against him. "Pour moi, menacé de naufrage, Je dois, en affrontant l'orage, СНАР. 1714. 43. marvellous Rosbach then. Then it was that the astonishing vigour and powers of his mind shone forth with their full lustre. Collect- Frederick's ing hastily twenty-five thousand men out of his shattered victories at battalions, he marched against the Prince of Soubise, and Leuwho, at the head of an army of sixty thousand French and Imperial troops, was advancing against him through Thuringia, and totally defeated him, with the loss of eighteen thousand men, on the memorable field of Rosbach. Hardly was this triumph achieved when he was called, with his indefatigable followers, to stem the advance of the Prince of Lorraine and Marshal Daun, who were making the most alarming progress in Silesia. Schweidnitz, its capital, had fallen; a large body of Prussians, under the Duke de Bevern, had been defeated at Breslau. That rich and important province seemed on the point of falling again into the hands of the Austrians, when Frederick reinstated his affairs, which seemed wholly desperate, by one of those astonishing strokes which distinguished him, perhaps, above any general of modern times. In the depth of winter he attacked, at Leuthen, on the 5th December 1757, Mar CHAP. XII. 1714. 44. sustained by troops shal Daun and the Prince of Lorraine-who had sixty thousand admirable troops under their orders—and, by the skilful application of the oblique method of attack, defeated them entirely, with the loss of thirty thousand men, of whom eighteen thousand were prisoners! It was the greatest victory that had been gained in Europe since the battle of Blenheim. Its effects were immense : the Austrians were driven headlong out of Silesia; Schweidnitz was regained; the King of Prussia, pursuing them, carried the war into Moravia, and laid siege to Olmutz; and England, awakening at the voice of Chatham from its unworthy slumber, refused to ratify the capitulation of Closterseven, resumed the war on the Continent with more vigour than ever, and intrusted its direction to Prince Ferdinand of Brunswick, who soon rivalled Turenne in the skill and science of his methodical warfare. But it was the destiny of the King of Prussia—a Disasters destiny which displayed his great qualities in their full histo lustre to be perpetually involved iu difficulties, from in other the enormous numerical preponderance of his enemies, quarters, and victory of Zorndorf. Or the misfortunes of the lieutenants to whom his subordinate armies were intrusted. Active as he was, he could not be personally present everywhere at the same time; and wherever he was absent, disaster revealed the overwhelming superiority of the force by which he was assailed. The siege of Olmutz, commenced in March 1758, proved unfortunate. The battering train at the disposal of the king was unequal to its reduction, and it became necessary to raise the siege on the approach of Daun with a formidable Austrian army. During this unsuccessful irruption into the south, the Russians had been making alarming progress in the north-east, where CHAP. XII. the feeble force opposed to them was well-nigh overwhelmed by their enormous superiority of numbers. Frederick led back the flower of his army from Olmutz 1714. through Bohemia, crossed all Silesia and Prussia, and encountered the sturdy barbarians at Zorndorf, defeating them with the loss of seventeen thousand men-an advantage which delivered the eastern provinces of the monarchy from this formidable invasion. This victory was dearly purchased, however, by the sacrifice of ten thousand of his own best soldiers. 45. defeat at chen. But, during the king's absence, Prince Henry of Prussia, whom he had left in command of sixteen thou- Frederick's sand men, to keep Marshal Daun in check, was well-nigh Hohenkiroverwhelmed by that able commander, who was again at the head of an army of fifty thousand. Frederick flew back to his support, and, having joined his brother, took post at Hohenkirchen. The position was unfavourable; the army inferior to the enemy. "If Daun does not attack us here," said Marshal Keith, "he deserves to be hanged." "I hope," answered Frederick, "he will be more afraid of us than the rope." The Austrian veteran, however, saw his advantage, and attacked the Prussians during the night with such skill that he threw them into momentary confusion, took one hundred and fifty pieces of cannon, and drove them from their ground, with the loss of seven thousand men. Nothing, however, could subdue the vigour or exhaust the resources of Frederick. Though grievously wounded in the conflict, and after having seen his best generals fall around him, he rallied his troops at daybreak, formed them in good order behind the village which had been surprised, and led them leisurely to a position a mile from the field of conflict, where he offered battle to CHAP. XII. 1714. 46. Terrible battle of Cunnersdorf, in. derick is defeated. the enemy, who did not venture to accept it. Having The campaign of 1759 was still more perilous to Frederick; but, if possible, it displayed his extraordinary talents in still brighter colours. He began by observing which Fre- the Austrians, under Daun and the Prince of Lorraine, in Silesia, and reserved his strength to combat the Russians, who were advancing, eighty thousand strong, through East Prussia. Frederick 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 guns. 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 well-nigh 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 battle, the most bloody which had been fought for centuries in Europe, and were in no condition to J XII. 47. tunes in ters. follow up their victory. Other misfortunes, however, in CHAP. appearance overwhelming, succeeded each other. General Schmettau capitulated in Dresden; and General 1714. Finch, with seventeen thousand men, was obliged to lay Overwhelmdown his arms in the defiles of the Bohemian mountains. ing misforAll seemed lost; but the king still persevered, and the other quarvictory 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. Frederick'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. 48. Frederick don at Lieg The campaign of 1760 began in March by another disaster at Landshut, where ten thousand Prussians Victory of were cut to pieces under one of his generals, and the im- over Lauportant fortress of Glatz was invested by the Austrians. nitz. Frederick 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. Frederick then resumed his march into Silesia, closely followed by three armies, each more numerous than his own, under Laudon, Daun, and Lacey, without their being able to obtain the slightest advantage over him. Laudon, the most active of them, attempted to surprise him; but Frederick was aware of his design, and received the attacking columns at Liegnitz in so masterly a manner that they were totally defeated, with the loss of twelve thousand men. Scarcely had he achieved this victory when he had to make head against Lacey, withstand Daun, repel an enormous body of Russians, who were advancing through |