History of Friedrich II of Prussia — Volume 15Carlyle, Thomas
History
History of Friedrich II of Prussia — Volume 15
Carlyle, Thomas
Frederick II, King of Prussia, 1712-1786; Prussia (Germany) -- History -- Frederick II, 1740-1786; Social problems
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.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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