ke some stroke
of importance. Indeed, at this time his situation was truly critical.
General Laudohn, with a considerable body of Austrians, remained in
Silesia; the Russian army still threatened Breslau, the capital of that
country. The Imperialists and Austrians had taken possession of all the
great towns in Saxony, and were masters on both sides of the Elbe. In
the eastern part of Pomerania, the Russians had invested Colberg by sea
and land, seemingly determined to reduce the place, that they might have
a seaport by which they could be supplied with provisions, ammunition,
necessaries, and reinforcements, without the trouble and inconvenience
of a long and laborious march from the banks of the Vistula. On the
western side of Pomerania, the war, which had hitherto languished, was
renewed by the Swedes with uncommon vivacity. They passed the river
Pene without opposition; and obliging general Stutterheim to retreat,
advanced as far as Stransberg. That officer, however, being reinforced,
attacked a Swedish post at Passelvalik, slew about five hundred of the
enemy, and took an equal number, with six pieces of cannon; but he was
not numerous enough to keep the field against their whole army. Thus the
Prussian monarch saw himself obliged to abandon Silesia, deprived of all
the places he held in Saxony, which had been his best resource; and
in danger of being driven into his hereditary country of Brandenburgh,
which was unable either to maintain, or even to recruit, his army. On
this emergency he resolved to make one desperate effort against the
grand Austrian army under count Daun, who had passed the Elbe at Torgau,
and advanced to Eulenbourg, from whence, however, he retreated to his
former camp at Torgau; and the king chose his situation between this
last place and Schilda, at Lang-Reichenbach, where the hussars attacked
a body of horse under general Brentano, and made four hundred prisoners.
The right wing of the Austrians being at Groswich, and their left at
Torgau, the Prussian king determined to attack them next day, which
was the third of November. His design was to march through the wood
of Torgau by three different routes, with thirty battalions and fifty
squadrons of his left wing: the first line was ordered to advance by the
way of Mackrene to Neiden; the second by Peckhutte to Elsnick; and the
third, consisting of cavalry, to penetrate by the wood of Wildenhayn to
Vogelsand. On the other hand, general Ziethen was