n this manner near-three thousand of
them filed off, and the remainder were afterwards discharged.

THE AUSTRIANS TAKE GABEL.

The king of Prussia, upon his leaving Bohemia after the battle of Kolin,
retired towards Saxony, as we observed before; and having sent his heavy
artillery and mortars up the Elbe to Dresden, fixed his camp on the
banks of the river, at Leitmeritz, where his main army was strongly
intrenched, whilst mareschal Keith, with the troops under his command,
encamped on the opposite shore; a free communication being kept open by
means of a bridge. At the same time detachments were ordered to
secure the passes into Saxony. As this position of the king of Prussia
prevented the Austrians from being able to penetrate into Saxony by
the way of the Elbe, they moved, by slow marches, into the circle
of Buntzla, and, at last, with a detachment commanded by the duke
d'Aremberg and M. Macguire, on the eighteenth! of June fell suddenly
upon, and took the important post at Gabel, situated between Boemish
Leypa and Zittau, after an obstinate defence made by the Prussian
garrison, under major-general Putkammer, consisting of four battalions,
who were obliged to surrender prisoners of war. The Austrians having by
this motion gained a march towards Lusatia, upon a corps which had been
detached under the command of the prince of Prussia to watch them, his
Prussian majesty thought proper to leave Leitmeritz on the twentieth
in the morning, and lay that night at Lickowitz, a village opposite to
Leitmeritz, of which a battalion of his troops still kept possession,
while the rest of his army remained encamped in the plain before that
place. Next morning, at break of day, prince Henry decamped, and made so
good a disposition for his retreat, that he did not lose a single man,
though he marched in sight of the whole body of Austrian irregulars. He
passed the bridge at Leitmeritz, after withdrawing the battalion that
was in the town, and having burnt the bridge, the whole army united, and
made a small movement towards the passes of the mountains; the king then
lying at Sulowitz, near the field where the battle of Lowoschutz was
fought on the first of October of the preceding year. The heavy baggage
was sent on in the afternoon, with a proper escort; and in the morning
of the twenty-second the army marched in two columns, and encamped on
the high grounds at Lusechitz, a little beyond Lenai, where it halted on
the twenty-