On June 16th Prince Frederick Charles, moving from Görlitz, crossed the Saxon frontier, and advanced upon Dresden. A junction was effected with Herwarth near Meissen, and both marched to Dresden, which was occupied without opposition on the 18th. By the 20th of June, the whole of Saxony (with the exception of the virgin fortress of Königstein in the Saxon Switzerland) was in the hands of the Prussians. The war had lasted but five days, and already the vigour and rapidity with which Prussia dealt her blows had secured for her advantages of inestimable value. Her right flank was now secure from attack through the prostration of the power of Hanover and Hesse-Cassel; the prestige and the terror of her arms were greatly enhanced by the occupation of the beautiful capital of Saxony; and the conquest of that kingdom had rendered possible the union of two Prussian armies, and secured a corresponding shortening and strengthening of her lines. The Saxon army retreated into Bohemia, and joined the main body of the Austrians under General Benedek.

The Prince broke up his headquarters at Görlitz on the 22nd of June, and marched thence with the main body of the First Army direct for Zittau, the last town in Saxony towards Bohemia. The passes through the mountains were found to be undefended; in fact, the rapid movements of the Prussians had left no time for Benedek to take the necessary measures. Count Clam Gallas, in command of the 1st Austrian Corps, was defeated in a series of battles, extending from the 26th to the 29th of June, and driven behind Gitschin. While the First Army and the Army of the Elbe were thus advancing from the north, the Second Army was moving from Silesia, in circumstances of far greater difficulty and peril, to effect a junction with them in Bohemia. After a defeat at Trautenau, the Crown Prince established communications with Prince Frederick Charles, the movements of the three armies being directed by telegraph from Berlin by Moltke, the chief of the staff. On the 30th the King of Prussia, accompanied by Count Bismarck and General Moltke, left Berlin, and reached headquarters at Gitschin on the 2nd of July. Thus the First Army and the Army of the Elbe were brought into communication with the Army of Silesia; and the imminent peril which had existed of an attack by Benedek, in overwhelming force, upon one of these invading armies, before the other was near enough to help it, was now at an end. Military authorities are agreed in casting great blame on the generalship of Benedek. That he did not take the initiative by an advance into Saxony was probably not his fault; but if compelled to receive the attack, it was manifestly his policy, as he knew the Prussians to be advancing on two sides, to detain one of their armies by a detachment, with orders to throw all possible difficulties in its path, while avoiding a pitched battle; but to fall upon the other with the full remaining strength of his own army, and endeavour to inflict upon it, while isolated, a crushing defeat. He had been thwarted by the energy of the Crown Prince's attack, and, seeing that the campaign was lost, had telegraphed to the Emperor on the 1st of July that a catastrophe was inevitable unless peace was made.

The position which Benedek had taken up, on a mass of rolling hilly ground, the highest point of which is marked by the village and church of Chlumetz, bounded on the west by the Bistritz, and on the east by the Elbe, and with the fortress of Königgrätz in its rear, would have been an exceedingly good one, had he had no other army but that of Frederick Charles to think of. As against the First Army, the line of the Bistritz, with its commanding ridge, its woods affording shelter for marksmen, and the difficulties presented by the (in places) marshy character of its valley, presented a defensive position of the first order. But Benedek had to reckon also with the army of the Crown Prince, and this he well knew; for an Austrian force had been driven out of Königinhof by the Prussian Guards on the evening of the 29th. Prince Frederick Charles attacked at daybreak, advancing through the village of Sadowa, and for hours sustained an unequal struggle with the superior forces of the Austrians. Herwarth was also, about one o'clock, checked in his advance. The First Army could do no more; it was even a question whether it could hold its ground; and the Prussian commanders on the plateau of Dub turned many an anxious glance to the left, wondering why the columns of the Crown Prince did not make their appearance. The King himself frequently turned his field-glass in that direction. The heavy rain that had fallen prevented the march of the Crown Prince from being marked by those clouds of dust that are the usual accompaniment of a moving army. Some Austrian guns about Lipa, it is true, appeared to be firing towards the north, but it was not certain that they were not directed against some movement of Franzecky's division. Yet all this time two corps belonging to the army of the Crown Prince had been in action since half-past twelve with the Austrian right, and one of them was pressing forward to the occupation of ground the defence of which was vital to the continued maintenance of its position by the Austrian army. Their onslaught on Benedek's right at once decided the battle, and, effecting a retreat across the Elbe with the utmost difficulty, he fled eastwards, leaving 18,000 on the field and 24,000 prisoners.

