MOUNTAINS.
Valori, who is to be of Friedrich's Campaign this Year, came posting off
directly in rear of the glorious news of Fontenoy; found Friedrich at
Camenz, rather in spirits than otherwise; and lodged pleasantly with
Abbot Tobias and him, till the Campaign should begin. Two things
surprise Valori: first, the great strength, impregnable as it were,
to which Neisse has been brought since he saw it last,--superlative
condition of that Fortress, and of the Army itself, as it gathers
daily more and more about Frankenstein here:--and then secondly, and
contrariwise, the strangely neglected posture of mountainous or Upper
Silesia, given up to Pandours. Quite submerged, in a manner: Margraf
Karl lies quiet among them at Jagerndorf, "eating his magazine;" General
Hautcharmoi (Winterfeld's late chief in that Wurben affair), with his
small Detachment, still hovers about in those Ratibor parts, "with
the Strong Towns to fall-back upon," or has in effect fallen back
accordingly; and nothing done to coerce the Pandours at all. While
Prince Karl and Weissenfels are daily coming on, in force 100,000, their
intention certain; force, say, about 100,000 regular! Very singular to
Valori.
"Sire, will not you dispute the Passes, then?" asks Valori, amazed: "Not
defend your Mountain rampart, then?" "MON CHER; the Mountain rampart is
three or four hundred miles long; there are twelve or twenty practicable
roads through it. One is kept in darkness, too; endless Pandour doggery
shutting out your daylight:--ill defending such a rampart," answers
Friedrich. "But how, then," persists Valori; "but--?" "One day the King
answered me," says Valori, "'MON AMI, if you want to get the mouse,
don't shut, the trap; leave the trap open (ON LAISSE LA SOURICIERE
OUVERTE)!'" Which was a beam of light to the inquiring thought of
Valori, a military man of some intelligence. [See VALORI, i. 222, 224,
228.]
That, in fact, is Friedrich's purpose privately formed. He means that
the Austrians shall consider him cowed into nothing, as he understands
they already do; that they shall enter Silesia in the notion of chasing
him; and shall, if need be, have the pleasure of chasing him,--till
perhaps a right moment arrive. For he is full of silent finesse, this
young King; soon sees into his man, and can lead him strange dances on
occasion. In no man is there a plentifuler vein of cunning, nor of a
finer kind. Lynx-eyed perspicacity, inexhaustible contrivance, prompt
ingenuity,--a man very dangerous to play with at games of skill. And
it is cunning regulated always by a noble sense of honor, too;
instinctively abhorrent of attorneyism and the swindler element: a
cunning, sharp as the vulpine, yet always strictly human, which is
rather beautiful to see. This is one of Friedrich's marked endowments.
Intellect sun-clear, wholly practical (need not be specially deep),
and entirely loyal to the fact before it; this--if you add rapidity
and energy, prompt weight of stroke, such as was seldom met with--will
render a man very dangerous to his adversary in the game of war.--Here
is the last of our Pandour Adventures for the present:--
"From May 12th, Friedrich had been gathering closer and closer about
Frankenstein; by the end of the month (28th, as it proved) he intends
that all Detachments shall be home, and the Army take Camp there. The
most are home; Margraf Karl, at Jagerndorf, has not yet done eating his
magazine; but he too must come home. Summon the Margraf home:--it is not
doubted he will cut himself through, he and his 12,000; but such is
the swarm of Pandours hovering between him and us, no estafette, or
cleverest letter-bearer, can hope to get across to him. Ziethen with 500
Hussars, he must take the Letter; there is no other way. Ziethen mounts;
fares swiftly forth, towards Neustadt, with his Letter; lodges in
woods; dodges the thick-crowding Tolpatcheries (passes himself off for a
Tolpatchery, say some, and captures Hungarian Staff-Officers who come to
give him orders [Frau van Blumenthal, _Life of De Ziethen,_ pp. 171-181
(extremely romantic; now given up as mythical, for most part): see
Orlich (ii. 150); but also Ranke (iii. 245), Preuss, &c.]); is at
length found out, and furiously set upon, 'Ziethen, Hah!'--but gets
to Jagerndorf, Margraf Karl coming out to the rescue, and delivers his
Letter. 'Home, then, all of us to-morrow!' And so, Saturday, 22d May,
before we get to Neustadt on the way home, there is an authentic passage
of arms, done very brilliantly by Margraf Karl against Pandours and
others.
