ion, the Prussian monarch owed his
preservation to his own courage and activity. The Russians, knowing that
the country they were to pass through in their way to Lithuania would
not be able to subsist their prodigious numbers, had taken care to
furnish themselves with provisions for their march, depending upon the
resources they expected to find in Lithuania after their arrival in that
country. These provisions were exhausted by the time they reached the
borders of that province, where they found themselves suddenly and
unexpectedly destitute of subsistence, either to return back or to
proceed forward. The king of Prussia had, with great prudence and
foresight, secured plenty to himself, and distress and famine to his
enemies, by buying up all the corn and forage of the country which these
last were entering. Notwithstanding these precautions, his Prussian
majesty, to guard as much as could be against every possible event, sent
a great number of gunners and matrasses from Pomerania to Memel, with
three regiments of his troops, to reinforce the garrison of that place.
He visited all the posts which his troops possessed in Silesia, and gave
the necessary orders for their security. He repaired to Neiss, where he
settled with mareschal Schwerin the general plan of the operations of
the approaching campaign. There it was agreed, that the mareschal's
army in Silesia, which consisted of fifty thousand men, should have in
constant view the motions of the royal army, by which its own were to be
regulated, that they might both act in concert, as circumstances should
require. At the same time, other armies were assembled by the king of
Prussia in Lusatia and Voigt-land; twenty thousand men were collected at
Zwickaw, on the frontiers of Bohemia, towards Egra, under the command of
prince Maurice of Anhault-Dessau; and sixty thousand chosen troops
began their march towards Great Seidlitz, where their head quarters
were settled. In the meanwhile, the Austrian troops began to form on the
frontiers of Saxony, where some of their detachments appeared, to
watch the motions of the Prussians, who still continued to pursue their
operations with great activity and resolution. All possible care was
taken by the Prussians at Dresden to secure a retreat in case of a
defeat. As only one regiment of Prussians could be spared to remain
there in garrison, the burghers were disarmed, their arms deposited in
the arsenal, and a detachment was posted at K