Chapter 10: Rossbach.
Fergus knew that there were several cavalry posts ahead, andthought it likely that some of these might be left to give warningof the Prussian approach. He therefore rode across the country forsome miles. He had begun to think that he must have gone beyond thelimit of their outposts, when he saw a hussar pacing across theline in front of him, his beat evidently being between two smallwoods three or four hundred yards apart.
He checked his horse, as he saw Fergus approaching. He was agood-tempered looking fellow, and nodded to Fergus as much as tosay that, if he could speak his language, he should like a chatwith him. The latter at once checked his horse, and said good day,in French.
"Ah, you speak our language!" the soldier said. "I am glad toexchange a word with someone. It is hot here, especially when one'stime is up, and one ought to have been relieved, an hour ago."
"Yes, I can understand that. I expect you have been forgotten."
"Well, it does not make much difference. I shall get off my nextguard, in consequence."
"You will have to wait some time before you are relieved, if youstop here."
"What do you mean?" the soldier asked.
"I mean that when I left Erfurt your army was all moving west, andas I rode along I met several troops of cavalry, galloping to jointhem."
"That is strange news. Nothing whatever was known, when I came outhere."
"No, the news only arrived at Erfurt, this morning, thatFrederick's army is within a day's march; and I saw the troopsmarch out, and the baggage waggons on their way before I started. Idon't say that your troop may have gone. They may have stopped toform a post of observation."
"Well, at any rate I shall go into the village and see. I ought tohave been relieved an hour ago; and if they had such news as that,and had remained there, they would have been sure to have sent, toorder all videttes to use special vigilance. We have only beenposted here as a sort of practice, for we did not think that therewas an enemy within a hundred and fifty miles; and now, if the newsis true, we may have the Prussian cavalry coming along at anymoment.
"Well, thank you for warning me," and turning his horse, he wentoff at a gallop.
As the outposts would not have been set, except by the party mostin advance, Fergus knew that there was now no more risk of fallingin with the enemy; unless a cavalry force had been sent forward, toendeavour to get an idea of the force of the Prussians. But as thegenerals had so precipitately decided upon a retreat, it was notlikely that they would have ordered any reconnaissance of this kindto be made.
He therefore presently regained the main road and, riding fast,arrived at the place where the Prussians had pitched their camp,thirty miles from Erfurt, having made a twenty-miles march thatday. He dismounted at the house where Keith had established hisquarters.
"I have bad news for you, sir," he said. "Word of your comingreached Erfurt, at eight o'clock this morning; and by eleven thewhole army were on their march westward, bag and baggage."
"That is bad news, Fergus. You could hardly have brought worse. Theking had hoped to have struck a heavy blow, and then to be offagain to face the Austrians. What strength were they?"
"About fifty thousand."
"How did they get the news of our coming?"
"That I cannot say, sir. I had gone into Erfurt soon after five,and had already picked up a good deal of news, from the talk of aparty of French non-commissioned officers who were taking breakfastat a small inn; and who, not imagining that I could understandthem, talked very freely over affairs. They sat over their mealsome time, and I did not go out until they had left.
"Just as I did so, a mounted officer galloped past, at a speed thatshowed he was the bearer of an important despatch. I followed himto Soubise's headquarters. While there, I noticed several mountedofficers rode out in great haste. A quarter of an hour later,several general officers arrived. There was a consultation for halfan hour, and then officers rode off in all directions; and in a fewminutes trumpets were sounding, and drums beating, all over thetown.
"In a very short time a movement began towards the western gate. Byten o'clock the tents were all struck round the town, the waggonsloaded, and they were on their way west. An hour later, and thewhole force was in movement in that direction; and as I issued fromthe town on this side, I met the cavalry that had been scatteredamong the villages, galloping in. I don't think that there is, atthe present moment, an enemy within ten miles of Erfurt."
"You were in no danger, yourself?"
