through East Prussia. Frederic attacked them at Cunnersdorf, with forty thousand only, in an intrenched position, guarded by two hundred pieces of cannon. The first onset of the Prussians was entirely successful: they forced the front line of the Russian intrenchment, and took seventy-two pieces of cannon. The victory seemed gained: he wrote to Berlin that they might soon expect to hear of a glorious triumph. But the situation of the king was such, pressed on all sides by superior armies, that he could not stop short with ordinary success; and, in the attempt to gain a decisive victory, he had wellnigh lost all. The heroism of his troops was shattered against the strength of the second line of the Russians; a large body of Austrians came up to their support during the battle, and, after having exhausted all the resources of courage and genius, he was driven from the field with the loss of twenty thousand men and all his artillery. The Russians lost eighteen thousand men in this terrible misfortunes in 48. battle, the most bloody which had been fought Overwhelming for centuries in Europe, and were in no condition other quarters. to follow up their victory. Other misfortunes, however, in appearance overwhelming, succeeded each other. General Schmettau capitulated in Dresden; and General Finch, with seventeen thousand men, was obliged to lay down his arms in the defiles of the Bohemian mountains. All seemed lost; but the king still persevered, and the victory of Minden enabled Prince Ferdinand to detach twelve thousand men to his support. The Prussians nobly stood by their heroic sovereign in the hour of trial; new levies supplied the wide chasms in his ranks. Frederic's great skill averted all future disasters, and the campaign of 1759, the fourth of the war, concluded with the king still in possession of all his dominions in the midst of the enormous forces of his enemies. 49. The campaign of 1760 began in March by another disaster at Landshech, where ten thousand Prussians were cut to pieces under one of his generals, and don at Lignetz. the important fortress of Glatz was invested by Victory of Frederic over Lau the Austrians. Frederic advanced to relieve it, but soon remeasured his steps to attempt the siege of Dresden. Daun, in his turn, followed him, and obliged the Prussian_monarch to raise the siege. Frederic then resumed his march into Silesia, closely followed by three armies, each more numerous than his own, under Laudon, Daun, and Lacy, without their being able to obtain the slightest advantage over him. Laudon, the most active of them, attempted to surprise him; but Frederic was aware of his design, and received the attacking columns at Lignetz in so masterly a manner, that they were totally defeated, with the loss of twelve thousand men. Dreadful battle, and victory of the Prussians at Torgau. Driven to Scarcely had he achieved this victory, when he had to make head against Lacy, withstand Daun, repel an 50. enormous body of Russians, who were advancing through East Prussia, and deliver Berlin, which had been a second time occupied by his enemies. desperate measures by such an unparalleled succession of dangers, he extricated himself from them by the terrible battle and extraordinary victory of Torgau, on the 3d of November, 1761, in which, after a dreadful struggle, he defeated Daun, though intrenched to the teeth, with the loss of twenty-five thousand men an advantage dearly purchased by the loss of eighteen thousand of his own brave soldiers. But this victory saved the Prussian monarchy: Daun, severely wounded in the battle, retired to Vienna; the army withdrew into Bohemia; two thirds of Saxony was regained by the Prussians; the Russians and Swedes retired; Berlin was delivered from the enemy; and the fifth campaign terminated with the unconquerable monarch still in possession of nearly his whole dominions. Desperate The military strength of Prussia was now all but exhausted by the unparalleled and heroic efforts she had 51. made. Frederic has left us the following picture state of Prussia of the state of his kingdom and army at this dis- at this time. astrous period: "Our condition at that period can only be likened to that of a man riddled with balls, weakened by the G G loss of blood, and ready to sink under the weight of his sufferings. The noblesse was exhausted, the lower people ruined; numbers of villages burned, many towns destroyed; a complete anarchy had overturned the whole order and police of government; in a word, desolation was universal. The army was in no better situation. Seventeen pitched battles had mowed down the flower of the officers and soldiers; the regiments were broken down, and composed in part of deserters and prisoners; order had disappeared, and discipline relaxed to such a degree, that the old infantry was little better than a body of newly-raised militia."* Necessity, not less than prudence, in these circumstances, which to any other man would have seemed desperate, prescribed a cautious defensive policy; and it is doubtful whether in it his greatness did not appear more conspicuous than in the bolder parts of his for mer career. 