Having ar-
rived at his old distance to west, Moldau, like a re-
?
rived at his old distance to west, Moldau, like a re-
?
Thomas Carlyle
"Nothing to be made of it tonight,"
thinks Bevern; "but we must try tomorrow! " and has
to take camp, "with a marshy brook in front of him,"
some way on the hither side of Reichenberg; and
study overnight what method of unbarring there may
be. Thursday morning early, Bevern, having well
reconnoitred and studied, was at work unbarring.
Bevern crossed his own marshy brook; courageously
assaulted Konigseck's position, left wing of Konigseck;
stormed the abatis, the batteries, plunged in upon
Konigseck, man to man, horse to horse, and after
some fierce enough but brief dispute, tumbled Konigs-
eck out of the ground. Konigseck made some attempt
to rally; attempted twice, but in vain; had fairly to
roll away, and at length to run, leaving 1,000 dead
upon the field, about 500 prisoners; one or two guns,
and I forget how many standards, or whether any kettle-
drums. This was thought to be a decidedly bright
feat on Bevern's part (rather mismanaged latterly on
Konigseck's);* -- much approved by Friedrich, as he
* Tempelhof, i. 100; Helden-Geschichte, m. 1077 (Friedrich's own
Account, "Linay in BOhmen, 24th April 1757"); &c. &. There is, in
Btlsching's Magazin (xvi. 139 et seq. ), an intelligible sketch of this Action
of Reichenberg, with satirical criticisms, which have some basis, on Lacy,
Macguire and others, by an Anonymous Military Cynic, -- who gives many
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? 22 SEVEN-YEARS WAR RISES TO A HEIGHT, [book XvIII.
20th April -- 2d May 1757.
hears of it, at Linay, on his own prosperous march
Prag-ward. A comfortable omen, were there nothing
more.
Konigseck and Company, torn out of Reichenberg, and set running, could not fairly halt again and face
about till at Liebenau, twenty miles off, where they
found some defile or difficult bit of ground fit for them;
and this too proved capable of yielding pause for a few
hours only. For Schwerin, with his Silesian Column,
was coming up from the north-east, threatening Konigs-
eck on flank and rear: Konigseck could only tighten
his straps a little at this Liebenau, and again get under
way; and making vain attempts to hinder the junction
of Schwerin and Bevern, to defend the Jung-Buntzlau
Magazine, or do any good in those parts, except to
detain the Schwerin-Bevern people certain hours (I
think, one day in all), had nothing for it but to gird
himself together, and retreat on Prag and the Ziscaberg,
where his friends now were.
The Austrian force at Reichenberg was 20,000;
would have been 30 and odd thousands, had Macguire
come up (as he might have done, had not the ap-
pearances alarmed him too much); Bevern, minus the
Detachment sent against Macguire, was but 15,000 in
fight; and he has quite burst the Austrians away, who
had plugged his road for him in such force: is it not
a comfortable little victory, glorious in its sort; and a
good omen for the bigger things that are coming?
Bevern marched composedly on, after this inspiriting
tussle, through Liebenau and what defiles there were;
such io Busching (that of Fontenoy, for example), not without force of
judgment, and signs of wide study and experience in his trade.
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? CHAP. I. ] THE CAMPAIGN OPENS. 23
20th April -- 2d May 1757.
April 24th, at Turnau, he falls into the Schwerin
Column; incorporates himself therewith, and, as sub-
ordinate constituent part, accompanies Schwerin thence-
forth.
3? . "Column Third was Schwerin's, out of Schlesien; "counted to be 32,000 foot, 12,000 horse. Schwerin,jgathering
"himself, from Glatz and the northerly country, at Landshut,
"-- very careless, he, of the pleasant Hills, and fine scattered
"peaks of the Giant Mountains thereabouts, -- was com-
"pletely gathered foremost of all the Columns, having
"farthest to go. And on Monday, 18th April, started from
"Landshut, Winterfeld leading one Division. In our days,
"it is the finest of roads; high level Pass, of good width,
"across theGiantRange; pleasant painted hamlets sprinkling
"it, fine mountain ridges and distant peaks looking on;
"Schneekoppe (Snotefell, its head bright white till July come)
"attends you, far to the right, all the way: -- probably Sprite
"Rtibezahl inhabits there; and no doubt River Elbe begins
"his long journey there, trickling down in little threads over
"yonder, intending to float navies by and by: considerations
"infinitely indifferent to Schwerin. 'The road,' says my
"Tourist, 'is not Alpine; it reminds you of Derbyshire-Peak
"'country; more like the road from Castletown to Sheffield
"' than any I could name;' -- we have been in it before, my
"reader and I, about Schatzlar and other places. Trautenau,
"well down the Hills, with swift streams, more like torrents,
"boundElbe-wards, watering it, is a considerable Austrian
"Town, and the Bohemian end of the Pass, -- Sohr only a
"few miles from it: heartily indifferent to Schwerin at this
"moment; who was home from the Army, in a kind of dis-
"favour, or mutual pet, at the time Sohr was done. Schwerin's
"March we shall not give; his junction with Bevern (at
"Turnau, on the Iser, April 24th), then their capture of Jung-
"Buntzlau Magazine, and crossing of the Elbe at Melnick,
"these were the important points; and, in spite of Konigs-
"eck's tusselings, these all went well, and nothing was lost
"except one day of time. "
The Austrians, some days ago, as we observed,
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? 24 SEVEN-YEARS WAR RISES TO A HEIGHT, [book xvm.
20th April -- 2d May 1757.
filed through Prag, -- Sunday, May 1st, not a pleasant
holiday spectacle to the populations; -- and are all
encamped on the Ziscaberg high ground, on the other
side of the City. Had they been alert, now was their
time to attack Friedrich, who is weaker than they,
while nobody has yet joined him. They did not think
of it, under Prince Karl; and Browne and the Prince
are said to be in bad agreement.
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? CHAP. II. ]
2d May 1757.
BATTLE OF PRAG.
25CHAPTEE II.
BATTLE OP PRAG.
