CHAPTER XIV.
The French enter the Prussian Dominions, where they commit great Disorders..... Reflections on the Misconduct of the Allied Army..... Russian Fleet blocks up the Prussian Ports in the Baltic..... Russians take Memel..... Declaration of the King of Prussia on that occasion..... Army of the Empire raised with Difficulty..... The Austrians take Gabel..... and destroy Zittau..... The Prince of Prussia leaves the Army..... Communication between England and Ostend broke off..... Gueldres capitulates..... Skirmishes between the Prussians and Austrians..... and between the Prussians and Russians..... Mareschal Lehwald attacks the Russians in their Intrenchments near Norkitten..... Hasty Retreat of the Russians out of Prussia..... French and Imperialists take Gotha..... Action between the Prussians and Austrians near Goerlitz..... The French oblige Prince Ferdinand to retire..... Berlin laid under Contribution by the Austrians; and Leipsic subjected to military Execution by the Prussians..... Battle of Rosbach..... The Austrians take Schweidnitz; and defeat the Prince of Bevern near Breslau..... Mareschal Keith lays Bohemia under Contribution..... King of Prussia defeats the Austrians at Lissa; retakes Breslau and Schweidnitz, and becomes Master of all Silesia..... Hostilities of the Swedes in Pomerania..... Mareschal Lehwald forces the Swedes to retire...... Memorial presented to the Dutch by Colonel Yorke, relative to Ostend and Nieuport..... King of Prussia’s Letter to the King of Great Britain..... His Britannic Majesty’s Declaration..... Disputes concerning the Convention of Closter-Seven..... Progress of the Hanoverian Army..... Death of the Queen of Poland..... Transactions at Sea..... Fate of Captain Death..... Session opened..... Supplies granted..... Funds for raising the Supplies..... Messages from the King to the House of Commons..... Second Treaty with the King of Prussia..... Bill for fortifying Milford Haven..... Regulations with respect to Corn..... Bills for the Encouragement of Seamen, and for explaining the Militia Act..... Act for repairing London Bridge..... Act for ascertaining the Qualification of voting..... Bill for more effectually manning the Navy..... Amendments in the Habeas-Corpus Act..... Scheme in Favour of the Foundling Hospital..... Proceedings relative to the African Company..... Session closed..... Vigorous Preparations for War..... Death of the Princess Caroline..... Sea Engagement off Cape Francois..... Remarkable success of Captain Forest..... French evacuate Embden..... Success of Admiral Osborne..... French Fleet driven ashore in Basque Road..... Admiral Broderick’s Ship burnt at Sea..... Descent at Cancalle-Bay..... Expedition against Cherbourg...... Descent at St. Maloes..... English defeated at St. Cas..... Captures from the Enemy..... Clamours of the Dutch Merchants on Account of the Capture of their Ships..... Their famous Petition to the States-general
THE FRENCH ENTER THE PRUSSIAN DOMINIONS.
The Hanoverians being now quite subdued, and the whole force of the French let loose against the king of Prussia by this treaty, mareschal Richelieu immediately ordered lieutenant-general Berchini to march with all possible expedition, with the troops under his command, to join the prince de Soubise: the gens-d’-arms, and other troops that were in the landgraviate of Hesse-Cassel, received the same order; and sixty battalions of foot, and the greatest part of the horse belonging to the French army, were directed to attack the Prussian territories. Mareschal Richelieu himself arrived at Brunswick on the fifteenth of September; and having, in a few days after, assembled an hundred and ten battalions, and an hundred and fifty squadrons, with an hundred pieces of cannon, near Wolfenbuttel, he entered the king of Prussia’s dominions with his army on the twenty-seventh, twenty-eighth, and twenty-ninth of the same month, in three columns, which penetrated into Halberstadt and Brandenburgh, plundering the towns, exacting contributions, and committing many enormities, at which their general is said to have connived. In the meantime the duke of Cumberland returned to England, where he arrived on the eleventh of October, and shortly after resigned all his military commands.
