The Russian infantry being involved in the turmoil and confusion
caused by the charge of Seidlitz, and the defeat of their cavalry,
the Prussian infantry again pressed forward, pouring in a heavy
fire and charging with the bayonet. Three battalions had been drawn
from this very country and, maddened by the tales they had heard of
Cossack cruelty, were not to be denied. The Russians, however,
keeping their ranks, filling up the gaps as they were formed, and
returning as best they could the fire of the Prussians, held
together with sullen obstinacy. By this time the ammunition on both
sides was exhausted, and now the struggle became hand to hand,
bayonet against bayonet, butt end of musket to butt end.
Seldom has so terrible a struggle ever been witnessed. Nightfall
was approaching. Foot by foot the inert Russian mass was pushed
backwards. One of their generals, Demikof, collected some two
thousand foot and a thousand horse, and took possession of a knoll;
and Frederick ordered them to be dispersed again. Forcade was
ordered to attack them with two battalions, and General Rutter to
bring up the Dohna men again and take them in flank; but the latter
had not recovered from their state of demoralization, and at the
first cannon shot turned and ran, continuing their flight even
further than before, and taking refuge in the woods. Frederick
instantly dismissed Rutter from the service.
Then, as night had completely fallen, the terrible conflict ceased.
Fermor by this time, finding that there was no crossing the rivers,
had returned. No regiment or battalion of his army remained in
order. There was but a confused crowd, which the officers did their
best to form into some sort of order, regardless of regiment or
battalion. The Cossacks scoured the fields under the cover of
night, plundering the dead and murdering the wounded, flames
marking their path. Four hundred of them were caught at their work
by the Prussian hussars, and every one killed.
Frederick sent for his tents, and the army pitched its camp, facing
the Russians; but during the night the latter, having got into a
sort of order, moved away to the westward and bivouacked on Drewitz
Heath, facing the battle ground.
Fermor had some twenty-eight thousand men still with him, while
Frederick had eighteen thousand. The former's loss had been
twenty-one thousand, five hundred and twenty-nine killed, wounded,
or missing; of whom eight thousand were killed. That of the
Prussians was eleven thousand, three hundred and ninety, of whom
three thousand six hundred and eighty were killed. Thus each side
lost a third of its number in this terrible struggle.
The next morning the Russians got into better order, and drew up in
order of battle. A cannonade was for some time kept up on both
sides, but the armies were beyond range of artillery.
Neither party had any real thoughts of fighting. Fermor, beaten on
his own ground the day before, could not dream of attacking the
Prussians. The latter were worn out by the fatigues of the previous
day. Moreover, on each side the musketry ammunition was used up.
The hussars, pursuing the Cossacks, had in the night come upon the
Russian waggon train at Kleim, and carried off a good deal of
portable plunder.
The next morning, under cover of a fog, the Russians retreated,
reached their baggage, and then moved slowly away; and, harassed by
Dohna, sullenly continued their retreat to the Russian frontier. If
Frederick could have pressed them, he would probably have won
another victory; but he had news which called him to hasten away
west to join Prince Henry, as his presence there was urgently
required for the defence of Saxony.
Fergus had been with the king, when the Dohna regiments gave way
before the impetuous charge of the Russians; the rest of the staff
having been sent away, one after the other, either to bring up
Seidlitz or to order a fresh movement among the infantry; and as
the king rode down to endeavour to restore order, he followed
closely behind him. The confusion was terrible. The Russian horse,
mixed up with the infantry, were sabring and trampling them down.
Suddenly three of them dashed at the king. Fergus, setting spurs to
his horse, interposed between them and Frederick. One of the
Russians was ridden over, horse and man, by the impetus of his
rush. The other two attacked him furiously, and for a moment he was
very hard pressed. He kept his horse prancing and curvetting, and
managed to keep both his assailants on his right; until at last he
cut one down and, half a minute later, ran the other through the
body.
"Gallantly done, Major Drummond," the king said quietly as,
wheeling his horse, Fergus returned back to take his post behind
him. "I shall not forget that you have saved my life."