Monday morning, 2d May 1757, the Vanguard,
or advanced troops of Friedrich's Column, had ap-
peared upon the Weissenberg, north-west corner of Prag
(ground known to them in 1744, and to the poor
Winter-King in 1620): Vanguard in the morning;
followed shortly by Friedrich himself; and, hour after
hour, by all the others, marching in. So that, before
sunset, the whole force lay posted there; and had the
romantic City of Prag full in view at their feet. A
most romantic, high-piled, many-towered, most unlevel
old City; its skylights and gilt steeplecocks glittering
in the western sun, -- Austrian Camp very visible
close beyond it, spread out miles in extent on the
Ziscaberg Heights, or eastern side; -- Prag, no doubt,
and the Austrian Garrison of Prag, taking intense
survey of this Prussian phenomenon, with commentaries,
with emotions, hidden now in eternal silence, as is fit
enough. One thing we know, "Headquarter was in
Welleslawin:" there, in that small Hamlet, nearly to
north, lodged Friedrich, the then busiest man of Eu-
rope; whom Posterity is still striving for a view of, as
something memorable.
Prince Karl, our old friend, is now in chief com-
mand yonder; Browne also is there, who was in chief
command; their scheme of Campaign gone all awry.
And to Friedrich, last night, at his quarters "in the
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? 26 SEVEN-YEARS WAR RISES TO A HEIGHT, [book XVTH.
3d May 1757.
Monastery of Tuchomirsitz," where these two Gentlemen
had lodged the night before, it was reported that they
had been heard in violent altercation;* -- both of them,
naturally, in ill-humour at the surprising turn things
had taken; and Feldmarschall Browne firing up, belike,
at some platitude past or coming, at some advice
of his rejected, some imputation cast on him, or we
know not what. Prince Karl is now chief; and in-
dignant Browne, as may well be the case, dissents a
good deal, -- as he has often had to do. Patience,
my friend, it is near ending now! Prince Karl means
to lie quiet on the Ziscaberg, and hold Prag; does not
think of molesting Friedrich in his solitary state; and
will undertake nothing, "till Konigseck, from Jung-
Buntzlau, come in," victorious or not; or till perhaps
even Daun arrive (who is, rather slowly, gathering
reinforcement in Mahren): "What can the enemy at-
tempt on us, in a Post of this strength? " thinks Prince
Karl. And Browne, whatever his insight or convictions
be, has to keep silence.
"Weissenberg," let readers be reminded, "is on the hither
"or western side of Prag: the Hradschin" (pronounce Rad-
skeen, with accent on the last syllable, as in "Schwen'n" and
other such cases), "the Hradschin, which is the topmost summit
"of the City and of the Fashionable Quarter, -- old Bohemian
"Palace, still occasionally habitable as such, and in constant
"use as a Downing-Street, -- lies on the slope or shoulder of
"the Weissenberg, a good way from the top; and has a web
"of streets rushing down from it, steepest streets in the world;
"till they reach the Bridge, and broad-flowing Moldau
"(broad as Thames at half-flood, but nothing like so deep);
"after which the streets become level, and spread out in in- "tricate plenty to right and to left, and ahead eastward,
"across the River, till the Ziscaberg, with frowning pre-
? Nelden-Geschushte, iv. 11. (exact'Diary of the march' given there).
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? CHAP, n. ] BATTLE OP PRAG. 27
2d May 1757.
"cipitous brow, suddenly puts a stop to them, in that particu-
"lar direction. From Ziscaberg top to Weissenberg top may
"be about five English miles; from the Hradschin to the foot
"of Ziscaberg, north-west to south-east, will be half that
"distance, the greatest length of Prag City. Which is rather
"rhomboidal in shape, its longer diagonal this that we men-
"tion. The shorter diagonal, from northmost base of Zisca- "berg to southmost of Hradschin, is perhaps a couple of
"miles. Prag stands nestled in the lap of mountains; and is
"not in itself a strong place in war: but the country round it,
"Moldau ploughing his rugged chasm of a passage through
"the piled table-land, is difficult to manoeuvre in.
"Moldau Valley comes straight from the south, crosses
"Prag; and, -- making, on its outgate at the northern end of
"Prag (end of "shortest diagonal" just spoken of), one big
"loop, or bend and counter-bend, of horse-shoe shape," which
will be notable to us anon, -- "again proceeds straight north-
"ward and Elbe-ward. It is narrow every where, especially
"when once got fairly north of Prag; and runs along like a
"Quasi-Highland Strath, amid rocks and Hills. Big Hill-
"ranges, not to be called barren, yet with rock enough on
"each hand, and fine side valleys opening here and there: the
"bottom of your Strath, which is green and fertile, with
"pleasant busy Villages (much intent on water-power and
"cotton-spinning in our time), is generally of few furlongs in
"breadth. And so it lasts, this pleasant Moldau-Valley, mile
"after mile, on the northern or Lower Moldau, generally
"straight north, though with one big bend eastward just
"before ending; and not till nearMelnick, or the mouth of
"Moldau, do we emerge on that grand Elbe Valley, --
"glanced at once already, from Pascopol or other Height, in
"the Lobositz times. "
Friedrich's first problem is the junction with
Schwerin: junction not to be accomplished south of the
Ziscaberg in the present circumstances; and which
Friedrich knows to be a ticklish operation, with those
Austrians looking on from the high grounds there.
Tuesday 3d May, in the way of reconnoitring, and
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? 28 SEVEN-YEARS WAR RISES TO A HEIGHT, [book XvUI.
4th & 5th May 1757.
decisively on Wednesday 4th, Friedrich is off north-
ward, along the western heights of Lower Moldau,
proper force following him, to seek a fit place for the
pontoons, and get across in that northern quarter.
"How dangerous that Schwerin is a day too late! "
murmurs he; but hopes the Austrians will undertake
nothing. Keith, with 30,000, he has left on the Weis-
senberg, to straiten Prag and the Austrian Garrison on
that side: our wagon-trains arrive from Leitmeritz on
that side, Elbe-boats bring them up to Leitmeritz; very indispensable to guard that side of Prag. Fried-
rich's fixed purpose also is to beat the Austrians, on
the other side of it, and send them packing; but for
that, there are steps needful!
Up so far as Lissoley, the first day, Friedrich has
found no fit place; but on the morrow, Thursday 5th,
farther up, at a place called Seltz, Friedrich finds his
side of the Strath to be "a little higher than the other,"
-- proper, therefore, for cannonading the other, if need
be; -- and orders his pontoons to be built together
there. He knows accurately of the Schwerin Column,
of the comfortable Bevern Victory at Reichenberg, and
how they have got the Jung-Buntzlau Magazine, and
are across the Elbe, their bridges all secured, though
with delay of one day; and do now wait only for the
word, -- for the three cannon-shot, in fact, which are
to signify that Friedrich is actually crossing to their
side of Lower Moldau.