"To right of us, to left, barring our road, the enemy, 20,000 of
them, stand ranked on heights, in chosen positions; cannon-batteries,
grenadiers, dragoons of Gotha and infinite Pandours: military jungle
bristling far and wide. And you must push it heartily, and likewise
cut the tap-root of it (seize its big guns), or it will not roll away.
Margraf Karl shoots forth his steady infantry ('Silent till you see
the whites of their eyes!'),--his cavalry with new manoeuvres; whose
behavior is worthy of Ziethen himself:--in brief, the jungle is struck
as by a whirlwind, the tap-root of it cut, and rolls simultaneously out
of range, leaving only the Regiment of Gotha, Regiment of Ogilvy and
some Regulars, who also get torn to shreds, and utterly ruined. Seeing
which, the Pandour jungle plunges wholly into the woods, uttering
horrible cries (EN POUSSANT DES CRIS TERRIBLES), says Friedrich.
[ _OEuvres de Frederic,_ iii. 106. More specially BERICHTE VON DER AM
22 MAI, 1745 BEY NEUSTADT IN OBER-SCHLESIEN VORGEFALLENER ACTION
(Seyfarth, _Beylage,_ i. 159-166).] Our new cavalry-manoeuvres deserve
praise. Margraf Karl had the honor to gain his Cousin's approbation this
day; and to prove himself, says the Cousin, (worthy of the
grandfather he came from,'--my own great-grandfather; Great Elector,
Friedrich-Wilhelm; whose style of motion at Fehrbellin, or on the ice
of the Frische Haf (soldiers all in sledges, tearing along to be at the
Swedes), was probably somewhat of this kind."...
"Some days ago, Winterfeld had been pushed out to Landshut, with
Detachment of 2,000, to judge a little for himself which way the
Austrians were coming, and to scare off certain Uhlans (the SAXON
species of Tolpatchery), who were threatening to be mischievous
thereabouts. The Uhlans, at sound of Winterfeld, jingled away at once:
but, in a day or two, there came upon him, on the sudden, Pandour
outburst in quite other force;--and in the very hours while Ziethen was
struggling into Jagerndorf, and still more emphatically next day, while
Margraf Karl was handling his Pandours,--Colonel Winterfeld, a hundred
miles to westward lapped among the Mountains, chanced to be dealing
again with the same article. Very busy with it, from 4 o'clock this
morning; likely to give a good account of the job. Steadily defending
Landshut and himself, against the grenadier battalions, cannon and
furious overplus of Pandours (8,000 or 9,000, it is said, six to one
or so in the article of cavalry), which General Nadasti, a scientific
leader of men or Pandours, skilfully and furiously hurls upon Landshut
and him, in an unexpected manner. Colonel Winterfeld had need of all his
heart and energy, in the intricate ground; against the furious overplus
well manoeuvred: but in him too there are manoeuvres; if he fall
back here, it is to rush on double strong there; hour after hour he
inexpugnably defends himself,--till General Stille, Friedrich's old
Tutor, our worthy writing friend, whom we occasionally quote, comes up
with help; and Nadasti is at once brushed home again, with sore smart of
failure, and 'the loss of 600 killed,' among other items. [_Bericht von
der am 21 Mai, 1745 bey Landshut rorgefallener Action, in Feldzuge,_ i.
302-305 (or in Seyfarth, _Beylage,_ i. 155-158); _OEuvres de
Frederic,_ iii. 105; Stille, pp. 120-124 (who misdates, "23d May" for
22d).] Colonel Winterfeld was made Major-General next day, for this
action. Colonel Winterfeld is cutting out a high course for himself,
by his conduct in these employments; solidity, brilliant effectuality,
shining through all he does; his valor and value, his rapid just
insight, fiery energy and nobleness of mind more and more disclosing
themselves,--to one who is a judge of men, and greatly needs for his own
use the first-rate quality in that article."