Then, without further comment, Frederick continued his work trying
to rally the infantry; ordering, entreating, and even laying the
cane he always carried across their shoulders.
A minute later there was a thunder of hoofs, and Seidlitz burst
down upon the Russian mass, changing in a moment the fate of the
battle. Excited by the late encounter, Fergus's horse took its bit
between its teeth, joined Seidlitz's cavalry as they swept past
and, in spite of the efforts of its rider, plunged with him into
the midst of the fight. For the next few minutes Fergus had but
slight knowledge of what was going on, he being engaged in a series
of hand-to-hand fights with both cavalry and infantry. Three times
he was wounded, and then the pressure ceased, and he was again
galloping across the moors in pursuit of the Russian horse.
It was not until Seidlitz's force drew rein that he recovered the
control of his horse. Its flank was bleeding from a bayonet gash,
and a bullet had gone through its neck. The first wound was of
comparatively small consequence, but he feared that the other was
serious; but though the horse panted from its exertion and
excitement, its breath came regularly; and it was evident that the
ball had not hit the spine, for had it done so it would have fallen
at once.
He turned and rode back with the cavalry, who dismounted a short
distance from the scene of action, in readiness to take their part
again, should they be required; while he pursued his way to the
spot where the king had stationed himself, surrounded by several of
his staff. The king glanced at him, and then said:
"You are relieved from duty, Major Drummond. Let one of the
surgeons see to you, at once."
Fergus rode but a short distance and then, turning suddenly faint,
he slid from his horse to the ground. One of the staff, happening
to look round, at once rode back to him.
"You had best let me bandage up your wounds roughly," he said. "It
will be difficult to find a surgeon, now that they are all up to
their eyes in work, somewhere in the rear."
Fergus had received two severe wounds in the face, and a bayonet
thrust through his leg. The officer did his best to stanch the
bleeding, and was still occupied in doing so when Karl rode up,
jumped from his horse, and ran to his master's side.
"Where have you been, Karl?" Fergus asked, for the soldier had also
received a severe wound in the head.
"I followed you, master, as in duty bound; but I was some distance
behind you, and in that melee I could not get near you; and being
mixed up with one of the squadrons, I did not see you as you came
back, and was in a great state about you until, on riding up to the
staff, one of the officers pointed you out to me."
"I think that you are in good hands now," the officer said. "I will
join the king again."
Fergus thanked him warmly, but in a weak voice.
"The first thing, master, is for you to get a drink," Karl said;
and he took, from the holster of Fergus's saddle, a flask that he
had placed there that morning. "Take a good drink of this," he
said, "then I will see to your wounds. It is plain enough to see
that that officer knew nothing about them."
Fergus drank half of the contents of the flask, and then handed it
to Karl.
"You finish it up," he said. "You want it as much as I do."
"Not so much, master; but I want it badly enough, I own."
Having drank, he proceeded to rebandage his master's wounds, first
laying on them rolls of lint he took from his own saddlebag.
"I never go on a campaign without lint and a bandage or two," he
said. "Many a life has been lost that might easily enough have been
saved, had they been at hand."
He laid the lint on the wounds, and then bound them firmly and
evenly. He had a bandage left, when he had finished this. With the
aid of a man who was limping to the rear, he used it for stanching
his own wounds.
"Well, master," he said, "you cannot do better than lie here, for
the present. I will look after the horses, and fasten them up to
that bush. The battle is going on as fiercely as ever, and looks as
if it would go on until dark. If so, there will be no collecting
the wounded tonight; but as soon as I see where the king bivouacs,
I will get you there somehow."
"I shall do very well here--at any rate, for the present, Karl. In
the meantime, it would be a good thing if you would take the two
horses down to the brook, and give them a good drink. You mayn't
get a chance later on. As my horse Turk is wounded in two places, I
have no doubt the poor beast is as thirsty as I am."
