axin masked his design by advancing all his irregulars
towards the Prussian army; so that mareschal Lehwald was not informed of
it till the third day, when he detached prince George of Plolstein with
ten thousand horse to pursue them but with little hopes of coming up
with them as they made forced marches, in order to be the sooner in
their own country. However, the Prussians took some of them prisoners,
and many stragglers were killed by the country people in their flight
towards Tilsit, which they abandoned, though they still kept Memel, and
shortly after added some new fortifications to that place. They made
their retreat in two columns, one of which directed its course towards
Memel; while the other took the nearest way through the bailiwick of
Absternen, and threw bridges over the river Jura. Both columns burnt
every village they passed through without distinction. The Prussians
were obliged to desist from the pursuit of these barbarians, because the
bridges, thrown over the river Memel, had been destroyed by the violence
of the stream. The Russian army suffered greatly for want of bread,
as all the countries were ruined through which it passed, so that they
could procure no sort of subsistence but herbage and rye-bread. All the
roads were strewed with dead bodies of men and horses. The real cause of
this sudden retreat is as great a mystery as the reason of stopping so
long, the year before, on the borders of Lithuania; though the occasion
of it is said to have been the illness of the czarina, who was seized
with a kind of apoplectic fit, and had made some new regulations in case
of a vacancy of the throne, which rendered it expedient that the
regular forces should be at hand to support the measures taken by the
government.

FRENCH AND IMPERIALISTS TAKE GOTHA.

The king of Prussia, after remaining for some time encamped between
Bautzen and Goerlitz, removed his head-quarters to Bernstedel; and on
the fifteenth of August his army came in sight of the Austrian camp, and
within cannon-shot of it: upon which the Austrians struck their tents,
and drew up in order of battle before their camp. The king formed his
army over against them, and immediately went to reconnoitre the ground
between the armies; but, as it was then late, he deferred the more
exact examination of that circumstance till the next day. The two armies
continued under arms all night. Next morning at break of day, the king
found the Austrians enca