The Duke of Bevern had meanwhile passed the defile of Hostawitz, and, after driving back the enemy in a most sanguinary conflict, he advanced upon Malleschitz, and took a battery beyond that village, which, however, his troops were obliged to abandon to the Austrians under Königseck.

The attack of the Austrian right wing upon the Prussian left produced a gap in the enemy's order of battle, into which the king immediately penetrated with his right wing. While Prince Ferdinand of Brunswick stormed the principal Austrian redoubt on the height of Hlopetin, and pursued the fleeing foe along the tops of the hills, Prince Henry proceeded against three entrenched Austrian divisions, which, possessing such important advantages of ground, and seconded by a far superior artillery, sought to maintain their position. But General Manstein, with Wedel's, Fink's, and Canitz's grenadiers, and the regiments of Itzenplitz and Manteuffel, was not to be deterred by any obstacles. These heroes, with lowered arms, ascended the heights against the entrenched enemy, and it was not till they could discern the white of their eyes that they used their muskets, and then with such effect that the Austrians immediately fled. Seven redoubts were stormed, after a sanguinary conflict; and when the regiment of Itzenplitz was checked in the pursuit of the enemy, by a broad wet ditch, and were preparing to cross it by means of poles, Prince Henry, crying, "Follow me, my lads!" instantly leaped with his horse into the ditch, when the whole regiment waded through and pursued its victorious career in wet clothes. The storming of the redoubt on the height of Hlopetin cost Winterfeld's regiment a thousand men, and, notwithstanding this loss, it would not desist from the attempt. "Comrades!" cried the grenadiers of Prince Maurice and Manteuffel, "stop! Let us come on! You have won honour enough!" and, presently, they too covered the blood-stained field, till at length Prince Henry's brigade took the redoubt.

The flank fire of this battery, being turned against the Austrians, soon dislodged them from that position, so that Bevern was enabled to retake the redoubt near Malleschitz,

and the resistance of the retreating Austrians became fainter. Four times Königseck strove to maintain himself; every new height afforded him occasion to form a new line of battle: but the Prussians steadily followed him, so that his only chance of protection was in Prague.

The left wing of the Austrians still occupied its original position on the Ziskaberg, without having fired a shot, or drawn a sword. These now sought to make head against the advancing Prussians. A cavalry attack, though not without a severe sacrifice, gave the infantry time to draw up before Wolschau in several lines. The Prussian cuirassier regiment of Schönaich now advanced from Malleschitz, and was on the point of charging the enemy, when, by some unaccountable accident, the Prussian infantry fired upon it. The Austrians, taking advantage of the confusion occasioned by this circumstance, threw themselves into Prague with less loss than they would otherwise have suffered. Their left wing poured in horrible confusion through the gates, which were not wide enough to admit the pressing throng, while the beaten right wing fled to Beneschaur. Vineyards and gar dens prevented the pursuit. The cavalry of the Prussian right wing could not come up in time, owing to the difficulty of the ground, while that of the left lay too drunk to be fit for battle around the casks of the sutlers in the camp of the Austrians. Zieton assured the king that he had not above a hundred sober hussars at his disposal: they had been celebrating, in their way, their victorious attack, by which the first success had been gained.

About three in the afternoon the bloody conflict terminated. The Prussian army extended from the Ziskaberg to Branik on the Mulde, above Prague, enclosing that city. Its success would have been more important, if Prince Maurice, of Keith's corps, had thrown a bridge over the river, as the king had directed, or only crossed it with the cavalry, and fallen upon the rear of the routed enemy. As it was, all that Keith could do, was to place his troops in the best manner for preventing the escape of the Austrians from Prague to the left

bank of the Mulde. It was here that Seydlitz, then only colonel of the regiment of Rochow, had nearly lost his life in the Mulde, when, to ascertain whether it really was impossible to ford the river, he attempted to pass it, and sank with his horse up to the holsters in a quicksand. He was saved by his men, who adored him, at the risk of their lives, and soon became one of the most distinguished leaders of the Prussian army.

The loss of the Austrians amounted, according to their official account, to about thirteen thousand men, and above four hundred officers; but, according to Frederick's statement, it was not less, including prisoners, than twenty-four thousand. Field-marshal Browne died of his wounds on the 25th of June. A great number of pontoons, the baggage and tents of the army, seventy-one standards, and thirtythree pieces of cannon-according to the king's account, sixty pieces-fell into the hands of the conquerors.

