hese prisoners were officers of high
rank. The military chest, a vast treasure, with eighty pieces of cannon,
fell into the hands of the victors, who lost only about twenty men in
their approaches. During the siege, a magazine of powder was set on
fire by a bomb, which occasioned great confusion among the besieged, and
damaged one of the bastions. The strong fortress of Schweidnitz still
remained in the enemy's possession, defended by a garrison so numerous,
that it might be compared to a small army, and whilst that continued so,
the king of Prussia's victories in Silesia were of no decisive effect.
For this reason, though it was now the dead of winter, and the soldiers
stood in need of repose, his majesty resolved, if possible, to become
master of that place before the end of the year; but as a close siege
was impracticable, a blockade was formed, as strictly as the rigour of
the season would permit.*

* Such was the rigour of the season, that some hundreds of
the sentinels dropped down dead on their several posts,
unable to sustain the severity of the cold. The Germans lie
under the general reproach of paying very little regard to
the lives of their soldiers, and indeed this practice of
winter campaigns, in such a cold country, bespeaks very
little regard to the dictates of humanity.

It was not, however, till the beginning of the ensuing campaign that
this place was taken. The Prussians opened their trenches before it
on the third of April, one thousand seven hundred and fifty-eight, and
erected two large batteries, which kept a continual fire upon the town.
The artillery of the besiegers consisted of three hundred pieces
of cannon, of different dimensions, and eighty mortars; an amazing
artillery, and such as we have never heard of in former campaigns. On
the night of the fourteenth, the Prussians carried one of the chief
works by assault, and lodged themselves therein: the commandant
capitulated the next day, with the garrison, which was now greatly
reduced in number, being not half of what it amounted to at the
beginning of the blockade. Thus, all the parts of Silesia which the
king of Prussia had lost by one unfortunate blow, fell again into
his possession; and his affairs, which but a few months before seemed
irretrievable, were now re-established upon a firmer basis than ever.
The Prussian parties not only re-possessed themselves of those parts of
Silesia which belonged to t