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Thomas Carlyle
; crosses continuously for four
hours; unopposed, except some skirmishing of Uhlans,
while his Cavalry is riding the Fords to right and left;
Uhlans were driven back swiftly, so soon as the Ca-
valry got over. At five in the evening, he has got
entirely across, 35,000 horse and foot: Ziethen is
chasing the Uhlans, at full speed; who at least will
show us the way, -- for by this time a mist has begun
falling, and the brief daylight is done.
Friedrich himself, without waiting for the rear of
his force, and some while before this mist fell (as I
judge), is pushing forward, "a miller lad for his guide,"
across to Hennersdorf, -- Katholisch-Hennersdorf, a
long straggling Village, eight or ten miles off, and it-
self two miles long, -- where he understands the Saxons
are. Miller lad guides us, over height and hollow,
with his best skill, at a brisk pace; -- through one
hollow, where he has known the cattle pasture in
summer time; but which proves impassable, and mere
quagmire, at this season. No getting through it, you
unfortunate miller lad (gargon de meunier). Neverthe-
less, we did find passage through the skirts of it: nay
this quagmire proved the luck of us; for the enemy,
trusting to it, had no outguard there, never expecting
us on that side. So that the vanguard, Ziethen and
rapid Hussars, make an excellent thing of it. Ziethen
sends us word, That he has got into the body of
Hennersdorf, -- "found the Saxon Quartermaster
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? CHAr. xm. l SURPRISING LAST ATTEMPT ON FRIEDRICH. 219
23d Nov. 1745.
quietly paying his men;" -- that he, Ziethen, is toler-
ably master of Hennersdorf, and will amuse the enemy
till the other force come up.
Of course Friedrich now pushes on, double speed;
detaches other force, horse and foot: which was lucky,
says my informant; for the Ziethen Hussars, getting
good plunder, had by no means demolished the Saxons;
but had left them time to draw up in firm order, a
hedge in front, a little west of the Village; -- from
which post, unassailable by Ziethen, they would have
got safe off to the main body, with little but an affront
and some loss of goods. The new force, -- a rapid
Katzler with light horse in the van, cuirassiers and
foot rapidly following him, -- sweeps past the long
Village, "through a thin wood and a defile;" finds the
enemy firmly ranked as above said; cavalry their left,
infantry on right, flanked by an impenetrable hedge;
and at once strikes in. At once, Katzler does, on order
given; but is far too weak. Charges, he; but is counter-
charged, tumbled back; the Saxons, horse and foot,
showing excellent fight. At length, more Prussian
force coming up, cuirassiers charge them in front, dra-
goons in flank, hussars in rear; all attacking at once,
and with a will; and the poor Saxon Cavalry is entirely
cut to shreds.
And now there remains only the Infantry, perhaps
about 1,000 men (if one must guess); who form a
square; ply vigorously their field-pieces, and their fire-
arms; and cannot be broken by horse-charges. In fact,
these Saxons made a fierce resistance; -- till, before
long, Prussian Infantry came up; and, with counter
field-pieces and musketries, blasted gaps in them; upon
which the Cavalry got admittance, and reduced the
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? 220 SECOND SILESIAN WAR. [BOOK XV.
23d Nov. 1745.
gallant fellows nearly wholly to annihilation either by
death or capture. There are 914 Prisoners in this
Action, 4 big guns, and I know not how many kettle-
drums, standards and the like, ? --? all that were there,
I suppose. The number of dead not given. * But, in
brief, this Saxon Force is utterly cut to pieces; and
only scattered twos and threes of it rush through the
dark mist; scattering terror to this hand and that. The
Prussians take their post at and round Hennersdorf
that night; -- bivouacking, though only in sack trowsers,
a blanket each man: --"We work hard, my men, and
"suffer all things for a day or two, that it may save
"much work afterwards," said the King to them; and
they cheerfully bivouacked
This was the Action of Katholisch-Hennersdorf,
fought on Tuesday, 23d November 1745; and still
celebrated in the Prussian Annals, and reckoned a
brilliant passage of war. AaiAo&cA-Hennersdorf, some
ten miles south-west of Naumburg on the Queiss (for
there are, to my knowledge, Twenty-five other Villages
called Hennersdorf, and Three several Towns of Naum-
burg, and many Castles and Hamlets so named, in
dear Germany of the Nomenclatures): -- Katholisch-
Hennersdorf is the place, and Tuesday about dusk the
time. A sharp brush of fighting; not great in quantity,
but laid in at the right moment, in the right place.
Like the prick of a needle, duly sharp, into the spinal
marrow of a gigantic object; totally ruinous to such
object. Never, or rarely, in the Annals of War, was
as much good got of so little fighting. You may, with
labour and peril, plunge a hundred dirks into your
boa-constrictor; hack him with axes, bray him with
* Orlich, ii. 291; Feldiuge. I. 400-413.
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? CHAP. Xlh. ] SURPRISING LAST ATTEMPT ON PRIEDRICH. 221
34th-30th Nov. 1745.
sledge-hammers; that is not uncommon: but the one
true prick in the spinal marrow, and the Artist that
can guide you well to that, he and it are the notable
and beneficent phenomena.
Prince Karl, cut in two, tumbles home again
double-quick.
Next morning, Wednesday, 24th, the Prussians are
early astir again; groping, on all manner of roads, to
find what Prince Karl is doing, in a world all covered
in thick mist. They can find nothing of him, but
broken tumbrils, left baggage-wagons, rumour of uni-
versal marching hither and marching thither; -- evi-
dences of an Army fallen into universal St. Vitus's
Dance; distractedly hurrying to and fro, not knowing
whitherward for the moment, except that it must be
homewards, homewards with velocity.
Prince Karl's farther movements are not worth par-
ticularising. Ordering and cross-ordering; march this
way; no, back again; such a scene in that mist. Prince
Karl is flowing homeward; confusedly deluging and
gurgling southward, the best he can. Next afternoon,
near Gorlitz, and again one other time, he appears
drawn up, as if for fighting; but has himself no such
thought; flies again, without a shot; leaves Gorlitz to
capitulate, that afternoon; all places to capitulate or be
evacuated. We hear he is for Zittau; Winterfeld with
light horse hastens after him, gets sight of him on the
Heights at Zittau yonder, * "about two in the morning:"
but the Prince has not the least notion to fight. Prince
leaves Zittau to capitulate, -- quits silently the Heights
* (Euvres de Frederic, in. 157; Orlich, ii. 296.
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? 222 SECOND SILESIAN WAR. [book XV.
24th-30th Nov. 1745.
of Zittau at two A. m. (Winterfeld, very lively in the
rear of him, cutting off his baggage); -- and so
tumbles, pellmell, through the Passes of Gabel, home
to Bohemia again. Let us save this poor Note from
the fire:
"On Saturday night, November 27th, the Prussians,
"pursuing Prince Karl, were cantoned in the Herrnhuth
"neighbourhood, -- my informant's regiment in the Town of
"Herrnhuth itself. * Yes, there lay the Prussians over Sun-
"day; and might hear some weighty expounder, if they liked.