Friedrich's Bridge is speedily built (trained human
hands can be no speedier), his batteries planted, his
precautions taken: the three cannon-shot go off, audible
to Schwerin; and Friedrich's troops stream speedily
across, hardly a Pandour to meddle with them. Nay,
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? CHAP, n. ] BATTLE OF PRAG. 29
6th May 1757.
before the passage was complete -- what light-horse
squadrons are these? Hussars, seen to be Seidlitz's
(missioned by Schwerin), appear on the outskirts: a
meeting worthy of three-cheers, surely, after such a
march on both sides! Friedrich lies on the eastern Hill-
tops that night (Hamlet of Czimitz his Headquarter,
discoverable if you wish it, scarcely three miles north
of Prag); and accurate appointment is made with
Schwerin as to the meeting-place tomorrow morning.
Meeting-place is to be the environs of Prossik Village,
south-eastward over yonder, short way north of the
Prag-Koniggratz Highway, and rather nearer Prag
than we now are, in Czimitz here: time at Prossik to
be 6 a. m. by the clock; and Winterfeld and Schwerin
to come in person and speak with his Majesty. This
is the program for Friday, May 6th, which proves to
be so memorable a day.
Schwerin is on foot by the stroke of midnight;
comes along "over the heights of Chaber," by half-a-
dozen, or I know not how many roads; visible in due
time to Friedrich's people, who are likewise punctually
on the advance: in a word, the junction is accomplished
with all correctness. And, while the Columns are
marching up, Schwerin and Winterfeld ride about in
personal conference with his Majesty; taking survey,
through spyglasses, of those Austrians encamped yonder
on the broad back of their Zisca Hill, a couple of miles
to southward. "What a set of Austrians," exclaim
military critics; "to permit such junction, without effort
to devour the one half or the other, in good time! "
Friedrich himself, it is probable, might partly be of
the same opinion; but he knew his Austrians, and had
made bold to venture. Friedrich, we can observe, al-
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? 3b SEVEN-YEARS WAR RISES TO A HEIGHT, [book XVBI.
6th May 1757.
ways got to know his man, after fighting him a month
or two; and took liberties with him, or did not take,
accordingly. And, for most part,-- not quite always,
as one signal exception will show, -- he does it with
perfect accuracy; and often with vital profit to his
measures. "If the Austrian cooking-tents are a-smoke
"before eight in the morning," note she, "you may cal-
culate, n such case, the Austrians will march that
"day. "* With a surprising vividness of eye and mind
(beautiful to rival, if one could), he watches the signs
of the times, of the hours and the days and the places;
and prophesies from them; -- reads men and their
procedures, as if they were mere handwriting, not too
cramp for him. -- The Austrians have, by this time,
got their Konigseck home, very unvictorious, but still
on foot, all but a thousand or two: they are already
stronger than the Prussians by count of heads; and till
even Daun come up, what hurry in a Post like this?
The Austrians are viewing Friedrich, too, this morning;' -
but in the blankest manner: their outposts fire a can-
non-shot or two on his group of adjutants and him,
without effect; and the Head people send their cavalry
out to forage, so little prophecy have they from signs
seen.
Zisca Hill, where the Austrians now are, rises
sheer up, of well-nigh precipitous steepness, though
there are trees and grass on it, from the eastern side
of Prag, say five or six hundred feet. A steep, pic-
turesque, massive green Hill; Moldau River, turning
suddenly to right, strikes the north-west corner of it
(has flowed well to west of it, till then), and winds
eastward round its northern base. As will be noticed
* Military Instructions.
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? CHAP. n. ] BATTLE OP PRAG. 31
6th May 1757.
presently. The ascent of Ziscaberg, by roads, is steep
and tedious: but once at the top, you find that it is
precipitous on two sides only, the City or westward
side, and the Moldau or northward. Atop it spreads
out, far and wide, into a waving upland level; bare of
hedges; ploughable all of it, studded with littery hamlets
and farmsteadings: far and wide, a kind of Plain,
sloping with extreme gentleness, five or six miles to
eastward, and as far to southward, before the level
perceptibly rise again.
Another feature of the Ziscaberg, already hinted at,
is very notable: that of the Moldau skirting its northern
base, and scarping the Hill, on that side too, into a
precipitous, or very steep condition. Moldau having
arrived from southward, fairly past the end of Zisca-
berg, had, so to speak, made up his mind to go right
eastward, quarrying his way through the lower uplands
there. And he proceeds, accordingly, hugging the
northern base of Ziscaberg, and making it steep
enough; but finds, in the course of a mile or so, that
he can no more; upland being still rock-built, not
underminable farther; and so is obliged to wind round
again, to northward, and finally straight westward, the
way he came, or parallel to the way he came; and has
effected that great Horse-shoe Hollow we heard of
lately. An extremely pretty Hollow, and curious to
look upon; pretty villas, gardens, and a "Belvedere
Park," laid out in the bottom part; with green mountain-
walls rising all round it, and a silver ring of river at
the base of them: length of Horse-shoe, from heel to
toe, or from west to east, is perhaps a mile; breadth,
from heel to heel, perhaps half as much.
Having ar-
rived at his old distance to west, Moldau, like a re-
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? 32 SEVEN-YEARS WAR RISES TO A HEIGHT, [book Xvm.
6th May 1757.
pentant prodigal, and as if ashamed of his frolic, just
over against the old point he swerved from, takes
straight to northward again. Straight northward; and
quarries out that fine narrow valley, or Quasi-High-
land Strath, with its pleasant busy villages, where he
turns the overshot machinery, and where Friedrich and
his men had their pontoons swimming yesterday.
