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part, killed or made prifoners. General Platen, after this ufeful and brilliant exploit, pursued his march with the utmost diligence to Pomerania.

Intelligence of this blow was no fooner received by the Ruffians in Silefia, than they were ftruck with the utmost confternation. They had lately effected one of their purpofes by their junction Aug.25 with the Auftrians; but this ftroke compelled them at once to fever this union, fo lately and with fuch difficulty compaffed to drop all their defigns upon Breflau, to repafs the Oder and to retire without delay into Poland, left their remaining magazines fhould share the fame fate with the three abovementioned, and their future fubfiftence be thereby rendered wholly precarious.

So unfortunately circumftanced were the affairs of the king of Pruffia, that his wifeft fchemes and happiest fucceffes could hardly anfwer any other end than to vary the fcene of his diftrefs. The ftorm which had been diverted from Silefia by general Platen's expedition, was only removed from thence to be difcharged with irrefiftible fury on Colberg. The Ruffians, when they faw that the measures the king had taken rendered the completion of both their defigns impracticable, resolved at all adventures to fecure one of them. Colberg was the object of their choice, not only as the place furtheft from fuccour, but as the poffeffion of it would be an advantage fittest for anfwering thofe ends which were more nearly and properly Ruffian. M. Butterlin, therefore, as foon as he had efta blifhed his convoys, directed his courfe towards Pomerania, and be

ing mafter of Lanfperg, he fent detachments from thence, that cruelly wafted all the adjoining Marche of Brandenburg, without at the fame time diverting himself by thefe ravages from his main intention.

A force of Ruffians was by this time affembled in Pomerania, to which it was impoffible for the king of Pruffia to oppose any thing that was in any degree able to contend with them in the field; of course he could not promise himself that the immediate raifing the fiege could be the effect of thefe fuccours. All he could do was to fend another detachment to that part, under general Knoblock; and hoped that by the union of these feveral small corps, and by their intercepting or at leaft dif treffing the Ruffian convoys of provifion, the place might be enabled to hold out, until the fevere fetting in of winter fhould render the operations of a fiege impracticable.

He was providing in this manner, and studying new methods for the relief of Colberg, to the danger of which place his whole attention was drawn, when an event happened juft by him, and, as it were, under his eye, almost as diftreffing as the taking of Colberg would have proved, and fo much the more distreffing, as it was entirely unexpected.

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On the retreat of the Ruffians.under Butterlin, the king of Pruffia imagined himself at liberty. He found a want of provifions in his ftrong camp near Schweidnitz, and to be the more easily supplied, he approached nearer to the Oder. He was fo little in fear of the enemy, that on making this movement, he drafted 4000 men from the gar rifon of Schweidnitz: he thought that the preparations neceffary to a

hege would give him fufficient notice, and fufficient leifure to provide for the fafety of that important place, from which after all, he had removed but to a very small diftance. Laudohn, who through the whole campaign had watched the king with a molt diligent and penetrating affiduity, and hitherto had found no part open and unguarded, thought in this inftant he perceived an advantage. It was indeed an advantage which would never have appeared as fuch, but to a general as refolute as fagacious. He refolved to attempt this ftrong place, by a coup de main. On the 1ft of October at three in the morning, the affault began. An attack was made at the fame time on all the four outworks, which the troops, ordered on this important enterprize, approached with so much precaution, that they were not perceived by the garrifon. They fcaled all the four at the fame time; and the troops which defended them had fcarce time to fire a few cannon fhot. On the fide of the affailants, not a gun was difcharged: but in one of thofe out-works the fire of the small arms fet fire to a powder magazine, which blew up, and on this occafion about 300 of the Auftrians, and about the fame number of the Pruffians were killed. As foon as the outworks were carried, they prepared to affault.the body of the place, which they entered by buriting open the gates, and at daybreak they found themselves matters of the town, after firing a few shot. Five battalions, making about 3000 men, and lieutanant general Zaf trow, governor of the fortrefs, were made prifoners. The conquerors found here a great number of cannon, and a large magazine of meal.

