The Cavaliers of Fortune; Or, British Heroes in Foreign WarsGrant, James
History
The Cavaliers of Fortune; Or, British Heroes in Foreign Wars
Grant, James
British -- Foreign countries; Great Britain -- History, Military
The battalions of Prussian grenadiers were routed by a discharge
of twelve-pounders loaded with musket-shot, and the noble Marshal
Schwerin, who, seizing the colours, placed himself on foot at their
head, was shot through the heart; but his officers rallied the troops,
and assailed the Austrian right, at the same moment that Frederick
broke through their centre, and drove it towards Prague. A desperate
struggle with the bayonet now ensued between the Austrian left and the
Prussian right under Prince Henry: and Marshal Brown, while in act of
issuing orders to an aid-de-camp, received a deadly wound in the body;
and as he could ill brook the double mortification of a defeat and of
resigning the command to Prince Charles of Lorraine, it became mortal.
He was compelled to leave the field, from which his right wing fled to
Maleschitz, while the left followed the centre in hopeless disorder to
Prague, leaving the victory to the Prussians, who by their own account
had 3000 killed and 6000 wounded (by another account, 18,000 killed),
397 officers fell, many of them high in rank; 8000 Austrians were
slain, 9000 taken prisoners, and 50,000 were shut up in Prague, while
all the cavalry fled to Beneschau, and joined Marshal Daun. Such was
the terrible and disastrous battle of Prague, and seldom has the sun
set upon such a scene of suffering or slaughter as the field presented,
for there were more than _twenty thousand killed and wounded men lying
upon it at six in the evening_!
Marshal Brown was conveyed by his soldiers into Prague, where he
endured the greatest torture from his wound, which was aggravated by
the bitterness of being disabled at such a critical time. Thus by the
agitation and bitterness of his mind it became fatal, and fifty-one
days after the battle he expired of mingled agony and chagrin, on the
26th of June, 1757, at the age of fifty-two.
Thus died Austria's most able general and diplomatist--and one of
Ireland's greatest sons; one of whom she has every reason to be proud,
for he was the military rival of Frederick of Prussia, and of France's
most skilful marshals, and he filled all Europe with the fame of his
exploits in the field and his talent in the cabinet.
A magnificent monument was erected to his memory, and his titles
and estates were inherited by his sons, of whom he left two by his
countess, Maria Philippina of Martinitz. One of these died at Vienna,
on the 1st May, 1759, a major-general in the service of Austria: he
expired in great torture, under wounds received in battle.
MEMOIRS OF THE LACYS.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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