It is here, on this broad back of the Ziscaberg, that
the Austrians now lie; looking northward over to the
King, and trying cannon-shots upon him. There they
have been encamping, and diligently entrenching them-
selves for four days past; diligent especially since
yesterday, when they heard of Friedrich's crossing the
River. Their groups of tents, and batteries at all the
good points, stretch from near the crown of Ziscaberg
eastward to the Villages of Hlaupetin, Kyge, and their
Lakes, near four miles; and rearward into the interior
one knows not how far; -- Prince Karl, hardly awake
yet, lies at Nussel, near the Moldau, near the Wischerad
or south-eastmost point of Prag; six good miles west-
by-south of Kyge, at the other end of the diagonal
line. About the same distance, right east from Nussel,
and a mile or more to south of Kyge over yonder, is
a littery Farmstead named Sterbohol, which is not yet
occupied by the Austrians, but will become very famous
in their War-Annals, this day! --
Where the Austrian Camp or various Tent-groups
were, at the time Friedrich first cast eye on them, is
no great concern of his or ours; inasmuch as, in two
or three hours hence, the Austrians were obliged, rather
suddenly, to take Order of Battle; and that, and not
their camping, is the thing we are curious upon. Let
us step across, and take some survey of that Austrian
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? CHAP. n. ] BATTLE OF PRAG. 33
6th May 1757.
ground, which Friedrich is now surveying from the
distance, fully intending that it shall be a battle-ground
in few hours; and try to explain how the Austrians
drew up on it, when they noticed the Prussian symptoms
to become serious more and more. By nine in the
morning, -- some two hours after Friedrich began his
scanning, and the Austrian outposts their firing of stray
cannon-shots on him, -- it is Battle-lines, not empty
Tents (which there was not time to strike), that salute
the eye over yonder.
From behind that verdant Horse-shoe Chasm we
spoke of, buttressed by the inaccessible steeps, and the
Moldau, double-folded in the form of Horse-shoe, all
along the brow of that sloping expanse, stands (by 9
a. m. "foragers all suddenly called in") the Austrian
front; the second line and the reserve, parallel to it,
at good distances behind. Ranked there; say, 65,000
regulars (Prussian force little short of the same), on
the brow of Ziscaberg slope, some four miles long.
Their right wing ends, in strong batteries, in intricate
marshes, knolls, lakelets, between Hlaupetin and Kyge:
the extreme of their left wing looks over on that Horse-
shoe Hollow, where Moldau tried to dig his way, but
could not, and had to turn back. They have numerous
redoubts, in front and in all the good places; and are
busy with more, some of them just now getting finished,
treble-quick, while the Prussians are seen under way.
As many as sixty heavy cannon in battery up and
down: of field-pieces they have a hundred and fifty.
. Excellent always with their Artillery, these Austrians;
plenty of it, well placed, and well served: thanks to
Prince Lichtenstein's fine labours, within these ten
Carlyle, Frederick the Great. X. 3
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? 34 SEVEN-YEARS WAR RISES TO A HEIGHT, [book XvIII.
6th May 1757,
years past. * The villages, the farmsteads, are occupied;
every rising ground especially has its battery, -- Ho-
moly Berg, Tabor Berg, "Mount of Tabor;" say Knoll
of Tabor (nothing like so high as Battersea Rise, hardly
even as Constitution Hill), though scriptural Zisca
would make a Mount of it; -- these, and other Berijg
of the like type.
That is the Austrian Battle Order (as it stood about
nine, though it had still to change a little, as we shall
see): their first line, straight or nearly so, looking north-
ward, stands on the brow of the Zisca Slope; their second
and their third, singularly like it, at the due distances
behind; -- in the intervals, their tents, which stand scat-
tered, in groups wide apart, in the ample interior to
southward. The cavalry is on both wings; left wing,
behind that Moldau Chasm, cannot attack nor be at-
tacked, -- except it were on hippogriffs, and its enemy
on the like, capable of fighting in the air, overhead of
these Belvedere Pleasure-grounds: perhaps Prince Karl
will remedy this oversight; fruit of close following of
the orthodox practice? Prince Karl, supreme Chief,
commands on the left wing; Browne on the right, where
he can attack or be attacked, not on hippogriffs. As
we shall see, and others will! Light horse, in any
quantity, hang scattered on all outskirts. With foot,
with cannon batteries, with horse, light or heavy, they
cover in long broad flood the whole of that Zisca Slope,
to near where it ceases, and the ground to eastward
begins perceptibly to rise again.
In this latter quarter, Zisca Slope, now nearly,
ended, begins to get very swampy in parts; on the
eastern border of the Austrian Camp, at Kyge, Hosta-
* (Euvres de Frederic (in several places); sec Hormayr, ? Lichtenstein.
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? CHAP. H. ] BATTLE OF PRAG. 35
6th May 1757.
witz, and beyond it southward, about Sterbohol and
Michelup, there are many little lakelets; artificial fish-
ponds, several of them, with their sluices, dams and
apparatus: a ragged broadish lacing of ponds and
lakelets (all well dried in our day) straggles and zigzags
along there, connected by the miserablest Brook in
nature, which takes to oozing and serpentising forward
thereabouts, and does finally get emptied, now in a
rather livelier condition, into the Moldau, about the
toe-part of that Horse-shoe or Belvedere region. It
runs in sight of the King, I think, where he now is;
this lower livelier part of it: little does the King know
how important the upper oozing portion of it will be to
him this day. Near Michelup are lakelets worth
noticing; a little under Sterbohol, in the course of this
miserable Brook, is a string of fish-ponds, with their
sluices open at this time, the water out, and the mud
bottom sown with herb-provender for the intended carps,
which is coming on beautifully, green as leeks, and
nearly ready for the fish getting to it again.
Friedrich surveys diligently what he can of all this,
from the northern verge. We will now return to
Friedrich: and will stay on his side, through the terrible
Action that is coming. Battle of Prag, one of the
furious Battles of the World; loud as Doomsday; --
the very Emblem of which, done on the Piano by
females of energy, scatters mankind to flight who love
their ears! Of this great Action the Narratives old
and modern are innumerable; false some of them, un-
intelligible well nigh all. There are three in Lloyd,
known probably to some of my readers. Tempelhof,
with criticisms of these three, gives a fourth, -- perhaps
the one Narrative which human nature, after much
3*
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? 36 SEVEN-YEARS WAR RISES TO A HEIGHT, [book XVIII.
6th May 1757.
study, can in some sort understand. Human readers,
especially military, I refer to that as their finale. * Other
interest than military-scientific the Action now has not
much. The stormy fire of soul that blazed that day
(higher in no ancient or modern Fight of men) is ex-
tinct, hopeless of resuscitation for English readers. Ap-
proximately what the thing to human eyes might be
like; what Friedrich's procedure, humour and phy-
siognomy of soul was in it: this, especially the latter
head, is what we search for, -- had lazy Dryasdust
given us almost anything on this latter head! What
little can be gleaned from him on both heads let us
faithfully give, and finish our sad part of the combat.
