great purpofe was obtained. Immediately he

ftruck into Marshal Daun's track, but wheeled into the oppose direction, repaffed the Spree near Bautzen, and whilft every one imagined him on the frontiers of Silefia, he fuddenly fprung up like a mine before Drefden. The army of the Empire retired. Lacy's corps was obliged to fhift its fituation. The Pruffian generals Hulfen and Ziethen, who had probably been prepared to act in concert with the king, joined him before that place, and knowing there was 13th July no room for delay, began the fiege with the utmoft vigour.

Then was this moft unfortunate city a third time expofed to the fury of war.

The inhabitants fuffered in their habitations for the weakness of the works; and there were armies both without and within of fuch mutual and determined rage, and fo careless of all things, but their enmity, that they little fcrupled to ftrike at each other through the bodies of the suffering Saxons. All Europe had now its eyes turned to the event of this mafterly manoeuvre; and certainly through the whole course of this eventful war, nothing appeared more worthy of regard, nor at any time had there been exhibited a piece of generalfhip more compleat, than the conduct of the King of Pruffia's march.

Since Drefden had fallen into the hands of the Auftrians, it had been ftrengthened with the addition of feveral new works. The burning of the fuburb by the Pruffians, in order to keep them out, became an advantage to them when they came to poffefs the town. In fhort, the place was rendered in all refpects more defenfible than formerly. It had alfo a

very large garrifon under General Macguire, an officer of courage and experience, who refolved to maintain it to the laft extremity: when he was fummoned to furrender, he made anfwer, "That it was impoffible the king could have been apprised of his being entrusted with the command of that capital; otherwife fo great a captain as his majesty would not make fuch a propofal to an officer of his ftanding that he would defend himself to the last man; and wait whatever the king fhould think proper to attempt.

Both parties being therefore infpired with the utmost refolution, the one to attack, the other to defend, the fiege was pushed on by every method of force and addrefs; there was scarce any intermiffion of affaults, furprizes, coup de mains, fallies, and all kinds of actions ufed on fuch occafions; and all the moft vigorous in their way. In the mean time three batteries of cannon and mortars played continually, but with much greater damage to the buidings than effect on the fortifications.

Marthal Daun was in Silefia when he heard all at once of the deceit put upon him by the King of Pruffia, of his return to Saxony, of the fiege, and the extreme danger of Drefden. His return was as rapid as his march had been. On the 19th he appeared within a league of Drefden. His approach only caufed the Pruffians to redouble their efforts; that day they had received reinforcements of heavy cannon and mortars, and battered the place with new fury. The cathedral church, the new fquare, feveral principal ftreets, fome palaces, the noble manufactory of VOL. III.

porcelain, were all entirely reduced to afhes.

The fiege continued till the 2zd, The night of the 21ft M. Daun had thrown fixteen battalions into Drefden. It was in vain to continue any longer the pretence of befieging a whole army within the town, whilft at the fame time there was another army to reinforce it without. The king withdrew his forces without moleftation from the fuburbs, tho' there were three confiderable armies of the enemy in the neighbourhood, befides that which was within the walls...

Thus ended, without the fuccefs fo mafterly a proceeding deferved, the King of Pruffia's famous ftratagem. But the want of fuccefs can detract nothing from the merit of the measure. By drawing Marfhal Daun from Saxony to Silefia he gained the ufe of eight days, free of obstruction from the ene my's grand army; eight days at a time when hours and even moments were critical. In this time he had certainly a chance at least of reducing Drefden; and by the poffeffion of that place he would have found himself infinitely better able to carry his arms to the defence of every part of his territories for the prefent, and for the future would have that great place of retreat in cafe of any misfortune. If he failed in this attempt, his affairs were precifely in their former condition; and he could not fuffer in reputation by having made it.

As the King of Prussia could not be blamed for the fpeedy return of Maríhal Daun, and the confequences of that return; fo neither in effect could the marshal fuffer any just imputation in having been deceived by the king's march. He

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knew that there were very plaufible motives to call, and even to prefs him to move that way. He knew that if the king fhould get into Silefia without any oppofition from him, Laudohn might not only be deprived of all the advantages he could hope for from his late victory, but by being attacked by the united armies of the king and his brother, would run the risque of a defeat that might fully revenge that of Landshut,

Whatever the merit of either of the commanders might be on this occafion, it is certain that Laudohn met no confiderable obstruction.

