RIESBECK’s TRAVELS THROUGH GERMANY.
*34
•Jxolin is a pretty little town; it is, without a doubt, the beft place you meet with b.vtwixt Prague and Vienna; the garrifon, however excepted, it docs not contain abovethree thoufand five hundred fouls. The houfes are not more than feven hundred, anddo not feem to be very well inhabited. We relied a little here, and were extremelywell treated; you live very cheap and well all over Bohemia . Small hares, ducks,geefe, &c. are the common food met with, in the fmallefl: inns.
In order to give you an idea of the price of provifions, I will give you an account ofwhat the Saxon and I paid for a night’s entertainment. You mult know, that almoilall the inns here have a bad appearance, and the innkeepers, notwithstanding the plentythey afford travellers, feem to be but in indifferent circumftances. Their houfes gene-rally Hand alone in the ftreet, and have neither orchard, kitchen-garden, or any piece ofland near belonging to them. They are obliged to pay fo heavy a rent to the landlord,or nobleman to whom the houfe belongs, that they can gain but very little. At laft wefaw an inn in a village we came to, which had a better appearance; it had a roomy court,good ftables, a neat garden, and was the property of the landlady. Now, faid we, aswe got into our bed-chambers, we {hall have another kind of bill, and no doubt pay forthe fine profpedt which this room commands, the fine furniture, the exquifite glaffes andchina, and in fhort, all the fine things which we enjoy or do not enjoy. We had forfupper a rice foup, with an exceeding good chicken, a fallad, and two young haresbroiled. We had excellent beer, which is remarkably good in Bohemia , and a pot ofwine, which we found very bad, and would not have another, as we knew that winewas very dear all over Bohemia . We had two very clean beds, and fome very goodcoffee for breakfaft; and would you think it? when the bill was called for, it amountedonly to forty-two creutzers, that is, about one livre and forty-two fols French .
We flopped about three miles from Prague , and went fome furlongs out of the wayto fee the famous field of battle of the year 1757. Here the Pruffians overcame natureitfelf. It was impofiible for the Auflrians to have more favourable ground. A deep,broad, perpendicular ditch protected them from the enemy. They had a very formida-ble artillery, which defended the ditch by batteries placed to great advantage. Whenthe Pruffians made their firfl attack by the ditch, they fell like flocks of fnow : the Auf-trian fire was terrible. There has not been a harder or bloodier action in the prefentcentury, nor is there perhaps in hiftory, a fingle inftance of a battle won under fuch cir«cumftances as the Pruffians had to contend with. It is almofl literally true, that theyhad at the fame time a fort to take and an army to beat, which was flronger than theirown. Conceive to yourfelf, a deep ditch flanked with cannon, on the other fide ofwhich is encamped a bold looking army of at lead feventy thoufand men. The Pruf-fians marched through the ditch, and through the fortifications oppoi'ed to them, putthe enemy to the mofl complete flight, and befieged Prague , in which part of the flyingImperial army took refuge. But they paid dear for the victory; their lofs of men wasinfinitely greater than that of the enemy; accounts differ with regard to the numbersflain; fome make them feven, others from nine to ten thoufand men. The truth, how-ever, without the leaf! exaggeration is, that the immenfe ditch was filled throughout itswhole breadth with dead men, who in many places likewife, lay in great heaps uponeach other.
The ftroke which the King felt mod of all, was the lofs of the brave general Schwe-rin. W r e looked with the mofl folemn melancholy on the tree near which he fell. Theprefent Emperor has erefted a monument to him, which does no lefs honour to the per-fon who fet it up., than to him whofe name it bears and eternizes. Many anecdotes arecurrent with regard to the death of this brave man. It has been faid, that a rough
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