Page:The Annual Register 1758.djvu/41

 HISTORY OF THE WAR.

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.had fuilained, and broiJght in health and fpirits through the diTmal de- farts ot'Wertphalia, under all the op- poiltion of a fkilfiil adverfary, were now, in full peace, in the quiet pof- fefiion of a conquered and plentiful country, reduced in their numbers, decayed in their health and their fpirits, without cloaths, without fubfirtence, without order, without arms. In this condition they began at laft to perceive that the Hanove- rians, with the yoke of the capitula- tion abrut their necks, were Itill forir.iaable. As they had broke al- moft every article of that treaty, they made no fcruple to add another breach in order to fecure thehi in all the reft. They attempted ac- tually to take their arms from the Hanoverian and Hefiian troops. Thefe gallant troops, who had with a filent grief and indignation leen the diftrelTes of their ruined country, were ravifhed to find that the vic- tory at Rolbach encouraged their fovereign to refent at laft this and all the other indignities they had fufFered. They* began to colleft and to atl, and under the command of the gallant Prince Ferdinand of Brunfwick, reinforced with a body of Prufiian troops, they broke from their confinement. I'hey reduced the town of Harbourg, and laid clofe fiege to the caltle, which it muft be owned was defended very bravely. In all other refpefts tae French did not ieem in a conditicn to maintain their ground any where. Thofe troops, which a few months before had fo fubmitted as to make it ne- cefikry to declare that they were 72of prifoners of nvar in order to explain their condition, were now on the point of pulhing their adverfaries to alm.oft the fame ftreights. Such was the force of French military difcipline, and fuch the triumphs of Vokaire's hero.

The King of PrufTia now faw the full effeft of. his counfcls and his labours. His dominions were freed ; his allies were enabled to afilft him; and his eaemies defeated, broken, and fiyinrr every where before him. In what iight .poftcrity will view thefe things is uncertain; we, under whofe tytSy as we may fay, they were atchieved, fcarcely bdieved what we had feen. And perhaps in all the records of time, the compafs of a fingle year, on the fcene of a fingle country, never contained fo •many ftriking events, never difplay- ed fo many revolutions of fortune ; revolutions not only beyond what migtit have been expeited, but far beyond what the molt fagacious forefight, reafoning from experi- ence, and the nature of things could poflibly have imagined. The King of Pruilia at firil triumphant ; the whole power of the Auftrians totally defeated ; their hopes utterly ruin- ed : then" their affairs fuddenly re- eftablifhed, their armies victorious, and the King of Pruffia in his turn hurled down ; defeated ; abandon- ed by his allies; furrounded by his enemies on the very edge of def- pair : then all at once railed beyond all hope, he fees the united Auftri- an. Imperial, and French power levelled with the ground. 40,000 Hanoverians, a whole army, fubmit to 8o,oco French, and are only ?!ct prifoners of war. The French are peaceable mafters of all the country between the Wefer and the Elbe ; anon, thefe fubdued Hano- verians refume their arms ; they recover their country, and th» French in a little time tliiuk them- felves not fecure to the eaftvvard of the Rhine. 400,000 men in adlion. Six pitched battles fought. Three great armies annihilated. 'l"he French army reduced and vanquilh-

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