He appeared before Breflaw the 30th of July; the following day the town was completely invested; and on the first of Auguft they had erected their batteries of cannon and mortars..

.

But Laudohn, who faw all things prepared for an obftinate defence, did not wholly truft to his military manoeuvrés. He fent a letter to the governor Count Tavenzien, to intimidate him by the difplay of his ftrength. He fet forth, that his forces confifted of 50 battalions and 80 fquadrons; that the Ruf fian army of 75,000 men were within three days march; that it was in vain for the governor to expect fuccour from the King of Pruffia, who was then at the other fide of the Elbe; that it was ftill more vain to look for relief from Prince Henry, who could fcarce hope to ftand his own ground against the grand army of the Ruffians; that in cafe of obftinacy he could expect no reasonable terms; and that these were the last that fhould be offered. Moreover he reminded him, that the place was a mercantile town, not a fortrefs; and that he could not defend it without contravening the laws of war.

Thefe rules, by which honour is reduced to act, not by its own feelings but according to extrinfical circumftances; rules by which they have attempted to determine exactly and mechanically that niceft of all lines which difcriminates courage from rafhnefs, form one of the strongest inftances of the great difference between the ancient and modern methods and ideas of war. In the ancient times, a brave commander would have anfwer'd this threatning meffage in general terms of defiance. But Count Tavenzien.refpected these imaginary laws. He took care to prove that in defending the town he did not infringe them; and spoke as Laudohn had done in the character of a military jurifconfult, as well as a foldier; he gave for reply, "That the town of Breslaw being furround, ed with works and wet ditches, was to be confider'd as a place of ftrength, and not fimply as a mercantile town. That the Austrians themselves defended it as fuch in 1757, after the battle of Liffa. That the king had commanded him to defend it to the laft extremity, that therefore General Laudohn might fee it was not from humour he had refused to listen to his fummons.

That he was not frighted with the general's threats to destroy the town; for he was not entrusted with the care of the houses, but the fortifications."

Laudohn had alfo fent in a memorial in the fame menacing ftile, where he thought it might have a greater effect, to the civil magitrates, hoping that the ruin with which the town was threatened, might induce them to join with the inhabitants, to perfuade the governor to a speedy furrender.

All these menacing measures feemed to argue a fear in Baron Laudohn, that the Ruffians were not

fo

fo near as he pretended, and that the town might poffibly be relieved before their arrival. However he fhewed them, at nine of the very evening of the meffage, that his threats were not vain, by a terrible discharge of mortars and red hot balls that fell in an uninterrupted fhower upon the city until midnight. During this fierce bombardment, that made a dreadful havoc in the town, he attempted the outworks by affault. His Croats at tacked the covered way in many places at once, with the ufual impetuofity of thofe brave irregulars; but they where received and repulfed with refolution equal to their own, and with more steadiness.

The operation of this dreadful night having made no impreffion on the inflexible determination of the governor, Baron Laudohn had once more recourse to negotiation. He now changed his ftile, and held out the most flattering propofitions; offering to grant him what capitulation he should think proper to afk, and even to leave himself to draw up the articles. The governor replied that the firing the town had made no change in his refolution; that he would wait with firmness for the enemy upon the ramparts; but that he could not help obferving, it was

contrary to the laws of arms to begin the fiege of a fortress by ruining its inhabitants. The messenger made anfwer, that the trenches would be foon opened. The governor said, it was what he had long expected.

The Auftrians, foiled in their hopes from treaty, continued to batter the town and made feveral attempts upon the outworks for three davs fucceffively. They found every poft bravely defended; the Ruffian army did not appear, but they now began to perceive the approach of another army lefs agreeable; that of Prince Henry; which having marched with the utmoft diligence from Great Glogau, now came faft upon him; and on the 5th of Auguft, reached within a few miles of the town.

Laudohn did not think it expedient to put the advantage he had gained, and those which he had yet to expect from the management of time, to the iffue of a battle; he therefore decamped and made his retreat in good order, but with fufficient quicknefs; having procured from this enterprife only the wretched fatisfaction of reducing a great part of the city to a heap of rubbish, and of having revenged upon Breflaw fome part of the fufferings of Drefden.

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HE French and allied armies had been reinforced in the manner we have already mentioned. But the vigour of their operations did not altogether correfpond with

what might have been expected from their ftrength and mutual animofity. The campaign, at least in any effective manner, opened lase. A country which had been fo long

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the