--itself a grave misfortune in war.

Meanwhile the Prussian strategist, von Moltke, was carrying out a far
more incisive plan of operations--that of sending three Prussian armies
into the middle of Bohemia, and there forming a great mass which would
sweep away all obstacles from the road to Vienna. This design received
prompt and skilful execution. Saxony was quickly overrun, and the
irruption of three great armies into Bohemia compelled the Austrians and
their Saxon allies hurriedly to alter their plans. After suffering
several reverses in the north of Bohemia, their chief array under
Benedek barred the way of the two northern Prussian armies on the
heights north of the town of Koeniggraetz. On the morning of July 3 the
defenders long beat off all frontal attacks with heavy loss; but about 2
P.M. the Army of Silesia, under the Crown Prince Frederick of Prussia,
after a forced march of twelve miles, threw itself on their right flank,
where Benedek expected no very serious onset. After desperate fighting
the Army of Silesia carried the village of Chlum in the heart of the
Austrian position, and compelled Austrians and Saxons to a hurried
retreat over the Elbe. In this the Austrian infantry was saved from
destruction by the heroic stand made by the artillery. Even so, the
allies lost more than 13,000 killed and wounded, 22,000 prisoners, and
187 guns[4].

[4] Sybel, _Die Begruendung des deutschen Reiches_, vol. v. pp. 174-205;
_Journals of Field Marshal Count von Blumenthal for 1866 and 1871_ (Eng.
edit.), pp. 37-44.

Koeniggraetz (or Sadowa, as it is often called) decided the whole
campaign. The invaders now advanced rapidly towards Vienna, and at the
town of Nikolsburg concluded the Preliminaries of Peace with Austria
(July 26), whereupon a mandate came from Paris, bidding them stop. In
fact, the Emperor of the French offered his intervention in a manner
most threatening to the victors. He sought to detach Italy from the
Prussian alliance by the offer of Venetia as a left-handed present from
himself--an offer which the Italian Government subsequently refused.

To understand how Napoleon III. came to change front and belie his
earlier promises, one must look behind the scenes. Enough is already
known to show that the Emperor's hand was forced by his Ministers and by
the Parisian Press, probably also by the Empress Eugenie. Though
desirous, apparently, of befriending Prussia, he had already yielded to
their persistent