"None at all, sir. I passed the night at a friendly peasant's hut,five miles this side of the town, inside their advanced posts. Ileft my horse in a wood, and my peasant guided me by bypaths to thetown. I did not exchange a word with anyone, except the landlord ofthe hotel where I breakfasted. He was bitterly hostile to theenemy.
"I also spoke to a solitary French vidette who had, in the hurry oftheir retreat, been left behind; and told him that he had best beoff, as the whole army was in full march for the west."
"Well, if you breakfasted at six this morning, you must be hungry.My dinner will be ready in half an hour, and you had better shareit with me. I must go now, and tell the king the news that you havebrought. I said nothing to him about my having sent you."
In twenty minutes the marshal returned.
"The king wishes to see you, Fergus. Of course he is vexed, but healways takes bad news well, unless it is the result of the blunderof one of the officers. He does not say much, even then; but it isvery bad for that officer when he sees him. Frederick neverforgives a blunder."
"Well, Captain Drummond, so you have been playing the spy for us?"
"I have been doing my best, your majesty."
"And the French are gone, bag and baggage?"
"Yes, sire, they have gone off west."
"To perch themselves somewhere among the mountains, I suppose.Perhaps they will get bolder, presently, when they hear that theyare more than double my strength. Did you learn anything more thanwhat Marshal Keith has told me?"
"I heard a great deal of talk among a party of Frenchnon-commissioned officers, sire. They expressed greatdissatisfaction with their general, and at the long delays. Theyalso spoke with absolute contempt of the Confederacy army, bothofficers and men; and said that, if it had not been for thedrilling by the Austrian non-commissioned officers, they would benothing better than a rabble."
"I daresay Soubise is of the same opinion," the king said, "andwants them to have a few weeks' more drill before he sets them inline of battle. However, I have no doubt we shall manage to bringhim to book, before we return.
"Well, I am obliged to you for your zeal, Captain Drummond; andalthough Keith tells me that you got in without being questioned,such business is always dangerous. Mayhap next time you will have abetter opportunity for distinguishing yourself. As you managed topass so freely among them, after you made your escape from prison,you can clearly be trusted on work of this kind."
Fergus saluted, and retired.
The next morning the troops started, as usual, at daybreak. Theywere to make but a short march, for they had no longer any occasionfor speed, and they had made the hundred and fifty miles at a veryrapid pace; but when they halted, Frederick with the cavalry rodestraight on into Erfurt.
"Don't wait to put on your uniform now," Keith said to Fergus, onhis return from the royal quarters; "dinner is waiting; and I amready, if you are not. Lindsay is going to dine with me, too."
"Well, Lindsay," the marshal said, as the latter entered, "you seethe advantages of this young fellow being able to speak Germanwell. If you had been taken prisoner at Lobositz, you would havebeen fast in Spielberg at present; and you see he is now able toundertake perilous missions, and peril means promotion."
"I quite see that, marshal," Lindsay said with a smile; "but thoughI can get on with French fairly enough, my tongue doesn't seem tobe able to form these crack-jaw German words; and you see, marshal,it is not the only one that does not. I think, sir, that bad as myGerma
n is, it is not much worse than your own, and you have beenhere much longer than I have."
The marshal laughed.
"You are right. I cannot say half a dozen German words; but you seeI have not had your motive for acquiring it, and cannot very wellget promotion. And again, it would not do for me to speak betterGerman than the King of Prussia; who, beyond a few words necessaryfor animating his troops on occasion, knows very little Germanhimself. For general work here French is amply sufficient, becauseevery officer speaks it; but as you see, German is very useful,too, to a young officer who wishes to push himself forward, and iswilling to undertake special work of this kind."
"But even then, marshal, he would have no advantage over a Prussianofficer who speaks French."
"It depends a good deal upon the Prussian officer. The greaterportion of them are mere machines--splendid fighting machines, nodoubt; but of no great use outside their own work. Anyone coulddetect, with half an eye, nineteen out of twenty of them; dressthem how you would, disguise them as you like. They step theregulation length, bring their foot down in the regulation way, areas stiff as if they had swallowed a ramrod. They have neithersuppleness nor adaptability. They are so accustomed to obey thatthey have almost lost the power of originating, and would be takenand shot before they were in the enemy's lines ten minutes. Now,Fergus has the advantage of knowing both languages, and of beingquick-witted and sharp."