Friedrich, with his Schwerin and Winterfeld, sur-
veying these things from the northern edge, admits that
the Austrian position is extremely strong; but he has
no doubt that it must be, by some good method, at-
tacked straightway, and the Austrians got beaten. In-
disputably the enterprise is difficult. Unattackable
clearly, the Austrians, on that left wing of theirs; not
in the centre well attackable, nor in the front at all,
with that stiff ground, and such redoubts and points
of strength: but round on their right yonder; take them
* In Lloyd, I. 38 et seq. (the Three): in Tempelhof, 1. 123 (the Fourth)
ib. i. 144 (strength of each Army), 105-149 (remarks of Tempelhof). The
"History" or Series of Lectures on the Battles, &c. of this War, "by the
Royal Staff-Offcers" -- which, for the last thirty or forty years, is used as
Text-Book, or Military Euclid, in the Prussian Cadet-Schools, -- appears
to possess the fit professorial lucidity and amplitude; and, in regard to
all Official details, enumerations and the like, is received as of canonical
authority: it is not accessible to the general Public, -- though liberally
enough conceded in special cases; whereby, in effect, the main results of
it are now become current in modern Prussian Books. By favour in high
quarters, Iihad once possession of a copy, for some months; but not, at
that time, the possibility of thoroughly reading any part of it.
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? CHAP. II. ] BATTLE OP PRAG. Zf
6lh May 1757.
in flank, -- cannot we? On as far as Kyge, the Three
have ridden reconnoitring; and found no possibility
upon the front; nor at Kyge, where the front ends in
batteries, pools and quagmires, is there any. "Diffi-
cult, not undoable," persists the King: "and it must
be straightway set about, and got done. " Winter-
feld, always for action, is of that opinion, too; and,
examining farther down along their right flank, reports
that there the thing is feasible.
Feasible perhaps: "but straightway? " objects
Schwerin. His men have been on foot since midnight,
and on forced marches for days past: were it not better
to rest for this one day? "Rest: -- and Daun, coming
on with 30,000 of reinforcement to them, might arrive
this night? Never, my good Feldmarschall;" -- and
as the Feldmarschall was a man of stiff notions, and
had a tongue of some emphasis, the Dialogue went on,
probably with increasing emphasis on Friedrich's side
too, till old Schwerin, with a quite emphatic flash of
countenance, crushing the hat firm over his brow, ex-
claims: "Well, your Majesty: the fresher fish the better
fish (frische Fische, gute Fische): straightway, then! "
and springs off on the gallop southward, he too, seeking
some likely point of attack. He too, -- conjointly or
not with Winterfeld, I do not know: Winterfeld him-
self does not say; whose own modest words, on the
subject, readers shall see before we finish. But both
are mentioned in the Books as searching, at hand-
gallop, in this way: and both, once well round to south,
by the Podschernitz quarter,* with the Austrian right
flank full in view, were agreed that here the thing was
* "Podschernitz," is pronounced Pots/iernilz (should we happen to
mention it again); "Kyge," Kcega.
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? 38 SEVEN-YEARS WAR RISES TO A HEIGHT, [book XVni.
6th May 1757.
possible. "Infantry to. push from this quarter towards
Sterbohol yonder, and then plunge into their redoubts
and them! Cavalry may sweep still farther southward,
if found convenient, and even take them in rear. " Both
agree that it will do in this way: ground tolerably
good, slightly downwards for us, then slightly upwards
again; tolerable for horse even: -- the intermediate
lacing of dirty lakelets, the fishponds with their sluices
drawn, Schwerin and Winterfeld either did not notice
at all, or thought them insignificant, interspersed with
such beautiful "pasture-ground," -- of unusual verdure
at this early season of the year.
The deployment, or "marching up (Aufmarschiren)"
of the Prussians was wonderful; in their squadrons, in
their battalions, horse, foot, artillery, wheeling, closing,
opening; strangely chequering a country-side, -- in
movements intricate, chaotic to all but the scientific
eye. Conceive them, flowing along, from the Heights
of Chaber, behind Prossik Hamlet (right wing of in-
fantry plants itself at Prossik, horse westward of them);
and ever onwards in broad many-chequered tide-stream,
eastward, eastward, then southward ("our artillery
"went through Podschernitz, the foot and horse a little
"on this westward side of it"): intricate, many-glancing
tide of coming battle; which, swift, correct as clock-
work, becomes two lines, from Prossik to near Chwala
("baggage well behind at Grbell"); thence round by
Podschernitz quarter; and descends, steady, swift,
tornado - storm so beautifully hidden in it, towards
Sterbohol, there to grip-to. Gradually, in stirring up
those old dead pedantic record-books, the fact rises on
us: silent whirlwinds of old Piatt-Deutsch fire, beauti-
fully held down, dwell in those mute masses; better
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? CHAP. II. ] BATTLE OP PRAG. 39
6:h May 1757.
human stuff there is not than that old Teutsch (Dutch,
English, Platt-Deutsch, and other varieties); and so
disciplined as here it never was before or since. "In
an hour and half," what military men may count
almost incredible, they are fairly on their ground, mo-
tionless the most of them by 9 a. m. ; the rest wheeling
rightward, as they successively arrive in the Chwala-
Podschernitz localities; and, descending diligently,
Sterbohol way; and will be at their harvest-work anon.
Meanwhile the Austrians, seeing, to their astonish-
ment, these phenomena to the north, and that it is a
quite serious thing, do also rapidly bestir themselves;
swarming like bees; -- bringing in their foraging Ca-
valry, "No time to change your jacket for a coat:"
rank, double-quick! Browne is on that right wing of
theirs: "Bring the left wing over hither," suggests
Browne; "cavalry is useless yonder, unless they had
hippogriffs! " -- and (again Browne suggesting) the
Austrians make a change in the position of their right
wing, both horse and foot: change which is of vital
importance, though unnoted in many Narratives of this
Battle. Seeing, namely, what the Prussians intend,
they wheel their right wing (say the last furlong or
two of their long Line of Battle) half round to right;
so that the last furlong or two stands at right angles
("ere potence," gallows-wise, or joiner's-square-wise to
the rest); and, in this way, make front to the Prussian
onslaught, -- front now, not flank, as the Prussians
are anticipating. This is an important wheel to right,
and formation in joiner's-square manner; and involves
no end of interior wheeling, marching and deploying;
which Austrians cannot manage with Prussian velocity.
