Page:The reign of George VI - 1763.djvu/108

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82
THE REIGN

served only to spur him more eagerly on. The particulars of this celebrated march are well known. George, almost without the loss of a man, arrived in Austria, on the banks of the Danube, after one of the most expeditious marches ever known. He slipped by three armies, whose only business was to intercept him; he passed every river in safety, and, to the astonishment of all the world, was in a condition to fight the Czar of Moscovy, almost as soon as that Monarch had heard of his approach.

Peter immediately raised the siege, and, drawing up his forces in the plains of Vienna, prepared to fight the King of England, who was also engaged in the same employment. The Russian army had a superiority of above sixty thousand men, consequently their numbers were two to one; but no dangerscould