under the duke de Richelieu, were preparing to go into winter-quarters;
but, upon the news of this defeat of the combined army, they again put
themselves in motion, and a large detachment of them advanced as far as
Duderstadt, to favour the retreat of their countrymen under the prince
de Soubise, who, with great precipitancy, made the best of their way
from Erfurth to the county of Hohenstein, and from thence bent their
march towards Halberstadt. Of the remains of the imperial army, which
was now almost entirely dispersed, whole bodies deserted, and went over
to the king of Prussia soon after the battle.

{GEORGE II. 1727-1760}

THE AUSTRIANS TAKE SCHWEIDNITZ.

Whilst his Prussian majesty was thus successful against the French and
Imperialists, the Austrians, who had carefully avoided coming to an open
engagement with him, gained ground apace in Silesia. A detachment of
their army, under the command of count Nadasti, had already invested
Schweidnitz, and opened the trenches before it on the twenty-sixth
of October. The Prussian garrison, commanded by general de la Motte
Fouquet, determined to defend the place as long as possible; and
accordingly on the thirtieth they made a sally, in which they killed,
wounded, and took prisoners, eight hundred of the besiegers, and did
some damage to their works; but on the sixth of November the Austrians
began to cannonade the city furiously, and on the eleventh made
themselves masters of the ramparts by assault. The garrison, however,
having taken care, during the siege, to throw up a strong in-trenchment
in the market-place, retreated thither, and held out till the next day,
when they surrendered themselves prisoners of war. After the reduction
of this place, general Nadasti, leaving in it a sufficient garrison,
marched with the remainder of his troops, and joined the main army
of the Austrians, under the command of prince Charles of Lorraine and
mareschal Daun, who, whilst he was busied in the siege of Schweidnitz,
had invested Breslau on the left of the Oder; the prince of Bevern
defending it on the right, where he was strongly encamped, with his
little army, under the cannon of the city. The whole army of the
Austrians being now re-assembled, and intelligence having been brought
not only of the king of Prussia's late victory near Leipsic, but also
that he was advancing to the relief of the prince of Bevern, it
was resolved immediately to attack the last in his intrenchmen