History of Friedrich II of Prussia — Volume 18Carlyle, Thomas
History
History of Friedrich II of Prussia — Volume 18
Carlyle, Thomas
Frederick II, King of Prussia, 1712-1786; Prussia (Germany) -- History -- Frederick II, 1740-1786; Social problems
At this Hostelry of Novomiesto (not of Slatislunz or "GOLDEN-SUN" at
all, which is a "Sun" fallen dismally eclipsed in other ways ["The Inn
of Slati-Slunz was burnt, about twenty years ago; nothing of it but
the stone walls now dates from Friedrich's time. It is a biggish
solid-looking House of two stories (whether ever of three, I could not
learn); stands pleasantly, at the crown of a long rise from Kolin;--and
inwardly, alas, in our day, offers little but bad smells and negative
quantities! Only the ground-floor is now inhabited. From the front,
your view northward, Nimburg way, across the Elbe Valley, is fertile,
wide-waving, pretty: but rearward, upstairs,--having with difficulty
got permission,--you find bare balks, tattered feathers, several
hundredweight of pigeon's dung, and no outlook at all, except into walls
of office-houses and the overhanging brow of Heights,--fatal, clearly,
to any view of Daun, even from a third story!" (TOURIST'S NOTE,
1858.)--Tempelhof (UBI SUPRA) seems to have known the right, place; not,
Retzow, or almost anybody since: and indeed the question, except for
expressly Military people, is of no moment.]), Friedrich halted for
three hours and more; saw Daun developing himself into new Order of
Battle, "every part of his position visible;" considered with his whole
might what was to be tried upon him;--and about noon, having made up his
mind, called his Generals, in sight of the phenomenon itself there, to
give them their various orders and injunctions in regard to the same.
The Plan of Fight, which was thought then, and is still thought by
everybody, an excellent one,--resting on the "oblique order of attack,"
Friedrich's favorite mode,--was, if the reader will take his Map,
conceivable as follows.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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