52. The campaign of 1761 passed in skillful marches and countermarches, without his numerous enemies being the camp of able to obtain a single advantage, where the king Operations in Bunzelwitz in 1761. commanded in person. He was now, literally speaking, assailed on all sides; the immense masses of the Austrians and Russians were converging to one point; and Frederic, who could not muster forty thousand men under his banners, found himself assailed by one hundred thousand allies, whom six campaigns had trained to perfection in the military art. It seemed impossible he could escape; yet he did so, and compelled his enemies to retire without gaining the slightest advantage over him. Taking post in an intrenched camp at Bunzelwitz, fortified with the utmost skill, defended with the utmost vigilance, he succeeded in maintaining himself and providing food for his troops for two months within cannonshot of the enormous masses of the Russians and Austrians, till want of provisions obliged them to separate. "It has just come to this," said Frederic, "who will starve first?" made his enemies do so. Burning with shame, they were He • Histoire de mon Temps, par Frederic IV., p. 174. forced to retire to their respective territories, so that he was enabled to take up his winter quarters at Breslau in Silesia. But, during this astonishing struggle, disaster had accumulated in other quarters. His camp at Bunzelwitz had only been maintained by concentrating in it nearly the whole strength of the monarchy, and its more distant provinces suf fered severely under the drain. Schweidnitz, the capital of Silesia, was surprised by the Austrians, with its garrison of four thousand men. Prince Henry, after the loss of Dresden, had the utmost difficulty in maintaining himself in the part of Saxony which still remained to the Prussians; in Silesia they had lost all but Glogau, Breslau, and Neiss; and, to complete his misfortune, the dismissal of Lord Chatham from office in England had led to the stoppage of the wonted subsidy of £750,000 a year. The resolution of the king did not sink, but his judgment almost despaired of success under such a complication of disasters. Determined not to yield, he discovered a conspiracy at his head-quarters to seize him, and deliver him to his enemies. Dreading such a calamity more than death, he carried with him, as formerly in similar circumstances, a sure poison, intended, in the last extremity, to terminate his days. Fortune often, 53. The death of the Empress of Russia re stores his affairs. "Nevertheless," as he himself said, "affairs which seemed desperate, in reality were not so; and perseverance at length surmounted every peril." in real life, as well as in romance, favors the brave. In the case of Frederic, however, it would be unjust to say he was favored by Fortune. On the contrary, she long proved adverse to him; and he recovered her smiles only by heroically persevering till the ordinary chances of human af fairs turned in his favor. He accomplished what in serious cases is the great aim of medicine; he made the patient survive the disease. In the winter of 1761, the Empress of Russia died, and was succeeded by Peter III. That prince had long conceived the most ardent admiration for Frederic, and he manifested it in the most decisive manner on his ac cession to the throne, by not only withdrawing from the alliance, but uniting his forces with those of Prussia against Austria. This great event speedily changed the face of affairs. The united Prussians and Russians under Frederic, seventy thousand strong, retook Schweidnitz, in the face of Daun, who had only sixty thousand men ; and, although the sudden death of the Czar Peter in a few months deprived him of the aid of his powerful neighbors, yet Russia took no further part in the contest. France, exhausted and defeated in every quarter of the globe by England, could render no aid to Austria, upon whom the whole weight of the contest fell. It was soon apparent that she was overmatched by the Prussian hero. Relieved from the load which had so long oppressed him, Frederic vigorously resumed the offensive. Silesia was wholly regained by the king in person; the battle of Freyberg gave his brother, Prince Henry, the ascendant in Saxony; and the cabinet of Vienna, seeing the contest hopeless, were glad to make peace at Hubertsbourg, on the 15th of February, 1763, on terms which, besides Silesia, left entire the whole dominions of the King of Prussia. Wonderful He entered Berlin in triumph after six years' absence, in an 54. open chariot, with Prince Ferdinand of Brunswick result of the seated by his side. No words can paint the enthustruggle. siasm of the spectators at the august spectacle, or the admiration with which they regarded the hero who had filled the world with his renown. It was no wonder they were proud of their sovereign. His like had never been seen since the fall of the Roman empire. He had founded and saved a kingdom. He had conquered Europe in arms. With six millions of subjects he had vanquished powers possessing ninety millions. He had created a new era in the art of war. His people were exhausted, pillaged, ruined; their numbers had declined a tenth during the contest. But what then? They had come victorious out of a struggle unparalleled in modern times: the halo of Leuthen and Rosbach, of Zorndorf and Torgau, played round their bayonets; they were inspired |