"The bayonet wound is of no consequence," Karl said, after
examining the horse's flanks; "except that it has taken a good bit
off its value. I don't think this bullet wound through the neck is
serious, either."
In an hour Karl returned, leading the horses.
"I feel all the better for a wash, captain. I wish you could have
one, too. I have filled my water bottle, but you will want that
before morning."
By means of the valises and cloaks, Fergus was propped up into a
half-sitting position; and he remained where he was until, after
nightfall, the din of battle ceased. He had eaten a few mouthfuls
of bread, and felt stronger; and by the time the tents were
pitched, and the bivouac fires lighted, he was able to stand. With
Karl's assistance he mounted in side-saddle fashion and, Karl
leading the horses, made for the tents of the king's staff, five
hundred yards away. Captain Diedrich, the officer who shared the
tent with Fergus, helped Karl to lift him down and carry him in.
"Do you want a surgeon to see you?"
"No, they must have thousands of serious cases on hand. I merely
fainted from loss of blood. The two wounds in my head cannot be
very serious, and Karl has bandaged them up as well as a surgeon
could do. The worst wound is in my leg. The bayonet went right
through it, and for a moment pinned it to the saddle. However, it
is but a flesh wound, behind the bone about six inches below the
knee. It bled very freely at first, but Karl stanched it, and it
has not burst out since; so it is evident that no great harm is
done."
"I will bring you in some wine and water now," Diedrich said. "They
are getting supper, and I will send you a bowl of soup, as soon as
it is ready."
After Karl had tethered the horses--that of Fergus with the others
belonging to the staff, and his own with those of the escort and
staff orderlies--he sat down at one of the fires, ate his
supper--for each man carried three days' provisions in his
haversack--and, chatting with his comrades, heard that several of
the orderlies had been killed in the fight; and that four of the
officers of the royal staff had also fallen under the enemy's fire,
as they carried messages through the storm of case shot and
bullets. All agreed that never had they seen so terrible a fight,
and that well-nigh a third, if not more, of the army had been
killed or wounded.
"We made a mistake about these Russians," one of the troopers said.
"They are dirty, and they don't even look like soldiers, but I
never saw such obstinate beggars to fight. From the moment the
cavalry made their first charge they were beaten, and ought to have
given in; but they seemed to know nothing about it, and that second
line of theirs charged as if it was but the beginning of a battle.
I was never so surprised in my life as when they poured down on us,
horse and foot; but all that was nothing to the way they stood,
afterwards. If they had been bags of sawdust they could not have
been more indifferent to our fire.
"That was a bad business of Dohna's men. I thought, when we joined
them, they looked too spick and span to be any good; but that they
should run, almost as fast and far as the men of the Federal army
at Rossbach, is shameful. Neither in the last war nor in this has a
Prussian soldier so disgraced himself.
"I don't envy them. I don't suppose a man in the army will speak to
them, and we may be sure that it will be a long time, indeed,
before our Fritz gets over it. It will need some hard fighting, and
something desperate in the way of bravery, before he forgives them.
"How is your master, Karl?"
"He will do. He has got three wounds, and lost a lot of blood; but
in a fortnight he will be in the saddle again. Perhaps less, for he
is as hard as steel."
"He saved the king's life, Karl. I was twenty yards away, and was
wedged in so that there was no moving, except backwards; for
Dohna's men were half mad with fright, and the Russians were
cutting and slashing in the middle of us."
"I saw it," Karl said. "I was close to you at the time. I put spurs
to my horse and rode over three or four of our own men, and cut
down one who grasped my reins; but I got there too late. I had no
great fear of the result, though. Why, you know, he killed six
Pomeranians who were looting Count Eulenfurst's place, close to
Dresden; and he made short work of those three Russians. It was
done beautifully, too. They tried to get one on each side of him,
but he kept them on his right, and that made a safe thing of it.
"He is a quiet, good-tempered officer. There is as much fun about
him as a boy, but when his spirit is up, there are not many
swordsmen in the army that could match him. Why, when he first
joined, nearly three years ago, he was in the 3rd Royal Dragoons,
my own regiment; and I heard the sergeant who was in the fencing
room say that there was not an officer in the regiment who was a
match for him with the sword.
