If I am not mistaken, the King's army came before Prague on the 14th of
September, and that of General Schwerin, which had passed through
Silesia, arrived the next day on the other side of the Moldau. In this
position we were obliged to wait some days for pontoons, without which we
could not establish a communication between the two armies.

The height called Zischka, which overlooks the city, being guarded only
by a few Croats, was instantly seized, without opposition, by some
grenadiers, and the batteries, erected at the foot of that mountain,
being ready on the fifth day, played with such success on the old town
with bombs and red-hot balls that it was set on fire. The King made
every effort to take the city before Prince Charles could bring his army
from the Rhine to its relief.

General Harsh thought proper to capitulate, after a siege of twelve days,
during which not more than five hundred men of the garrison, at the
utmost, were killed and wounded, though eighteen thousand men were made
prisoners.

Thus far we had met with no impediment. The Imperial army, however,
under the command of Prince Charles of Lorraine, having quitted the banks
of the Rhine, was advancing to save Bohemia.

During this campaign we saw the enemy only at a distance; but the
Austrian light troops being thrice as numerous as ours, prevented us from
all foraging. Winter was approaching, dearth and hunger made Frederic
determine to retreat, without the least hope from the countries in our
rear, which we had entirely laid waste as we had advanced. The severity
of the season, in the month of November, rendered the soldiers
excessively impatient of their hardships; and, accustomed to conquer, the
Prussians were ashamed of and repined at retreat: the enemy's light
troops facilitated desertion, and we lost, in a few weeks, above thirty
thousand men. The pandours of my kinsman, the Austrian Trenck, were
incessantly at our heels, gave us frequent alarms, did us great injury,
and, by their alertness, we never could make any impression upon them
with our cannon. Trenck at length passed the Elbe, and went and burnt
and destroyed our magazines at Pardubitz: it was therefore resolved
wholly to evacuate Bohemia.

The King hoped to have brought Prince Charles to the battle between
Benneschan and Kannupitz, but in vain: the Saxons, during the night, had
entered a battery of three-and-twenty cannon on a mound which separated
two ponds: this was