twenty squadrons of hussars, led by general Ziethen, and pushed with such violence upon the grenadiers, as to throw them into confusion. During this shock of the cavalry, the Prussian grenadiers of the left wing, having passed the meadows, were obliged to advance through a very narrow road, in order to join the rest of the line, which was already formed. As soon as the grenadiers appeared on the other side of the defile, they were saluted by a battery of twelve pounders, charged with cartridges, and forced to retire in the greatest disorder. They were followed by two whole regiments; and the second battalion of Schwerin's began to give way, when the mareschal himself, who had been continually on the other side of the defile, took the colours of his regiment in his own hand; and having collected the broken troops, advanced with a strong pace toward the enemy, exhorting the soldiers to follow him. He received a bullet in his breast, and instantly fell from his horse, without the least signs of life 26. But his death did not pass unrevenged. The king of Prussia, observing that the Austrian right wing, in the ardour of pursuit, had advanced so far as to leave an opening between it and the left, laid hold of this favourable opportunity to occupy that vacant space. And while he thus separated the enemy's two wings from each other, he at the same time, by an additional stroke of generalship, ordered a body of troops to possess the ground where his own left had stood: so that when the Austrian right wing was forced back by the bravery of mareschal Schwerin, and the gallant officers who succeeded him in the command, that victorious body found itself surrounded, and fled in confusion toward Maleschitz; while the left wing, furiously attacked by the Prussian infantry, under prince Henry, with fixed bayonets, was obliged to take refuge in Prague. The centre also was broken, after an obstinate dispute, and chased into the same city27. 26. Ibid. 27. Lloyd, vol. i. Such Such was the famous battle of Prague, in which the valour and military skill of the Austrians and Prussians were fully tried, and which proved fatal to two of the greatest generals in Europe. For mareschal Brown received a wound, which his chagrin rendered mortal; though his pride is supposed to have been more hurt by being obliged to command under the prince of Lorrain, than from the event of the day. The loss on both sides was very considerable. The Prussians, by their own account, had three thousand men killed, and more than double that number wounded, beside three hundred and ninety-seven officers, many of whom were of high rank. The loss of the Austrians, in killed, wounded and taken, cannot be computed at less than twelve thousand, although they acknowledge little more than half that number. But these were all the immediate consequences of the king of Prussia's victory. The main body of the Austrian army, to the number of fifty thousand men, found shelter in Prague, under prince Charles of Lorrain; and about sixteen thousand, chiefly cavalry, assembled at Beneschau the day after the battle, and immediately joined mareschal Daun, who had arrived the evening before, from Moravia, and encamped at Bohmisch Brodt, on hearing of the disaster of the Austrians. The intrepid Frederic, however, elated with his good fortune, and thinking that every thing must submit to his victorious arms, invested Prague, with an army little superior to that confined within the walls! It was certainly very extraordinary, that so great a general as the king of Prussia should think it possible to reduce an army of fifty thousand men, in so extensive a town as Prague, with one of equal force. Hence the memorable saying of the celebrated mareschal de Belleisle, who had defended the same place, as we have seen, in 1742, with fifteen thousand men against the whole power of the house of Austria, and retired with honour. and glory, when he found his provisions fail: "I know "Prague, "Prague, and if I were there with one half of the troops "under the prince of Lorrain, I would destroy the "Prussian army." But the supineness of the Austrians in some measure justified the king of Prussia's temerity. They suffered themselves to be shut up in Prague for six weeks, without making one vigorous effort for their enlargement; although the Prussian army, beside forming a chain of posts extending many miles, was separated by the river Moldaw into two parts, any one of which might have been cut off. Fifty thousand men, provided with arms and artillery, submitted to this inglorious restraint, and continued inactive till they began to feel the pressure of famine; and the prince of Lorrain seemed, at one time, disposed to capitulate. When mareschal Brown, then sick in bed, was consulted on that subject, he made the following spirited reply: "Tell prince Charles, my advice is, "that he instantly march out, and attack mareschal "Keith29." The prince of Lorrain, however, did not chuse to carry matters to that extremity, so long as any hope of relief remained and the king of Prussia, by