"Now I have finished my pipe, and must be going to look after him
again."
The king's surgeon examined Fergus's wounds the next morning, and
said that, although he would not be able to sit a horse until his
leg had healed, he would otherwise soon be convalescent.
Soon after he had left him, Sir John Mitchell came in to see him.
As the English ambassador had very often, during the last two
winters, met Fergus in the king's apartments, at which he himself
was a regular visitor, they were by this time well known to each
other. Mitchell, indeed, regarded Fergus as a valuable assistant in
his work of interesting Frederick, and turning his mind from his
many troubles and anxieties.
"The surgeon has just given a good account of you to the king,
Drummond," he said; "and his majesty expressed much satisfaction at
hearing that your wounds are not serious.
"'That youth is not like most of your compatriots, Mitchell,' he
said to me with a smile; 'ever ready to fight, but equally ready to
join in a drinking bout, should opportunity offer. He is always on
horseback, and as hardy and as healthy as can be. With one of the
hard-drinking sort, fever might set in; but there is no risk of it
with him.
"'As I told you, he saved my life yesterday. I was nearly compelled
to take to my sword, but that would have been of little avail
against the three Russians. Save for the sake of Prussia, my life
is of no great value to me, for 'tis one full of care and trouble;
but for my country's sake I would fain hold on to it, as long as
there is hope for her deliverance from her enemies.
"'You can congratulate him on his promotion, Mitchell, for I made
him a major on the spot. It was a brilliant feat, as brilliant as
that which he performed at Lobositz, or that at Count Eulenfurst's
house at Dresden, each of which got him a step. 'Tis not often that
an officer gets thrice promoted for distinguished bravery. Each
time the feat was the talk of the whole army; and it will not be
less so at the present time, methinks, nor will any feel jealous at
his rapid rise.'"
"The king is too kind, your excellency."
"I do not think so, Drummond. I have marked you a good deal during
the last two years, and you have borne yourself well; and as a
Scotchman I am proud of you. You have the knack of your kinsman
Keith of entering into the king's humours; of being a bright
companion when he is in a good temper, and of holding your tongue
when he is put out; of expressing your opinion frankly, and yet
never familiarly; and your freshness and hopefulness often, I see,
cheer the king, whose Prussians cannot, for their lives, help being
stiff and formal, or get to talk with him as if he were a human
being like themselves.
"Next to Keith and myself, I think that there is no one with whom
the king can distract his mind so completely as with you. To him it
is like getting a whiff of the fresh air from our Scottish hills.
He told the surgeon to see that you were sent down with the first
batch of wounded officers."
The next day, accordingly, while the two armies were watching each
other and the cannon were growling, Fergus was taken down to
Frankfort.
Zorndorf was fought on the 25th of August; and on the 2nd of
September Frederick started with the army for Saxony, where Prince
Maurice had been sorely pressed by Daun and the newly-raised army
of the Confederates, and had had to take post on some heights a
short distance from Dresden.
"A bad job, major," Karl grumbled as he brought the news to Fergus,
who was quartered in a private house. "The king has gone to have a
slap at Daun; and here are we, left behind. If he would have waited
another fortnight, we might have been with him."
"Perhaps we shall get there in time yet, Karl. You may be sure that
as soon as Daun hears that the king is coming he will, as usual,
begin to fortify himself; and it will need no small amount of
marching and counter-marching to get him to come out and give
battle. He was slow and cautious before, but after Leuthen he is
likely to be doubly so.
"However, I will get a tailor here today to measure me for a new
uniform. What with blood, and your cutting my breeches to get at my
leg, I must certainly get a new outfit before I rejoin.
"I hope I shall be with the marshal again. It is a good deal more
lively with him than it is with the king's staff; who, although no
doubt excellent soldiers, are certainly not lively companions. I do
hope there will be no great battle until we get there. I should
think I might start in a week."