The next two months were passed in marches to and fro. Seidlitz,with some cavalry, took possession of Gotha, to the greatsatisfaction of the duke and duchess; and the king himself rodeover and dined with them.
While Seidlitz remained there as governor, with a couple ofregiments of horse, a strong body of French and Austrian hussars,grenadiers, and artillery marched against Gotha. Seidlitz, havingso few men to oppose them, evacuated the place, and the enemymarched into it in triumphant procession. The duke and duchess madethe best of matters, and invited all the principal officers to abanquet.
Just as they were sitting down to this, Seidlitz with his Prussiansreappeared; his men being so artfully scattered about that theyappeared a great deal stronger than they were. The enemy wereseized with panic. Soubise and his generals mounted in great haste,and in a few minutes the whole were retreating at top speed;Seidlitz pursuing for some distance, killing thirty and takingsixty prisoners, with a large amount of baggage and plunder, andthen returning to Gotha to eat the dinner prepared for the enemy.
Ferdinand of Brunswick, with his division, had been sent off tocheck, if possible, the movements of the French army underRichelieu, near Magdeburg.
In October came the startling news that Berlin itself wasthreatened, and that a force, said to be fifteen thousand strong,under General Haddick, was in rapid motion towards it. PrinceMaurice was ordered to hasten to its defence, and the king alsomoved in that direction.
The invading force was but four thousand strong. Their numbers,however, were so magnified by rumour that the governor of Berlin,who had but four thousand troops, did not venture to oppose them,but sent the royal family and archives away under a strong escort.Haddick occupied a suburb of the city, but knowing that as soon ashis real force was known he would be hotly opposed, and receivingnews that Prince Maurice was rapidly approaching, demanded a ransomof 45,000 pounds; and finally accepted 27,000 pounds, and thenhurried away. Prince Maurice arrived twenty-four hours later.
The consequences of this little success--magnified by report into"Berlin captured, Prussian royal family in flight."--turned outvery advantageous to Frederick. The enthusiasm in Paris and Viennawas enormous, and orders were despatched to the armies to set to,without further delay, and finish the work. Fifteen thousand menwere sent from Richelieu's army to reinforce Soubise, who thereuponissued from his mountain stronghold and marched against Leipzig.
Frederick, however, arrived there first, Ferdinand and Mauricejoining him a day or two later; and while waiting there, Frederickreceived the joyful news that England requested him to appoint DukeFerdinand, of Brunswick, commander-in-chief of the army until nowcommanded by the Duke of Cumberland, who had just sailed forEngland.
Pitt had now risen to almost absolute power in England, and wasbusied in reforming the abuses in the army and navy, dismissingincapable officials, and preparing to render some efficient aid toits hard-pressed ally. The proposal that Prince Ferdinand shouldassume the command of the army--whose efforts had hitherto beenrendered nugatory by the utter incompetence of the Duke ofCumberland who, although personally as brave as a lion, wasabsolutely ignorant of war--afforded immense satisfaction to theking.
No better choice could have been made. Ferdinand was related to theroyal families both of England and Prussia. He was a capablegeneral, prudent and at the same time enterprising, firm underdifficulties, ready to seize opportunities; and under his commandthere was no doubt that the northern army, which had hitherto beenuseless, and had only been saved from absolute destruction by theincompetence of the French generals, would now play a useful part.
On October 30th Soubise, in spite of his orders to fight, and thefact that he had double the strength of the Prussians, fell backbefore them. Soubise himself felt no confidence in his troops, butupon the other hand his officers and those of the Confederate armywere puffed up with vanity, and remonstrated hotly against retreat.
