prehension with the King of Prussia, as to render him most desirous of peace and not unreasonable in his terms. Early in the winter he had even agreed to a secret armistice, which proved highly serviceable to Maria Theresa, as allowing her to employ her forces elsewhere, to take Munich and to threaten Prague. But finding that he could not prevail in obtaining a peace with the concessions he desired, Frederick abruptly resumed the offensive, entered Moravia, reduced Olmütz, and then passing into Bohemia engaged the army of Prince Charles on the 17th of May, at the village of Czaslau. The numbers on each side were nearly equal, not so the skill of the commanders; and the Austrians were worsted with considerable loss.* This defeat induced the Queen of Hungary to recede from her determination with respect to Silesia, and to yield that province as a peace-offering to the most dangerous of her antagonists. A treaty with this condition was accordingly signed at Breslau, in the ensuing month, including likewise the accession of the King of Poland as Elector of Saxony, who was gratified with some small districts on the Bohemian frontier.

Thus freed from the Prussian arms, Prince Charles was enabled to turn his undivided force to the reduction of Prague, where the French, about 25,000 strong, had been joined and were now commanded by Marshal Belleisle. The place was closely invested by the Austrians, who, however, pushed their attacks with very slender skill and slow progress; but a still more formidable enemy famine was wasting the French ranks within. Belleisle, in a conference with Königsegg, one of the Austrian Generals, offered to evacuate the city and all Bohemia, provided he had leave to march with his arms, artillery and baggage. He also presented to Königsegg a letter from Cardinal Fleury, in which that Minister expressed his readiness for peace, and declared that he had been forced into the war against his inclination. But the Austrian leaders would hear of no terms but unconditional surrender, and gave no other answer to Fleury's letter than * Coxe's House of Austria, vol. iii. p. 273.

1742.

FRENCH RETREAT FROM PRAGUE.

135

by printing it in the public papers, to the great discredit and mortification of the Cardinal.*

To relieve the French at Prague, Marshal Maillebois was directed to advance with his army from Westphalia. At these tidings Prince Charles changed the siege of Prague to a blockade, and marching against his new opponents, checked their progress on the Bohemian frontier; the French, however, still occupying the town of Egra. It was under these circumstances that Belleisle made his masterly and renowned retreat from Prague. In the night of the 16th of December, he secretly left the city at the head of 11,000 foot and 3000 horse, having deceived the Austrians' vigilance by the feint of a general forage in the opposite quarter; and pushed for Egra through a hostile country, destitute of resources and surrounded by superior enemies. His soldiers, with no other food than frozen bread, and compelled to sleep without covering on the snow and ice, perished in great numbers; but the gallant spirit of Belleisle triumphed over every obstacle: he struck through morasses almost untrodden before, offered battle to Prince Lobkowitz, who however declined engaging, and at length succeeded in reaching the other French army with the flower of his own. The remnant left at Prague, and amounting only to 6000 men, seemed an easy prey; yet their threat of firing the city, and perishing beneath its ruins, and the recent proof of what despair can do, obtained for them honourable terms, and the permission of rejoining their comrades at Egra. But in spite of all this skill and courage in the French invaders, the final result to them was failure; nor had they attained a single permanent advantage beyond their own safety in retreat. Maillebois and De Broglie took up winter quarters in Bavaria, while Belleisle led back his division across the

* Voltaire, Siècle de Louis XV. ch. 7. He adds: "Le Cardinal, voyant เร sa lettre imprimée, en écrivit une seconde, dans laquelle il se plaint au "Général Autrichien de ce qu'on a publié sa première, et lui dit qu'il ne "lui écrira plus désormais ce qu'il pense. Cette seconde lettre lui fit "encore plus de tort que la première." These letters are inserted in the Mémoires de Noailles (vol. v. p. 413—19.), but the second does not contain the threat of insincerity which Voltaire asserts.

Rhine; and it was computed that, of the 35,000 men whom he had first conducted into Germany, not more than 8000 returned beneath his banner.

