It was indeed a fearful combination now prepared to make a rush upon the King of Prussia.  France had assembled eighty thousand men on the Rhine.  The Swedes were rallying in great numbers on the frontiers of Pomerania.  The Russians had concentrated an army sixty thousand strong on the borders of Livonia.  And the Queen of Austria had one hundred and fifty thousand men on the march, through Hungary and Bohemia, to the frontiers of Silesia.  Frederic, with an eagle eye, was watching all these movements, and was employing all his amazing energies to meet the crisis.  He resolved to have the advantage of striking the first blow, and adopted the bold measure of marching directly into the heart of the Austrian States.  To deceive the allies he pretended to be very much frightened, and by breaking down bridges and establishing fortresses seemed intent upon merely presenting a desperate defense behind his ramparts.

Suddenly, in three strong, dense columns, Frederic burst into Bohemia and advanced, with rapid and resistless strides, towards Prague.  The unprepared Austrian bands were driven before these impetuous assailants as chaff is dispersed by the whirlwind.  With great precipitation the Austrian troops, from all quarters, fled to the city of Prague and rallied beneath its walls.  Seventy thousand men were soon collected, strongly intrenched behind ramparts, thrown up outside of the city, from which ramparts, in case of disaster, they could retire behind the walls and into the citadel.

The king, with his army, came rushing on like the sweep of the tornado, and plunged, as a thunderbolt of war, into the camp of the Austrians.  For a few hours the battle blazed as if it were a strife of demons—­hell in high carnival.  Eighteen thousand Prussians were mowed down by the Austrian batteries, before the fierce assailants could scale the ramparts.  Then, with cimeter and bayonet, they took a bloody revenge.  Eight thousand Austrians were speedily weltering in blood.  The shriek of the battle penetrated all the dwellings in Prague, appalling every ear, like a wail from the world of woe.  The routed Austrians, leaving nine thousand prisoners, in the hands of Frederic, rushed through the gates into the city, while a storm of shot from the batteries on the walls drove back the pursuing Prussians.

Prague, with the broken army thus driven within its walls, now contained one hundred thousand inhabitants.  The city was totally unprepared for a siege.  All supplies of food being cut off, the inhabitants were soon reduced to extreme suffering.  The queen was exceedingly anxious that the city should hold out until she could hasten to its relief.  She succeeded in sending a message to the besieged army, by a captain of grenadiers, who contrived to evade the vigilance of the besiegers and to gain entrance to the city.