his design was anticipated by a severe distemper that
overtook him at Mentz in Lorraine. The physicians despaired of his life.
The queen, with her children, and all the princes of the blood, hastened
from Versailles to pay the last duties to their dying sovereign, who, as
a true penitent, dismissed his concubines, and began to prepare himself
for death; yet the strength of his constitution triumphed over the
fever, and his recovery was celebrated all over his dominions with
uncommon marks of joy and affection.

In the meantime the schemes of the Austrian general were frustrated by
the king of Prussia, who, in the month of August, entered the electorate
of Saxony at the head of a numerous army. There he declared, in a public
manifesto, that his aims were only to re-establish the peace of
the empire, and to support the dignity of its head. He assured the
inhabitants that they might depend upon his protection, in case they
should remain quiet; but threatened them with fire and sword should they
presume to oppose his arms. In a rescript, addressed to his ministers
at foreign courts, he accused the queen of Hungary of obstinacy,
in refusing to acknowledge the emperor, and restore his hereditary
dominions; he said, he had engaged in the league of Franckfort, to
hinder the head of the empire from being oppressed; that he had no
intention to violate the peace of Breslau, or enter as a principal into
this war; he affirmed, that his design was to act as auxiliary to the
emperor, and establish the quiet of Germany. He penetrated into Bohemia,
and undertook the siege of Prague, the governor of which surrendered
himself and his garrison prisoners of war on the sixteenth day of
September. He afterwards reduced Tabor, Bodweis, and Teyn, and in a word
subdued the greatest part of the kingdom; the Austrian forces in that
country being in no condition to stop his progress. Nevertheless, he was
soon obliged to relinquish his conquests. Prince Charles of Lorraine was
recalled from Alsace, and repassed the Rhine in the face of the French
army, commanded by the mareschals de Coigny, Noailles, and Belleisle.
Then he marched to the Danube, laid the Upper Palatine under
contribution, and entering Bohemia, joined the troops under Bathiani at
Merotiz. The king of Poland elector of Saxony, at this juncture
declared in favour of her Hungarian majesty. A convention for the mutual
guarantee of their dominions, had been signed between those two powers