Their lofs in the whole of this bold and fortunate undertaking, amounted, by their accounts, to no more than 600 men. :

In a manner fo unexpected, and, confidering the nature of the fortifications, fo unprecedented, Schweidnitz fell for a fecond time in this war into the hands of the Austrians; and that city, which in the year 1758 had coft the Pruffians a blockade of fome months, and a fiege of thirteen days open trenches to recover it, was again loft in a few hours, and with a very inconfiderable damage to those who undertook this daring enterprize.

The king of Pruffia felt this grievous blow to the quick. By their poffeffion of Schweidnitz he faw the Auftrians enabled to winter in Silefia; he faw that, whilft they held this place, he could poffibly make no motion for the relief of any other part of his dominions without expofing Breflau, and along with it the whole of Upper Silefia, to a certain and irrecoverable conqueft. In the firft agitations produced by fo extraordinary and affecting a difafter, he was disposed to attribute this misfortune to the treachery of the governor, but he was too generous to harbour fuch a fufpicion, for any time, against an officer who had hitherto ferved him with fidility, and who might have been furprized with an attack offo uncommon a nature, and which the king himself had as little fufpected as the governor. He immediately recovered his temper, and faid with a fmile, "It is

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a fatal blow; we must endeavour "to remedy it." He wrote to general Zaftrow who commanded there. We may now fay, what Francis I. " of France wrote to his mother "after the battle of Pavia, We have [D] 2 loft

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loft all except our bonour. As I cannot comprehend what hath * happened to you, I fhall fufpend my judgement; the thing is very extraordinary."

Schweidnitz was loft fuddenly; but Colberg made a moft obftinate and noble defence. At length, however, the garrifon began to be forely diftreffed for provifions. General Platen quitted the entrenchments, which he had maintained in conjunction with the prince of Wuftenburg, in order to cover the reinforcements, which the numerous and strong detachments of the Ruffians, who overfpread the whole country, had hitherto kept at a diftance. But he had the misfortune to meet an infinitely fuperior body of the enemy, to be beaten, and to Vofe part of his convoy; and it was with difficulty he efcaped with the remainder to Stetin.

The other (general Knoblock) had eftablished himfelf at Treptow, which was to ferve as a refting place for the convoys; but as general Platen had been repulfed, in the manner we have juft feen, Romanzow advanced with a large force to Treptow. Knoblock, hopeless of affiftance in a town which had fcarcely any walls, and invested by a body so vaftly fuperior, yet made la vigorous and gallant defence for five days; he was at length compelled to furrender himself and his body of about 2000 men prisoners of

war.

"Thefe fucceffive difafters were occafioned by the neceffity there was for revictualling Colberg, coft what it would, and, for that end, of dif perfing the Pruffiian troops in the face of a Ruffian army of 50,000 men. This revictualling in thefe circumftances could not be effected without a fingular piece of good

fortune; and, in order to get into the way of this good fortune, every rifque was to be run.

These advantages over Platen and Knoblock raised the fpirits of the Ruffians, and enabled them to contend with the extreme rigour of the feafon in that northern latitude; they pushed the fiege with redoubled efforts. All hope of a fupply from the land was abfolutely at an end; and though the Ruffian fleet had been by a violent ftorm driven off the coaft, the fuccour from the fea was too precarious to be depended on. In this defperate fituation the prince of Wartenburg became apprehenfive, left his army, which had been unable to relieve the town, by delaying any longer under its walls would only fhare its fate, and that famine might alfo oblige him to a furrender. He therefore refolved, whilft his men retained their vigour, to break through a part of the Ruffian army, and to leave Colberg to make the best terms its circumftances would admit. This defign he accomplished happily, and with little or no lofs.

And now Colberg, Dec. 16th. hopeless of all relief, the garrifon exhaufted, provifion low the fortifications in many places battered to pieces, after a fiege of near fix months, furrendered to the Ruffans. The governor and the garrifon were made prifoners of war. This place was defended by the gallant Heyde, who to this time had maintained it fuccessfully againft all the efforts of the Ruffians during the war; and as he was dif tinguished by the king his master for his merit in the fuccefsful defence of it, he had likewise as full affurances of his favours after having on the late occafion conducted himself with his former bravery, though it was

not

not with the former good for

tune.