"Considerably theological, many of these poor Prussian
"soldiers; carrying a Bible in their knapsack, and devout
"Psalms in the heart of them. Two-thirds of every regiment
"are Landeskinder, native Prussians; each regiment from a
"special canton, -- generally rather religious men. The
"other third are recruits, gathered in the Free Towns of the
"Reich, or where they can be got; not distinguished by de-
"votion these, we may fancy, only trained to the uttermost by
"Spartan drill. "
Before the week is done, that "first leg" of the
grand Enterprise (the Prince-Karl leg) is such a leg as
we see. "Silesia in the lump," -- fond dream again,
what a dream! Old Dessauer getting signal, where
now, too probably, is Saxony itself? -- Ranking again
at Aussig in Bohemia, Prince Karl, -- 5,000 of his
men lost, and all impetus and fire gone, -- falls gently
down the Elbe, to join Rutowski at least; and will
reappear within four weeks, out of Saxon Switzerland,
still rather in dismal humour.
The Prussian Troops, in four great Divisions, are
cantoned in that Lausitz Country, now so quiet; in
and about Bautzen, and three other Towns of the
* Feldzuge. i. ubi supra.
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? CHAP, m] SURPRISING LAST ATTEMPT ON FRIEDRICH. 223
24th-30th Nov. 1745.
neighbourhood; to rest, and be ready for the Old
Dessauer, when we hear of him. The "Magazine at
Guben in 138 wagons," theGorlitz and other Magazines
of Prince Karl in the due number of wagons, supply
them with comfortable unexpected provender. Thus
they lie cantoned; and have with despatch effectually
settled their part of the problem. Question now is,
How will it stand with the Old Dessauer, and his part?
Or, better still, Would not perhaps the Saxons, in
this humiliated state, accept Peace, and finish the
matter?
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? 224
SECOND SILESIAN WAR. [book XV.
29th Nov. --15lh Dec. 1745.
CHAPTER XIV.
BATTLE OP KESSELSDORF.
A "Correspondence" of a certain Excellency
Villiers, English Minister at Dresden, -- Sir Thomas
Villiers, Grand-father of the present Earl of Clarendon,
-- was very famous in those weeks; and is still worth
mention, as a trait of Friedrich's procedure in this
crisis. Friedrich, not intoxicated with his swift
triumph over Prince Karl, hut calculating the perils
and the chances still ahead, -- miserably off for money
too, -- admits to himself that not revenge or triumph,
that Peace is the one thing needful to him. November
29th, Old Leopold is entering Saxony; and in the
same hours, Podewils at Berlin, by order of Friedrich,
writes to Villiers who is in Dresden, about Peace,
about mediating for Peace: "My King ready and
desirous, now as at all times, for Peace; the terms of
it known; terms not altered, not alterable, no bargain-
ing or higgling needed or allowable. Convention of
Hanover, let his Polish Majesty accede honestly to that,
and all these miseries are ended. "*
Villiers starts instantly on this beneficent business;
"goes to Court, on it, that very night;" Villiers shows
* "Correspondance du Roi avec Sir Thomas Villiers;" commences, on
Podewils's part, 28th November; on Friedrich's, 4th December; ends, on
Villiers's, 18th December; fourteen Pieces in all, four of them Friedrich's:
Given in (Euvres 'ieFrei&i ic, in. 183-216 (see id. 158), and in many other
Books.
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? CHaP. XIV. ] BATTLE OF KESSELSDORF. 226
29th Nov. --15th Dec. 1745.
himself really diligent, reasonable, loyal; doing his
very best now and afterwards; but has no success at
all. Polish Majesty is obstinate, -- I always think,
in the way sheep are, when they feel themselves too
much put upon; -- and is deaf to everybody but
Briihl. Briihl answers: "Let his Prussian Majesty
retire from our Territory; -- what is he doing in the
Lausitz just now! Retire from our Territory; then we
will treat! " Briihl still refuses to be desperate of his
bad game; -- at any rate, Briihl's rage is yellower
than ever. That very evening, while talking to Villiers,
he has had preparations going on; -- and next morn-
ing takes his Master, Polish Majesty August HI. , with
some comfortable minimum of apparatus (cigar-boxes
not forgotten), off to Prag, where they can be out of
danger till the thing decide itself. Villiers follows to
Prag; desists not from his eloquent Letters, and earnest
persuasions at Prag; but begins to perceive that the
means of persuading Briihl will be a much heavier kind
of artillery.
On the whole, negotiations have yet done little.
Britannic George, though Purse-holder, what is his
success here? As little is the Russian Bugbear per-
suasive on Friedrich himself. The Czarina of the
Russias, a luxurious lady, of far more weight than
insight, has just notified to him, with more emphasis
than ever, That he shall not attack Saxony; that if he
do, she with considerable vigour will attack him!
That has always been a formidable puzzle for Fried-
rich: however, he reflects that the Russians never could
draw sword, or be ready with their Army, in less than
six months, probably not in twelve; and has answered,
translating it into polite official terms: "Fee-faw-fum,
Carlyle, Frederick the Great. VIII. 15
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? 226 SECOND SILESIAN WAR. [book XV.
29th Nov. --15th Dec. 1745.
your Czarish Majesty! Question is not now of attack-
ing, but of being myself attacked! " -- and so is now
running his risks with the Czarina.
Still worse was the result he got from Louis XV.
Lately, "for form's sake," as he tells us, "and not ex-
pecting anything," he had (November 15th) made a
new appeal to France: "Ruin menacing your Most
Christian Majesty's Ally, in this huge sudden crisis
of invasive Austrian-Saxons; and for your Majesty's
sake, may I not in some measure say? " To which
Louis's Answer is also given. A very sickly, unpleasant
Document; testifying to considerable pique against
Friedrich; -- Ranke says, it was a joint production,
all the Ministers gradually contributing each his little
pinch of irony to make it spicier, and Louis signing
when it was enough; -- very considerable pique
against Friedrich; and something of the stupid sulki-
ness as of a fat bad boy, almost glad that the house
is on fire, because it will burn his nimble younger
brother, whom everybody calls so clever: "Sorry indeed,
Sir my Brother, most sorry: -- and so you have
actually signed that Hanover Convention with our worst
Enemy? France is far from having done so; France
has done, and will do, great things. Our Royal heart
grieves much at your situation; but is not alarmed; no,
Your Majesty has such invention, vigour and ability,
superior to any crisis, our clever younger Brother!
And herewith we pray God to have you in his holy
keeping. " This is the purport of King Louis's Letter;
-- which Friedrich folds together again, looking up
from perusal of it, we may fancy with what a glance
of those eyes. *
* Louis's Original, in (Euvres de Frederic, m. 173,174 (with a much
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? CHaP. XIV. ] BATTLE OP KESSELSDORP. 227
29th Nov. 1745.
He is getting instructed, this young King, as to
alliances, grand combinations, French and other. His
third Note to Villiers intimates, "It being evident that
his Polish Majesty will have nothing from us but fight-
ing, we must try to give it him of the best kind we
have. "* Yes truly; it is the ultimate persuasive, that.