The next day Frederick came in sight of Soubise's army, which wascamped on a height near the town of Weissenfels. Frederick had butone-half of his force with him, the other half, under Keith, beingstill detached. Five thousand men garrisoned Weissenfels, butFrederick made short work of the place. His cannon burst down thegates, and his troops rushed forward with all speed; but thegarrison fled across the bridge over the Saale, which had alreadybeen prepared for burning; and they set it on fire in such hastethat four hundred were unable to cross, and were made prisoners.The fugitives joined their army on the other side of the Elbe, andits guns opened upon the burning bridge, to prevent the Prussiansfrom trying to extinguish the flames.
The Prussians returned the fire, and the artillery duel was kept upuntil three o'clock, by which time the bridge was consumed.Frederick had already fixed upon a spot suitable for the erectionof another, and during the night, while the enemy were falling backto take up a fresh position upon higher ground, the engineers,working diligently, succeeded in throwing a bridge across.
Keith arrived at Merseburg the next morning. A strong force layopposite, ready to dispute the passage; but when Soubise found thatthe king was crossing by his new bridge, he called in all hisdetachments and marched away, to a strong position, and there sethimself in array ready to receive an attack. Keith's bridges werefinished on the 3rd of November, and that afternoon he crossed andjoined Frederick.
On the 4th the army was on the move by two o'clock in the morning.A bright moon was shining and, by its light, it was discovered thatthe enemy had shifted his position for one much stronger, withapproaches protected by patches of wood and bog. The Prussian armytherefore marched back to their camp, the king hoping that, beingso far from their base of supplies, the enemy would be forced erelong to make some movement that would afford him a chance ofattacking them under better circumstances.
The ground from Weissenfels rises, very gradually, to a height of ahundred and twenty feet or so; which in so flat a country isregarded as a hill. On this slight swelling are several smallvillages. Of these Rossbach is the principal, standing high up onits crest. Here Frederick's right wing was posted, while his leftwas at Bedra. The king took up his quarters at a large house inRossbach; and from its roof, at eight o'clock on the morning of the5th, he saw that the enemy were getting into motion and moving awaytowards their left.
The movement had begun much earlier. Half an hour later they hadpassed through the village of Grost, and were apparently makingtheir way to Freiburg, where they had some magazines. Hoping tohave a chance of attacking their rear, Frederick ordered thecavalry to saddle, and the whole army to be in readiness, and thensat down to dinner with his officers at noon. Li
ttle did he dream,at the time, that the slow and clumsy movement that he was watchingwas intended, by the enemy, to end in a flank attack on himself.
On the previous day Soubise, with his generals, looking down on thePrussian camp, had reckoned their force at ten thousand. In realitythey had seen only a portion of their camp, the site being hiddenby a dip of the ground. Even Soubise thought that, with the odds ofover five to one in his favour, he could fight a battle with acertainty of success; and planned a masterly march, by which hewould place himself on Frederick's left and rear, drive him intothe bend made by the Saale, and annihilate his army. In hisenthusiasm at this happy idea, he sent off a courier to carry thenews, to Versailles, that he was about to annihilate the Prussianarmy, and take the king prisoner.
Frederick's dinner was prolonged. There was nothing to be done, andpatience was one of the king's strong points. At two o'clock anofficer, who had remained on watch on the housetop, hurried downwith news that the enemy had suddenly turned to the left. The kingwent up to the roof with his officers, and at once divined theintention of his foes.
It was a glorious moment for him. At last, after three wearymonths, he was to meet them in battle. Instantly his orders weregiven, and in half an hour the Prussian army was all in movement,with the exception of some irregular corps which were left tooccupy the attention of the enemy's horse, which had been posted asif to threaten Rossbach. By the line taken, the Prussians were atonce hidden behind the crest of the hill from the enemy; and soSoubise thought that the Prussians, being afraid of his attack,were marching away with all speed for Keith's bridge at Merseburg.He accordingly hurried on his cavalry, and ordered the infantry togo at a double, for the purpose of capturing the runaway Prussians.
