Page:The Annual Register 1758.djvu/68

 54 ANNUAL REGISTER, 1758.

the great obje£l of the campaign ! It is not iinpoffible that the court of Vienna had ftill fuch an hanker- ing after Silefia, as induced them to llcicken their efforts on the fide of Saxony, in hopes, that if M. Daun could protedt the operations there, fo as to find full employment for the King of Pruflia, their other forces might reduce Silefia with great facility ; and thus per- haps, by aiming at two fuch dif- ficult objefts at once, as it gene- rally happens, they loft them both. Upon any other fuppofition, it is not very eafy to account for the feeming inaftivity of M. Daun, while he had fo fair a game in his hands. However advantageoufly Prince Henry might have chofen his port, or however ftrongly he might have fecured it, yet the prodigious fuperiority of the com- bined armies feems to have more than over-balanced that advantage, and to have julHiied, nay, to have demanded, fome bold and decifive attempt.

In fad, this appeared at length to be the marflial's own opinion. For when ihe ftrong fortrels of Sonne- ftein moft unaccountably furrender- ed, with a garrifon of 1400 men, to ^, the Auftrian general Mac-

oep .5. Quire after the rcfiftance of ro more than a fmgle day, M. Daun propofed that the Prince of Deux- Ponts fhould attack Prince Henry, whilll the grand army of the Auftri- ans laving bridges between two fires> at a fmall diftance from each other, fhould pafs the Elbe, and fiilling „ at the fame time on the

i>ept. 10. prufHans, fecond the at- tack of the Imperialifts, and cut off the retreat of their enemies towaids Drefden. This was to bring mat- ters to a fpeedy decifion. But now the King of Pruffia by the

moft rapid marches had reached the frontiers of Saxony. The whole defign was difconcerted ; and far from being able to diQodge Prince Henry, they found themfelves ut- terly unable to prevent the King liis brother from joining him.q with his whole army. On '" his approach General Liudohn a- bandoned all his advantages in the I,ower Lufatia, and fell back upon M. Daun; who himfelf retired from the neighbourhood of Drefden, and fell back as far as Zittau. The army of the Empire, poffefled of the ftrong poft of Pirna, which the Saxons had occupied in the beginning of the war, kept their ground ; but did not undertake any thing. Thus in fifteen days the King of Pruffia, by his un- paralleled fpirit, diligence, and magnanimity, fought, and defeated, a Superior body of his enemies, in one extremity of his dominions, and baffled without fighting an- other fuperior body in the other ex- tremity.

Thefe advantages, glorious as they were, were not the only ones which followed the vidtory of Zorn- dorff. The Swedes, who direded their motions by thofe of their Ruffian allies, haftened their opera- tions when that army had advan- ced into Brandenburg. General Wedel was detached from Saxony, to ftop their progrels ; and the Prince of Bevern, now governor of Stetin, gave them fome oppo- fition. All this, however, had proved ineffectual, if the news of the defeat of the Ruffians had not alarmed the Swedes in fuch a man- ner, as to make them return with more expedition than they had ad- vanced. Tho' the King of Pruffia's aft^airs began to put on a better appearance by thefe efforts, the I fortune