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? 40 SEVEN-YEARS WAR RISES TO A HEIGHT, [book XVIIt.
lith M. ny 1757.
"Swift with it, here about Sterbohol at least, my men!
For here are the Prussians within wind of us! " urges
Browne. And here straightway the hurricane does
break loose.
Winterfeld, the van of Schwerin's infantry (Schwerin's
own regiment, and some others, with him), is striding
rapidly on Sterbohol; Winterfeld catches it before Browne
can. But near by, behind that important post, on the
Homoly Hill (Berg or "Mountain," nothing like so high
as Constitution Mountain), are cannon-batteries of
devouring quality, which awaken on Winterfeld, as he
rushes out double-quick on the advancing Austrians;
and are fatal to Winterfeld's attempt, and nearly to
Winterfeld himself. Winterfeld, heavily wounded,
sank in swoon from his horse; and awakening again in
a pool of blood, found his men all off, rushing back
upon the main Schwerin body; "Austrian grenadiers
"gazing on the thing, about eighty paces off, not
"venturingto follow. " Winterfeld, half-dead, scrambled
across to Schwerin, who is now come up with the main
body, his front line fronting the Austrians here. And
there ensued, about Sterbohol and neighbourhood, led
on by Schwerin, such a death-wrestle as was seldom seen
in the Annals of War. Winterfeld's miss of Sterbohol
was the beginning of it; the exact course of sequel
none can describe, though the end is well known.
The Austrians now hold Sterbohol with firm grip,
backed by those batteries from Homoly Hill. Redoubts,
cannon-batteries, as we said, stud all the field; the
Austrian stock of artillery is very great; arrangement
of it cunning, practice excellent; does honour to Prince
Lichtenstein, and indeed is the real force of the Austrians
on this occasion. Schwerin must have Sterbohol, in.
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?
thinks Bevern; "but we must try tomorrow! " and has
to take camp, "with a marshy brook in front of him,"
some way on the hither side of Reichenberg; and
study overnight what method of unbarring there may
be. Thursday morning early, Bevern, having well
reconnoitred and studied, was at work unbarring.
Bevern crossed his own marshy brook; courageously
assaulted Konigseck's position, left wing of Konigseck;
stormed the abatis, the batteries, plunged in upon
Konigseck, man to man, horse to horse, and after
some fierce enough but brief dispute, tumbled Konigs-
eck out of the ground. Konigseck made some attempt
to rally; attempted twice, but in vain; had fairly to
roll away, and at length to run, leaving 1,000 dead
upon the field, about 500 prisoners; one or two guns,
and I forget how many standards, or whether any kettle-
drums. This was thought to be a decidedly bright
feat on Bevern's part (rather mismanaged latterly on
Konigseck's);* -- much approved by Friedrich, as he
* Tempelhof, i. 100; Helden-Geschichte, m. 1077 (Friedrich's own
Account, "Linay in BOhmen, 24th April 1757"); &c. &. There is, in
Btlsching's Magazin (xvi. 139 et seq. ), an intelligible sketch of this Action
of Reichenberg, with satirical criticisms, which have some basis, on Lacy,
Macguire and others, by an Anonymous Military Cynic, -- who gives many
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? 22 SEVEN-YEARS WAR RISES TO A HEIGHT, [book XvIII.
20th April -- 2d May 1757.
hears of it, at Linay, on his own prosperous march
Prag-ward. A comfortable omen, were there nothing
more.
Konigseck and Company, torn out of Reichenberg, and set running, could not fairly halt again and face
about till at Liebenau, twenty miles off, where they
found some defile or difficult bit of ground fit for them;
and this too proved capable of yielding pause for a few
hours only. For Schwerin, with his Silesian Column,
was coming up from the north-east, threatening Konigs-
eck on flank and rear: Konigseck could only tighten
his straps a little at this Liebenau, and again get under
way; and making vain attempts to hinder the junction
of Schwerin and Bevern, to defend the Jung-Buntzlau
Magazine, or do any good in those parts, except to
detain the Schwerin-Bevern people certain hours (I
think, one day in all), had nothing for it but to gird
himself together, and retreat on Prag and the Ziscaberg,
where his friends now were.
The Austrian force at Reichenberg was 20,000;
would have been 30 and odd thousands, had Macguire
come up (as he might have done, had not the ap-
pearances alarmed him too much); Bevern, minus the
Detachment sent against Macguire, was but 15,000 in
fight; and he has quite burst the Austrians away, who
had plugged his road for him in such force: is it not
a comfortable little victory, glorious in its sort; and a
good omen for the bigger things that are coming?
Bevern marched composedly on, after this inspiriting
tussle, through Liebenau and what defiles there were;
such io Busching (that of Fontenoy, for example), not without force of
judgment, and signs of wide study and experience in his trade.
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? CHAP. I. ] THE CAMPAIGN OPENS. 23
20th April -- 2d May 1757.
April 24th, at Turnau, he falls into the Schwerin
Column; incorporates himself therewith, and, as sub-
ordinate constituent part, accompanies Schwerin thence-
forth.
3? . "Column Third was Schwerin's, out of Schlesien; "counted to be 32,000 foot, 12,000 horse. Schwerin,jgathering
"himself, from Glatz and the northerly country, at Landshut,
"-- very careless, he, of the pleasant Hills, and fine scattered
"peaks of the Giant Mountains thereabouts, -- was com-
"pletely gathered foremost of all the Columns, having
"farthest to go. And on Monday, 18th April, started from
"Landshut, Winterfeld leading one Division. In our days,
"it is the finest of roads; high level Pass, of good width,
"across theGiantRange; pleasant painted hamlets sprinkling
"it, fine mountain ridges and distant peaks looking on;
"Schneekoppe (Snotefell, its head bright white till July come)
"attends you, far to the right, all the way: -- probably Sprite
"Rtibezahl inhabits there; and no doubt River Elbe begins
"his long journey there, trickling down in little threads over
"yonder, intending to float navies by and by: considerations
"infinitely indifferent to Schwerin. 'The road,' says my
"Tourist, 'is not Alpine; it reminds you of Derbyshire-Peak
"'country; more like the road from Castletown to Sheffield
"' than any I could name;' -- we have been in it before, my
"reader and I, about Schatzlar and other places. Trautenau,
"well down the Hills, with swift streams, more like torrents,
"boundElbe-wards, watering it, is a considerable Austrian
"Town, and the Bohemian end of the Pass, -- Sohr only a
"few miles from it: heartily indifferent to Schwerin at this
"moment; who was home from the Army, in a kind of dis-
"favour, or mutual pet, at the time Sohr was done. Schwerin's
"March we shall not give; his junction with Bevern (at
"Turnau, on the Iser, April 24th), then their capture of Jung-
"Buntzlau Magazine, and crossing of the Elbe at Melnick,
"these were the important points; and, in spite of Konigs-
"eck's tusselings, these all went well, and nothing was lost
"except one day of time. "
The Austrians, some days ago, as we observed,
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? 24 SEVEN-YEARS WAR RISES TO A HEIGHT, [book xvm.
