On the morning of May 5 the whole army, except a column under Field Marshal Daun, was united here under Prince Charles of Lorraine, and the king, realizing the impossi bility of storming the heights before him, left a corps under Keith and a few detachments to watch Prague and the fords across the river, and marched during the night upstream and, crossing above the Austrian right, formed his army (about 64,00o) for attack at right angles to the Austrian front. The ground had not been reconnoitred, and in the morning mist many mistakes in the de ployment had been made, but as Daun was known to be but 20 m. away and the Austrian army was changing its front to meet the unexpected attack, the king threw caution to the winds and sending Zieten with his cavalry by a wide detour to cover his left, he ordered the whole to advance. One of the most savage battles in history was the result. Almost immediately the Prussian in fantry became entangled in a series of morasses, the battalion guns had to be left behind and the troops had to correct their alinement under the round shot fired by the Austrians, who had completed their change of front in time and now stood ready to sweep the open glacis before them. Before the storm of bullets and the grape and canister of the heavy and battalion guns the Prussian first line faltered and fell in thousands. Their attempts to prepare the way for the bayonet assault broke down. Schwerin was killed. But the second line carried the survivors on, and in the nick of time Zieten's cavalry drove the Austrian horsemen off the field and broke in on the flank and rear of their infantry. This turned the scale, and the Austrians retreated into Prague in hope less confusion, leaving some io,000 men (14-8%) on the ground, and 4,275 prisoners, out of about 66,000, in their enemy's hands. The Prussians lost 11,740 men killed and wounded and 1,56o prisoners, and in all 20•8% of their strength. The actual fighting seems only to have lasted about two hours, though firing did not cease till late at night; 16,000 Austrians managed in the confu sion to evade capture and join Daun, who made no movement either on this or succeeding days to come to the assistance of his comrades, but began a leisurely retreat towards Vienna. The Prus sians immediately began the siege of the town, and after a month's delay Daun, now at the head of some 6o,000 men, moved forward to the relief of the city. Learning of his approach, the king, taking with him all the men who could be spared from the investment and uniting all available detachments, moved to meet him with only 34.000 men, and on June 18 he found Daun strongly entrenched.
He immediately endeavoured to march past him and attack him on the right flank—a repetition of the Prague manoeuvre without its concealment—but the Austrian light troops harassed his columns so severely during the movement that with out orders they wheeled to drive them off and, being thus thrown into disarray, they took three divergent objectives. Their dis united attacks all fell upon superior numbers, and after a most obstinate struggle they were badly beaten with a loss in killed and wounded of 6,710 (18.6%) and 5,38o prisoners with 45 guns. The fighting lasted 51 hours. The Austrian loss was only 8,000 out of 53,500, or 15.2%, of whom only 1,500 were taken prisoners.
This disaster entailed raising the siege of Prague, and the Prus sians fell back on Leitmeritz. The Austrians, reinforced by the 48,000 troops in Prague, followed them ioo,000 strong, and, fall ing on Prince August Wilhelm of Prussia, who was retreating ec centrically (for commissariat reasons) on Zittau, inflicted a severe check upon him. The king was compelled to abandon Bohemia, falling back on Bautzen. Having re-formed his men and calling in Keith's 27,000 men from Pirna, he again advanced, but found the enemy so strongly posted at Burkersdorf (south of Bischof swerda) that he relinquished his purpose and retreated on Bern stadt.
Meanwhile his enemies had been gathering around him. France had despatched 1oo,000 men under
d'Estrees against Hanover, where Cumberland with 54,000 stood to meet him, and another 24,00o men were marching through Franconia to unite with the "Army of the Holy Roman Empire" under the prince of Saxe-Hildburghausen. Fortunately this latter army was not as formidable as its title, and totalled only some 6o,000 most undisciplined and heterogeneous combatants. In the north i oo,000 Russians under Apraxin were slowly advancing into East Prussia, where Lehwald with 30,00o was preparing to confront them, and i 6,000 Swedes had landed in Pomerania. On June 26 Cumberland had been beaten at Hastenbeck by d'Estrees, and the French overran Hanover and Brunswick. The king, leaving Bevern with only 13,600 men in Silesia to watch the Austrians, began to march across Germany to succour Cum berland. Arrived at Leipzig on Sept. 3, he heard of Lehwald's defeat at Gross-Jagerndorf on Aug. 3o, and immediately after wards of Cumberland's convention of Kloster Seven, which gave up Hanover to the French. Fearing that the French army now set free in Hanover might unite with the Army of the Empire under Hildburghausen and with 15o,000 men march direct on Berlin, Frederick, taking with him 23,00o men, marched to join Prince Ferdinand in the district about Halberstadt, hoping to strike his blow before the enemy's junction could be completed. Mo bility, therefore, was the first consideration, and arrangements for supply having been made in advance along his road, his troops covered 17o m. in 12 days (September 1-13). But Hildburg hausen, not having been joined by d'Estrees, refused to fight and fell back into the wooded districts of Thuringia and Fran conia. Bad news now reached Frederick from Silesia; leaving Ferdinand to observe Hildburghausen, he marched with all haste to Eckersberg to support Bevern. Arrived here, he found more bad news from Berlin, which had been entered by a body of Austrian raiders under Hadik and plundered. Prince Maurice and Seydlitz were sent by forced marches to its aid, and before them Hadik retired at once (Oct. 18). Finding the Austrians for the moment quiescent and hearing that Hildburghausen was again advancing, the king now concentrated all available men on Leipzig and marched to support Prince Ferdinand. Hildburg hausen took up a position about Meucheln on Nov. 2, and on the 5th moved off to repeat Frederick's manoeuvre of Prague against its inventor.
The Battle of Rossbach (q.v.) followed. In this Seydlitz and the Prussian cavalry won imperishable renown. Aided only by the fire of 18 guns and of 7 battalions of infantry, only two of which fired more than five rounds, the Prussian squad rons swept down upon the marching columns of the Allies and in about 4o minutes the whole 64,00o were in full flight. Never was a victory more timely, for the Prussian army was almost worn out and more bad news was even then on the way. Bevern in Silesia, who had been beaten at Moys near Gorlitz (Sept. 7) and in the battle of Breslau on Oct. 22, had been compelled to retire behind the Oder, leaving the fortresses of Schweidnitz and Breslau to their fate, and both had capitulated within a few days. Leaving a small reinforcement for Ferdinand, the king now moved by forced marches to Liegnitz. The distance, about i 7o m. through difficult country, was covered again in 12 days, but the numbers were small, only 13,000, which shows how tremendous had been the drain upon the men of the previous six weeks' exertions. On the night of Dec. 4, having joined the beaten forces of Bevern at Parschwitz, making in all 43,000 men of very unequal fighting value, he decided to attack the 72,000 Austrians who lay across the Breslau road, their centre marked by the village of Leuthen (q.v.). His position appeared so desperate that he sent for all his generals, laid the facts before them, announced his decision to attack and offered to accept any man's resignation without preju dice to his character should he deem the risk too hazardous. Needless to say, not one accepted the offer.