duchy, upon the Oder, contained a population of over eighty thousand.
Built upon several islands of that beautiful stream, its situation was
attractive, while in its palaces and its ornamental squares, it vied
with the finest capitals of Europe.

Frederic entered the city in triumph in January, 1741. The small
Austrian garrison, consisting of but three thousand men, retired before
him into Moravia. The Prussian monarch took possession of the revenues
of the duchy, organized the government under his own officers,
garrisoned the fortresses and returned to Berlin. Maria Theresa appealed
to friendly courts for aid. Most of them were lavish in promises, but
she waited in vain for any fulfillment. Neither money, arms nor men were
sent to her. Maria Theresa, thus abandoned and thrown upon her own
unaided energies, collected a small army in Moravia, on the confines of
Silesia, and intrusted the command to Count Neuperg, whom she liberated
from the prison to which her father had so unjustly consigned him. But
it was mid-winter. The roads were almost impassable. The treasury of the
Austrian court was so empty that but meager supplies could be provided
for the troops. A ridge of mountains, whose defiles were blocked up with
snow, spread between Silesia and Moravia.

It was not until the close of March that Marshal Neuperg was able to
force his way through these defiles and enter Silesia. The Prussians,
not aware of their danger, were reposing in their cantonments. Neuperg
hoped to take them by surprise and cut them off in detail. Indeed
Frederic, who, by chance, was at Jagerndorf inspecting a fortress, was
nearly surrounded by a party of Austrian hussars, and very narrowly
escaped capture. The ground was still covered with snow as the Austrian
troops toiled painfully through the mountains to penetrate the Silesian
plains. Frederic rapidly concentrated his scattered troops to meet the
foe. The warlike character of the Prussian king was as yet undeveloped,
and Neuperg, unconscious of the tremendous energies he was to encounter,
and supposing that the Prussian garrisons would fly in dismay before
him, was giving his troops, after their exhausting march, a few days of
repose in the Vicinity of Molnitz.

On the 8th of April there was a thick fall of snow, filling the air and
covering the fields. Frederic availed himself of the storm, which
curtained him from all observation, to urge forward his troops, that he
might overwhelm the Aus