onigstein, to oblige that
fortress to observe a strict neutrality. All correspondence with the
enemy was strictly prohibited; and it having been discovered that the
countess of Ogilvie, one of the queen's maids of honour, had
disobeyed his majesty's commands, she was arrested; but on the queen's
intercession afterwards released. The countess of Bruhl, lady of the
Saxon prime minister, was also arrested by his Prussian majesty's
order; and on her making light of her confinement, and resolving to see
company, she was ordered to quit the court, and retire from Saxony. M.
Henwin, the French minister, was told that his presence was unnecessary
at Dresden; and on his replying, that his master had commanded him to
stay, he was again desired to depart; on which he thought proper to
obey. The count de Wackerbath, minister of the cabinet, and grand
master of the household to the prince royal of Poland, was arrested, and
conducted to Custrin, by the express command of his majesty. The king of
Prussia, having thrown two bridges over the Elbe, early in the spring,
ordered the several districts of the electorate of Saxony to supply him
with a great number of waggons, each drawn by four horses. The circles
of Misnia and Leipsic were enjoined to furnish four hundred each, and
the other circles in proportion.

SKIRMISHES BETWEEN THE PRUSSIANS AND AUSTRIANS.

While the king of Prussia was taking these measures in Saxony, two
skirmishes happened on the frontiers of Bohemia, between his troops
and the Austrians. On the twentieth of February, a body of six thousand
Austrians surrounded the little town of Hirschfeld, in Upper Lusatia,
garrisoned by a battalion of Prussian foot. The first attack was made
at four in the morning, on two redoubts without the gates, each of which
was defended by two field pieces: and though the Austrians were several
times repulsed, they at last made themselves masters of one of the
redoubts, and carried off the two pieces of cannon. In their retreat
they were pursued by the Prussians, who fell upon their rear, killed
some, and took many prisoners: this affair cost the Austrians at least
five hundred men. About a fortnight after, the prince of Bevern marched
out of Zittau, with a body of near nine thousand men, in order to
destroy the remaining strongholds possessed by the Austrians on the
frontiers. In this expedition he took the Austrian magazine at Friedland
in Bohemia, consisting of nine thousand sacks