Here, in condensed form, are the essential details of
the course it went, in this instance:
General Griine, on the road to Berlin, hearing of the rout
at Hennersdorf, halted instantly,-- hastened back to Saxony,
to join Rutowski there, and stand on the defensive. Not now
in that Halle Frontier region (Rutowski has quitted that, and
all the entrenchments and marshy impregnabilities there);
not on that Halle Frontier, but hovering about in the interior,
Rutowski and Griine are in junction; gravitating towards
Dresden;-- expecting Prince Karl's advent; who ought to
emerge from the Saxon Switzerland, in few days, were he
sharp; and again enable us to make a formidable figure. Be
speedy, Old fiessauer: you must settle the Griine-Rutowski
account before that junction, not after it!
The OldDessauer has been tolerably successful; and by
no means thinks he has been losing time. November 29th,
"at three in the morning," he stept over into Saxony with its
impregnable camps; drove Rutowski's rearguard, or remnant,
out of the quagmires, canals and entrenchments, before day-
light; drove it, that same evening, or before dawn of the
morrow, out of Leipzig: has seized that Town,-- lays heavy
contribution on it, nearly 50,000Z. (such our strait for finance);
"and be sure you take only substantial men as sureties! "**--
and will, and does after a two-days rest, advance with decent
celerity inwards; though "One must first know exactly
whither; one must have bread, and preparations and pre-
cautions; do all things solidly and in order," thinks the Old
more satirical paraphrase than the above), and Friedrich's Answer ad-
joined, -- after the events had come.
* "Bautzen, 11th December 1745" (not tupri).
-- Orlich, n. 308.
15*
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? 228
[book XV. 12th Dec. 1745.
SECOND SILESIAN WAR.
Dessauer. Friedrich well knows the whither; and that Dres-
den itself is, or may be made, the place for falling in with
Rutowski. Friedrich is now himself ready to join, from the
Bautzen region; the days and hours precious to him; and
spurs the Old Dessauer, with the sharpest remonstrances.
"All solidly and in order, your Majesty! " answers the Old
Dessauer: solid strong-boned old coach-horse, who has his
own modes of trotting, having done many a heavy mile of it
in his time; and whose skin, one hopes, is of the due thick-
ness against undue spurring.
Old Dessauer wishes two things: bread to live upon; and
a sure Bridge over the Elbe whereby Friedrich may join him.
Old Dessauer makes for Torgau, far north, where is both an
Elbe Bridge and a Magazine; which he takes; Torgau and
Sertinents now his. But it is far down the Elbe, far off from
autzen and Friedrich: "A nearer Bridge and rendezvous,
your Highness! Meissen" (where they make the china, only
fifty miles from me, and twenty from Dresden), "let that be
the Bridge, now that you have got victual. And speedy, for
Heaven's sake, speedy! " Friedrich pushes out General Leh-
wald from Bautzen, with 4,000 men, towards Meissen Bridge;
Lehwald does not himself meddle with the Bridge, only fires
shot across upon the Saxon party, till the Old Dessauer, on
the other bank, come up;-- and the Old Dessauer, impatience
thinks, will never come. "Three days in Torgau, yes, Your
Majesty: I had bread to bake, and the very ovens had to be
built. " A solid old roadster, with his own modes of trotting;
needs thickness of skin. *
At long last, on Sunday, 12th December, about two p. m. ,
guard, does appear, --Gessler of the sixty-seven standards,
-- "always about an hour ahead. " Gessler has summoned
Meissen; has not got it, is haggling with it about terms,
when, towards sunset of the short day, Old Dessauer himself
arrives. Whereupon the Saxon Commandant quits the Bridge
(not much breaking it); and glides off in the dark, clear out
of Meissen, towards Dresden, -- chased, but successfully
defending himself. ** "Had he but stood out for two days!
* Friedrich's Letters to Leopold, in Orlich, n. 431, 455 (6th-10th De-
cember 1745).
** See Plan, p. 232.
the Old Dessauer doei
General Gessler, his van-
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? CHAP. XIV. ] BATTLE OP KESSELSDORF. 229
14th Dec. 1745.
say the Saxons, -- "Prince Karl had then been up, and much
might have been different. " Well, Friedrich too would have
been up, and it had most likely been the same on a larger
scale. But the Saxon Commandant did not stand out; he
glided off, safe; joinedRutowskiand Griine, who are lying
about Wilsdruf, six or seven miles on the hither side of Dres-
den, and eagerly waiting for Prince Karl. "Bridge and
Town of Meissen are your Majesty's," reports the Old Des-
sauer that night: upon which Friedrich instantly rises, has-
tening thitherward. Lehwald comes across Meissen Bridge,
effects the desired junction; and all Monday the OldDessauer
defiles through Meissen town and territory; continually ad-
vances towards Dresden, the Saxons harassing the flanks of
him a little, -- nay in one defile, being sharp strenuous
fellows, they threw his rear into some confusion; cut off cer-
tain carts and prisoners, and the life of one brave General,
Lieutenant-General Boel, who had charge there. "Spurring
one's trot into a gallop! This comes of your fast marching,
of your spurring Deyond the rules of war! " thinks Old Leo-
pold; and Friedrich, who knows otherwise, is very angry for
a moment.
But indeed the crisis is pressing. Prince Karl is across the
Metal Mountains, nearing Dresden from the East; Friedrich
strikes into march for the same point by Meissen, so soon as
the Bridge is his. Old Leopold is advancing thither westward,
-- steadily hour by hour; Dresden City the fateful goal.
There, -- in these middle days of December 1745 (Highland
Rebellion just whirling back from Derby again, "the London
shops shut for one day"), -- it is clear there will be a big and
bloody game played before we are much older. Very sad in-
deed: but Count Briihl is not persuadable otherwise. By
slumbering and sluggarding, over their money-tills and flesh-
pots; trying to take evil for good, and to say, "It will do,"
when it will not do, respectable Nations come at last to be
foverned by Briihls; cannot help themselves; -- and get their
acks broken in consequence. Why not? Wouldyou have a
Nation live forever that is content to be governed by Briihls?
The gods are wiser! -- It is now the 13th; Old Dessauer
tramping forward, hour by hour, towards Dresden and some
field of Fate.
On Tuesday 14th, by break of day, Old Dessauer gets on
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? 230
[book XV. 15th Dec. 1745.
SECOND SILESIAN WAR.
march again; in four columns, in battle order; steady all
day, -- hard winter weather, ground crisp, and flecked with
snow. The Pass at Neustadt, "his cavalry went into it at
full gallop;" but found nobody there. That night, he en-
camps at a place called Rohrsdorf; which may be eight miles
west-by-north from Dresden as the crow flies; and ten or
more, if you follow the highway round by Wilsdruf on your
right. The real direct Highway from Meissen to Dresden is
on the other side of the Elbe, and keeps by the River-bank,
a fine level road; but on this western side, where Leopold
now is, the road is inland, and goes with a bend. Leopold,
of course, keeps command of this road; his columns are on
both sides of it, River on their left at some miles' distance;
and incessantly expect to find Rutowski, drawn out on favour-
able ground somewhere. The country is of fertile, but very
broken character; intersected by many brooks, making ob-
liquely towards the Elbe (obliquely, with a leaning Meissen-
wards); country always mounting, till here about Rohrsdorf
we seem to have almost reached the watershed, and the brooks
make for the Elbe, leaning Dresden way. Good posts abound
in such broken country, with its villages and brooks, with its
thickets, hedges and patches of swamp. But Rutowski has
not appeared anywhere, during this Tuesday.
