SEVEN YEARS' WAR. 



207 



were afterwards increased to 180,000; for it was 

 rather the design of France to injure the king of 

 England by conquering Hanover, than to aid in ac- 

 complishing the ambitious designs of the empress on 

 Silesia. By means of Menzel, a clerk in the Saxon 

 cabinet, all the proceedings of the Russian, Aus- 

 trian and Saxon courts were discovered to Malzahn, 

 the Prussian ambassador in Dresden, and Frederic 

 II., accordingly prepared himself for war. He de- 

 manded an explanation from the court of Vienna, 

 received an equivocal answer, and resolved to anti- 

 cipate his enemies. In August, 1756, therefore, he 

 invaded Saxony with 60,000 men, in three divisions, 

 invested Dresden, took possession of the documents 

 necessary to justify his conduct, which he found in 

 the archives of the cabinet there, and invested the 

 Saxon army of 15,000 men in their fortified camp 

 at Pirna. Meanwhile, field-marshal Brown ad- 

 vanced from Bohemia with an army to liberate Sax- 

 ony. Frederic, leaving troops sufficient to main- 

 tain the siege of the Saxon camp, marched to Bo- 

 iit-iniii to meet the Austrians, and engaged them, 

 October 1, at Lowositz. The battle, though not 

 decisive, prevented the field-marshal from aiding the 

 Saxons. They were forced to surrender as prison- 

 ers of war, and the inferior officers and common 

 soldiers were compelled to enter the Prussian ser- 

 vice; but they soon deserted, both singly and in 

 whole regiments, because they would not fight 

 against their own sovereign. Such was the end of 

 the first campaign ; and the Prussians remained 

 through the winter in Saxony and Silesia. Fred- 

 eric's invasion of Saxony excited a general commo- 

 tion in the courts of Europe. It was pronounced 

 to be a violation of the treaty of Westphalia, and 

 France, as one of the guarantees of that treaty, now 

 took part in the struggle. Sweden, too, for the 

 same reason, and Russia, on account of her alliance 

 with the empress, adopted a similar course. In the 

 diet at Ratisbon, war was declared on the part of 

 the empire against Prussia. Thus in 1757, Aus- 

 tria, Russia, France, Sweden, and the German em- 

 pire, were in arms against Frederic, while he had 

 no ally but England; and, in a war by land but 

 little aid was to be expected from her. In order 

 to anticipate his enemies, Frederic marched into 

 Bohemia with four armies in April, 1757, and May 

 6, a bloody battle was fought at Prague, in which 

 the Prussians conquered, but lost their distinguished 

 general Schwerin. The greatest part of the van- 

 quished Austrian army threw itself into the city of 

 Prague, to which the king immediately laid siege. 

 Field-marshal Daun, who was stationed on the 

 heights of Colin with 60,000 Austrians, received 

 orders to hazard a decisive action for the relief of 

 Prague". To prevent this, Frederic advanced to 

 Colin (q. v.), attacked the enemy with 24,000 men, 

 lost the battle, and 8 14,000 brave soldiers, and 

 was forced to raise the siege of Prague, and to re- 

 treat to Saxony and Lusatia. He effected his re- 

 treat from Bohemia without further loss. Mean- 

 while, the French had taken possession of Wesel, 

 the principalities of Cleve and East Friesland, the 

 territories of Hesse-Cassel and Hanover, and laid 

 them under contribution. The duke of Cumber- 

 land, who commanded the forces of the German 

 states, allied with Prussia, namely, Hanover, Hesse, 

 Brunswick. Gotha and Biickeburg, 40,000 men, to 

 whom were opposed 100,000 French.was defeated at 

 Hastenbeck, July 26, and driven back to Stade, and 

 concluded a capitulation, September 8, at Kloster- 

 Seven (which, however, was never carried into 



execution), by the terms of which all the above- 

 mentioned troops, except those of Hanover, were 

 to be disbanded. A French army under the prince 

 de Soubise, with the imperial forces, 15,000 men 

 strong, under the prince of Hildburghausen, now 

 menaced Saxony, and the hereditary states of 

 Frederic, who, therefore, left the duke of Bevern 

 in Silesia, marched to Thuringia, and drove the 

 French from Erfurt. On receiving information that 

 an Austrian army, under Haddick, had invaded the 

 Mark, Frederic hastened back to Torgau. But, as 

 the Austrians soon retreated, and the French ad- 

 vanced anew, he marched against the latter, and 

 fought at Rossbach (q. v.), November 5, that mem- 

 orable battle, in which both the French and the 

 imperial armies were defeated, and found safety 

 only in a hasty flight. They went into winter- 

 quarters at a distance, and the possession of Saxony 

 was secured to the king. Upon this, Frederic hur- 

 ried back to Silesia, where Schweidnitz and Breslau 

 had fallen into the hands of the Austrians. With 

 a small army, fatigued with a long march, he de- 

 feated, December 5, at Leuthen (q. v.), a force 

 twice as great, under Daun. Breslau surrendered 

 fourteen days after, with a numerous garrison, and 

 a large quantity of stores, and, soon after, Leignitz 

 also. In these actions the Austrians lost upwards 

 of 40,000 men. Silesia was again torn from them, 

 and Frederic was now more formidable to his foes 

 than ever. The Russians marched into Prussia, in 

 June, 100,000 men strong, laid waste the country 

 in a barbarous manner, maltreated the inhabitants, 

 defeated field-marshal Lehwald, August 30, at 

 Grossjagerndorf, with his army of 24,000 men, and 

 then returned, destroying all before them. The 

 Swedes in September, occupied Anklam, Demmin 

 and Pasewalk ; but, in a few weeks, they were de- 

 feated by Lehwald, and driven to Riigen. The 

 third campaign was opened in February, 1758, by 

 Ferdinand, duke of Brunswick, who was now at the 

 head of the allied armies, in the room of the duke 

 of Cumberland, and opposed the French in Lower 

 Saxony and Westphalia. His nephew, the heredi- 

 tary prince, afterwards duke of Brunswick, Charles 

 William Ferdinand, commanded under him. Duke 

 Ferdinand made himself master of the Weser, ex- 

 pelled the French, under Clermont, from Lower 

 Saxony and Westphalia, and defeated them, June 

 23, at Crefeld. He then returned over the Rhine 

 to Hesse, where Soubise was stationed with a 

 French army, and whither Clermont followed him. 

 Ferdinand, in the meanwhile strengthened by 12,000 

 British troops, forced the two hostile bodies to 

 retire over the Maine and the Rhine, where they 

 went into winter-quarters. In the winter of 1758, 

 after the Austrians had been driven from Silesia, 

 and Schweidnitz recovered, Frederic marched into 

 Moravia, ani in May commenced the siege of 

 Olmutz; but, when Daun arrived, in July, he was 

 forced to raise the siege, with the loss of a large 

 stock of provisions and ammunition. The Russians, 

 after having driven back the few Prussian troops, 

 inarched into Neumark, and Frederic hastened with 

 a body of soldiers to protect his hereditary states. 

 He came up with the Russian army, 50,000 men 

 strong, who were besieging Custrin, attacked them 

 at Zorndorf, August 26, with 30,000 men, defeated 

 them after a bloody engagement, and forced the 

 Russians to retreat to Poland. After this, he again 

 turned his attention to Saxony, where his brother 

 prince Henry was no longer able to resist the Aus- 

 trians. He encamped at Hochkirch, where he was 



