radually cutting the Austrians from their
magazines.

General Werner on the 18th, with five thousand men, fell suddenly
upon fifteen thousand Russians covering the siege of Colbert,
defeated, and scattered them in all directions. The Russian army at
once marched away from Colbert; not however, as Frederick hoped,
back to Poland but, in agreement with Daun, to make a rush on
Berlin.

One force, twenty thousand strong, crossed the Oder. The main body,
under Fermor, for Soltikoff had fallen sick, moved to Frankfort;
while Lacy, with fifteen thousand, marched from Silesia. On the 3rd
of October the Russian vanguard reached the neighbourhood of
Berlin, and summoned it to surrender, and pay a ransom of four
million thalers. The garrison of twelve hundred strong, joined by
no small part of the male population, took post at the gates and
threw up redoubts; and Prince Eugene of Wuertemberg, after a
tremendous march of forty miles, threw himself into the city.

The Russian vanguard drew off, until joined by Lacy. Hulsen, with
nine thousand, had followed Lacy with all speed; and managed to
throw himself into Berlin before the twenty thousand Russians
arrived. There were now fourteen thousand Prussians in the city,
thirty-five thousand Russians and Austrians outside.

The odds were too great. Negotiations were therefore begun with the
Russian general Tottleben, and Berlin agreed to pay one million and
a half thalers, in the debased coin that now served as the medium
of circulation. Lacy was furious and, when he and the Russians
marched in, his men behaved so badly that the Russians had, two or
three times, to fire upon them. Saxon and Austrian parties sacked
Potsdam and other palaces in the neighbourhood, but the Russians
behaved admirably; and so things went on until, on October 11th,
came the news that Frederick was coming.

Lacy at once marched off with all speed towards Torgau; while
Tottleben and the Russians made for Frankfort-on-Oder, the Cossacks
committing terrible depredations on the march.

The king halted when he heard that Berlin had been evacuated. He
was deeply grieved and mortified that his capital should have been
in the hands of the invaders, even for three days; and his own
loss, from the sacking of Potsdam and other palaces, was very
heavy. However, he paid the ransom from his own pocket, and
bitterly determined to get even with the enemy, before winter came
on.

While Hulsen was away, the Confederate