Journal of Horace St. Paul
1757: Waiting on Events

August 7, 1757

Translated and Edited With Additional Materials By Neil Cogswell


This morning, His Royal Highness received a courier with detail of the victory gained by Marechal d'Estrees at Hastenbach and of the reduction of Hameln, of which the garrison of 750 men capitulated as prisoners of war on the 28th of last month. In that place, the French captured 70 pieces of heavy artillery.

In consequence of this news, we sang the "Te Deum". There was also a grand celebration for the principal generals. During the evening, the entire army paraded under arms. His Royal Highness Prince Charles, with his whole suite, rode along the front to the extremity of the Right Wing. There, 50 cannon made a triple discharge; both lines of infantry also fired. The Austrians rejoice greatly at this news. Since the Court of Vienna had proposed to the King of England that Hanover should be neutral, they believe that the outcome of the recent action will force that King to accept the proposal.

They flatter themselves that the King of Prussia will then be obliged to divide his forces to oppose two armies, each of which is superior to his combined force. We also hear that the Prince de Soubise has entered Germany with an army of 25,000 men. He is going to join the Army of the Empire - or Circles as it is sometimes called. That army is assembling at Nurnberg. The two armies are to join forces around Erfurt.

During the celebrations, we saw a great deal of smoke away to the West in Bohemia. A report arrived shortly after to explain that, whilst the troops encamped near Rumburg were discharging their feu-de-joie, fire had taken hold in the town due to the negligence of a baker, who had left his ovens to watch the celebration. The blaze consumed 32 houses; the troops reached it too late to extinguish the fire.

Despite the most rigorous punishments, we are having difficulty containing the depredations of marauders. These have even had the insolence of firing on the Grand Provost of the Army, who, having arrested eight, condemned them to be hung tomorrow.

The detachment at Stolpen, consisting of two Hussar Regiments and 2,000 Croats, has advanced patrols as far as the wood near Radeberg; there, they captured several provision wagons going from Dresden to the Prussian army.

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