In the meantime Seidlitz, with four thousand horse, trotted brisklyalong until he reached, still concealed from the enemy's sight, thespot towards which they were hurrying, in two great columns headedby seven thousand cavalry. He allowed them to move forward until hewas on their flank, and then dashed over the crest of the hill, andcharged like a thunderbolt upon them.
Taken completely by surprise, the enemy's cavalry had scarce timeto form. Two Austrian regiments and two French were alone able todo so. But there was no withstanding the impetus of the Prussiancharge. They rode right through the disordered cavalry; turned,formed, and recharged, and four times cut their way through them,until they broke away in headlong flight; and were pursued bySeidlitz until out of sight from the hill, when he turned andwaited, to see where he could find an opportunity of strikinganother blow.
By this time Frederick, with the infantry, was now pouring over thecrest of the hill, their advance heralded by the fire oftwenty-four guns. Rapidly, in echelon, they approached the enemy.In vain Soubise endeavoured to face round the column, thus taken inflank, to meet the coming storm. He was seconded by Broglio and thecommander of the Confederate army, but the two columns were jammedtogether, and all were in confusion at this astounding andunexpected attack. Orders were unheard or disobeyed, and everythingwas still in utter disorder, when six battalions of Prussianinfantry hurled themselves upon them.
When forty paces distant, they poured in their first terriblevolley, and then continued their fire as fast as they could load;creating great havoc among the French troops on whom they hadfallen, while away on each flank the Prussian artillery made deepgaps in the line. Soon the mass, helpless under this storm of fire,wavered and shook; and then Seidlitz, who had been concealed withhis cavalry in a hollow a short distance away, hurled himself likea thunderbolt on their rear, and in a moment they broke up inheadlong flight. In less than half an hour from the firstappearance of the Prussians on the hill, the struggle had ended,and an army of from fifty to sixty thousand men was a mob offugitives; defeated by a force of but twenty-two thousand men, notabove half of whom were engaged.
The loss of the allies was three thousand killed and wounded, fivethousand prisoners, and seventy-two guns; while the Prussians lostbut one hundred and sixty-five killed, and three hundred andseventy-six wounded. The victory was one of the most remarkable andsurprising ever gained, for these figures by no means represent thefull loss to the defeated.
The German portion of the army, after being chased for many miles,scattered in all directions; and only one regiment reached Erfurtin military order, and in two days the whole of the men were ontheir way to their homes, in the various states composing theConfederation. The French were in no less disgraceful a condition.Plundering as they went, a mere disorganized rabble, they continuedtheir flight until fifty-five miles from the field of battle, andwere long before they gathered again in fighting order.
The joy caused in Prussia and in England, by this astonishingvictory, was shared largely by the inhabitants of the countrythrough which the French army had marched. Everywhere they hadplundered and pillaged, as if they had been moving through anenemy's country instead of one they had professed to come todeliver. The Protestant inhabitants had everywhere been mostcruelly maltreated, the churches wrecked, and the pastors treatedas criminals. The greater portion of Germany therefore regarded thedefeat of the French as a matter for gratification, rather than thereverse.
In England the result was enormous. It had the effect of vastlystrengthening Pitt's position, and twenty thousand British troopswere, ere long, despatched to join the army under the Duke ofBrunswick, which was now called the allied army, and from this timethe French force under Richelieu ceased to be dangerous toFrederick. France and England were old antagonists, and enteredupon a duel of their own; a duel that was to cost France Canada,and much besides; to establish England's naval preponderance; andto extinguish French influence in the Netherlands.
Fergus Drummond was not under fire, at the memorable battle ofRossbach. Keith's division was not, in fact, engaged; the affairhaving terminated before it arrived. Keith, however, had ridden tothe position on the brow of the hill where the king had stationedhimself; and his staff, following him, had the satisfaction ofseeing the enemy's heavy columns melt into a mass of fugitives, andspread in all directions over the country, like dust driven beforea sudden whirlwind.
