241 THE SEVEN YEARS WAR, 1756-63strong, but the garrison was very powerful, at 10,000 troops, and the
quality of the men and technicians was excellent. The fortress did not
yield until 9 October.
Meanwhile Frederick had summoned up Bevern with 9,000 men
from Upper Silesia to the heights of Peilau, near Reichenbach, and
told him to guard the avenues from the Eulen-Gebirge. On the night of
15 August Daun emerged near Silberberg with 45,000 troops, and he
sent 25,000 of them hastening ahead with the intention of over-
whelming Bevern, and gaining the Koltschen-Berg as a point d'appui
on the way to Schweidnitz.
Bevern first came under attack at 5 a.m., and Frederick at once
rushed to his support with whatever forces he could first gather in his
camp at Peterswaldau. The Brown Hussars and the Czettritz Dra-
goons strode out ahead, and the Bosniaks and the rest of the cavalry
were streaming behind. Frederick was mounted on the little Cossack
horse Casar, which was going like a rocket. 'It was splendid to see the
Prussian cavalry arrive at a gallop from the camp of Peterswaldau,
and especially the Bosniaks, who gave their horses their heads'
(Ligne, 1795-1811, XVI, 152). After a spectacular but almost blood-
less cavalry battle the Austrians withdrew from the field before
Frederick's main force could come into action.
Daun now gave up Schweidnitz entirely for lost, and retreated
into the County of Glatz. Frederick was not inclined to pursue him
through the fortified passes, 'but we can acquire an equivalent by
recapturing Dresden. As the price of recovering the electorate of
Saxony the allies will have to restore Glatz and the territories of
Cleves and Gelders' (PC 14095).
Frederick sent a reinforcement to Saxony on 17 October, but he
was still in Silesia when news reached him that Henry and Seydlitz
had crowned a very active campaign against the Reichsarmee and the
Austrians by a victory in open battle at Freiberg on 28 October.
Frederick wrote to his brother that the news made him feel twenty
years younger. The king reached Torgau on 7 November, but he was
disappointed to discover that the enemy were too strongly en-
trenched behind the Plauensche-Grund to permit him to recover
Dresden.
On 29 November a certain Baron Fritsch, a slight acquaintance of
Frederick's, arrived at the royal headquarters at Meissen bearing a
first proposal from Maria Theresa for a 'reasonable and dignified'
peace. Frederick's response was harsh and sarcastic, but a threatening
message from Catherine of Russia put him in a more amenable frame
of mind for a second interview. Active peace negotiations opened on
30 December in the devastated royal Saxon hunting lodge at Huber-
tusburg.