Page:The Annual Register 1758.djvu/183

 STATE PAPERS.

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repelled the huflars, whofe number was too Tmall to make refi fiance, and even forced them, as well as Monjou'sindependentbattalion, to quit the great garden, and gain the fuburbs. The enemy immediately attacked the fmall redoubts, where 700 men of the garrifon had been ported, forced three of them, and penetrated to Zinzendorf-houfe, and even made fuch progrefs, that an Auftrian ioldier was killed on thedraw-bridgeof Pirna-gate, and fome cannon were obliged to be £red on Zinzendorf-houfe to drive out the Auftrians. During this at- tack the enemy's cannon played in- to the town^ and feveral fix-poun- ders fell in the arfetial, in the Prince's hotel, and in the houfes of Loos, Mnifceck, and Counfellor Fritfch. One ball even fell before the houfe of Marfhal Count Ru- towflcy,

Notwithflanding this declared at- tack againli: the town and fuburbs, no houfe was yet on fire ; a plain proof that there was little inclina- tion to proceed to that extremity. The cannon of the rampart forced the enemy to retire ; and before night even all the redoubts of which they had got pofleffion were retaken.

Mean while the army of General ]tzenplitz marched through the town, pafTed the Elbe, and encamp- ed under the cannon of the new town ; and General Meyer was or- dered to defend the fuburbs with his independent battalions, and four others, and to fttfire to them after giving notice to the inhabitants. One of this general's officers told the governor, about midnight, that he heard men at work, and that the enemy feemed to be ere(flin2 batteries, and planting cannon ; ac- cordingly, all who were fent out

beyond t'^e barriers to reconnoitre, had a fmart fire to fuftain. Thefe preparations, added to the pre- ceding affair, giving room to think that at day-break the enemy would make a vigorous attack, and make themfelves matters of the fuburbs, into which the cannon of the town could not difpute their entrance, by reafon of the height of the houfes, the governor had no othey rneafuies to take but thofe which the intereil of his mailer, reafonsof war, and his own honour, didated. The fignal was given by General Meyer, and immediately, at three in the morning of the loth, the greateft part of the fuburbs of Pirna, the houfes adjoining to the ditch, and .two in the fuburb of Wilfdorft", were in flames. The fix battalions with the 700 men, entered the town by the three gates, which were immediately barricad- ed ; and after fix in the mornintr there was not a Prufiian in the fub- urbs, as the inhabitants of the town can teftify. The ftory of the fre- quentfallies of thePruffians tolight up what was not yet confumed, is void of all foundation. It is like- wife abfolutely falfe that the inha- bitants had not timely notice given them. Thefe atrocious calumnies are fufficiently confuted by the an- nexed certificates of the chief cup- bearer De Bofe, and of the magi- ftrates. As to the red-hot bullets fired upon the inhabitants, the lighted waggon, the children thrown into the fire, thefe are fo many horrible lies, which will fall of themfelves, when the aforefaid certificates of the court, the magi- llrates, and the judges of the fub- urbs are feen. l"he order given to the burghers to remain quiet in their houfes was intimated only to the raagiilrates of the city, in the

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