Friedrich has left the mouse-trap open;--and latterly has been baiting
it with a pleasant spicing of toasted cheese. One of his Spies,
reporting from Prince Karl's quarters, Friedrich has at this time
discovered to be a Double-Spy, reporting thither as well. Double-Spy,
there is an ugly fact;--perhaps not quite convenient to abolish it
by hemp and gibbet; perhaps it could be turned to use, as most facts
can? "Very good, my expert Herr von Schonfeld [that was the
knave's name]; and now of all things, whenever the Prince does get
across,--instant word to us of that! Nothing so important to us. If
he should get BETWEEN us and Breslau, for example, what would the
consequence be!" To this purport Friedrich instructs his Double-Spy;
sends him off, unhanged, to Prince Karl's Camp, to blab this fresh bit
of knowledge. "We likewise," says Friedrich, "ordered some repairs on
the roads leading to Breslau;"--last turn of the hand to our bit of
toasted fragrancy. And Prince Karl is actually striding forward, at
an eager pace:--and Nadasti VERSUS Winterfeld, the other day, could
Winterfeld have guessed it, was the actual vanguard of the march; and
will be up again straightway! Whereupon Winterfeld too is called home;
and all eyes are bent on the Landshut side.
Prince Karl, under these fine omens, had been urgent on the Saxons to be
swift; Saxons under Weissenfels did at last "get their cannon up,"
and we hear of them for certain, in junction with the Austrians, at
Schatzlar, on the Bohemian side of the Giant-Mountains; climbing with
diligence those wizard solitudes and highland wastes. In a word, they
roll across into Silesia, to Landshut (29th May); nothing doubting but
Friedrich has cowered into what retreats he has, as good as desperate of
Silesia, and will probably be first heard of in Breslau, when they get
thither with their sieging guns. No cautious sagacious old Feldmarschall
Traun is in that Host at present; nothing but a Prince Karl, and a
poor Duke of Weissenfels; who are too certain of several things;--very
capable of certainty, and also of doubt, the wrong way of the facts.
Their force is, by strict count, 75,000; and they march from Landshut,
detained a little by provender concerns, on the last day of May.
[Orlich, ii. 146; Ranke, iii. 247; Stenzel, iv. 245.]
May 28th, Friedrich had encamped at Frankenstein; May 30th, he sets
forth northwestward, to be nearer the new scene; encamps at Reichenbach,
that night; pushes forward again, next day, for Schweidnitz, for
Striegau (in all, a shift northwest of some forty miles);--and from June
1st, lies stretched out between Schweidnitz and Striegau, nine miles
long; well hidden in the hollows of the little Rivers thereabouts
(Schweidnitz Water, Striegau Water), with their little knolls and
hills; watching Prince Karl's probable place of egress from the Mountain
Country opposite. His main Camp is from Schweidnitz to Jauernik, some
five miles long; but he has his vanguard up as far as Striegau, Dumoulin
and Winterfeld as vanguard, in good strength, a little way behind or
westward of that Town and Stream; Nassau and his Division are screened
in the Wood called Nonnenbusch (NUN'S BUSH), and there are outposts
sprinkled all about, and vedettes watching from the hill-tops, from
the Stanowitz Foxhill; the Zedlitz "Cowhill," "Winchill:" an Army not
courting observation, but intent very much to observe. Nadasti has
appeared again; at Freyburg, few miles off, on this side of the
Mountains; goes out scouting, reconnoitring; but is "fired at from the
growing corn," and otherwise hoodwinked by false symptoms, and makes
little of that business. Friedrich's Army we will compute at 70,000.
[General-Lieutenant Freiherr Leo von Lutzow, _Die Schlacht von
Hohenfriedbeg_ (Potsdam, 1845), pp. 18, 21.] Not quite equal in number
to Prince Karl's; and, in other particulars, willing and longing that
Prince Karl would arrive, and try its quality.
