On the 1st November, Frederick began his march for Silesia. Loudon, still pressing on, fell with such fury on the rear-guard, that he was nearly taken prisoner by the Prussian hussars. He then brought up his cannon; but these were dismounted by the heavier pieces of Frederick, which at the same time threw the Austrian foot into disorder. Thrice Loudon rallied them; and thrice, sword in hand, he led them to the charge: but the approach of the noble Putkammer hussars compelled him to fall back; and thus, amid skirmishes, night marches, toil, starvation, plunder, and devastation, the campaign of the year was closed by the Austrians raising the sieges of Neiss and Dresden, and the King of Prussia retiring to winter quarters at Breslau. The generals of the Imperial army usually spent the winter in the Austrian capital; and now the Empress expressed a strong desire to see Marshal Loudon, of whom Count Daun had written so favourably in all his despatches and letters. Thus he prepared to return to Vienna, but was compelled to remain for some time at Doeplitz in Bohemia, in consequence of a return of his illness: and there Madame Loudon, who had remained at Vienna during the whole war, arrived to attend him. As soon as he was sufficiently restored, they travelled together to the capital, where they arrived on the 24th of February, 1759. The streets were crowded by dense masses of persons, all anxious to behold and to welcome the hero of whom they had heard so much, and his reception was most enthusiastic. Only two years had elapsed since he left that city as a field-officer of Croats, and now he returned to it a Lieutenant-Field-Marshal and Knight of Maria Theresa. From the fair Empress he received the most flattering distinction; and she commanded her own physician, the Baron Von Swieten, to attend him until his health was completely re-established. She bestowed upon him the Grand Cross of her Order, and created him a Baron of the Holy Roman Empire. The moment his physician permitted him, he resumed his command; and no general of the Seven Years' War bore a more distinguished part in the campaign of 1759 than Baron Loudon, though Frederick II., who had imbibed an animosity to him, always mentions his name slightingly in his works. The Prussian monarch, in the beginning of the year, had great success; but his chief embarrassment was the approach of the Russians, who defeated him in Silesia on the 23rd July, and spread their outposts along the banks of the Oder. On the frontiers of Bohemia nothing of importance occurred, though Loudon, who occupied Trautenau, was continually in motion, alarming the Prussian posts and cutting off their supplies.