n,
not only to revenge the interruption of their success on the Rhine, by
the recovery of Silesia, but to reward the Saxons for their seasonable
help, by giving them part of the Prussian dominions.

In the beginning of the year 1745, died the emperour Charles of
Bavaria; the treaty of Frankfort was consequently at an end; and the
king of Prussia, being no longer able to maintain the character of
auxiliary to the emperour, and having avowed no other reason for the
war, might have honourably withdrawn his forces, and, on his own
principles, have complied with terms of peace; but no terms were
offered him; the queen pursued him with the utmost ardour of
hostility, and the French left him to his own conduct and his own
destiny.

His Bohemian conquests were already lost; and he was now chased back
into Silesia, where, at the beginning of the year, the war continued
in an equilibration by alternate losses and advantages. In April, the
elector of Bavaria, seeing his dominions overrun by the Austrians, and
receiving very little succour from the French, made a peace with the
queen of Hungary upon easy conditions, and the Austrians had more
troops to employ against Prussia.

But the revolutions of war will not suffer human presumption to remain
long unchecked. The peace with Bavaria was scarcely concluded when,
the battle of Fontenoy was lost, and all the allies of Austria called
upon her to exert her utmost power for the preservation of the Low
Countries; and, a few days after the loss at Fontenoy, the first
battle between the Prussians and the combined army of Austrians and
Saxons, was fought at Niedburg in Silesia.

The particulars of this battle were variously reported by the
different parties, and published in the journals of that time; to
transcribe them would be tedious and useless, because accounts of
battles are not easily understood, and because there are no means of
determining to which of the relations credit should be given. It is
sufficient that they all end in claiming or allowing a complete
victory to the king of Prussia, who gained all the Austrian artillery,
killed four thousand, took seven thousand prisoners, with the loss,
according to the Prussian narrative, of only sixteen hundred men.

He now advanced again into Bohemia, where, however, he made no great
progress. The queen of Hungary, though defeated, was not subdued. She
poured in her troops from all parts to the reinforcement of prince
Charles, and