, count Daun, was appointed to the command of the Austrian
forces, to stem the torrent of disgrace, and turn the fortune of the
war. This general, tutored by long experience under the best officers of
Europe, and the particular favourite of the great Kevenhuller, was now,
for the first time, raised to act in chief, at the head of an army,
on which depended the fate of Austria and the empire. Born of a noble
family, he relied solely upon his own merit, without soliciting court
favour; he aspired after the highest preferment, and succeeded by mere
dint of superior worth. His progress from the station of a subaltern was
slow and silent; his promotion to the chief command was received with
universal esteem and applause. Cautious, steady, penetrating, and
sagacious, he was opposed as another Fabius to the modern Hannibal, to
check the fire and vigour of that monarch by prudent foresight and wary
circumspection. Arriving at Romischbrod, within a few miles of Prague,
the day after the late defeat, he halted to collect the fugitive corps
and broken remains of the Austrian army, and soon drew together a force
so considerable as to attract the notice of his Prussian majesty,
who detached the prince of Bevern, with twenty battalions, and thirty
squadrons, to attack him before numbers should render him formidable.
Daun was too prudent to give battle, with dispirited troops, to an army
flushed with victory. He retired on the first advice that the Prussians
were advancing, and took post at Kolin, where he intrenched himself
strongly, opened the way for the daily supply of recruits sent to
his army, and inspired the garrison of Prague with fresh courage, in
expectation of being soon relieved. Here he kept close within his camp,
divided the Prussian force, by obliging the king to employ near half
his army in watching his designs, weakened his efforts against Prague,
harassed the enemy by cutting off their convoys, and restored by degrees
the languishing and almost desponding spirits of his troops. Perfectly
acquainted with the ardour and discipline of the Prussian forces, with
the enterprising and impetuous disposition of that monarch, and sensible
that his situation would prove irksome and embarrassing to the enemy,
he improved it to the best advantage, seemed to foresee all the
consequences, and directed every measure to produce them. Thus he
retarded the enemy's operations, and assiduously avoided precipitating
an action until the Pru