Friedrich's head-quarter is at Jauernik: he goes daily riding hither,
thither; to the top of the Fuchsberg (FOXHILL at Stanowitz) with eager
spy-glass; daily many times looks with his spy-glass to the ragged peaks
about Bolkenhayn, Kauder, Rohnstock; expecting the throw of the dice
from that part. On Thursday, 3d June: Do you notice that cloud of dust
rising among the peaks over yonder? Dust-cloud mounting higher and
higher. There comes the big crisis, then! There are the combined
Weissenfels and Karl with their Austrian Saxons, issuing proudly from
their stone labyrinth; guns, equipments, baggages, all perfectly brought
through; rich Silesian plain country now fairly at their feet, Breslau
itself but a few marches off:--at sight of all which, the Austrian big
host bursts forth into universal field-music, and shakes out its banners
to the wind. Thursday, 3d June, 1745; a dramatic Entry of something
quite considerable on the Stage of History.
Friedrich, with Nassau and generals round, stands upon the
Fuchsberg,--his remarks not given, his looks or emotions not described
to us, his thought well known,--and looks at it through his TUBUS (or
spy-glass): There they are, then, and the big moment is come! Friedrich
had seen the dust and the manoeuvring of them, deeper in the Hills, from
this same Fuchsberg yesterday, and inferred what was coming; calculated
by what roads or hill-tracks they could issue: and how he, in each case,
was to deal with them; his march-routes are all settled, plank-bridges
repaired, all privately is ready for these proud Austrian musical
gentlemen, here in the hollow. Friedrich has been upon this Fuchsberg
with his TUBUS daily, many times since Monday last: it is our general
observatorium, says Stille, and commands a fine view into the interior
of these Hills. A Fuchsberg which has become notable in the Prussian
maps: "the Stanowitz Fuchsberg," east side of Striegau Water,--let
no tourist mistake himself; for there are two or even three other
Fuchsbergs, a mile or so northward on the western side of that Stream,
which need to be distinguished by epithets, as the Striegau Fuchsberg,
the Graben Fuchsberg, and perhaps still others: comparable to the FOUR
Neisse rivers, three besides the one we know, which occur in this piece
of Country! Our German cousins, I have often sorrowed to find, have
practically a most poor talent for GIVING NAMES; and indeed much,
for ages back, is lying in a sad state of confusion among them. Many
confused things, rotting far and wide, in contradiction to the plainest
laws of Nature; things as well as names! All the welcomer this Prussian
Army, this young Friedrich leading it; they, beyond all earthly entities
of their epoch, are not in a state of confusion, but of most strict
conformity to the laws of Arithmetic and facts of Nature: perhaps a very
blessed phenomenon for Germany in the long-run.
Prince Karl with Weissenfels, General Berlichingen and many plumed
dignitaries, are dining on the Hill-top near Hohenfriedberg: after
having given order about everything, they witness there, over their
wine, the issue of their Columns from the Mountains; which goes on all
afternoon, with field-music, spread banners; and the oldest General
admits he never saw a finer review-manoeuvre, or one better done, if
so well. Thus sit they on the Hill-top (GALGENBERG, not far from the
gallows of the place, says Friedrich), in the beautiful June afternoon.
Silesia lying beautifully azure at their feet; the Zobtenberg, enchanted
Mountain, blue and high on one's eastern horizon; Prussians noticeable
only in weak hussar parties four or five miles off, which vanish in the
hollow grounds again. All intending for Breslau, they, it is
like;--and here, red wine and the excellent manoeuvre going on. "The
Austrian-and-Saxon Army streamed out all afternoon," says a Country
Schoolmaster of those parts, whose Day-book has been preserved, [In
Lutzow, pp. 123-132.] "each regiment or division taking the place
appointed it; all afternoon, till late in the night, submerging the
Country as in a deluge," five miles long of them; taking post at the
foot of the Hills there, from Hohenfriedberg round upon Striegau,
looking towards the morrow's sunrise. To us poor country-folk not a
beautiful sight; their light troops flying ahead, and doing theft and
other mischief at a sad rate.
