moldaw

Updated: May 18, 2025

Her grand army dispersed in parties, and dying for subsistence in small corps; their princes and commanders cooped up in Prague; that capital in imminent danger of being taken, the flourishing kingdom of Bohemia ready to fall into the hands of the conqueror; a considerable army on the point of surrendering prisoners of war; all the queen's hereditary dominions open and exposed, the whole fertile tract of country from Egra to the Moldaw in actual possession of the Prussians, the distance to the archduchy of Austria not very considerable, and secured only by the Danube; Vienna under the utmost apprehensions of a siege, and the imperial family ready to take refuge in Hungary; the Prussian forces deemed invincible, and the sanguine friends of that monarch already sharing with him, in imagination, the spoils of the ancient and illustrious house of Austria.

T. (Tobias) Smollett - The History of England in Three Volumes, Vol.II. : Continued from the Reign of William and Mary to the Death of George II.

Having thrown several bridges over the Moldaw on the fifth of May, he passed that river in the morning of the sixth, with thirty thousand men, leaving the rest of the army under the command of the prince of Anhault-Dessau; and being immediately joined by the troops under mareschal Schwerin and the prince of Bevern, resolved to attack the enemy on the same day.

T. (Tobias) Smollett - The History of England in Three Volumes, Vol.II. : Continued from the Reign of William and Mary to the Death of George II.

This design was conducted with so much silence, that though the Prussians were warned of it, they could, discover nothing before the enemy had charged their advanced posts. Their attack was begun on the side of the little town, against mareschal Keith's camp, and the left wing of the Prussian army encamped on the Moldaw.

T. (Tobias) Smollett - The History of England in Three Volumes, Vol.II. : Continued from the Reign of William and Mary to the Death of George II.

The Prussian works being completed, and heavy artillery arrived, four batteries, erected on the banks of the Moldaw, began to play with great fury. Near three hundred bombs, besides an infinity of ignited balls, were thrown into the city in the space of twenty-four hours. The scene was lamentable, houses, men, and horses wrapped in flames and reduced to ashes.

T. (Tobias) Smollett - The History of England in Three Volumes, Vol.II. : Continued from the Reign of William and Mary to the Death of George II.

They were strongly intrenched on the banks of the Moldaw, to the north of Prague, in a camp so fortified by every advantage of nature, and every contrivance of art, as to be deemed almost impregnable.

T. (Tobias) Smollett - The History of England in Three Volumes, Vol.II. : Continued from the Reign of William and Mary to the Death of George II.

Prince Henry of Prussia, and the prince of Bevern, signalized themselves on this occasion in storming two batteries; prince Ferdinand of Brunswick took the left wing of the Austrians in flank, while the king with his left, and a body of cavalry, secured the passage of the Moldaw.

T. (Tobias) Smollett - The History of England in Three Volumes, Vol.II. : Continued from the Reign of William and Mary to the Death of George II.

From hence it is probable the Austrians proposed not only to destroy the batteries that were raising, but to attack the bridges of communication which the Prussians threw over the Moldaw, at about a quarter of a German mile above and below Prague, at Branig and Podbaba.

T. (Tobias) Smollett - The History of England in Three Volumes, Vol.II. : Continued from the Reign of William and Mary to the Death of George II.