The surgeon, however, would not hear of this; and it was the end of
the third week in September before Fergus rode from Frankfort. The
news from the south was so far satisfactory that he had fidgeted
less than he would otherwise have done. Daun had, in fact, retired
hastily from Meissen, and had taken post in an almost impregnable
position at Stolpen. Neisse was being besieged and must be
relieved, but Daun now blocked Frederick's way at Stolpen, both to
that town and to Bautzen--cut him off, indeed, from Silesia, and
for the moment the royal army and that of Prince Maurice were lying
at Dresden. Fergus, therefore, was content to follow the doctor's
orders, and to spend four days on the journey down to Dresden.
Keith was there, and received him joyfully. Lindsay greeted him
vociferously.
"So you have gone up another step above me," he laughed. "Never was
a fellow with such luck as you have. Saved the king's life, I hear.
Tumbled over scores of Russians. Won the victory with your own
sword."
"Not quite as much as that, Lindsay," Fergus laughed. "The scores
of Cossacks come down to three, of whom one my horse tumbled over,
and I managed the other two. Still, although the battle was only
half finished when I was put out of all further part in it, I may
be said in one way to have won it; for had the king fallen, there
is no saying how matters might have gone. It is true that we could
not have lost it, for the Russians were past taking the offensive,
but it might have been a drawn battle."
"It was a terrible business," Lindsay said seriously. "As bad in
its way as Prague, that is to say in proportion to the numbers
engaged. Everyone says they would rather fight three Austrians than
one Russian. The marshal has rather scored off the king; for he
warned him that, though slow, the Russians were formidable foes,
but the king scoffed at the idea. He has found out now that he
greatly undervalued them, and has owned as much to Keith.
"I am sorry to say the marshal is not well. He suffers a good deal,
and I fancy that, after this campaign is over, he will ask to be
relieved from active duty in the field, and will take the command
of the army covering Dresden. He has led a hard life, you see, and
has done as much as three ordinary men.
"Still, we shall see how he is next spring. It would almost break
his heart to have to give up before this war is over."
"It is difficult to say when that will be, Lindsay. Here we are,
getting towards the third year, and the war is not one whit nearer
to the end than it was when we left Berlin. It is true that we have
no longer to count France as formidable, but Russia has turned out
far more so than we expected; and having once taken the matter up,
the empress, if she is half as obstinate as her soldiers, is likely
to go on at it for a long time. And we are using up our army very
fast, and cannot replace our losses as Austria and Russia can do."
"I hope they are not going to make another twenty years' war of
it," Lindsay said. "If you go on in the way that you are doing,
Drummond, you will be a field marshal in a third of that time; but
you must remember about the proverb of the pitcher and the well."
"Yes, Lindsay, but you must remember that I am having a share of
hard knocks. I have been wounded twice now, to say nothing of being
stunned and taken prisoner; so you see I am having my share of bad
luck, as well as good. Now at present you have never had as much as
a scratch, and when your bad luck comes, it may come all in a
lump."
"There is something in that, Fergus, though I own that I had not
thought of it. Well, perhaps it is better to take it in small doses
than have it come all at once.
"So you have brought your man back safe, I see, though he has had
an ugly slash across the cheek.
"By the way, I hope that those two sword cuts are not going to
leave bad scars, Drummond. It would be hard to have your beauty
spoilt for life, and you only nineteen; though, fortunately,
everyone thinks you two or three years older. However, they will be
honourable scars, and women don't mind any disfigurement in a man,
if it is got in battle. It is a pity, though, that you did not get
them when defending the king's life, instead of in the cavalry
charge afterwards.
"You brought your horse safe out of the battle, I hope?"
"He has, like myself, honourable scars, Lindsay. He got an ugly
gash on the flank with a bayonet; and I am afraid, when it heals,
white hair will grow on it. He had also a bullet through the neck.
Fortunately it missed both spine and windpipe, and is quite healed
up now."