Our four columns, therefore, lie all night, under arms,
about Rohrsdorf: and again by morrow's dawn are astir in
the old order, crunching far and wide the frozen ground; and
advance, charged to the muzzle with potential battle. Slightly
upwards always, to the actual watershed of the country;
leaving Wilsdruf a little to their right. Wilsdruf is hardly
past, when see, from this broad table-land, top of the country:
"Yonder is Rutowski, at last; -- and this new Wednesday
will be a day! " Yonder, sure enough: drawn out three or
four miles long; with his right to the Elbe, his left to that in-
tricate Village of Kesselsdorf; bristling with cannon; deep
gullet and swampy brook in front of him: the strongest post
a man could have chosen in those parts.
The Village of Kesselsdorf itself lies rather in a hollow;
in the slight Deginning, or uppermost extremity, of a little
Valley or Dell, called the Tschonengrund, -- which, with its
quaggy brook of a Tschone, wends north-eastward into the
Elbe, a course of four or five miles: little Valley very deep
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? CHAP. XIV. ] BATTLE OP KESSELSDORF. 231
15th Dec. 1745.
for its length, and getting altogether chasmy and precipitous
towards the Elbe-ward or lower end. Kesselsdorf itself, as we
said, is mainly in a kind of hollow: between Old Leopold and
Kesselsdorf the ground rather mounts; and there is percep-
tibly a flat knoll or rise at the head of it, where the Village
begins. Some trees there, and abundance of cannon and
grenadiers at this moment. It is the south-western or leftmost
point of Rutowski's line; impregnable with its cannon-batte-
ries and grenadiers. Rightward Rutowski extends in long
lines, with the quaggy dell of Tschonengrund in front of him,
parallel to him; Dell ever deepening as it goes. North-east-
ward, at the extreme right, or Elbe point of it, where Griine
and the Austrians stand, it has grown so chasmy, we judge
that G rime can neither advance nor be advanced upon: so we
leave him standing there, -- which he did all day, in a purely
meditative posture. Rutowski numbers 35,000, now on this
ground, with immensity of cannon; 35,000 we, with only the
usual field-artillery, and such a Tschonengrund, with its half-
frozen quagmires ahead. A ticklish case for the old man, as
he grimly reconnoitres it, in the winter morning.
Grim Old Dessauer having reconnoitered, and rapidly
considered, decides to try it, -- what else? -- will range him-
self on the west side of that Tschonengrund, horse and foot;
two lines, wide as Rutowski opposite him; but means to direct
his main and prime effort agamstKesselsdorf, which is clearly
the key of the position, if it can be taken. For which end the
OldDessauer lengthens himself out to rightward, so as to out-
flank Kesselsdorf; -- neglecting Griine (refusing Griine, as
the soldiers say): -- "our horse of the right wing reached
"from the Wood called Lerchenbusch (Larch-Bush), right-
"ward as far asFreyberg road; foot all between that Lerchen-
"busch and the big Birch-tree on the road to Wilsdruf; horse
"of the left wing, from there to Roitsch. " * It was about two
p. m. before the old man got all his deployments completed;
what corps of his, deploying this way or that, came within
wind of Kesselsdorf, were saluted with cannon, thirty pieces
or more, which are in battery, in three batteries, on the knoll
there; but otherwise no fighting as yet. At two, the Old
* Stille (p. 181), who was present. See Plan, p. 2S2.
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? 232 SECOND SILESIAN WAR. [book XV.
15th Dec. 1745.
Dessauer is complete; he reverently doffs his hat, as had
always been his wont, in prayer to God, before going in. A
grim fervour of prayer is in his heart, doubtless; though the
words as reported are not very regular or orthodox: "O Herr
Gott, help me yet this once; let me not be disgraced in my
old days! Or if thou wilt not help me, iorJt help those
Hundsvogte" (damned Scoundrels, so to speak), "but leave
us to try it out ourselves! " That is the Old Scandinavian of
a Dessauer's prayer; a kind of Godur he too, Priest as well as
Captain: Prayer mythically true as given; mythically, not
otherwise. * Which done, he waves his hat once, "On, in
God's name! " and the storm is loose. Prussian right wing
pushing grandly forward, bent in that manner, to takeKes-
selsdorf and its fire-throats in flank.
The Prussians tramp on with the usual grim-browed reso-
lution, foot in front, horse in rear; but they have a terrible
a a. Prussians. b b. Saxons. c. Griine's Austrians.
* Ranke, in. 334 a.
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? CHaP. XIV. ] BATTLE OF KESSELSDORF. 233
15th Dec. 1745.
problem at that Kesselsdorf, with its retrenched batteries, and
numerous grenadiers fighting under cover. The very ground
is sore against them; uphill, and the trampled snow wearing
into a slide, so that you sprawl and stagger sadly. Thirty-
one big guns, and about 9,000small, pouring out mere death
on you, from that knoll-head. The Prussians stagger; cannot
stand it; bend to rightwards, and get out of shot-range; cannot
manage it this bout. Rally, reinforced; try it again. Again,
with a will; but again there is not a way. The Prussians are
again repulsed; fallback, down this slippery course, in more
disorder than the first time. Had the Saxons stood still, stea-
dily handling arms, how, on such terms, could the Prussians
ever have managed it?
But at sight of this second repulse, the Saxon grenadiers,
and especially one battalion of Austrians who were there (the
only Austrians who fought, this day), gave a shout "Victory! "
-- and in the height of their enthusiasm, rushed out, this
Austrian battalion first and the Saxons after them, to charge
these Prussians, and sweep the world clear of them. It was the
ruin of their battle; a fatal hollahing before you are out of the
wood. Old Leopold, quick as thought, noticing the thing,
hurls cavalry on these victorious downplunging grenadiers;
slashes them asunder, into mere recoiling whirlpools of ruin;
bo that "few of them got back unwounded;'' and the Prussians
storming in along with them, -- aided by ever new Prussians,
from beyond the Tschonengrund even, -- the place was at
length carried; and the Saxon battle became hopeless.
For, their right being in such hurricane, the Prussians
from the centre, as we hint, storm forward withal; will not be
held back by the Tschonengrund. They find the Tschonen-
grund quaggy in the extreme, "brook frozen at the sides, but
waist-deep of liquid mud in the centre;" cross it, nevertheless,
towards the upper part of it, --young Moritz of Dessau leading
the way, to help his old Father in extremity. They climb the
opposite side, -- quite slippery in places, but "helping one
another up;" -- no Saxons there till you get fairly atop, which
was an oversight on the Saxon part. Fairly atop, Moritz is
saluted by the Saxons with diligent musket-volleys; but
Moritz also has musket-volleys in him, bayonet-charges in
him; eager to help his old Papa at this hard pinch.
hours; unopposed, except some skirmishing of Uhlans,
while his Cavalry is riding the Fords to right and left;
Uhlans were driven back swiftly, so soon as the Ca-
valry got over. At five in the evening, he has got
entirely across, 35,000 horse and foot: Ziethen is
chasing the Uhlans, at full speed; who at least will
show us the way, -- for by this time a mist has begun
falling, and the brief daylight is done.
