falling back and, had he
been let alone, Dresden might have been recaptured and the campaign
come to a triumphant ending.

Unfortunately Frederick was not content to leave well alone, and
sent Fink with seventeen thousand men to Maxim, to cut off Daun's
retreat into Bohemia; intending himself to attack him in front.
Daun for once acted with decision, attacked Fink with twenty-seven
thousand men and, although the Prussians fought with most obstinate
bravery, they were surrounded; battered by the Austrian artillery;
while they themselves, having no guns with which to make reply,
were forced to surrender. Some had already made their way off, but
in killed, wounded, and prisoners, the loss was fully twelve
thousand men.

Frederick threw the blame upon Fink, but most unjustly. That
officer had followed out the orders given him, and had done all
that man could do to hold the position that he was commanded to
take up, and the disaster was wholly due to Frederick's own
rashness in placing so small a force, and that without artillery,
where they could be attacked by the whole Austrian army. Fink,
after his release at the conclusion of the peace three years later,
was tried by court martial and sentenced to a year's imprisonment.

This disaster entirely altered the situation. Daun, instead of
continuing his retreat to Bavaria, advanced to occupy Saxony; and
drove General Dierocke across the Elbe, taking fifteen hundred of
his men prisoners. Frederick, however, barred the way farther, and
six weeks later both armies went into winter quarters; Daun still
holding Dresden and the strip of country between it and Bohemia,
but the rest of Saxony being as far out of his reach as ever.

The last six weeks of the campaign was a terrible time for all.
Frederick himself had lived in a little cottage in the small town
of Freyburg, and even after the armies had settled down in their
cheerless quarters, he still made several attempts to drive the
Austrians out, having received a reinforcement of ten thousand men
from Duke Ferdinand. These efforts were in vain.

The ten thousand, however, on their way to join the king, had
struck a heavy blow at one of his bitterest enemies, the Duke of
Wuertemberg, who had twelve thousand of his own men, with one
thousand cavalry, at Fulda. The duke had ordered a grand ball to be
held, and great celebrations of joy at the news of the Austrian
victory at Maxim; but on the very day on which these things w