orts of provisions,
according to a certain rate, on pain of military execution. That same
evening notice was given to the corporation of merchants, that their
deputies should pay all taxes and customs to the king of Prussia; then
he took possession of the custom-house, and excise office, and ordered
the magazines of corn and meal to be opened for the use of his soldiers.

The king of Poland, apprehensive of such a visitation, had ordered all
the troops of his electorate to leave their quarters, and assemble in a
strong camp marked out for them, between Pirna and Konigstein, which was
intrenched, and provided with a numerous train of artillery. Thither the
king of Poland repaired with his two sons Xaverius and Charles; but
the queen and the rest of the royal family remained at Dresden. Of this
capital his Prussian majesty, with the bulk of his army, took possession
on the eighth day of September, when he was visited by lord Stormont,
the English ambassador at that court, accompanied by count Salmour, a
Saxon minister, who, in his master's name, proposed a neutrality.
The king of Prussia professed himself extremely well pleased with the
proposal; and, as the most convincing proof of his neutrality, desired
the king of Poland would separate his army, by ordering his troops to
return to their former quarters. His Polish majesty did not like to be
so tutored in his own dominions; he depended for his own safety more
upon the valour and attachment of his troops thus assembled, than
upon the friendship of a prince who had invaded his dominions, and
sequestered his revenue, without provocation; and he trusted too much to
the situation of his camp at Pirna, which was deemed impregnable. In the
meantime, the king of Prussia fixed his headquarters at Seidlitz, about
half a German league distant from Pirna, and posted his army in such a
manner, as to be able to intercept all convoys of provisions designed
for the Saxon camp; his forces extended on the right towards the
frontiers of Bohemia, and the vanguard actually seized the passes that
lead to the circles of Satzer and Leutmeritz, in that kingdom; while
prince Ferdinand of Brunswick marched with a body of troops along the
Elbe, and took post at this last place without opposition. At the same
time, the king covered his own dominions, by assembling two considerable
bodies in Upper and Lower Silesia, which occupied the passes that
communicated with the circles of Buntzlau and Konings