Friedrich himself, without waiting for the rear of
his force, and some while before this mist fell (as I
judge), is pushing forward, "a miller lad for his guide,"
across to Hennersdorf, -- Katholisch-Hennersdorf, a
long straggling Village, eight or ten miles off, and it-
self two miles long, -- where he understands the Saxons
are. Miller lad guides us, over height and hollow,
with his best skill, at a brisk pace; -- through one
hollow, where he has known the cattle pasture in
summer time; but which proves impassable, and mere
quagmire, at this season. No getting through it, you
unfortunate miller lad (gargon de meunier). Neverthe-
less, we did find passage through the skirts of it: nay
this quagmire proved the luck of us; for the enemy,
trusting to it, had no outguard there, never expecting
us on that side. So that the vanguard, Ziethen and
rapid Hussars, make an excellent thing of it. Ziethen
sends us word, That he has got into the body of
Hennersdorf, -- "found the Saxon Quartermaster
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? CHAr. xm. l SURPRISING LAST ATTEMPT ON FRIEDRICH. 219
23d Nov. 1745.
quietly paying his men;" -- that he, Ziethen, is toler-
ably master of Hennersdorf, and will amuse the enemy
till the other force come up.
Of course Friedrich now pushes on, double speed;
detaches other force, horse and foot: which was lucky,
says my informant; for the Ziethen Hussars, getting
good plunder, had by no means demolished the Saxons;
but had left them time to draw up in firm order, a
hedge in front, a little west of the Village; -- from
which post, unassailable by Ziethen, they would have
got safe off to the main body, with little but an affront
and some loss of goods. The new force, -- a rapid
Katzler with light horse in the van, cuirassiers and
foot rapidly following him, -- sweeps past the long
Village, "through a thin wood and a defile;" finds the
enemy firmly ranked as above said; cavalry their left,
infantry on right, flanked by an impenetrable hedge;
and at once strikes in. At once, Katzler does, on order
given; but is far too weak. Charges, he; but is counter-
charged, tumbled back; the Saxons, horse and foot,
showing excellent fight. At length, more Prussian
force coming up, cuirassiers charge them in front, dra-
goons in flank, hussars in rear; all attacking at once,
and with a will; and the poor Saxon Cavalry is entirely
cut to shreds.
And now there remains only the Infantry, perhaps
about 1,000 men (if one must guess); who form a
square; ply vigorously their field-pieces, and their fire-
arms; and cannot be broken by horse-charges. In fact,
these Saxons made a fierce resistance; -- till, before
long, Prussian Infantry came up; and, with counter
field-pieces and musketries, blasted gaps in them; upon
which the Cavalry got admittance, and reduced the
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? 220 SECOND SILESIAN WAR. [BOOK XV.
23d Nov. 1745.
gallant fellows nearly wholly to annihilation either by
death or capture. There are 914 Prisoners in this
Action, 4 big guns, and I know not how many kettle-
drums, standards and the like, ? --? all that were there,
I suppose. The number of dead not given. * But, in
brief, this Saxon Force is utterly cut to pieces; and
only scattered twos and threes of it rush through the
dark mist; scattering terror to this hand and that. The
Prussians take their post at and round Hennersdorf
that night; -- bivouacking, though only in sack trowsers,
a blanket each man: --"We work hard, my men, and
"suffer all things for a day or two, that it may save
"much work afterwards," said the King to them; and
they cheerfully bivouacked
This was the Action of Katholisch-Hennersdorf,
fought on Tuesday, 23d November 1745; and still
celebrated in the Prussian Annals, and reckoned a
brilliant passage of war. AaiAo&cA-Hennersdorf, some
ten miles south-west of Naumburg on the Queiss (for
there are, to my knowledge, Twenty-five other Villages
called Hennersdorf, and Three several Towns of Naum-
burg, and many Castles and Hamlets so named, in
dear Germany of the Nomenclatures): -- Katholisch-
Hennersdorf is the place, and Tuesday about dusk the
time. A sharp brush of fighting; not great in quantity,
but laid in at the right moment, in the right place.
Like the prick of a needle, duly sharp, into the spinal
marrow of a gigantic object; totally ruinous to such
object. Never, or rarely, in the Annals of War, was
as much good got of so little fighting. You may, with
labour and peril, plunge a hundred dirks into your
boa-constrictor; hack him with axes, bray him with
* Orlich, ii. 291; Feldiuge. I. 400-413.
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? CHAP. Xlh. ] SURPRISING LAST ATTEMPT ON PRIEDRICH. 221
34th-30th Nov. 1745.
sledge-hammers; that is not uncommon: but the one
true prick in the spinal marrow, and the Artist that
can guide you well to that, he and it are the notable
and beneficent phenomena.
Prince Karl, cut in two, tumbles home again
double-quick.
Next morning, Wednesday, 24th, the Prussians are
early astir again; groping, on all manner of roads, to
find what Prince Karl is doing, in a world all covered
in thick mist. They can find nothing of him, but
broken tumbrils, left baggage-wagons, rumour of uni-
versal marching hither and marching thither; -- evi-
dences of an Army fallen into universal St. Vitus's
Dance; distractedly hurrying to and fro, not knowing
whitherward for the moment, except that it must be
homewards, homewards with velocity.
Prince Karl's farther movements are not worth par-
ticularising. Ordering and cross-ordering; march this
way; no, back again; such a scene in that mist. Prince
Karl is flowing homeward; confusedly deluging and
gurgling southward, the best he can. Next afternoon,
near Gorlitz, and again one other time, he appears
drawn up, as if for fighting; but has himself no such
thought; flies again, without a shot; leaves Gorlitz to
capitulate, that afternoon; all places to capitulate or be
evacuated. We hear he is for Zittau; Winterfeld with
light horse hastens after him, gets sight of him on the
Heights at Zittau yonder, * "about two in the morning:"
but the Prince has not the least notion to fight. Prince
leaves Zittau to capitulate, -- quits silently the Heights
* (Euvres de Frederic, in. 157; Orlich, ii. 296.
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? 222 SECOND SILESIAN WAR. [book XV.
24th-30th Nov. 1745.
of Zittau at two A. m. (Winterfeld, very lively in the
rear of him, cutting off his baggage); -- and so
tumbles, pellmell, through the Passes of Gabel, home
to Bohemia again. Let us save this poor Note from
the fire:
"On Saturday night, November 27th, the Prussians,
"pursuing Prince Karl, were cantoned in the Herrnhuth
"neighbourhood, -- my informant's regiment in the Town of
"Herrnhuth itself. * Yes, there lay the Prussians over Sun-
"day; and might hear some weighty expounder, if they liked.