On the other hand, the Austrian and Saxon gentlemen, from their
Gallows-Hill at Hohenfriedberg, notice, four or five miles in the
distance, opposite them, or a little to the left of opposite, a Body
of Prussian horse and foot, visibly wending northward; like a long
glittering serpent, the glitter of their muskets flashing back yonder
on the afternoon sun and us, as they mount from hollow to height. Ten or
twelve thousand of them; making for Striegau, to appearance. Intending
to bivouac or billet there, and keep some kind of watch over us;
belike with an eye to being rear-guard, on the retreat towards Breslau
to-morrow? Or will they retreat without attempting mischief? Serenity of
Weissenfels engages to seize the heights and proper posts, over
yonder, this night yet; and will take Striegau itself, the first thing,
to-morrow morning.
Yes, your Serenities, those are Prussians in movement: Vanguard Corps of
Dumoulin, Winterfeld;--Rittmeister Seydlitz rides yonder:--and it is not
their notion to retreat without mischief. For there stands, not so far
off, on the Stanowitz Fuchsberg, a brisk little Gentleman, if you could
notice him; with his eyes fixed on you, and plans in the head of him
now getting nearly mature. For certain, he is pushing out that column of
men; and all manner of other columns are getting order to push out,
and take their ground; and to-morrow morning--you will not find him in
retreat! Such are the phenomena in that Striegau-Hohenfriedberg region,
while the sun is bending westward, on Thursday, 3d June, 1745.
"From Hohenfriedberg, which leans against the higher Mountains, there
may be, across to Striegau northeast, which stands well apart from them,
among lower Hills of its own, a distance of about five English miles.
The intervening country is of flat, though upland nature: the first
broad stage, or STAIR-STEP, so to speak, leading down into the general
interior levels of Silesia in those parts. A tract which is now
tolerably dried by draining, but was then marshy as well as bushy:--flat
to the eye, yet must be imperceptibly convexed a little, for the line of
watershed is hereabouts: walk from Hohenfriedberg to Striegau, the
water on your left hand flows, though mainly in ditches or imperceptible
oozings, to the north and west,--there to fall into an eastern fork of
the Roaring Neisse [one of our three new Neisses, which is a very quiet
stream here; runs close by the Mountain base, fed by many torrents,
and must get its name, WUTHENDE or Roaring, from the suddenness of its
floods]: into this, bound northward and westward, run or ooze all waters
on your left hand, as you go to Striegau. Right hand, again, or to
eastward, you will find all sauntering, or running in visible brooks
into Striegau Water [little River notable to us], which comes circling
from the Mountains, past Hohenfriedberg, farther south; and has got to
some force as a stream before it reaches Striegau, and turns abruptly
eastward;--eastward, to join Schweidnitz Water, and form with it the
SECOND stair-step downwards to the Plain Country. Has its Fuchsbergs,
Kuhbergs and little knolls and heights interspersed, on both sides of
it, in the conceivable way.
"So that, looking eastward from the heights of Hohenfriedberg, our broad
stage or stair-step has nothing of the nature of a valley, but rather is
a kind of insensibly swelling plain between two valleys, or hollows,
of small depth; and slopes both ways. Both ways; but MORE towards the
Striegau-Water valley or hollow; and thence, in a lazily undulating
manner, to other hollows and waters farther down. Friedrich's Camp lies
in the next, the Schweidnitz-Water hollow; and is five, or even
nine miles long, from Schweidnitz northward;--much hidden from the
Austrian-Saxon gentlemen at present. No hills farther, mere flat
country, to eastward of that. But to the north, again, about Striegau,
the hollow deepens, narrows; and certain Hills," much notable at
present, "rise to west of Striegau, definite peaked Hills, with granite
quarries in them and basalt blocks atop:--Striegau, it appears, is, in
old Czech dialect, TRZIZA, which means TRIPLE HILL, the 'Town of the
Three Hills.' [Lutzow, p. 28.] An ancient quaint little Town, of perhaps
2,000 souls: brown-gray, the stones of it venerably weathered; has its
wide big market-place, piazza, plain-stones, silent enough except on
market-days: nestles itself compactly in the shelter of its Three Hills,
which screen it from the northwest; and has a picturesque appearance,
its Hills and it, projected against the big Mountain range beyond, as
you approach it from the Plain Country.