"It is really a pity to take such a horse as that under fire,"
Lindsay said regretfully.
"Well, when one risks one's own life, one ought not to mind risking
that of a horse, however valuable."
"No, I suppose not. Still, it is a pity to ride so valuable an
animal. You are paid so much for risking your own life, you see,
Drummond; but it is no part of the bargain that you should risk
that of a horse worth any amount of money."
Fergus, on his arrival, called at once on Count Eulenfurst; who,
with his wife and daughter, were delighted to see him, for he had
now been absent from Dresden since Frederick had marched against
Soubise, thirteen months before.
"We heard from Captain Lindsay," the count said, "when the army
arrived here, some three weeks since, that you were wounded, but
not gravely; also, that for valour shown in defending the king,
when he was attacked by three Russians, you had been promoted to
the rank of major, upon which we congratulate you heartily. And now
that you have come, I suppose your king will soon be dashing away
with you again.
"What a man he is, and what soldiers! I can assure you that
sometimes, when I read the bulletins, I am inclined to regret that
I was not born two days' journey farther north. And yet, in spite
of his fierce blows at all these enemies, there is no sign of peace
being any nearer than when you dropped down to our rescue, some
twenty-seven months ago. 'Tis a terrible war."
"It is, indeed, count. Certainly, when I crossed the seas to take
service here, I little thought how terrible was the struggle that
was approaching. If we had known it, I am sure that my mother would
never have let me leave home."
"She must be terribly uneasy about you," the countess said. "Do you
hear from her often?"
"She writes once a month, and so do I. I get her letters in
batches. I know that she must be very anxious, but she says nothing
about it in her letters. She declares that she is proud that I am
fighting for a Protestant prince, so hemmed in by his enemies; and
that the thoughts and hopes of all England are with him, and the
bells ring as loudly at our victories, through England and
Scotland, as they do at Berlin."
"If we of Saxony had understood the matter sooner," the count said,
"we should be surely fighting now on your side; and indeed, had not
Frederick compelled his Saxon prisoners to serve with him, had he
sent them all to their homes, there would have been no animosity
and, as Protestants, the people would soon have come to see that
your cause was their own. Most of them do see it, now; for whenever
the enemy have entered Saxony, they have plundered and ill treated
the people, especially the Protestants.
"Are your horses still alive?"
"Yes, count, and well, save that one was wounded at Zorndorf; but
for that he cannot blame me, for it was his own doing. When
Seidlitz charged into the midst of the Russians, he passed close to
us; and Turk, maddened by excitement, seized the bit in his teeth
and joined him in the melee. I got three wounds and he had two, but
happily he has been cured as rapidly as I have, though with no
advantage to the appearance of either of us."
"Will the scars on your face always show as they do now?" Thirza
asked.
"I am sure I hope not," he said. "At present they are barely
healed; but in time, no doubt, the redness will fade out, and they
will not show greatly, though I daresay the scars will be always
visible."
"I should be proud of them, Major Drummond," said Thirza,
"considering that you got them in so great a battle, and one in
which you rendered such service to the king."
"You see, I shall not be always able to explain when and how I got
them," Fergus laughed. "People who do not know me will say:
"'There goes a young student, who has got his face slashed at the
university.'"
"They could not say that," she said indignantly. "Even if you were
not in uniform, anyone can see that you are a soldier."
"Whether or not, Countess Thirza, it is a matter that will
certainly trouble me very little. However, I begin to think that I
shall not always be a soldier. Certainly, I should not leave the
army as long as this war goes on; but I have seen such terrible
fighting, such tremendous carnage, that I think that at the end of
it, if I come out at the end, I shall be glad to take to a peaceful
life. My cousin, Marshal Keith, has been fighting all his life. He
is a great soldier, and has the honour of being regarded by the
king as his friend; but he has no home, no peace and quiet, no
children growing up to take his place. I should not like to look
forward to such a life, and would rather go back and pass my days
in the Scottish glens where I was brought up."