"Considerably theological, many of these poor Prussian
"soldiers; carrying a Bible in their knapsack, and devout
"Psalms in the heart of them. Two-thirds of every regiment
"are Landeskinder, native Prussians; each regiment from a
"special canton, -- generally rather religious men. The
"other third are recruits, gathered in the Free Towns of the
"Reich, or where they can be got; not distinguished by de-
"votion these, we may fancy, only trained to the uttermost by
"Spartan drill. "
Before the week is done, that "first leg" of the
grand Enterprise (the Prince-Karl leg) is such a leg as
we see. "Silesia in the lump," -- fond dream again,
what a dream! Old Dessauer getting signal, where
now, too probably, is Saxony itself? -- Ranking again
at Aussig in Bohemia, Prince Karl, -- 5,000 of his
men lost, and all impetus and fire gone, -- falls gently
down the Elbe, to join Rutowski at least; and will
reappear within four weeks, out of Saxon Switzerland,
still rather in dismal humour.
The Prussian Troops, in four great Divisions, are
cantoned in that Lausitz Country, now so quiet; in
and about Bautzen, and three other Towns of the
* Feldzuge. i. ubi supra.
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? CHAP, m] SURPRISING LAST ATTEMPT ON FRIEDRICH. 223
24th-30th Nov. 1745.
neighbourhood; to rest, and be ready for the Old
Dessauer, when we hear of him. The "Magazine at
Guben in 138 wagons," theGorlitz and other Magazines
of Prince Karl in the due number of wagons, supply
them with comfortable unexpected provender. Thus
they lie cantoned; and have with despatch effectually
settled their part of the problem. Question now is,
How will it stand with the Old Dessauer, and his part?
Or, better still, Would not perhaps the Saxons, in
this humiliated state, accept Peace, and finish the
matter?
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? 224
SECOND SILESIAN WAR. [book XV.
29th Nov. --15lh Dec. 1745.
CHAPTER XIV.
BATTLE OP KESSELSDORF.
A "Correspondence" of a certain Excellency
Villiers, English Minister at Dresden, -- Sir Thomas
Villiers, Grand-father of the present Earl of Clarendon,
-- was very famous in those weeks; and is still worth
mention, as a trait of Friedrich's procedure in this
crisis. Friedrich, not intoxicated with his swift
triumph over Prince Karl, hut calculating the perils
and the chances still ahead, -- miserably off for money
too, -- admits to himself that not revenge or triumph,
that Peace is the one thing needful to him. November
29th, Old Leopold is entering Saxony; and in the
same hours, Podewils at Berlin, by order of Friedrich,
writes to Villiers who is in Dresden, about Peace,
about mediating for Peace: "My King ready and
desirous, now as at all times, for Peace; the terms of
it known; terms not altered, not alterable, no bargain-
ing or higgling needed or allowable. Convention of
Hanover, let his Polish Majesty accede honestly to that,
and all these miseries are ended. "*
Villiers starts instantly on this beneficent business;
"goes to Court, on it, that very night;" Villiers shows
* "Correspondance du Roi avec Sir Thomas Villiers;" commences, on
Podewils's part, 28th November; on Friedrich's, 4th December; ends, on
Villiers's, 18th December; fourteen Pieces in all, four of them Friedrich's:
Given in (Euvres 'ieFrei&i ic, in. 183-216 (see id. 158), and in many other
Books.
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? CHaP. XIV. ] BATTLE OF KESSELSDORF. 226
29th Nov. --15th Dec. 1745.
himself really diligent, reasonable, loyal; doing his
very best now and afterwards; but has no success at
all. Polish Majesty is obstinate, -- I always think,
in the way sheep are, when they feel themselves too
much put upon; -- and is deaf to everybody but
Briihl. Briihl answers: "Let his Prussian Majesty
retire from our Territory; -- what is he doing in the
Lausitz just now! Retire from our Territory; then we
will treat! " Briihl still refuses to be desperate of his
bad game; -- at any rate, Briihl's rage is yellower
than ever. That very evening, while talking to Villiers,
he has had preparations going on; -- and next morn-
ing takes his Master, Polish Majesty August HI. , with
some comfortable minimum of apparatus (cigar-boxes
not forgotten), off to Prag, where they can be out of
danger till the thing decide itself. Villiers follows to
Prag; desists not from his eloquent Letters, and earnest
persuasions at Prag; but begins to perceive that the
means of persuading Briihl will be a much heavier kind
of artillery.
On the whole, negotiations have yet done little.
Britannic George, though Purse-holder, what is his
success here? As little is the Russian Bugbear per-
suasive on Friedrich himself. The Czarina of the
Russias, a luxurious lady, of far more weight than
insight, has just notified to him, with more emphasis
than ever, That he shall not attack Saxony; that if he
do, she with considerable vigour will attack him!
That has always been a formidable puzzle for Fried-
rich: however, he reflects that the Russians never could
draw sword, or be ready with their Army, in less than
six months, probably not in twelve; and has answered,
translating it into polite official terms: "Fee-faw-fum,
Carlyle, Frederick the Great. VIII. 15
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? 226 SECOND SILESIAN WAR. [book XV.
29th Nov. --15th Dec. 1745.
your Czarish Majesty! Question is not now of attack-
ing, but of being myself attacked! " -- and so is now
running his risks with the Czarina.
Still worse was the result he got from Louis XV.
Lately, "for form's sake," as he tells us, "and not ex-
pecting anything," he had (November 15th) made a
new appeal to France: "Ruin menacing your Most
Christian Majesty's Ally, in this huge sudden crisis
of invasive Austrian-Saxons; and for your Majesty's
sake, may I not in some measure say? " To which
Louis's Answer is also given. A very sickly, unpleasant
Document; testifying to considerable pique against
Friedrich; -- Ranke says, it was a joint production,
all the Ministers gradually contributing each his little
pinch of irony to make it spicier, and Louis signing
when it was enough; -- very considerable pique
against Friedrich; and something of the stupid sulki-
ness as of a fat bad boy, almost glad that the house
is on fire, because it will burn his nimble younger
brother, whom everybody calls so clever: "Sorry indeed,
Sir my Brother, most sorry: -- and so you have
actually signed that Hanover Convention with our worst
Enemy? France is far from having done so; France
has done, and will do, great things. Our Royal heart
grieves much at your situation; but is not alarmed; no,
Your Majesty has such invention, vigour and ability,
superior to any crisis, our clever younger Brother!
And herewith we pray God to have you in his holy
keeping. " This is the purport of King Louis's Letter;
-- which Friedrich folds together again, looking up
from perusal of it, we may fancy with what a glance
of those eyes. *
* Louis's Original, in (Euvres de Frederic, m. 173,174 (with a much
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? CHaP. XIV. ] BATTLE OP KESSELSDORP. 227
29th Nov. 1745.
He is getting instructed, this young King, as to
alliances, grand combinations, French and other. His
third Note to Villiers intimates, "It being evident that
his Polish Majesty will have nothing from us but fight-
ing, we must try to give it him of the best kind we
have. "* Yes truly; it is the ultimate persuasive, that.