"Hohenfriedberg, at the other corner of our battle-stage, on the road
to Landshut, is a Village of no great compass; but sticks pleasantly
together, does not straggle in the usual way; climbs steep against its
Gallows-Hill (now called 'SIEGESBERG, Victory Hill,' with some tower or
steeple-monument on it, built by subscription); and would look better,
if trimmed a little and habitually well swept. The higher Mountain
summits, Landshut way, or still more if you look southeastward,
Glatz-ward, rise blue and huge, remote on your right; to left, the
Roaring Neisse range close at hand, is also picturesque, though less
Alpine in type." [Tourist's Note (1858).]... And of all Hills, the
notablest, just now to us, are those "Three" at Striegau.
Those Three Hills of Striegau his Serenity of Weissenfels is to lay hold
of, this night, with his extreme left, were it once got deployed and
bivouacked. Those Hills, if he can: but Prussian Dumoulin is already
on march thither; and privately has his eye upon them, on Friedrich's
part!--For the rest, this upland platform, insensibly sloping two ways,
and as yet undrained, is of scraggy boggy nature in many places; much
of it damp ground, or sheer morass; better parts of it covered, at this
season, with rank June grass, or greener luxuriance of oats and barley.
A humble peaceable scene; peaceable till this afternoon; dotted, too,
with six or seven poor Hamlets, with scraggy woods, where they have
their fuel; most sleepy littery ploughman Hamlets, sometimes with a
SCHLOSS or Mansion for the owner of the soil (who has absconded in the
present crisis of things), their evening smoke rising rather fainter
than usual; much cookery is not advisable with Uhlans and Tolpatchcs
flying about. Northward between Striegau and the higher Mountains there
is an extensive TEICHWIRTHSCHAFT, or "Pond-Husbandry" (gleaming visible
from Hohenfriedberg Gallows-Hill just now); a combination of stagnant
pools and carp-ponds, the ground much occupied hereabouts with what
they name Carp-Husbandry. Which is all drained away in our time, yet
traceable by the studious:--quaggy congeries of sluices and fish-ponds,
no road through them except on intricate dams; have scrubby thickets
about the border;--this also is very strong ground, if Weissenfels
thought of defence there.
Which Weissenfels does not, but only of attack. He occupies the ground
nevertheless, rearward of this Carp-Husbandry, as becomes a strategic
man; gradually bivouacking all round there, to end on the Three Hills,
were his last regiments got up. The Carp-Husbandry is mainly about
Eisdorf Hamlet:--in Pilgramshayn, where Weissenfels once thought of
lodging, lives our Writing Schoolmaster. The Mountains lie to westward;
flinging longer shadows, as the invasive troops continually deploy, in
that beautiful manner; and coil themselves strategically on the ground,
a bent rope, cordon, or line (THREE lines in depth), reaching from the
front skirts of Hohenfriedberg to the Hills at Striegau again,--terrible
to behold.
In front of Hohenfriedberg, we say, is the extremity or right wing of
the Austrian-Saxon bivouac, or will be when the process is complete;
five miles to northeast, sweeping round upon Striegau region, will be
their left, where mainly are the Saxons,--to nestle upon those Three
Hills of Striegau: whitherward however, Dumoulin, on Friedrich's behalf,
is already on march. Austrian-Saxon bivouac, as is the way in regulated
hosts, can at once become Austrian-Saxon order-of-battle: and then,
probably, on the Chord of that Arc of five miles, the big Fight will
roll to-morrow; Striegau one end of it, Hohenfriedbcrg the other.
Flattish, somewhat elliptic upland, stair-step from the Mountains, as
we called it; tract considerably cut with ditches, carp-husbandries, and
their tufts of wood; line from Striegau to Hohenfriedberg being axis
or main diameter of it, and in general the line of watershed: there,
probably, will the tug of war be. Friedrich, on his Fuchsberg, knows
this; the Austrian-Saxon gentlemen, over their wine on the Gallows-Hill,
do not yet know it, but will know.