20th April -- 2d May 1757.
filed through Prag, -- Sunday, May 1st, not a pleasant
holiday spectacle to the populations; -- and are all
encamped on the Ziscaberg high ground, on the other
side of the City. Had they been alert, now was their
time to attack Friedrich, who is weaker than they,
while nobody has yet joined him. They did not think
of it, under Prince Karl; and Browne and the Prince
are said to be in bad agreement.
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? CHAP. II. ]
2d May 1757.
BATTLE OF PRAG.
25CHAPTEE II.
BATTLE OP PRAG.
Monday morning, 2d May 1757, the Vanguard,
or advanced troops of Friedrich's Column, had ap-
peared upon the Weissenberg, north-west corner of Prag
(ground known to them in 1744, and to the poor
Winter-King in 1620): Vanguard in the morning;
followed shortly by Friedrich himself; and, hour after
hour, by all the others, marching in. So that, before
sunset, the whole force lay posted there; and had the
romantic City of Prag full in view at their feet. A
most romantic, high-piled, many-towered, most unlevel
old City; its skylights and gilt steeplecocks glittering
in the western sun, -- Austrian Camp very visible
close beyond it, spread out miles in extent on the
Ziscaberg Heights, or eastern side; -- Prag, no doubt,
and the Austrian Garrison of Prag, taking intense
survey of this Prussian phenomenon, with commentaries,
with emotions, hidden now in eternal silence, as is fit
enough. One thing we know, "Headquarter was in
Welleslawin:" there, in that small Hamlet, nearly to
north, lodged Friedrich, the then busiest man of Eu-
rope; whom Posterity is still striving for a view of, as
something memorable.
Prince Karl, our old friend, is now in chief com-
mand yonder; Browne also is there, who was in chief
command; their scheme of Campaign gone all awry.
And to Friedrich, last night, at his quarters "in the
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? 26 SEVEN-YEARS WAR RISES TO A HEIGHT, [book XVTH.
3d May 1757.
Monastery of Tuchomirsitz," where these two Gentlemen
had lodged the night before, it was reported that they
had been heard in violent altercation;* -- both of them,
naturally, in ill-humour at the surprising turn things
had taken; and Feldmarschall Browne firing up, belike,
at some platitude past or coming, at some advice
of his rejected, some imputation cast on him, or we
know not what. Prince Karl is now chief; and in-
dignant Browne, as may well be the case, dissents a
good deal, -- as he has often had to do. Patience,
my friend, it is near ending now! Prince Karl means
to lie quiet on the Ziscaberg, and hold Prag; does not
think of molesting Friedrich in his solitary state; and
will undertake nothing, "till Konigseck, from Jung-
Buntzlau, come in," victorious or not; or till perhaps
even Daun arrive (who is, rather slowly, gathering
reinforcement in Mahren): "What can the enemy at-
tempt on us, in a Post of this strength? " thinks Prince
Karl. And Browne, whatever his insight or convictions
be, has to keep silence.
"Weissenberg," let readers be reminded, "is on the hither
"or western side of Prag: the Hradschin" (pronounce Rad-
skeen, with accent on the last syllable, as in "Schwen'n" and
other such cases), "the Hradschin, which is the topmost summit
"of the City and of the Fashionable Quarter, -- old Bohemian
"Palace, still occasionally habitable as such, and in constant
"use as a Downing-Street, -- lies on the slope or shoulder of
"the Weissenberg, a good way from the top; and has a web
"of streets rushing down from it, steepest streets in the world;
"till they reach the Bridge, and broad-flowing Moldau
"(broad as Thames at half-flood, but nothing like so deep);
"after which the streets become level, and spread out in in- "tricate plenty to right and to left, and ahead eastward,
"across the River, till the Ziscaberg, with frowning pre-
? Nelden-Geschushte, iv. 11. (exact'Diary of the march' given there).
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? CHAP, n. ] BATTLE OP PRAG. 27
2d May 1757.
"cipitous brow, suddenly puts a stop to them, in that particu-
"lar direction. From Ziscaberg top to Weissenberg top may
"be about five English miles; from the Hradschin to the foot
"of Ziscaberg, north-west to south-east, will be half that
"distance, the greatest length of Prag City. Which is rather
"rhomboidal in shape, its longer diagonal this that we men-
"tion. The shorter diagonal, from northmost base of Zisca- "berg to southmost of Hradschin, is perhaps a couple of
"miles. Prag stands nestled in the lap of mountains; and is
"not in itself a strong place in war: but the country round it,
"Moldau ploughing his rugged chasm of a passage through
"the piled table-land, is difficult to manoeuvre in.
"Moldau Valley comes straight from the south, crosses
"Prag; and, -- making, on its outgate at the northern end of
"Prag (end of "shortest diagonal" just spoken of), one big
"loop, or bend and counter-bend, of horse-shoe shape," which
will be notable to us anon, -- "again proceeds straight north-
"ward and Elbe-ward. It is narrow every where, especially
"when once got fairly north of Prag; and runs along like a
"Quasi-Highland Strath, amid rocks and Hills. Big Hill-
"ranges, not to be called barren, yet with rock enough on
"each hand, and fine side valleys opening here and there: the
"bottom of your Strath, which is green and fertile, with
"pleasant busy Villages (much intent on water-power and
"cotton-spinning in our time), is generally of few furlongs in
"breadth. And so it lasts, this pleasant Moldau-Valley, mile
"after mile, on the northern or Lower Moldau, generally
"straight north, though with one big bend eastward just
"before ending; and not till nearMelnick, or the mouth of
"Moldau, do we emerge on that grand Elbe Valley, --
"glanced at once already, from Pascopol or other Height, in
"the Lobositz times. "
Friedrich's first problem is the junction with
Schwerin: junction not to be accomplished south of the
Ziscaberg in the present circumstances; and which
Friedrich knows to be a ticklish operation, with those
Austrians looking on from the high grounds there.