The Emperor, seeing his capital threatened, and the empire menaced with dissolution, determined to rid himself of one enemy by removing the ground of dispute. He accordingly ceded Venetia to the Emperor of the French, with the understanding that it was to be transferred to the King of Italy at the conclusion of the war. Napoleon accepted the cession, and from that time was unremitting in his endeavours to bring hostilities to a termination. His proposal of an armistice was accepted in principle by the King of Prussia, with the reservation that the preliminaries of peace must first be recognised by the Austrian Court. Meanwhile the Italians had suffered decisive defeats at the hands of the Austrians. La Marmora, who took command, crossed the Mincio with 120,000 men, but was defeated by the Archduke Albrecht with smaller numbers upon the field of Custozza (June 24th), and compelled to fall back in disorder. A naval action at Lissa off the Istrian coast also terminated in a complete victory for the Austrians under Admiral Tegethoff.

The course of events in the western portion of the theatre of war must now be briefly described. It will be remembered that, for the purpose of sudden and simultaneous operations against Hanover and Hesse-Cassel, a considerable Prussian force had been collected—drawn partly from the Elbe duchies, partly from the garrisons of neighbouring fortresses—and placed under the command of General Vogel von Falkenstein. After the surrender of the Hanoverians on the 29th of June, this force was concentrated about Gotha and Eisenach, and was free to act against the armies that had taken the field in the cause of Austria and the Diet farther south. Falkenstein had two separate armies in his front—the Bavarians under their Prince Charles, now numbering upwards of 50,000 sabres and bayonets, with 136 guns, and the 8th Federal Corps, commanded by Prince Alexander of Hesse and numbering little short of 50,000 men, with 134 guns. Devoid of co-operation, they suffered a series of defeats at the hands of Falkenstein and Manteuffel in a campaign marked by small battles and intricate manœuvres. On the 16th of July the Prussians marched into Frankfort with all military precautions, a regiment of cuirassiers with drawn swords leading the way. They posted two guns in the great square, and stacked their arms there and in the Zeil. Late at night they broke into groups, and went to the different houses, on which, without previous consultation with the municipality, they had been billeted, forcing their way in without ceremony wherever a recalcitrant householder was found. It was observed that especially large numbers of soldiers were billeted on the houses of those citizens who were known to be anti-Prussian in their politics. One of these, Herr Mumm, was required to lodge and feed 15 officers and 200 men. General Falkenstein took up his quarters in the town, having issued a proclamation announcing that, by orders of the King of Prussia, he had assumed the government of the imperial city, together with Nassau, and the parts of Bavaria that were in Prussian occupation. He at once imposed upon the citizens a war contribution of 7,000,000 gulden (about £600,000), besides 300 horses, and other contributions in kind. The Burgomaster Fellner and the Syndic Müller visited this modern Brennus, to endeavour to obtain some diminution of the impost; but they were only treated to a Prussian version of the classic declaration, "Væ Victis." Falkenstein roughly told the burgomaster that he used the rights of conquest; and is said to have threatened that if his demands were not promptly complied with, the city should be given up to pillage. Thus Count Bismarck paid off his old scores against the German Diet.

Meanwhile the victorious career of Prussia was carrying her arms without a check to the banks of the Danube and under the walls of Vienna. Marshal Benedek, after having put the Elbe between the Prussians and his exhausted troops, had to decide instantly what was to be done. An armistice was thought of; and Von Gablenz was sent on a mission to the Prussian headquarters to see if one could be obtained; but on this, and on a subsequent visit made with the same object, he failed. Benedek found that his army was so disorganised and disheartened by the defeat of the 3rd of July, that it was idle to think of defending the line of the Elbe. He resolved, therefore, to retire within the lines of the fortress of Olmütz, and there re-form his broken ranks and recruit his dilapidated resources. But the press and populace of Vienna clamoured vehemently for his dismissal from the post of Commander-in-Chief; and this was presently done, though not in such a manner as to disgrace him. The Archduke Albrecht, the victor of Custozza, was appointed to the command of the Austrian Army of the North, with General von John for his Chief of the Staff. Benedek was left in command at Olmütz, with orders to send all the corps lately under his command, as soon as they were ready for the field again, by rail to Vienna, there to be united under the Archduke for the defence of the capital. The junction was effected, but the Prussian advance was alarmingly rapid, and on the 20th of July the advance-posts of Herwarth were within fifteen miles of Vienna.

