The German war was far from drawing to a conclusion. It was next to a miracle, considering how gloomily the last campaign had terminated for the King of Prussia, that the present did not complete his ruin. The Empress Queen’s hatred and resources were by no means exhausted. She contrived, too, to keep up to the same mark the implacability of the Czarina, who, having less both to hope and to fear, may well be believed to have been actuated by bribes and pensions to her Ministers. Immersed in pleasure and cool to ambition, gentle, too, to her subjects, it is not credible that the Armies she poured on the King of Prussia’s dominions were dispatched by feelings of her own. The danger was not the less pressing to the King. The Russians again threatened him; advanced again. The desultory Swedes still hovered over him. The Austrian force was complete and numerous; and, if Daun was too cautious, Laudohn promised to repair by activity the Marshal’s circumspection. The Court of Vienna seemed to applaud Laudohn’s vigour, whether to animate Daun by giving him a rival, or really wishing for an opportunity to fling the command into hands more alert. The Marshal, who preferred the interests of his mistress to his own glory, was not to be provoked out of his prudence. Inferior forces, he seemed to think, might be justified in rashness: superior strength, that could command time, could also ensure success; and, as his conduct had already brought the King of Prussia to the verge of ruin, he saw no cause to precipitate measures which had and did tend so naturally to complete the work. The King, whom experience had successively taught to be brave, to be desperate, to be circumspect, was not impatient to advance his fate. His whole conduct in this campaign evidenced that he looked on his situation as little less than hopeless; firm, however, to find an issue, if art or industry could furnish one. He entrenched himself strongly between the Elbe and the Multa, covering Saxony. Prince Henry defended Silesia; General Fouquet, preserving a communication with the latter, was posted near Glatz. Daun watched the King in a camp no less strong; while Laudohn, with a light army, shifted his quarters, and by turns threatened Silesia and Berlin--sometimes hovered over the strong places in Silesia, at others made a feint of attacking Prince Henry. The storm, however, at length seemed levelled against Schweidnitz. General Fouquet was the dupe of that _mouvement_; and, marching to cover the town, was drawn into an engagement by Laudohn near Landshut, in which the Prussians were not only totally defeated, but Fouquet himself, with two other Generals, four Colonels, two hundred and thirteen officers, and seven thousand men, were obliged to lay down their arms and surrender themselves prisoners.