The numerical loss of the Prussians was little short of that of the enemy, and far exceeded it in importance. "The loss of the Prussians," says the king, "amounted to eighteen thousand men"-according to the report of the general staff, twelve thousand one hundred and sixty-nine men, and three hundred and forty officers-" besides Fieldmarshal Schwerin, who alone was worth ten thousand. His death withered the laurels purchased with such valuable blood. On that day fell the pillars of the Prussian infantry." Among these were, besides Schwerin, Generals Von Amstel, Herault, Schöning, and Blankensee; colonels, the duke of Holstein-Beck, Manstein, Rohe, Baron Goltz, Sydow, Winterfeld, and Löben, most of whom were mortally wounded, and died soon after the battle. Generals Fouqué, Winterfeld, and Plettenberg were very severely wounded, but recovered. The officers had certainly done their duty in the most exemplary manner. "Those about the king," says Kuster who was then chaplain of a regiment, spoke with admiration of his personal intrepidity. One of them had his arm shattered, and the other received a ball which lodged in his breast bone. Both fell insensible

close to the king. They assured me that when they came to themselves, and were told that the king was alive and well, all their pains were greatly alleviated."

Schwerin, who had learned the art of war in the school of Marlborough and Eugene, had been in the service of Holland and Mecklenburg before he entered, in 1720, into that of Prussia. Frederick, as we have seen, took him for his instructor and adviser in the wars of Silesia. Kind and affable to his soldiers, whom he called his children, Schwerin was celebrated, long after his death, in popular songs and books; and some of the former are still sung by the Prussian soldiers. It would almost appear that he had a presentiment of his approaching end; for, ten days before the battle, he thus wrote to his wife: "God, who has manifestly led us so far, will continue to assist us. If the enemy does not give way, I shall vigorously oppose him, that I may conclude my career happily, and end it with honour, for which I pray to God fervently every day, and, also, that he may grant you health and preserve you." The body of the hero was found with difficulty among the heaps of slain and wounded, conveyed to the Margaret convent, outside the city of Prague, and laid before the altar. There Frederick gazed with evident emotion, and tears in his eyes, at the deceased general. "Schwerin," he says, in that passage of his works, which has just been quoted, "still possessed all the fire of youth, notwithstanding his advanced age. Deeply mortified, he saw the Prussians obliged to give way, and with extraordinary courage opposed the enemy."

The remains of the field-marshal were conveyed to his estates in Pomerania, and deposited in the family burial place at Wusseken. Frederick honoured the memory of the veteran hero by a marble monument in the Wilhelms-Platz in Berlin, and even his enemies did him justice. When the emperor Joseph II. was holding a review near Stjerbohol, in September, 1776, he had a triple salute of small arms and cannon fired by five grenadier battalions on the spot where Schwerin fell, and, at each discharge, himself and all his

officers respectfully took off their hats. On the same spot some Prussian officers erected, in 1824, a pyramid of red marble as a monument to Schwerin. The colours which the hero was carrying when he fell are preserved at St. Petersburgh as a sacred relic. How they came into the hands of the Russians is not known; perhaps at Kunersdorf.

E

THE BATTLE OF LEUTHEN.

HE morning of the awful 5th of December, 1757, came, and the army quickly got under arms to meet the enemy. Frederick could obtain no distinct information as to the Prince of

Lorraine's position, but felt confident that he should soon be able to discover the enemy's most vulnerable point, and that the attainment of this knowledge would be the means of his obtaining the victory. He was prepared for every event. Placing himself at the head of his army, he selected an officer and fifty hussars to serve as his escort, and addressed them as follows: "I shall expose myself more than usual this day during the battle; you, sir, with your fifty men, are to form my body-guard. You are not to leave me for an instant, and to take care that I do not fall into the hands of the canaille. Should I fall, cover my body quickly with your mantle, and place it in a wagon, without mentioning the fact to any one. The battle is to be continued and the enemy beaten." The leading columns of the army had commenced singing some pious hymns during the march, and the commander inquired of Frederick whether the soldiers should not remain silent. "No," replied he, "let them alone. God will certainly grant me victory this day with such an army under my command."

The Prussian advanced-guard now arrived in the neighbourhood of a village, in front of which some of the enemy's