I command you to send me your resignation of the secretaryship of state for war, and of all that appertains to the posts connected therewith, and to retire to your estate of Ormes." Madame de Pompadour was avenged.
The war, meanwhile, continued; the King of Prussia, who had at first won a splendid victory over the Austrians in front of Prague, had been beaten at Kolin, and forced to fall back on Saxony.

Marshal d'Estrees, slowly occupying Westphalia, had got the Duke of Cumberland into a corner on the Weser.
On the morning of July 23, 1757, the marshal summoned all his lieutenant-generals.

"Gentlemen," he said to them, "I do not assemble you to-day to ask whether we should attack M.de Cumberland and invest Hameln.

The honor of the king's arms, his wishes, his express orders, the interest of the common cause, all call for the strongest measures.

I only seek, therefore, to profit by your lights, and to combine with your assistance the means most proper for attacking with advantage." A day or two after, July 26, the Duke of Cumberland, who had fallen back on the village of Hastenbeck, had his intrenchments forced; he succeeded in beating a retreat without being pursued; an able movement of Prince Ferdinand of Brunswick, and a perhaps intentional mistake on the part of M.de Maillebois had caused a momentary confusion in the French army.
Marshal d'Estrees, however, was not destined to enjoy for long the pleasure of his victory.