"I think that you are right," the count said seriously. "In
ordinary times a soldier's life would be a pleasant one, and he
could reckon upon the occasional excitement of war; but such a war
as this is beyond all calculation. In these three campaigns, and
the present one is not ended, nigh half of the army which marched
through here has been killed or wounded. It is terrible to think
of. One talks of the chances of war, but this is making death
almost a certainty; for if the war continues another two or three
years, how few will be left of those who began it!
"Even now a great battle will probably be fought, in a few days.
Two great armies are within as many marches of Dresden. The
smallest of them outnumbers Frederick. The other is fully twice his
strength, and so intrenched, as I hear, that the position is
well-nigh impregnable."
"I expect the king will find means to force him out of it, without
fighting," Fergus said with a smile. "Daun is altogether over
cautious, and Leuthen is not likely to have rendered him more
confident."
Fergus spent the greater part of his time at the count's, for
Marshal Keith insisted upon his abstaining from all duty, until the
march began.
"We are off tomorrow morning," he said, when he went up on the
evening of the 30th of September. "Where, I know not. Except the
king, Marshal Keith, and Prince Maurice, I do not suppose that
anyone knows; but wherever it is, we start at daybreak."
"May you return, ere long, safe and sound!" the count said. "Is
there nothing that we can do for you? You know we regard you as one
of the family, and there is nothing that would give us greater
pleasure than to be able, in some way, to make you comfortable."
"I thank you heartily, count, but I need nothing; and if I did I
could purchase it, for it is but seldom that one has to put one's
hand in one's pocket; and as a captain I have saved the greater
part of my pay for the last two years, and shall pile up my hoard
still faster, now that I am a major.
"I have never had an opportunity, before, of thanking you for that
purse which you handed to Karl, to be laid out for my benefit in
case of need. He holds it still, and I have never had occasion to
draw upon it, and hope that I never may have to do so."
The next morning the army, furnished with nine days' provisions,
and leaving a force to face the army of the Confederates, strode
along the road at its usual pace. They took the road for Bautzen,
drove off Loudon (who commanded Daun's northern outposts) without
difficulty, and so passed his flank. The advance guard pushed on to
Bautzen, drove away the small force there and, leaving there the
magazines of the army, occupied Hochkirch, a few miles away. The
king with the main body arrived at Bautzen on the following day,
and halted there, to see what Daun was going to do.
The latter was, in fact, obliged to abandon his stronghold; for the
Prussians, at Hochkirch, menaced the road by which he drew his
provisions from his magazines at Zittau. Marching at night, he
reached and occupied a line of hills between Hochkirch and Zittau,
and within a couple of miles of the former place.
Frederick had been forced to wait, at Bautzen, till another convoy
of provisions arrived. When he joined the division at Hochkirch,
and saw Daun's army on the opposite hills, busy as usual in
intrenching itself, he ordered the army to encamp when they were
within a mile of Daun's position.
Marwitz, the staff officer to whom he gave the order, argued and
remonstrated, and at length refused to be concerned in the marking
out of such an encampment. He was at once put under arrest, and
another officer did the work. Frederick, in fact, entertained a
sovereign contempt for Daun, with his slow marches, his perpetual
intrenchings, and his obstinate caution; and had no belief,
whatever, that the Austrian marshal would attempt to attack him. He
was in a very bad humour, too, having discovered that Retzow had
failed to take possession of the Stromberg, a detached hill which
would have rendered the position a safe one. He put him under
arrest, and ordered the Stromberg to be occupied.
The next morning the force proceeding to do so found, however, that
the post was already occupied by Austrians; who resisted stoutly
and, being largely reinforced, maintained their position on the
hill, on which several batteries were placed. It was now Tuesday,
and Frederick determined to march away on the Saturday.
His obstinacy had placed the army in an altogether untenable and
dangerous position. All his officers were extremely uneasy, and
Keith declared to the king that the Austrians deserved to be hanged
if they did not attack; to which Frederick replied:
"We must hope that they are more afraid of us than even of the
gallows."