It was about four in the afternoon, when Valori, with a companion,
waiting a good while in the King's Tent at Jauernik, at last saw his
Majesty return from the Fuchsberg observatory. Valori and friend have
great news: "Tournay fallen; siege done, your Majesty!" Valori's friend
is one De Latour; who had brought word of Fontenoy ("important victory
on the Scamander," as Friedrich indignantly defined it to himself); and
was bid wait here till this Siege-of-Tournay consummation ("as helpful
to me as the Siege of Pekin!") should supervene. They hasten to salute
his Majesty with the glorious tidings, Hmph! thinks Friedrich: and
we are at death-grips here, little to be helped by your taking Pekin!
However, he lets wit of nothing. "I make my compliments; mean to
fight to-morrow." [Valori, i. 228.] Valori, as old soldier and friend,
volunteers to be there and assist:--Good.
Friedrich, I presume, at this late hour of four, may bc snatching a
morsel of dinner; his orderlies are silently speeding, plans taken,
orders given: To start all, at eight in the evening, for the Bridge
of Striegau; there to cross, and spread to the right and to the left.
Silent, not a word spoken, not a pipe lighted: silently across the
Striegau Water there. A march of three miles for the nearest, who are
here at Jauernik; of nine miles for the farthest about Schweidnitz; at
Schweidnitz leave all your baggage, safe under the guns there. To
the Bridge of Striegau, diligently, silently march along; Bridge of
Striegau, there cross Striegau Water, and deploy to right and to left,
in the way each of you knows. These are Friedrich's orders.
Late in the dusk, Dumoulin and Winterfeld, whom we saw silently on march
some hours ago, have silently glided past Striegau, and got into the
Three-Hill region, which is some furlong or so farther north:--to his
surprise, Dumoulin finds Saxon parties posting themselves thereabouts.
He attacks said Saxon parties; and after some slight tussle, drives them
mostly from their Three Hills; mostly, not altogether; one Saxon Hill
is precipitous on our hither side of it, and we must leave that till the
dawn break. Of the other Heights Dumoulin takes good possession, with
cannon too, to be ready against dawn;--and ranks himself out to leftward
withal, along the plain ground; for he is to be right wing, had the
other troops come up. These are now all under way; astir from Jauernik
and Schweidnitz, silently streaming along; and Dumoulin bivouacs
here,--very silent he: not so silent the Saxons; who are still marching
in, over yonder, to westward of Dumoulin, their rear-guard groping out
its posts as it best can in the dark. Elsewhere, miles and miles along
the foot of the Mountains, Austrian-Saxon watch-fires flame through the
ambrosial night; and it is an impressive sight for Dumoulin,--still more
for the poor Schoolmaster at Pilgramshayn and others, less concerned
than Dumoulin. "It was beautiful," says Stille, who was there, "to see
how the plain about Rohnstock, and all over that way, was ablaze with
thousands of watch-fires (TAUSEND UND ABER TAUSEND); by the light of
these, we could clearly perceive the enemy's troops continually defile
from the Hills the whole night through." [Cited in Seyfarth, i. 630.]
Serenity of Weissenfels, after all, does not lodge at Pilgramshayn; far
in the night, he goes to sleep at Rohnstock, a Schloss and Hamlet on
that fork of Roaring Neisse, by the foot of the Mountains; three or
four miles off, yet handy enough for picking up Striegau the first
thing to-morrow. His Highness Prince Karl lies in Hausdorf, tolerable
quarters, pretty much in the centre of his long bivouac; day's business
well done, and bottle (as one's wont rather is) well enjoyed. Nadasti
has been out scouting; but was pricked into by hussar parties, fired
into from the growing corn; and could make out little, but the image
of his own ideas. Nadasti's ultimate report is, That the Prussians are
perfectly quiet in their camp; from Jauernik to Schweidnitz, watch-fires
all alight, sentries going their rounds. And so they are, in fact;
sentries and watch-fires,--but now nothing else there, a mere shell of
a camp; the men of it streaming steadily along, without speech, without
tobacco; and many of them are across Striegau Bridge by this time!--
It was past eleven, so close and continuous went this march, before
Valori and his Latour, with their carriages and furnitures, could
find an interval, and get well into it. Never will Valori forget the
discipline of these Prussians, and how they marched. Difficult ways; the
hard road is for their artillery; the men march on each side, sometimes
to mid-leg in water,--never mind. Wholly in order, wholly silent; Valori
followed them three leagues close, and there was not one straggler.
