urse of this campaign was very remarkable; but the spirit of his
conduct, and the rapidity of his motions, were altogether without
example. In the former campaign we were dazzled with the lustre of his
victories; in this we admire his fortitude and skill in stemming
the different torrents of adversity, and rising superior to his evil
fortune. One can hardly without astonishment recollect, that in the
course of a few months he invaded Moravia, invested Olmutz, and was
obliged to relinquish that design, that he marched through an enemy's
country, in the face of a great army, which, though it harassed him
in his retreat, could not, in a route of an hundred miles, obtain any
advantage over him; that in spite of his disaster at Olmutz, and the
difficulties of such a march, he penetrated into Bohemia, drove the
enemy from Koningsgratz, executed another dangerous and fatiguing march
to the Oder, defeated a great army of Russians, and returned by the way
of Saxony, from whence he drove the Austrian and Imperial armies; that
after his defeat at Hochkirchen, where he lost two of his best generals,
and was obliged to leave his tents standing, he baffled the vigilance
and superior number of the victorious army, rushed like a whirlwind to
the relief of Silesia, invaded by an Austrian army, which he compelled
to retire with precipitation from that province; that, with the same
rapidity of motion, he wheeled about to Saxony, and once more rescued
it from the hands of his adversaries; that in one campaign he made twice
the circuit of his dominions, relieved them all in their turns, and
kept all his possessions entire against the united efforts of numerous
armies, conducted by generals of consummate skill and undaunted
resolution. His character would have been still more complete, if his
moderation had been equal to his courage; but in this particular we
cannot applaud his conduct. Incensed by the persecuting spirit of his
enemies, he wrecked his vengeance on those who had done him no injury;
and the cruelties which the Russians had committed in his dominions were
retaliated upon the unfortunate inhabitants of Saxony. In the latter end
of September, the president of the Prussian military directory sent
a letter to the magistrates of Leipsic, requiring them, in the king's
name, to pay a new contribution of six hundred thousand crowns, and
to begin immediately with the payment of one-third part, on pain
of military execution. In answer to t