As in Germany apprehension of the French wrought in favour of Maria Theresa, so did apprehension of the Spaniards in Italy. The Queen of Spain made no secret of her desire and intention to obtain an independent sovereignty for her younger son Don Philip, as she had already the kingdom of Naples for Don Carlos, and this indeed had been her main motive for entering into the war; but the project was so distasteful to the King of Sardinia, who imagined that it might be realised partly at his own expense, that he was, induced not only to relinquish his alliance with France and Spain, but to espouse the opposite cause of Maria Theresa. His accession gave the Austrians a decided superiority in the field, enabling them to drive the Spanish general, the Duke de Montemar, out of Lombardy, with the loss of nearly half his army. At the same time no less important services were achieved by the British fleet on these coasts. Its commander was no longer Haddock; he had been superseded by Admiral Lestock, and Lestock in in his turn by Admiral Mathews, who was sent out on the change of administration with seven additional ships of the line, and who arrived eager to justify the choice, and to correct the inactivity so much complained of in this quarter. One of his captains, cruising in pursuit of five Spanish galleys, and finding them take refuge in the little French port of St. Tropez, was not withheld by the peace which still subsisted with France (for both France and England had hitherto engaged only as auxiliaries), but entered the harbour after them, attacked them, and by the aid of a fireship reduced them to ashes. This insult to the French flag, though passed over by Cardinal Fleury, affected him most deeply: when the tidings were brought to him we are told that he covered his eyes with his hands, exclaiming SI MEA CREDITA TRAHUNT ME! — which he repeated again and again.* * Mr. Villette to the Duke of Newcastle, July 19. 1742. Appendix.

1742.

FORCED NEUTRALITY OF NAPLES.

137

Another squadron of the British fleet, entrusted to Commodore Martin, suddenly appeared in the Bay of Naples, and threatened an immediate bombardment, unless the King would engage in writing to withdraw his troops (there were 20,000 men) from the Spanish army, and to observe in future a strict neutrality. The Neapolitan Court, wholly unprepared for the defence of the city, endeavoured to elude the demand by prolonging the negotiation. But the gallant Englishman, with a spirit not unworthy the Roman who drew a circle around the Asiatic despot, and bade him not step from it until he had made his decision*, laid his watch upon the table in his cabin, and told the negotiators that their answer must be given within the space of an hour, or that the bombardment should begin. This proceeding, however, railed at by the diplomatists as contrary to all form and etiquette, produced a result such as they had seldom attained by protocols. Within the hour Don Carlos acquiesced in the required terms. Thus was the neutrality of a considerable kingdom in this contest secured by the sight of five British ships of the line during four-and-twenty hours; for their number was but such, and no longer time elapsed between their first appearance and their final departure from the bay.

**

* Liv. Hist. lib. xlv. c. 12.

** Coxe's Bourbon Kings of Spain, vol. iii. p. 335. Tindal's Hist. vol.. viii. p. 570.

CHAPTER XXV.

WHEN in November, 1742, the new administration again encountered the assembled Parliament, it had already survived the popular impulse which gave it birth, and, while itself discordant, could only lean for strength on the discord and division of its opponents. It had endeavoured, at the close of the last Session, to gratify the Tory party by appointing Lord Gower Privy Seal in the place of Hervey, and Lord Bathurst Captain of the Band of Pensioners. Shortly afterwards, also, the office of Solicitor General was bestowed, and most worthily, on William Murray. But the Tories, and indeed the whole people, disappointed in their vast though vague expectations of national advantage from the Ministerial change, looked on, for the most part, in moody discontent. They felt, as Bolingbroke observed (for Bolingbroke had come over to England on a summer ramble, or perhaps with an ambitious hope), that "the principles of "the last Opposition have been the principles of very few of "the opposers." With still greater bitterness does he add to Marchmont, "Your Lordship and I, and some few "very few besides, were the bubbles of men whose ad"vantage lies in having worse hearts."* And again at a later period, "Liberty has been the cry of one set of men, as prerogative was formerly of another. But it has been "no more than a cry; and the cause of liberty has been as "little regarded by those leaders who gave it out to their "troops, as the cause of St. George or St. Denis was con"cerned in the battles of the English and the French."** Yet, notwithstanding such angry denunciations of his countrymen, Bolingbroke had determined once more to live

แ

* To Lord Marchmont, October 30. 1742. **To the same, November 25. 1746.