arma and
Piacenza or some such thing, contemptibly small to the Maternal heart),
and that all things else lapsed to their pristine state, MINUS only the
waste and ruin there had been."

JULY 12th-SEPTEMBER 18th: SIEGE OF THE CHIEF DUTCH FORTRESS. "Unexpected
Siege of Bergen-op-Zoom; two months of intense excitement to the Dutch
Patriots and Cause-of-Liberty Gazetteers, as indifferent and totally
dead as it has now become. Marechal de Saxe, after his victory at
Lauffeld, 2d July, did not besiege Maestricht, as had been the universal
expectation; but shot off an efficient lieutenant of his, one Lowendahl,
in due force, privately ready, to overwhelm Bergen-op-Zoom with sudden
Siege, while he himself lay between the beaten enemy and it. Bergen is
the heart, of Holland, key of the Scheld, and quite otherwise important
than Maestricht. 'Coehorn's masterpiece!' exclaim the Gazetteers;
'Impregnable, you may depend!' 'We shall see,' answered Saxe, answered
Lowendahl the Dane (who also became Marechal by this business); and
after a great deal of furious assaulting and battering, took the
Place September 18th, before daylight," by a kind of surprisal or
quasi-storm;--"the Commandant, one Cronstrom, a brave old Swede, age
towards ninety, not being of very wakeful nature! 'Did as well as could
be expected of him,' said the Court-Martial sitting on his case, and
forbore to shoot the poor old man."

[Adelung, vi. 184, 206;--"for Cronstrom," if any one is curious, "see
Schlotzer,--Schwedische Biographie,--ii. 252 (in voce)."] A sore stroke,
this of Bergen, to Britannic Majesty and the Friends of Liberty; who
nevertheless refuse to be discouraged."

DECEMBER 25th, RUSSIANS IN BEHALF OF HUMAN LIBERTY. "March of 36,000
Russians from the City of Moscow, this day; on a very long journey, in
the hoary Christmas weather! Most, Christian Majesty is ruinously short
of money; Britannic Majesty has still credit, and a voting Parliament,
but, owing to French influence on the Continent, can get no recruits to
hire. Gradually driven upon Russia, in such stress, Britannic Majesty
has this year hired for himself a 35,000 Russians; 30,000 regular foot;
4,000 ditto horse, and 1,000 Cossacks;--uncommonly cheap, only 150,000
pounds the lot, not, 4 pounds per head by the year. And, in spite
of many difficulties and hagglings, they actually get on march, from
Moscow, 25th December, 1747; and creep on, all Winter, through the
frozen peats wildernesses, th