Here, in condensed form, are the essential details of
the course it went, in this instance:
General Griine, on the road to Berlin, hearing of the rout
at Hennersdorf, halted instantly,-- hastened back to Saxony,
to join Rutowski there, and stand on the defensive. Not now
in that Halle Frontier region (Rutowski has quitted that, and
all the entrenchments and marshy impregnabilities there);
not on that Halle Frontier, but hovering about in the interior,
Rutowski and Griine are in junction; gravitating towards
Dresden;-- expecting Prince Karl's advent; who ought to
emerge from the Saxon Switzerland, in few days, were he
sharp; and again enable us to make a formidable figure. Be
speedy, Old fiessauer: you must settle the Griine-Rutowski
account before that junction, not after it!
The OldDessauer has been tolerably successful; and by
no means thinks he has been losing time. November 29th,
"at three in the morning," he stept over into Saxony with its
impregnable camps; drove Rutowski's rearguard, or remnant,
out of the quagmires, canals and entrenchments, before day-
light; drove it, that same evening, or before dawn of the
morrow, out of Leipzig: has seized that Town,-- lays heavy
contribution on it, nearly 50,000Z. (such our strait for finance);
"and be sure you take only substantial men as sureties! "**--
and will, and does after a two-days rest, advance with decent
celerity inwards; though "One must first know exactly
whither; one must have bread, and preparations and pre-
cautions; do all things solidly and in order," thinks the Old
more satirical paraphrase than the above), and Friedrich's Answer ad-
joined, -- after the events had come.
* "Bautzen, 11th December 1745" (not tupri).
-- Orlich, n. 308.
15*
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? 228
[book XV. 12th Dec. 1745.
SECOND SILESIAN WAR.
Dessauer. Friedrich well knows the whither; and that Dres-
den itself is, or may be made, the place for falling in with
Rutowski. Friedrich is now himself ready to join, from the
Bautzen region; the days and hours precious to him; and
spurs the Old Dessauer, with the sharpest remonstrances.
"All solidly and in order, your Majesty! " answers the Old
Dessauer: solid strong-boned old coach-horse, who has his
own modes of trotting, having done many a heavy mile of it
in his time; and whose skin, one hopes, is of the due thick-
ness against undue spurring.
Old Dessauer wishes two things: bread to live upon; and
a sure Bridge over the Elbe whereby Friedrich may join him.
Old Dessauer makes for Torgau, far north, where is both an
Elbe Bridge and a Magazine; which he takes; Torgau and
Sertinents now his. But it is far down the Elbe, far off from
autzen and Friedrich: "A nearer Bridge and rendezvous,
your Highness! Meissen" (where they make the china, only
fifty miles from me, and twenty from Dresden), "let that be
the Bridge, now that you have got victual. And speedy, for
Heaven's sake, speedy! " Friedrich pushes out General Leh-
wald from Bautzen, with 4,000 men, towards Meissen Bridge;
Lehwald does not himself meddle with the Bridge, only fires
shot across upon the Saxon party, till the Old Dessauer, on
the other bank, come up;-- and the Old Dessauer, impatience
thinks, will never come. "Three days in Torgau, yes, Your
Majesty: I had bread to bake, and the very ovens had to be
built. " A solid old roadster, with his own modes of trotting;
needs thickness of skin. *
At long last, on Sunday, 12th December, about two p. m. ,
guard, does appear, --Gessler of the sixty-seven standards,
-- "always about an hour ahead. " Gessler has summoned
Meissen; has not got it, is haggling with it about terms,
when, towards sunset of the short day, Old Dessauer himself
arrives. Whereupon the Saxon Commandant quits the Bridge
(not much breaking it); and glides off in the dark, clear out
of Meissen, towards Dresden, -- chased, but successfully
defending himself. ** "Had he but stood out for two days!
* Friedrich's Letters to Leopold, in Orlich, n. 431, 455 (6th-10th De-
cember 1745).
** See Plan, p. 232.
the Old Dessauer doei
General Gessler, his van-
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? CHAP. XIV. ] BATTLE OP KESSELSDORF. 229
14th Dec. 1745.
say the Saxons, -- "Prince Karl had then been up, and much
might have been different. " Well, Friedrich too would have
been up, and it had most likely been the same on a larger
scale. But the Saxon Commandant did not stand out; he
glided off, safe; joinedRutowskiand Griine, who are lying
about Wilsdruf, six or seven miles on the hither side of Dres-
den, and eagerly waiting for Prince Karl. "Bridge and
Town of Meissen are your Majesty's," reports the Old Des-
sauer that night: upon which Friedrich instantly rises, has-
tening thitherward. Lehwald comes across Meissen Bridge,
effects the desired junction; and all Monday the OldDessauer
defiles through Meissen town and territory; continually ad-
vances towards Dresden, the Saxons harassing the flanks of
him a little, -- nay in one defile, being sharp strenuous
fellows, they threw his rear into some confusion; cut off cer-
tain carts and prisoners, and the life of one brave General,
Lieutenant-General Boel, who had charge there. "Spurring
one's trot into a gallop! This comes of your fast marching,
of your spurring Deyond the rules of war! " thinks Old Leo-
pold; and Friedrich, who knows otherwise, is very angry for
a moment.
But indeed the crisis is pressing. Prince Karl is across the
Metal Mountains, nearing Dresden from the East; Friedrich
strikes into march for the same point by Meissen, so soon as
the Bridge is his. Old Leopold is advancing thither westward,
-- steadily hour by hour; Dresden City the fateful goal.
There, -- in these middle days of December 1745 (Highland
Rebellion just whirling back from Derby again, "the London
shops shut for one day"), -- it is clear there will be a big and
bloody game played before we are much older. Very sad in-
deed: but Count Briihl is not persuadable otherwise. By
slumbering and sluggarding, over their money-tills and flesh-
pots; trying to take evil for good, and to say, "It will do,"
when it will not do, respectable Nations come at last to be
foverned by Briihls; cannot help themselves; -- and get their
acks broken in consequence. Why not? Wouldyou have a
Nation live forever that is content to be governed by Briihls?
The gods are wiser! -- It is now the 13th; Old Dessauer
tramping forward, hour by hour, towards Dresden and some
field of Fate.
On Tuesday 14th, by break of day, Old Dessauer gets on
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? 230
[book XV. 15th Dec. 1745.
SECOND SILESIAN WAR.
march again; in four columns, in battle order; steady all
day, -- hard winter weather, ground crisp, and flecked with
snow. The Pass at Neustadt, "his cavalry went into it at
full gallop;" but found nobody there. That night, he en-
camps at a place called Rohrsdorf; which may be eight miles
west-by-north from Dresden as the crow flies; and ten or
more, if you follow the highway round by Wilsdruf on your
right. The real direct Highway from Meissen to Dresden is
on the other side of the Elbe, and keeps by the River-bank,
a fine level road; but on this western side, where Leopold
now is, the road is inland, and goes with a bend. Leopold,
of course, keeps command of this road; his columns are on
both sides of it, River on their left at some miles' distance;
and incessantly expect to find Rutowski, drawn out on favour-
able ground somewhere. The country is of fertile, but very
broken character; intersected by many brooks, making ob-
liquely towards the Elbe (obliquely, with a leaning Meissen-
wards); country always mounting, till here about Rohrsdorf
we seem to have almost reached the watershed, and the brooks
make for the Elbe, leaning Dresden way. Good posts abound
in such broken country, with its villages and brooks, with its
thickets, hedges and patches of swamp. But Rutowski has
not appeared anywhere, during this Tuesday.
