Page:The Annual Register 1758.djvu/224

 2IO ANNU AL R E

of the Duke of Cumberland, ge- neral of the Hanoverians, behdes fearing the jull difcontenc of his allies, which was near breaking out, to fave his troops from the total deftrudlion with which they were threatened, to fccure the trca- fureof the king his father, and to hinder the duchies of Bremen and Verden from becoming the theatre of war, and to exempt all the King of England's dominions in Germany from the miferies confe- cutive to a general defeat, and which by a concurrence of circum- llances would have been but too jullifiable.

It was no favourable conjuHiflure for foftening the vidor. ■ The King of England was fending away a very firong fquadrcn, with land forces for a dcfcent.'Vvith a defign of making themfelves mailers of ,Rocheforf, or at leaft io burn the docks and ftcre-h.Qufes ; in a word, to commit a!l pqiljble hollilicies en the coall: of France', . Beiides many fubjefts of appre- .henfions for the aefeated party, there was one of greater weig;ht "than all the others ; pajt experi- ence feemed to have infpired a grounded mifiruii: of any propofal ,lrom theKing of England, Eledcr of Hanover ; of this the Duke of Cumberland had recent proofs., After he had been obliged to ret,'eat into the duchy of Bremen, he had prcpofed a neutrality, and ic was , refufed him ; he had acquainted the French miniftry, that he was .authcrifed by full powers from the king his father, to treat of a peace, o^ a neutrality, or of a prelimi- nary accommodation, and the king, faithful to his allicf, would hearken to no propofal but in concert with them.

From all thefe reafons, the Duke

G 1 S T E R, 1758.

of Cumberland did not believe that he fhould be able, by himfrif, to obtain the capitulation, which alone could fccure him from all the feveral dangers he had to fear ; bat being informed of the king's great regard for the king of Den- mark, his ally, he implored the afliiUnce of that prince, and got a ceffation of arms t'> be propofed to the Marlhal de Richelieu by the negotiation of the Count de Ly- nar, the King of Denmark's mi- niiler, and under his Danilh ma- jelty's guaranty.

On this propofal the marfhal de- liberated which was belt for the empire, to grant or refufe the ca- -pitulation. By the latter he an- Iwered the king's juft vengeance; in the former he confidered the ad- vantages of keeping the Hanove- rians and their allies inaftive dur- ing the remainder of the war, and confequently of referving his troops for marching \vi:hout delay to H^l- berftadt, and by the celeri:y of his operations to haften the evacuation ■of Saxony, and the reftoration of the peace in Germany. As the king's fentiments were perfectly known to him, he immediately preferred that meafure which he judged might, be moll beneficial to the empire and the allies of France, and he granted the capitu- lation or military convehtion which the Duke rf Cumberland offered to him through the Count de Lynar. It was concluded at Cloller-fevcn en the 8th of September : and the execution of it was fecured both by the Marfhal de Richelieu's word of honour and that cf the Duke of Cumberland, lodged in the Count de Lynnr's hands, and by the en- gagement of the King of Den- mark's guaranty, accepted by the two generals.

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