"What next, I wonder?" Fergus said to Lindsay; who had, three daysbefore, been promoted to the rank of captain, as much to thesatisfaction of Fergus as to his own.
"I suppose some more marching," Lindsay replied. "You may be surethat we shall be off east again, to try conclusions with PrinceKarl. Bevern seems to be making a sad mess of it there. Of coursehe is tremendously outnumbered, thirty thousand men against eightythousand; but he has fallen back into Silesia without making asingle stand, and suffered Prince Karl to plant himself betweenBreslau and Schweidnitz; and the Prince is besieging the lattertown with twenty thousand men, while with sixty thousand he isfacing Bevern."
Four days after the victory, indeed, Frederick set out withthirteen thousand men; leaving Prince Henry to maintain the line ofthe Saale, and guard Saxony; while Marshal Keith was to go intoBohemia, raise contributions there, and threaten as far as might bethe Austrian posts in that country.
Fergus, however, went with the king's army, the king having said tothe Marshal:
"Keith, lend me that young aide-de-camp of yours. I have seen howhe can be trusted to carry a despatch, at whatever risk to hislife. He is ingenious and full of devices; and he has luck, andluck goes for a great deal.
"I like him, too. I have observed that he is always lively andcheery, even at the end of the longest day's work. I notice toothat, even though your relation, he never becomes too familiar; andhis talk will be refreshing, when I want something to distract mythoughts from weighty matters."
So Fergus went with the king, who could ill afford to lose Keithfrom his side. With none was he more friendly and intimate and, nowthat Schwerin had gone, he relied upon him more implicitly thanupon any other of his officers.
But Keith had been, for some time, unwell. He was suffering fromasthma and other ailments that rendered rapid travel painful tohim; and he would obtain more rest and ease, in Bohemia, than
hecould find in the rapid journey the king intended to make.
On the fifth day of his march Frederick heard, to his stupefaction,that Schweidnitz had surrendered. The place was an extremely strongone, and the king had relied confidently upon its holding out fortwo or three months. Its fortifications were constructed in thebest manner; it was abundantly supplied with cannon, ammunition,and provisions; and its surrender was inexcusable.
The fault was doubtless, to a large degree, that of its commandant,who was a man of no resolution or resources; but it was also partlydue to the fact that a portion of the garrison were Saxons, who hadat Pirna been obliged to enter the Prussian service. Great numbersof these deserted; a hundred and eighty of them, in one day, goingover from an advanced post to the enemy. With troops like these,there could be no assurance that any post would be firmly held--afact that might well shake the confidence of any commander in hispower of resistance.
The blow was none the less severe, to Frederick, from being partlythe result of his own mistaken step of enrolling men bitterlyhostile in the ranks of the army. Still, disastrous as the newswas, it did not alter his resolution; and at even greater speedthan before he continued his march. Sometimes of an evening he sentfor Fergus, and chatted with him pleasantly for an hour or two,asking him many questions of his life in Scotland, and discoursingfamiliarly on such matters, but never making any allusion tomilitary affairs.
On the tenth day of the march they arrived at Gorlitz, whereanother piece of bad news reached Frederick. Prince Karl, aftertaking Schweidnitz, had fallen with sixty thousand men on Bevern.He had crossed by five bridges across the Loe, but each column wasmet by a Prussian force strongly intrenched. For the space offifteen hours the battles had raged, over seven or eight miles ofcountry. Five times the Austrians had attacked, five times had theybeen rolled back again; but at nine o'clock at night they weresuccessful, more or less, in four of their attacks, while thePrussian left wing, under the command of Ziethen, had driven itsassailants across the river again.
During the night Bevern had drawn off, marched through Breslau, andcrossed the Oder, leaving eighty cannon and eight thousand killedand wounded--a tremendous loss, indeed, when the army at daybreakhad been thirty thousand strong. Bevern himself rode out toreconnoitre, in the gray light of the morning, attended only by agroom, and fell in with an Austrian outpost. He was carried toVienna, but being a distant relation of the emperor, was sent homeagain without ransom.