Our four columns, therefore, lie all night, under arms,
about Rohrsdorf: and again by morrow's dawn are astir in
the old order, crunching far and wide the frozen ground; and
advance, charged to the muzzle with potential battle. Slightly
upwards always, to the actual watershed of the country;
leaving Wilsdruf a little to their right. Wilsdruf is hardly
past, when see, from this broad table-land, top of the country:
"Yonder is Rutowski, at last; -- and this new Wednesday
will be a day! " Yonder, sure enough: drawn out three or
four miles long; with his right to the Elbe, his left to that in-
tricate Village of Kesselsdorf; bristling with cannon; deep
gullet and swampy brook in front of him: the strongest post
a man could have chosen in those parts.
The Village of Kesselsdorf itself lies rather in a hollow;
in the slight Deginning, or uppermost extremity, of a little
Valley or Dell, called the Tschonengrund, -- which, with its
quaggy brook of a Tschone, wends north-eastward into the
Elbe, a course of four or five miles: little Valley very deep
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? CHAP. XIV. ] BATTLE OP KESSELSDORF. 231
15th Dec. 1745.
for its length, and getting altogether chasmy and precipitous
towards the Elbe-ward or lower end. Kesselsdorf itself, as we
said, is mainly in a kind of hollow: between Old Leopold and
Kesselsdorf the ground rather mounts; and there is percep-
tibly a flat knoll or rise at the head of it, where the Village
begins. Some trees there, and abundance of cannon and
grenadiers at this moment. It is the south-western or leftmost
point of Rutowski's line; impregnable with its cannon-batte-
ries and grenadiers. Rightward Rutowski extends in long
lines, with the quaggy dell of Tschonengrund in front of him,
parallel to him; Dell ever deepening as it goes. North-east-
ward, at the extreme right, or Elbe point of it, where Griine
and the Austrians stand, it has grown so chasmy, we judge
that G rime can neither advance nor be advanced upon: so we
leave him standing there, -- which he did all day, in a purely
meditative posture. Rutowski numbers 35,000, now on this
ground, with immensity of cannon; 35,000 we, with only the
usual field-artillery, and such a Tschonengrund, with its half-
frozen quagmires ahead. A ticklish case for the old man, as
he grimly reconnoitres it, in the winter morning.
Grim Old Dessauer having reconnoitered, and rapidly
considered, decides to try it, -- what else? -- will range him-
self on the west side of that Tschonengrund, horse and foot;
two lines, wide as Rutowski opposite him; but means to direct
his main and prime effort agamstKesselsdorf, which is clearly
the key of the position, if it can be taken. For which end the
OldDessauer lengthens himself out to rightward, so as to out-
flank Kesselsdorf; -- neglecting Griine (refusing Griine, as
the soldiers say): -- "our horse of the right wing reached
"from the Wood called Lerchenbusch (Larch-Bush), right-
"ward as far asFreyberg road; foot all between that Lerchen-
"busch and the big Birch-tree on the road to Wilsdruf; horse
"of the left wing, from there to Roitsch. " * It was about two
p. m. before the old man got all his deployments completed;
what corps of his, deploying this way or that, came within
wind of Kesselsdorf, were saluted with cannon, thirty pieces
or more, which are in battery, in three batteries, on the knoll
there; but otherwise no fighting as yet. At two, the Old
* Stille (p. 181), who was present. See Plan, p. 2S2.
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? 232 SECOND SILESIAN WAR. [book XV.
15th Dec. 1745.
Dessauer is complete; he reverently doffs his hat, as had
always been his wont, in prayer to God, before going in. A
grim fervour of prayer is in his heart, doubtless; though the
words as reported are not very regular or orthodox: "O Herr
Gott, help me yet this once; let me not be disgraced in my
old days! Or if thou wilt not help me, iorJt help those
Hundsvogte" (damned Scoundrels, so to speak), "but leave
us to try it out ourselves! " That is the Old Scandinavian of
a Dessauer's prayer; a kind of Godur he too, Priest as well as
Captain: Prayer mythically true as given; mythically, not
otherwise. * Which done, he waves his hat once, "On, in
God's name! " and the storm is loose. Prussian right wing
pushing grandly forward, bent in that manner, to takeKes-
selsdorf and its fire-throats in flank.
The Prussians tramp on with the usual grim-browed reso-
lution, foot in front, horse in rear; but they have a terrible
a a. Prussians. b b. Saxons. c. Griine's Austrians.
* Ranke, in. 334 a.
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? CHaP. XIV. ] BATTLE OF KESSELSDORF. 233
15th Dec. 1745.
problem at that Kesselsdorf, with its retrenched batteries, and
numerous grenadiers fighting under cover. The very ground
is sore against them; uphill, and the trampled snow wearing
into a slide, so that you sprawl and stagger sadly. Thirty-
one big guns, and about 9,000small, pouring out mere death
on you, from that knoll-head. The Prussians stagger; cannot
stand it; bend to rightwards, and get out of shot-range; cannot
manage it this bout. Rally, reinforced; try it again. Again,
with a will; but again there is not a way. The Prussians are
again repulsed; fallback, down this slippery course, in more
disorder than the first time. Had the Saxons stood still, stea-
dily handling arms, how, on such terms, could the Prussians
ever have managed it?
But at sight of this second repulse, the Saxon grenadiers,
and especially one battalion of Austrians who were there (the
only Austrians who fought, this day), gave a shout "Victory! "
-- and in the height of their enthusiasm, rushed out, this
Austrian battalion first and the Saxons after them, to charge
these Prussians, and sweep the world clear of them. It was the
ruin of their battle; a fatal hollahing before you are out of the
wood. Old Leopold, quick as thought, noticing the thing,
hurls cavalry on these victorious downplunging grenadiers;
slashes them asunder, into mere recoiling whirlpools of ruin;
bo that "few of them got back unwounded;'' and the Prussians
storming in along with them, -- aided by ever new Prussians,
from beyond the Tschonengrund even, -- the place was at
length carried; and the Saxon battle became hopeless.
For, their right being in such hurricane, the Prussians
from the centre, as we hint, storm forward withal; will not be
held back by the Tschonengrund. They find the Tschonen-
grund quaggy in the extreme, "brook frozen at the sides, but
waist-deep of liquid mud in the centre;" cross it, nevertheless,
towards the upper part of it, --young Moritz of Dessau leading
the way, to help his old Father in extremity. They climb the
opposite side, -- quite slippery in places, but "helping one
another up;" -- no Saxons there till you get fairly atop, which
was an oversight on the Saxon part. Fairly atop, Moritz is
saluted by the Saxons with diligent musket-volleys; but
Moritz also has musket-volleys in him, bayonet-charges in
him; eager to help his old Papa at this hard pinch.
