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134 RIESBECK’s TRAVELS THROUGH GERMANY.
Kolin is a pretty little town ; it is, without a doubt, the beft place you meet with be-
twixt Prague and Vienna; the garrifon, however excepted, it does not contain above
three thoufand five hundred fouls. The houfes are not more than feven hundred, and
do not feem to be very well inhabited. We refted a little here, and were extremely
well treated ; you live very cheap and well all over Bohemia. Small hares, ducks,
geefe, &c. are the common food met with, in the fraalleft inns.
In order to give you an idea of the price of provifions, I will give you an account of
what the Saxon and I paid for a night’s entertainment. “You muft know, that almoft
all the inns here have a bad appearance, and the innkeepers, notwith{tanding the plenty
they afford travellers, feem to be but in indifferent circumftances. Their houfes gene-
rally ftand alone in the ftreet, and have neither orchard, kitchen-garden, or any piece of
Jand 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 we
faw an inn ina village we came to, which had a better appearance; it hada roomy court,
good ftables, a neat garden, and was the property of the landlady. Now, faid we, as
we got into our bed-chambers, we fhall have another kind of bill, and no doubt pay for
the fine profpect which this room commands, the fine furniture, the exquifite glafles and
china, and in fhort, all the fine things which we enjoy or do not enjoy. We had for
fupper a rice foup, with an exceeding good chicken, a fallad, and two young hares
broiled. We had excellent beer, which is remarkably good in Bohemia, and a pot of
wine, which we found very bad, and would not have another, as we knew that wine
was very dear all over Bohemia. We had two very clean beds, and fome very good
coffee for breakfaft ; and would you think it? when the bill was called for, it amounted
only to forty-two creutzers, that is, about one livre and forty-two fols French.
We {topped about three miles from Prague, and went fome furlongs out of the way
to fee the famous field of battle of the year 1757. Here the Pruffians overcame nature
itfelf. It was impoflible for the Auftrians to have more favourable ground. Adeep,
broad, perpendicular ditch protected them from theenemy. ‘They had a very formida-
ble artillery, which defended the ditch by batteries placed to great advantage. When
the Pruffians made their firft 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 prefent
century, 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 almoft literally true, that they
had at the fame time a fort to take and an army to beat, which was ftronger than their
own. Conceive to yourfelf, a deep ditch flanked with cannon, on the other fide of
which is encamped a bold looking army of at leaft feventy thoufand men. The Pruf-
fians marched through the ditch, and through the fortifications oppofed to them, put
the enemy to the moft complete flight, and hefieged Prague, in which part of the flymg
Imperial army took refuge. But they paid dear for the viory ; their lofs of men was
infinitely greater than that of the enemy; accounts differ with regard to the numbers
flan; fome make them feven, others from nine to ten thoufand men. ‘The truth, how-
ever, without the leaft exaggeration is, that the immenfe ditch was filled throughout its
whole breadth with dead men, who in many places likewife, lay in great heaps upon
each other.
The firoke which the King felt moft of all, was the lofs of the brave general Schwe-
rin. We looked with the moft folemn melancholy on the tree near which he fell. The
prefent Emperor has ereéted 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 are
current with regard to the death of this brave man. It has been faid, that a raven
: an{wer
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