This, in all probability, would
have been besieged in form, had not Lehwald resigned the command of
the Prussians, on account of his great age and infirmities; and his
successor, count Dohna, been obliged to withdraw his troops in order to
oppose the Russian army on the other side of Pomerania. The blockade of
Stralsund being consequently raised, and that part of the country being
entirely evacuated by the Prussians, the Swedish troops advanced again
from the isle of Rugen, to which, they had retired; but the supplies
and reinforcements they expected from Stockholm were delayed in such a
manner, either from a deficiency in the subsidies promised by France, or
from the management of those who were averse to the war, that great
part of the season was elapsed before they undertook any important
enterprise. Indeed, while they lay encamped under the cannon of
Stralsund, waiting for these supplies, their operations were retarded by
the explosion of a whole ship-load of gunpowder intended for their use;
an event imputed to the practices of the Prussian party in Sweden, which
at this period seemed to gain ground, and even threatened a change in
the ministry. At length the reinforcement arrived about the latter end
of June, and their general seemed determined to act with vigour. In the
beginning of July, his army being put in motion, he sent a detachment to
dislodge the few Prussian troops that were left at Anclam, Demmin, and
other places, to guard that frontier; and they retreated accordingly.
Count Hamilton having nothing further to oppose him in the field, in
a very little time recovered all Swedish Pomerania, and even made hot
incursions into the Prussian territories. Meanwhile, a combined fleet
of thirty-three Russian and seven Swedish ships of war appeared in the
Baltic, and anchored between the isles of Dragoe and Amagh; but they
neither landed troops nor committed hostilities. The Swedish
general advanced as far as Fehrbellin, sent out parties that raised
contributions within five and twenty miles of Berlin, and threw the
inhabitants of that capital into the utmost consternation. The king
of Prussia, alarmed at their progress, despatched general Wedel from
Dresden, with a body of troops that were augmented on their march; so
that, on the twentieth of September, he found himself at Berlin with
eleven thousand effective men, at the head of whom he proceeded against
count Hamilton, while the prince of Bevern, with five thous