It was the opinion of Frederick that he had given himself upintentionally, and on his return he was ordered at once to take uphis former official post at Stettin; where he conducted himself sowell, in the struggle against the Russian armies, that two yearslater he was restored to Frederick's favour.
As if this misfortune was not great enough, two days later came thenews that Breslau had surrendered without firing a shot; and thiswhen it was known that the king was within two days' march, andpressing forward to its relief. Here ninety-eight guns and animmense store and magazine were lost to Prussia.
Frederick straightway issued orders that the general who hadsucceeded Bevern should be put under arrest, for not having at oncethrown his army into Breslau; appointed Ziethen in his place, andordered him to bring the army round to Glogau and meet him atParchwitz on December 2nd, which Ziethen punctually did.
In spite of the terrible misfortunes that had befallen him,Frederick was still undaunted. Increased as it was by the arrivalof Ziethen, his force was but a third of the strength of theAustrians. The latter were flushed with success; while Ziethen'stroops were discouraged by defeat, and his own portion of the forceworn out by their long and rapid marches, and by the failure of theobject for which they had come. Calling his generals together onthe 3rd, he recounted the misfortunes that had befallen them; andtold them that his one trust, in this terrible position, was intheir qualities and valour; and that he intended to engage theenemy, as soon as he found them, and that they must beat them orall of them perish in the battle.
Enthusiastically, the generals declared that they would conquer ordie with him; and among the soldiers the spirit was equally strong,for they had implicit confidence in their king, and a well-justifiedtrust in their own valour and determination. That evening Frederick,eager as he was to bring the terrible situation to a final issue,cannot but have felt that it would have been too desperate anundertaking to have attacked the enemy; posted as they were with ariver (known as Schweidnitz Water) and many other natural difficultiescovering their front, and having their flanks strengthened, as was theAustrian custom, with field works and batteries. Fortunately theAustrians settled the difficulty by moving out from their stronghold.
Daun had counselled their remaining there, but Prince Karl and thegreat majority of his military advisers agreed that it would be ashameful thing that ninety thousand men should shut themselves up,to avoid an attack by a force of but one-third their own strength;and that it was in all respects preferable to march out and givebattle, in which case the Prussians would be entirely destroyed;whereas, if merely repulsed in an attack on a strong position, aconsiderable proportion might escape and give trouble in thefuture.
The Austrians, indeed, having captured Schweidnitz and Breslau,defeated Bevern, and in the space of three weeks made themselvesmasters of a considerable portion of Silesia, were in no smalldegree puffed up, and had fallen anew to despising Frederick. Theblow dealt them at Prague had been obliterated by their success atKolin; and Frederick's later success over the French and Federalarmy was not considered, by them, as a matter affecting themselves,although several Austrian regiments had been among Soubise's force.The officers were very scornful over the aggressive march ofFrederick's small army, which they derisively called the PotsdamGuards' Parade; and many were the jokes cut, at the militarymesses, at its expense.
The difference, then, with which the two armies regarded the comingbattle was great, indeed. On the one side there was the easyconfidence of victory, the satisfaction that at length thistroublesome little king had put himself in their power; on theother a deep determination to conquer or to die, a feeling that,terrible as the struggle must be, great as were the odds againstthem, they might yet, did each man do his duty, come out thevictors in the struggle.
"And what think you of this matter, lad?" Frederick said, layinghis hand familiarly on the young captain's shoulder.
"I know nothing about it, your majesty; but like the rest, I feelconfident that somehow you will pull us through. Of one thing I amsure, that all that is possible for the men to do, your soldierswill accomplish."
"Well, we shall see. It is well that I know all the country roundhere, for many a review have I held of the garrison of Breslau, onthe very ground where we are about to fight. Their position is avery strong one, and I am afraid that crafty old fox Daun willhere, as he did at Prague, persuade Prince Karl to hide behind hisbatteries. Were it not for that, I should feel confident; whereas Inow but feel hopeful. Still, I doubt not that we shall find our wayin, somehow."