Had the allied army, after the battle of Hastenbeck, marched directly to the Leine, as it might easily have done, and then taken post on the other side of Wolfenbuttel, Halberstadt, and Magdeburgh, it might have waited securely under the cannon of the latter place for the junction of the Prussian forces; instead of which, they injudiciously turned off to the Lower Weser, retiring successively from Hamelen to Nienburgh, Verden, Rothenburgh, Buxtehude, and lastly to Stade, where, for want of subsistence and elbow-room, the troops were all made prisoners of war at large. They made a march of an hundred and fifty miles to be cooped up in a nook, instead of taking the other route, which was only about an hundred miles, and would have led them to a place of safety. By this unaccountable conduct, the king of Prussia was not only deprived of the assistance of near forty thousand good troops, which, in the close of the campaign, might have put him upon an equality with the French and the army of the empire; but also exposed to, and actually invaded by, his numerous enemies on all sides, insomuch that his situation became now more dangerous than ever; and the fate which seemed to have threatened the empress a few months before, through his means, was, to all appearance, turned against himself. His ruin was predicted, nor could human prudence foresee how he might be extricated from his complicated distress; for, besides the invasion of his territories by the French under the duke de Richelieu, the Russians, who had made for a long time a dilatory march, and seemed uncertain of their own resolutions, all at once quickened their motions, and entered Ducal Prussia, under mareschal Apraxin and general Fermor, marking their progress by every inhumanity that unbridled cruelty, lust, and rapine, can be imagined capable of committing. A large body of Austrians entered Silesia, and penetrated as far as Breslau; then, turning back, they laid seige to the important fortress of Schweidnitz, the key of that country. A second body entered Lusa-tia, another quarter of the Prussian territories, and made themselves masters of Zittau. Twenty-two thousand Swedes penetrated into Prussian Pomerania, took the towns of Anclam and Demmin, and laid the whole country under contribution. The army of the empire, reinforced by that of prince Soubise, after many delays, was at last in full march to enter Saxony; and this motion left the Austrians at liberty to turn the greatest part of their forces to the reduction of Silesia. An Austrian general penetrating through Lusatia, passed by the Prussian armies, and suddenly presenting himself before the gates of Berlin, laid the whole country under contribution; and though he retired on the approach of a body of Prussians, yet he still found means to interrupt the communication of these last with Silesia. The Prussians, it is true, exerted themselves bravely on all sides, and their enemies fled before them; but whilst one body was pursuing, another gained upon them in some other part. The winter approached, their strength decayed, and their adversaries multiplied daily. Their king harassed, and almost spent with incessant fatigue both of body and of mind, was in a manner excluded from the empire. The greatest part of his dominions were either taken from him, or laid under contribution, and possessed by his enemies, who collected the public revenues, fattened on the contributions, and with the riches which they drew from the electorate of Hanover, and other conquests, defrayed the expenses of the war; and by the convention of Closter-Seven he was deprived of his allies, and left without any assistance whatever, excepting what the British parliament might think fit to supply. How different is this picture from that which the king of Prussia exhibited when he took arms to enter Saxony! But, in order to form a clear idea of these events, of the situation of his Prussian majesty, and of the steps he took to defeat the designs of his antagonists, and extricate himself from his great and numerous distresses, it will be proper now to take a view of the several transactions of his enemies, as well during his stay in Bohemia, as from the time of his leaving it, down to that which we are now speaking of.
A RUSSIAN FLEET BLOCKS UP THE PRUSSIAN PORTS IN THE BALTIC.
Whilst the king of Prussia was in Bohemia, the empress of Russia ordered notice to be given to all masters of ships, that if any of them were found assisting the Prussians, by the transportation of troops, artillery, and ammunition, they should be condemned as legal prizes; and her fleet, consisting of fifteen men of war and frigates, with two bomb-ketches, was sent to block up the Prussian ports in the Baltic, where it took several ships of that nation, which were employed in carrying provisions and merchandise from one port to another. One of these ships of war appearing before Memel, a town of Poland, but subject to Prussia, the commandant sent an officer to the captain, to know whether he came as a friend or an enemy? to which interrogation the Russian captain replied, that, notwithstanding the dispositions of the empress of both the Russias were sufficiently known, yet he would further explain them, by declaring that his orders, and those of the other Russian commanders, were, in conformity to the laws of war, to seize on all the Prussian vessels they met with on their cruise. Upon which the commandant of Memel immediately gave orders for pointing the cannon to fire upon all Russian ships that should approach that place.
The land-forces of the Russians had now lingered on their march upwards of six months; and it was pretty generally doubted, by those who were supposed to have the best intelligence, whether they ever were designed really to pass into the Prussian territories, not only on account of their long stay on the borders of Lithuania, but also because several of their cossacks had been severely punished for plundering the waggons of some Prussian peasants upon the frontiers of Courland, and the damage of the peasants compensated with money, though general Apraxin’s army was at the same time greatly distressed by the want of provisions; when, on a sudden, they quickened their motions, and showed they were in earnest, determined to accomplish the ruin of Prussia. Their first act of hostility was the attack of Memel, which surrendered: and, by the articles of capitulation, it was agreed that the garrison should march out with all the honours of war, after having engaged not to serve against the empress, or any of her allies, for the space of one year.