a new and more extraordinary instance of self-confidence than any he had yet exhibited, saved the Austrian army from the necessity of such a desperate effort, or the indelible disgrace of a surrender. While occupied in the siege of Prague, contemning the strength of the garrison, he had sent out several detachments, in order to raise contributions, and to seize or destroy the magazines which the Austrians had formed in different parts of Bohemia. Elated with the success of these detachments, and fearing that mareschal Daun, whose army now amounted to forty thousand men, might not only disturb his operations, but give prince Charles, by some manœuvre, an opportunity to get cut of the place, he dispatched the prince of Bevern with twenty-five thousand men, in order to drive him farther back. 28. Id. ibid. 29. Lloyd, ubi sup. VOL. V. Nn As As the Prussians advanced, mareschal Daun prudently retired, successively to Kolin, Kuttenberg, and Haber. But no sooner had he received all the reinforcements he expected, than he attempted to bring the prince of Bevern to action; and even, by rapid marches, to cut off his communication with the army before Prague. Informed of the enemy's motions the king of Prussia quitted his camp, with ten battalions and twenty squadrons, and JUNE 23. marched toward Kolin. There having formed a junction with the army under the prince of Bevern, he resolved to attack mareschal Daun, without farther delay. On his approach, with this intention, the Prussian monarch found the Austrian army, consisting of sixty thousand men drawn up in two lines; the infantry, contrary to the common disposition, on the wings, and the cavalry in the centre. The right wing was posted on a hill, extending toward Kuttenberg and Kolin; the left on another and higher hill, lying toward Zasmuck. At the bottom of these two hills, and in the space between, which was covered by a chain of fishponds and morasses, mareschal Daun had extended two lines of horse, and kept a third in reserve; for as he knew that the Prussians were stronger in cavalry than infantry, the king having with him ninety squadrons, and only twenty-eight battalions, he supposed they would make their greatest effort against the centre of the Austrian army, in order to cut it in two. But no sooner did he perceive the king's intention of attacking him on the right flank, than he ordered his body of reserve to march to the right wing, in order to cover the flank. And he afterward directed his second line to march also thither, close up to the reserve. His Prussian majesty ordered his army to halt, between nine and ten in the morning, in a plain near Slatislunz and Novimiesto, while he reconnoitred the JUNE 18. enemy's position; and having resolved to attack them, notwithstanding the strength of that position, and their superiority in numbers, his army was again put At half put in motion, and the battle soon after began3°. an hour past one, the head of the Prussian columns, both of infantry and cavalry, appeared opposite the Austrian army, which was prepared to receive them. And about two o'clock the grand attack, conducted by prince Ferdinand of Brunswick, and supported by a powerful artillery, was pushed with resistless fury upon the Austrian right wing; which was at first thrown into disorder, but instantly recovered itself, and afterward behaved with equal firmness and gallantry. This conflict lasted about an hour. and a half. Then the fire of the Prussian infantry began to slacken, and they were obliged to retire, in order to draw breath. They soon, however, renewed the combat; but were again compelled to yield to superior strength. Seven times did they return to the charge, from two till half past six o'clock. About that time, the last and most violent effort was made by the king in person, at the head of his cavalry. It was continued till after seven; when the Prussians, sinking under numbers, and the disadvantage of ground, in which their cavalry could not properly act, were forced finally to relinquish the contest. But they remained on the field till nine, and retired without being pursued. The slaughter on both sides was great, and nearly equal. About twenty thousand men were left dead on the spot, or dying of mortal wounds. In consequence of the loss of this memorable battle, one of the most obstinate and bloody of which there is any example in modern times, the king of Prussia was obliged 30. For the particulars of the battle of Kolin, and most of the other great actions between the Austrians and Prussians, the author is indebted to the late major-general Lloyd, whose excellent, but unfinished Campaigns, must make his death sincerely lamented by all military men. Where this prime authority fails, recourse has been had to the accounts of the different actions published by the courts of Berlin and Vienna, as well as to those transmitted to the court of Versailles by French officers in the Austrian service, which seem in general more accurate and impartial, and form a kind of standard for judging of the two former. immediately |