36 THE SILESIAN WARS, 1740-5Frederick breached the already tenuous treaty of neutrality with the
city of Breslau. Early on 10 August 4,500 troops seized the gates, and
within a few hours Schwerin exacted the oaths of loyalty which made
Breslau a Prussian city.
Just as had happened in the spring, Field-Marshal Neipperg and
the Austrians were the first to declare their hand when operations
resumed in the high summer of 1741. On 23 August Frederick blocked
their first move, which was a strike from Neisse against the Prussian
magazine at Schweidnitz. Now that the two armies were mobile
again, Frederick hatched a scheme to cut around Neipperg's right
flank and reach the prize of Neisse, which would have given the
Prussians an important political and military advantage before the
coming of winter closed down operations. The Prussian advance
guard and the bridging train set out from Frederick's camp at Reichen-
bach on the evening of 7 September, but in the autumn mists they
described a circle and ended up behind the main army, which was not
at all what had been intended.
The lost time was never made up. Neipperg was quick on his feet
over short distances, and he twice headed off Frederick's attempts to
make an undisputed passage of the Neisse river at Woitz, downstream
from Neisse town - on 11 September and again on 14 September.
Frederick broke forth in foul language, and in his Principes G&niraux
of 1748 he described the frustrations of this episode in a section he
entitled 'Des Hasards et des Cas fortuits qui arrivent a la Guerre'.
In the late autumn Frederick discovered that the Austrians,
faced with the disintegration of their monarchy, were willing to pay
him very handsomely for the freedom to divert their forces against the
French and Bavarians on the Danube and in Bohemia. Frederick was
a bad partner in any joint enterprise, whether a marriage or an
alliance, and now he did not hesitate to throw over his obligations to
the French, and come to terms with the enemy at Klein-Schnellendorf
on 9 October. Neipperg sent off the first of his troops on the next day,
which was an indication of how urgently the Austrians needed these
men in the western theatre.
In immediate terms the Klein-Schnellendorf treaty extended and
legalised the Silesian conquest of 1740. Lower Silesia was ceded to the
Prussians outright. In addition Frederick was allowed to quarter his
troops in Upper Silesia, and the fortress-town of Neisse was to be
surrendered to him after he had subjected the place to a siege of a
certain length. This last curious stipulation was deemed necessary to
keep up the appearance of hostilities, and so conceal Frederick's
perfidy from the French and Bavarians.
Neisse capitulated on 31 October, which was somewhat earlier
than had been arranged. The siege commander, Hereditary Prince