He was at that moment struck by several cartridge-balls and
fell to the ground enveloped in the colors. The Prussians rushed past
him to the attack.

The Austrians were totally routed; Browne fell, but the city was
defended with such obstinacy that Daun, one of Maria Theresa's
favorites, was meanwhile able to levy a fresh body of troops. Frederick
consequently raised the siege of Prague and came upon Daun at Kolin,
where he had taken up a strong position. Here again were the Prussians
led into the thickest of the enemy's fire, Frederick shouting to them,
on their being a third time repulsed with fearful loss, "Would ye live
forever?" Every effort failed, and Benkendorf's charge at the head of
four Saxon regiments, glowing with revenge and brandy, decided the fate
of the day. The Prussians were completely routed. Frederick lost his
splendid guard and the whole of his luggage. Seated on the verge of a
fountain and tracing figures in the sand, he reflected upon the means of
realluring fickle Fortune to his standard.

A fresh misfortune befell him not many weeks later. England had declared
in his favor, but the incompetent English commander, nicknamed, on
account of his immense size, the Duke of Cumberland, allowed himself to
be beaten by the French at Hastenbeck and signed the shameful Treaty of
Closter Seven, by which he agreed to disband his troops.[42] This
treaty was confirmed by the British monarch. The Prussian general
Lewald, who had merely twenty thousand men under his command, was, at
the same time, defeated at Gross-Zagerndorf by an overwhelming Russian
force under Apraxin. Four thousand men were all that Frederick was able
to bring against the Swedes. They were, nevertheless, able to keep the
field, owing to the disinclination to the war evinced by their
opponents.

Autumn fell, and Frederick's fortune seemed fading with the leaves of
summer. He had, however, merely sought to gain time in order to recruit
his diminished army, and Daun having, with his usual tardiness,
neglected to pursue him, he suddenly took the field against the
Imperialists under the Duke of Saxe-Hildburghausen and the French under
Soubise. The two armies met on November 5, 1757, on the broad plain
around Leipsic, near the village of Rossbach, not far from the scene of
the famous encounters of earlier times. The enemy, three times superior
in number to the Prussians, lay in a half-circle with a view of
surrounding the little Prussian camp