Another battle lost—and with inferior numbers, inferior arms, and inferior strategy, the Austrians could not reasonably count on victory—must have laid Austria utterly prostrate at the feet of Prussia, and would probably have resulted, considering the difficult and exasperating constitutional questions at that time still unsettled between the Emperor's government and the subject kingdoms, in her dismemberment and political degradation. From this fate Austria was saved, not by the moderation of Prussia, but by the firm and friendly mediation of France. The Prussians, both officers and soldiers, were eager to march on to the assault of Vienna, though the Government was deterred by the facts that Hungary was still intact, and the Italian army paralysed by the dissensions of its commanders. But France, having accepted Venetia as a pledge that she would discharge the office of mediator, discharged it effectually. That description of mediation, to which Lord Russell was so much attached, which proclaimed beforehand that it would employ no other agency but "persuasion," did not commend itself to the French mind. It is absurd to suppose that Count Bismarck would have paid any attention to the pleadings of Benedetti had he not well understood that France was mediating sword in hand. On this point the Count's own frank declaration, made in the Prussian Lower House in the December following the war—though its immediate reference is to the question of Schleswig—does not permit us to remain in doubt. He said: "In July last France was enabled, by the general situation of Europe, to urge her views more forcibly than before. I need not depict the situation of this country at the time I am speaking of. You all know what I mean. Nobody could expect us to carry on two wars at the same time. Peace with Austria had not yet been concluded; were we to imperil the fruits of our glorious campaign by plunging headlong into hostilities with a new, a second enemy? France, then, being called on by Austria to mediate between the contending parties, as a matter of course did not omit to urge some wishes of her own upon us." Everything seems to show that Austria owed to France, at this critical moment, her continued existence as a great Power.

But for the time the negotiations hung fire, as Napoleon declined to recognise the federation of all Germany under Prussian leadership, even though Bismarck hinted that France should be allowed to annex Belgium by way of compensation. On the 17th of July the King of Prussia arrived at Nikolsburg, a place about forty miles to the north of Vienna, close to the frontier line of Moravia and Lower Austria. Benedetti was already at Nikolsburg, empowered by the Emperor of Austria to agree to an armistice of five days, nearly upon the conditions originally proposed by Prussia, viz. that Austria should withdraw all her troops, except those in garrisons, to the south of the Thaya; in other words, abandon all Moravia except the fortress and entrenched camp of Olmütz, to the Prussians. On these conditions an armistice was concluded at Nikolsburg, to take effect from noon on the 22nd of July, and to last till noon on the 27th. It was well understood on both sides that this armistice was preparatory to negotiations for peace. These were conducted actively at Nikolsburg, Austria being represented by General Degenfeld and Count Karolyi; Prussia by General Moltke and Count Bismarck. Preliminaries of peace between the two Powers were signed on the 26th of July. The terms agreed to were—That Austria should cease to be a member of the German Confederation; that she should pay a contribution of 40,000,000 thalers towards Prussia's expenses in the war; and that she should offer no opposition to the steps that Prussia might take with regard to Northern Germany. The principal measures thus sanctioned were—the annexation of Hanover, Hesse-Cassel, Nassau, and the portion of Hesse-Darmstadt which lies to the north of the Main; the concession to Prussia of the reversion of Brunswick on the death of the Duke then living, who was without issue; the entry of Saxony into the new North German Confederation about to be formed; and the grant to Prussia of the supreme military and diplomatic leadership in that Confederation. The Prussian armies were to be withdrawn beyond the Thaya on the 2nd of August, but were to occupy Bohemia and Moravia till the conclusion of the final treaty of peace, and to hold Austrian Silesia until the war indemnity was paid. It was with great difficulty that the Emperor Francis Joseph wrung from the King of Prussia his consent to the continued independence of Saxony. But the little kingdom and its monarch had stood so nobly by Austria during the war that honour demanded of the Emperor that he should not permit them to be sacrificed, even though, by insisting, he risked the re-opening of hostilities.

COUNT VON MOLTKE.