Reign of George II. (Concluded) page 16

But there was no rest for Frederick. Daun was overrunning Saxony; had reduced Leipsic, Wittenberg, and Torgau. Frederick marched against him, retook Leipsic, and came up with Daun at Torgau on the 3rd of November. There a most sanguinary battle took place, which lasted all day and late into the night. Within half an hour five thousand of Frederick's grenadiers, the pride of his army were killed by Daun's batteries of four hundred cannon. Frederick was himself disabled and carried into the rear, and altogether fourteen thousand Prussians were killed or wounded, and twenty thousand of the Austrians. It was a most revolting spectacle of butchery, many of the wounded being, moreover, stripped and left naked all night on the field in a severe frost. This scene of savage slaughter closed the campaign. The Austrians evacuated Saxony, with the exception of Dresden; the Russians repassed the Oder, and Frederick took up his winter quarters at Leipsic.

Prince Ferdinand this summer had to contend with numerous armies of the- French. De Broglie marched from Frankfort into Hesse with a hundred thousand men. On the 10th of July they met the hereditary prince of Brunswick at Corbach, and defeated him, though he gained a decided advantage over them a few days after at Emsdorff, taking the commander of the division and five battalions prisoners. This was followed by Ferdinand himself, who was at Warburg, where he took ten pieces of artillery, killed one thousand five hundred of the French, and drove them into the Dimel, where many were drowned. The British cavalry had the greatest share in this victory. In fact, the marquis of Granby led them on all occasions with such spirit and bravery, that Ferdinand placed them continually in the post of danger - or, as it is termed, honour - where of course they suffered more severely than the other troops.

Notwithstanding these checks at Emsdorff and Warburg, the French obtained possession of Göttingen and Cassel. Ferdinand attempted, but in vain, to dislodge them from Göttingen, and the hereditary prince, attempting to surprise the marquis de Castries at Wesel, was repulsed with a loss of one thousand two hundred men at Closter- Campen, near that town, and was compelled to retreat. This closed the campaign, and the French took up their winter quarters at Göttingen and Cassel.

Whilst these things were happening, but two days before the mail arrived bringing the news of the defeat of Closter- Campen, and the surrender of Berlin, died George H. He had, till within about two years ago, enjoyed robust health. He had then a severe attack of gout, and from that time his eyes and hearing had failed. He complained that everybody seemed to have a black crape over their faces. On the morning of the 26th of October, he rose at his usual hour of six, drank his chocolate, inquired how the wind was, being anxious for the arrival of the mails, and then suddenly fell, uttered a groan, and expired. He had burst the right ventricle of the heart. He was about seventy-seven years of age. Since his ascension of the throne, England had been almost continually engaged in the wars of Germany, and had spent a vast amount of money and English blood for Germanic objects. Of late years, Pitt had won for the country far more valuable victories in India and America, and therefore, by a very common figure of speech, the poor old king, who would still have been in the hands of an imbecile and losing ministry of aristocrats if he could, died, according to Horace Walpole, "full of years and glory; without a pang, and without a reverse."