Every private man, much more every officer, knows well what grim errand
they are on; and they make no remarks. Steady as Time; and, except that
their shoes are not of felt, silent as he. The Austrian watch-fires glow
silent manifold to leftward yonder; silent overhead are the stars:--the
path of all duty, too, is silent (not about Striegau alone) for every
well-drilled man. To-morrow;--well, to-morrow?
A grimmish feeling against the Saxons is understood to be prevalent
among these men. Bruhl, Weissenfels himself, have been reported talking
high,--"Reduce our King to the size of an Elector again," and other
foolish things;--indeed, grudges have been accumulating for some time.
"KEIN PARDON (No quarter)!" we hear has been a word among the Saxons,
as they came along; the Prussians growl to one another, "Very well then,
None!" Nay Friedrich's general order is, "No prisoners, you cavalry, in
the heat of fight; cavalry, strike at the faces of them: you infantry,
keep your fire till within fifty steps; bayonet withal is to be relied
on." These were Friedrich's last general orders, given in the hollow of
the night, near the foot of that Fuchsberg where he had been so busy all
day; a widish plain space hereabouts, Striegau Bridge now near: he had
lain snme time in his cloak, waiting till the chief generals, with
the heads of their columns, could rendezvous here. He then sprang
on horseback; spoke briefly the essential things (one of them the
above);--"Had meant to be more minute, in regard to positions and the
like; but all is so in darkness, embroiled by the flare of the Austrian
watch-fires, we can make nothing farther of localities at present:
Striegau for right wing, left wing opposite to Hohenfriedberg,--so, and
Striegau Water well to rear of us. Be diligent, exact, all faculties
awake: your own sense, and the Order of Battle which you know, must do
the rest. Forward; steady: can I doubt but you will acquit yourselves
like Prussian men?" And so they march, across the Bridge at Striegau,
south outskirt of the Town,--plank Bridge, I am afraid;--and pour
themselves, to right and to left, continually the livelong night.
To describe the Battle which ensued, Battle named of Striegau or
Hohenfriedberg, excels the power of human talent,--if human talent had
leisure for such employment. It is the huge shock and clash of 70,000
against 70,000, placed in the way we said. An enormous furious SIMALTAS
(or "both-at-once," as the Latins phrase it), spreading over ten square
miles. Rather say, a wide congeries of electric simultaneities; all
ELECTRIC, playing madly into one another; most loud, most mad: the
aspect of which is smoky, thunderous, abstruse; the true SEQUENCES of
which, who shall unravel? There are five accounts of it, all modestly
written, each true-looking from its own place: and a thrice-diligent
Prussian Officer, stationed on the spot in late years, has striven well
to harmonize them all. [Five Accounts: 1. The Prussian Official Account,
in _Helden-Geschichte,_ i. 1098-1102. 2. The Saxon, ib. 1103-1108.
3. The Austrian, ib. 1109-1115. 4. Stille's (ii. 125-133, of English
Translation). 5. Friedrich's own, _OEuvres,_ iii. 108-118. Lutzow, above
cited, is the harmonizer. Besides which, two of value, in _Feldzuge,_ i.
310-323, 328-336; not to mention Cogniazzo, _Confessions of an Austrian
Veeran_ (Breslau, 1788-1791: strictly Anonymous at that time, and
candid, or almost more, to Prussian merit;--still worth reading, here
and throughout), ii. 123-135; &c. &c.] Well worth the study of
military men;--who might make tours towards this and the other great
battle-field, and read such things, were they wise. For us, a feature
or two, in the huge general explosion, to assist the reader's fancy in
conceiving it a little, is all that can be pretended to.