“I will not suffer,” she said “any council to be held in the army.  From Vienna alone are orders to be received.  I disavow and forbid all such proceedings, let the blame fall where it may.”

She knew full well that it was her husband who had proposed this plan; and he knew, and all Austria knew, that it was the Duke of Lorraine who was thus severely and publicly reprimanded.  But the husband of Maria Theresa was often reminded that he was but the subject of the queen.  So peremptory a mandate admitted of no compromise.  The Austrians plied their batteries with new vigor, the wan and skeleton soldiers fought perseveringly at their embrasures; and the battalions of Mallebois, by forced marches, pressed on through the mountains of Bohemia, to the eventful arena.  A division of the Austrian army was dispatched to the passes of Satz and Caden, which it would be necessary for the French to thread, in approaching Prague.  The troops of Mallebois, when they arrived at these defiles, were so exhausted by their long and forced marches, that they were incapable of forcing their way against the opposition they encountered in the passes of the mountains.  After a severe struggle, Mallebois was compelled to relinquish the design of relieving Prague, and storms of snow beginning to incumber his path, he retired across the Danube, and throwing up an intrenched camp, established himself in winter quarters.  The Austrian division, thus successful, returned to Prague, and the blockade was resumed.  There seemed to be now no hope for the French, and their unconditional surrender was hourly expected.  Affairs were in this state, when Europe was astounded by the report that the French general, Belleisle, with a force of eleven thousand foot and three thousand horse, had effected his escape from the battered walls of the city and was in successful retreat.

It was the depth of winter.  The ground was covered with snow, and freezing blasts swept the fields.  The besiegers were compelled to retreat to the protection of their huts.  Taking advantage of a cold and stormy night, Belleisle formed his whole force into a single column, and, leaving behind him his sick and wounded, and every unnecessary incumbrance, marched noiselessly but rapidly from one of the gates of the city.  He took with him but thirty cannon and provisions for twelve days.  It was a heroic but an awful retreat.  The army, already exhausted and emaciate by famine, toiled on over morasses, through forests, over mountains, facing frost and wind and snow, and occasionally fighting their way against their foes, until on the twelfth day they reached Egra on the frontiers of Bavaria, about one hundred and twenty miles east from Prague.