Page:Life and surprising adventures of Frederick Baron Trenck.pdf/7

 more brilliant than any officer of the corps. My expences attracted notice, for I had only inherited from my father the estate of Sharlack, which produced about a thousand crowns a year; and I sometimes spent more than that sum in a month.

In the beginning of September 1743, war was declared between Prussia and the House of Austria. We marched hastily towards Prague, and passed through all Saxony without meeting with the smallest opposition, I dare not relate here what the Great Frederick said sorrowfully to us the very morning of our departure from Potzdam, when all the officers were assembled about his person. This time Frederick took the field with regret, as I was witness.

If I do not mistake, the King's army invested Prague, on the 14th of September; that of General Schwerin who had marched through Silesia, came a day later from the other side of the Mulda; and we were obliged to wait eight days longer for pontoons, to open a communication between the two armies.

General Harch was obliged to capitulate, after twelve days resistance. Eighteen thousand men were made prisoners of war: the number of the garrison kill'd and wounded during the siege not exceeding five hundred.

So far we mot with no obstacle; however, the Imperial army, under the command of Prince Charles, who had left the banks of the Rhine, advanced to save Bohemia. His light armed troops, being thrice as numerous as ours, prevented our foraging. Famine and want therefore obliged us to retreat, having no relief to hope for from the country behind us, which we had laid entirely waste on our march. The severity of the season in November made the soldiers very impatient, in