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Updated: May 1, 2025
He might have been prime minister; several strangers have been; and as for war, look at Brown and Laudohn, and half a hundred others. I had a much better chance of being a field-marshal than he has of being a Lord Chancellor. 'I feel quite convinced that Coningsby will be Lord Chancellor, said Henry Sydney, gravely. This change of life for Coningsby was a great social revolution.
The Empress said, "Your unhappiness is your own work. Act as you think proper; I have done." Here my audience ended. I was not actually affianced at that time to my present wife, but love had determined my choice. Marshal Laudohn promoted the match.
Mareschal Daun had posted himself at Stolpen, to the eastward of the Elbe, in order to preserve an easy communication with the army of the empire encamped in the neighbourhood of Koningstein, to favour the operations of general Laudohn, who had advanced through the Lower Lusatia to the frontiers of Brandenburgh; to make a diversion from the southern parts of Silesia, where a body of Austrian troops acted under the command of the generals Harsche and de Ville; and to interrupt the communication between prince Henry and the capital of Saxony.
I tried to discover in what it consisted, but in vain. The death of the Emperor Francis at Innsbruck occasioned the return of General Laudohn, and I followed him, on foot, to Vienna. By means of the Countess Parr I obtained an audience. The Empress said to me, "I will prove to you, Trenck, that I keep my word. I have insured your fortune; I will give you a rich and prudent wife."
Meanwhile, the king prosecuted his march towards the capital of Saxony, driving before him the body of Austrian troops under Laudohn, who retreated to Zittau. On the tenth day of November count Daun retired from Dresden, and with the army of the empire fell back towards Bohemia; and on the twentieth the king arrived in that city, where he approved of the governor's conduct.
No great battle was gained by the enemy; but, in spite of the desperate bounds of the hunted tiger, the circle of pursuers was fast closing round him. Laudohn had surprised the important fortress of Schweidnitz. With that fortress, half of Silesia, and the command of the most important defiles through the mountains, had been transferred to the Austrians.
Indeed, his designs were still more extensive, for he proposed to reduce Dresden, Leipsic, and Torgau, at the same time; the first with the main body under his own direction, the second by the army of the empire under the prince de Deuxponts, and the third by a corps under general Haddick, while the forces directed by Laudohn should exclude the king from Lusatia.
Yet it is certain that, in the beginning, Trenck had shown a friendship for Laudohn, had given him a commission, and that this great man learned, under the command of Trenck, his military principles. General Tillier was likewise formed in this nursery of soldiers, where officers were taught activity, stratagem, and enterprise.
The Russians defeated the King's generals on the Oder, threatened Silesia, effected a junction with Laudohn, and intrenched themselves strongly at Kunersdorf. Frederic hastened to attack them. A great battle was fought. During the earlier part of the day everything yielded to the impetuosity of the Prussians, and to the skill of their chief. The lines were forced. Half the Russian guns were taken.
Terror began to spread fast from man to man. At that moment, the fiery cavalry of Laudohn, still fresh, rushed on the wavering ranks. Then followed an universal rout. Frederic himself was on the point of falling into the hands of the conquerors, and was with difficulty saved by a gallant officer, who, at the head of a handful of Hussars, made good a diversion of a few minutes.
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