The lofs of two fuch places as Schweidnitz and Colberg, at the two extremities of his dominions, were decifive against the king of Pruffia. It was now impoffible for him to make any movement by which the enemy could not profit to his almoft certain deftruction. To form fieges with an army like his, infe. ríor in the field, was impoffible. The Ruffians, by poffeffing Colberg, poffeffed every thing. They were mafters of the Baltick; and they now acquired a port, by which their armies could be well provided, without the neceffity of tedious, uncertain, and expenfive convoys from Poland. The road lay almoft open into the heart of Brandenburg. Stetin alone flood in their way; but it was obvious that nothing but the, advanced feafon could fave Stetin from the fate of Colberg. The Mufcovites, now for the first time, took up their winter quarters in Po

merania.

It is remarkable, that this whole year paft without a regular battle between the king of Pruffia and any of his enemies, yet none of the most

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unfortunate of his campaigns had been fo ruinous to him. He had fuffered four terrible defeats, without having ballanced them with a fingle advantage of consequence in the campaign of 1759. Yet in these circumftances it is almost incredible how little he really loft. He was able to take the field again the enfuing year in a very respectable manner, and to make head against his enemies. In that year he loft a whole army near Landshut; ftill he was far from broken. Afterwards in that same campaign, he gave his enemies two fignal defeats, and ended his operations advantageoufly, and with great glory. But in the year, of which we now write without fuffering any confiderable blow in the field, without any ftriking efforts on any fide, his power has gradually crumbled away. The most calamitous defeats could not fink him lower. And in the fituation in which he ftood after the taking of Colberg, we may fafely fay, that there was scarcely a poffibility that he could be preferved from deftructtion by any thing that lay within the reach of human endeavours.:

CHAP. VII

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The negotiation refumed. French conceffions. Difference concerning the German alliance. Difference concerning the captures antecedent to the declara, tion of war. Treaty breaks off. Meffieurs Stanley and Buffy recalled.

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vanished, which is fo neceffary towards fmoothing and clearing a road, which a long hoftility had broken up, and fo many intricate topics had contributed to embarrass. Without involving ourselves in the detail of the feveral momorials which were delivered in, and without referring numerically to the feveral articles it will be fufficient that we briefly ftate thofe points which were, or feemed to be, in a fair way of adjustment between England and France; and afterwards thofe on which it should appear that the negotiation broke off.

After fome difcuffions concerning its proper limits, it was agreed, that all Canada should be ceded to the English. This ceffion comprehended, on one fide, all the iflands and countries adjoining to the gulph of St. Lawrence. On the other, it took in all the great lakes, and the whole courfe of the Ohio, to its difcharge into the Miffifippi. A territory fufficient for the bafis of a great empire.

In drawing this line of divifion, another question arofe concerning the bounds of Loufiana; and the ftate of the intermediate Indian na tions between the lakes and the Miffifippi, who inhabit, or are rather fcattered over an immenfe country, that lies along the back of our colonies all the way from Penfylvania to Georgia. It was there fore very proper that fomething definitive fhould be fettled on this article, as it might otherwise easily be made productive of a new war. England propofed, that all those na tions fhould continue, as the contended they had heretofore been, under the protection of Great Britain, without faying any thing precife as to the dominion of the foil..

France controverted, this propofition: the on her part proposed to divide these nations; that thofe to the northward of the line drawn to afcertain the limits of Canada. fhould be independent, under the protection of England, but that thofe who were to the fouthward, fhould enjoy the fame independence, under the protection of France. Nothing was perfectly fettled in relation to this point; but it does not feem as if there could have been any material difagreement upon it, had the other matters in debate, been adjusted to their mu tual fatisfaction.

The African contest seemed to have been attended with till lefs difficulty. The French confented to give up both Senegal and Goree, provided Anamaboo and Acra were guarantied to them.

The momentous question of the fishery was likewife determined. The French gave up their claim to Cape Breton and St. John's, and were fatified to receive the little island of St. Pierre, on the coast of Newfoundland; but even this they were to receive on conditions fufficiently humiliating. They were to erect no fort of fortification, nor to keep up any military establishment there. An English commissary was to refide on the island, in order to fee that these stipulations were adhered to. As to the rest, the French were to have the fame privileges on the coaft of Newfoundland, checked with the fame restrictions, which before the war they had enjoyed under the 15th article of the treaty of Utrecht. In conformity to another article of that treaty, and in compenfation for the privilege of the fishery, they confented that Dunkirk fbould be demolished,

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