nd accidentally joined their king upon
his march.*

* While the Austrians were conducting them to prison, on
their route they chanced to hear of the victory their master
had gained at Rosbach. Animated by these tidings, they
unanimously rose upon the escort that guarded them, which
happening not to be very strong, they entirely dispersed.
Thus freed, they marched on, not very certain of their way,
in hopes to rejoin some corps of the Prussian troops, their
countrymen. The same fortune which freed them led them
directly to the army commanded by the king himself, which
was hastening to their relief, as well as to that of the
prince of Bevern. This unexpected meeting was equally
pleasing to both, the prisoners not having heard any thing
of his majesty's march; and, at the same time, this lucky
incident, whilst it added a considerable strength to the
army, added likewise to its confidence, for the slightest
occurrence is construed into an omen by an army at the eve
of an engagement.

With this force, though greatly inferior in number to that of the enemy,
he resolved to attack the Austrians, who were intrenched at Lissa,
near Breslau. On the fourth of December he seized upon their ovens at
Neu-marck, and upon a considerable magazine, guarded by two regiments
of croats, who retired to a rising ground, where his majesty ordered his
hussars to surround them, and send a trumpet to summon them to surrender
themselves prisoners of war. Upon their refusal, the hussars of Ziethen
fell upon them sabre in hand, and some hundreds of them having been cut
in pieces, the rest threw down their arms, begging for quarter on their
knees. After this seizure, and after having distributed to his army
the bread prepared for his enemies, he began again the next morning
his march towards Lissa. General Ziethen, who led the vanguard of
light-horse, about seven in the morning fell in with a body of Austrian
hussars, and three regiments of Saxon dragoons, which were the very best
cavalry the enemy had left after the battle of the twenty-second. They
had been detached by the Austrians, in order to retard the king's march,
and to conceal their own, till their batteries should be completed;
for, as they held the small number of the Prussians in contempt,
their intention was to have met the king two German miles from their
intrenchments. The Austrian cavalry having be