225 THE SEVEN YEARS WAR, 1756-63regulars, emplaced on the hill slopes at the southern edge of the
Silesian plain. Frederick had by now conceived a very low opinion of
Loudon's abilities, and he judged it safe to leave the Austrians in their
camp and move closer to Neisse, where there were ample provisions.
On 26 September the Prussian army abandoned the Bunzelwitz posi-
tion and began the leisurely march to the east. Frederick wrote to
Henry: 'I think you need have no further anxiety on our account.
Basically the campaign is over, for neither the Austrians nor
ourselves are capable of taking any initiatives' (PC 13185).
It seemed scarcely possible, after the bloodless Prussian triumphs of
the summer of 1761, that a series of reverses in the autumn and winter
could have brought Frederick's army and state to the verge of col-
lapse.
On the night of 30 September the sound of cannon fire carried
from the west to Frederick's camp at Gross-Nossen. The report then
arrived that Loudon had taken the fortress of Schweidnitz 'in an
almost incredible manner' (PC 13195) by open assault, without
bothering to dig trenches or establish siege batteries. The loss of this
place deprived Frederick of his best-placed depot, magazine and
refuge on the Silesian theatre of war. No event since the rout of
Kunersdorf induced such consternation in the Prussian army. The
king was thunderstruck, the private soldiers deserted in droves, and
the senior officers were in the grip of horror (Mitchell, 8 October, PRO
SP 90/78; Warnery, 1788, 480; Archenholtz, 1840, II, 184; Catt, 1884,
446; Mollendorff, in Volz, 1926-7, II, 94).
The wintry weather set in very early that year, and on 6 October
Frederick established his despondent army in cantonments between
Strehlen and Brieg. His headquarters at Strehlen were so negligently
guarded that at one time Frederick's life was actually in danger from a
plot engineered by Baron Warkotsch, an Austrian sympathiser. The
conspiracy was discovered shortly before the intended event, and the
Austrian generals hastened to dissociate themselves from this in-
famous scheme. Finally on 9 December Frederick planted himself for
the winter in the royal Schloss at Breslau. He was uncommunicative
and plagued with headaches, and the palace was in a condition
corresponding with his mood, full of wreckage from Loudon's bom-
bardment of 1760.
Never before had the Prussian army been forced to take up its
quarters so deep inside Silesia, and for the first time in the war the
Austrians were able to establish their troops in cantonments on the
Prussian side of the border. The tidings from Saxony were scarcely
more encouraging. Daun had manoeuvred Henry out of the Meissen
camp in the course of October, and the Prussians could barely