d, by order of the
king, demanded of them three hundred thousand crowns, a sum far greater
than it was in their power to raise. This truth they represented, but
in vain. The short time allowed them to furnish their contingents being
expired, and all their efforts to comply with this demand having proved
ineffectual, they were subjected to the rigours of military execution;
in consequence of which their houses were occupied by the soldiery, who
seized upon the best apartments, and lived at discretion; but the sum
demanded could not be found. Such was the situation of this distressed
city, when, on the fifteenth of October, an express arrived, with
advice that his Prussian majesty would soon be there; and accordingly
he arrived a few minutes after, attended by his life-guards. At the
same time, a rumour was spread that the city would be delivered up to
pillage, which threw the inhabitants into the utmost consternation.
Their fears, however, in that respect were soon abated, by his majesty's
declaring, that he was willing to spare the place, upon condition that
half the sum required should be immediately paid. All that could be done
was to collect among the merchants, traders, and others, fifty thousand
crowns; bills of exchange were drawn upon Amsterdam and London for
seventy thousand crowns, and hostages were given, by way of security,
for the payment of thirty thousand more within a time which was
agreed on. But still, notwithstanding this, the military execution was
continued, even with greater rigour than before, and all the comfort
the wretched inhabitants could obtain was, that it should cease whenever
advice should be received that their bills were accepted.

BATTLE OF ROSBACH.

The king of Prussia had tried several times to bring the combined army
under the princes Saxe-Hilburghausen and Soubise to an engagement upon
fair ground, but finding them bent on declining it, notwithstanding the
superiority of their numbers, he had recourse to one of those strokes in
war, by which a general is better seen than by the gaining of a victory.
He made a feint, soon after the beginning of October, as if he intended
nothing more than to secure his own dominions, and march his army into
winter-quarters back to Berlin, leaving mareschal Keith, with only
seven or eight thousand men, to defend Leipsic. Upon this the enemy took
courage, passed the Sala, and having marched up to the city, summoned
the mareschal to surrender; to