Tuesday 3d May, in the way of reconnoitring, and
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? 28 SEVEN-YEARS WAR RISES TO A HEIGHT, [book XvUI.
4th & 5th May 1757.
decisively on Wednesday 4th, Friedrich is off north-
ward, along the western heights of Lower Moldau,
proper force following him, to seek a fit place for the
pontoons, and get across in that northern quarter.
"How dangerous that Schwerin is a day too late! "
murmurs he; but hopes the Austrians will undertake
nothing. Keith, with 30,000, he has left on the Weis-
senberg, to straiten Prag and the Austrian Garrison on
that side: our wagon-trains arrive from Leitmeritz on
that side, Elbe-boats bring them up to Leitmeritz; very indispensable to guard that side of Prag. Fried-
rich's fixed purpose also is to beat the Austrians, on
the other side of it, and send them packing; but for
that, there are steps needful!
Up so far as Lissoley, the first day, Friedrich has
found no fit place; but on the morrow, Thursday 5th,
farther up, at a place called Seltz, Friedrich finds his
side of the Strath to be "a little higher than the other,"
-- proper, therefore, for cannonading the other, if need
be; -- and orders his pontoons to be built together
there. He knows accurately of the Schwerin Column,
of the comfortable Bevern Victory at Reichenberg, and
how they have got the Jung-Buntzlau Magazine, and
are across the Elbe, their bridges all secured, though
with delay of one day; and do now wait only for the
word, -- for the three cannon-shot, in fact, which are
to signify that Friedrich is actually crossing to their
side of Lower Moldau.
Friedrich's Bridge is speedily built (trained human
hands can be no speedier), his batteries planted, his
precautions taken: the three cannon-shot go off, audible
to Schwerin; and Friedrich's troops stream speedily
across, hardly a Pandour to meddle with them. Nay,
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? CHAP, n. ] BATTLE OF PRAG. 29
6th May 1757.
before the passage was complete -- what light-horse
squadrons are these? Hussars, seen to be Seidlitz's
(missioned by Schwerin), appear on the outskirts: a
meeting worthy of three-cheers, surely, after such a
march on both sides! Friedrich lies on the eastern Hill-
tops that night (Hamlet of Czimitz his Headquarter,
discoverable if you wish it, scarcely three miles north
of Prag); and accurate appointment is made with
Schwerin as to the meeting-place tomorrow morning.
Meeting-place is to be the environs of Prossik Village,
south-eastward over yonder, short way north of the
Prag-Koniggratz Highway, and rather nearer Prag
than we now are, in Czimitz here: time at Prossik to
be 6 a. m. by the clock; and Winterfeld and Schwerin
to come in person and speak with his Majesty. This
is the program for Friday, May 6th, which proves to
be so memorable a day.
Schwerin is on foot by the stroke of midnight;
comes along "over the heights of Chaber," by half-a-
dozen, or I know not how many roads; visible in due
time to Friedrich's people, who are likewise punctually
on the advance: in a word, the junction is accomplished
with all correctness. And, while the Columns are
marching up, Schwerin and Winterfeld ride about in
personal conference with his Majesty; taking survey,
through spyglasses, of those Austrians encamped yonder
on the broad back of their Zisca Hill, a couple of miles
to southward. "What a set of Austrians," exclaim
military critics; "to permit such junction, without effort
to devour the one half or the other, in good time! "
Friedrich himself, it is probable, might partly be of
the same opinion; but he knew his Austrians, and had
made bold to venture. Friedrich, we can observe, al-
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? 3b SEVEN-YEARS WAR RISES TO A HEIGHT, [book XVBI.
6th May 1757.
ways got to know his man, after fighting him a month
or two; and took liberties with him, or did not take,
accordingly. And, for most part,-- not quite always,
as one signal exception will show, -- he does it with
perfect accuracy; and often with vital profit to his
measures. "If the Austrian cooking-tents are a-smoke
"before eight in the morning," note she, "you may cal-
culate, n such case, the Austrians will march that
"day. "* With a surprising vividness of eye and mind
(beautiful to rival, if one could), he watches the signs
of the times, of the hours and the days and the places;
and prophesies from them; -- reads men and their
procedures, as if they were mere handwriting, not too
cramp for him. -- The Austrians have, by this time,
got their Konigseck home, very unvictorious, but still
on foot, all but a thousand or two: they are already
stronger than the Prussians by count of heads; and till
even Daun come up, what hurry in a Post like this?
The Austrians are viewing Friedrich, too, this morning;' -
but in the blankest manner: their outposts fire a can-
non-shot or two on his group of adjutants and him,
without effect; and the Head people send their cavalry
out to forage, so little prophecy have they from signs
seen.
Zisca Hill, where the Austrians now are, rises
sheer up, of well-nigh precipitous steepness, though
there are trees and grass on it, from the eastern side
of Prag, say five or six hundred feet. A steep, pic-
turesque, massive green Hill; Moldau River, turning
suddenly to right, strikes the north-west corner of it
(has flowed well to west of it, till then), and winds
eastward round its northern base. As will be noticed
* Military Instructions.
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? CHAP. n. ] BATTLE OP PRAG. 31
6th May 1757.
presently. The ascent of Ziscaberg, by roads, is steep
and tedious: but once at the top, you find that it is
precipitous on two sides only, the City or westward
side, and the Moldau or northward. Atop it spreads
out, far and wide, into a waving upland level; bare of
hedges; ploughable all of it, studded with littery hamlets
and farmsteadings: far and wide, a kind of Plain,
sloping with extreme gentleness, five or six miles to
eastward, and as far to southward, before the level
perceptibly rise again.
Another feature of the Ziscaberg, already hinted at,
is very notable: that of the Moldau skirting its northern
base, and scarping the Hill, on that side too, into a
precipitous, or very steep condition. Moldau having
arrived from southward, fairly past the end of Zisca-
berg, had, so to speak, made up his mind to go right
eastward, quarrying his way through the lower uplands
there. And he proceeds, accordingly, hugging the
northern base of Ziscaberg, and making it steep
enough; but finds, in the course of a mile or so, that
he can no more; upland being still rock-built, not
underminable farther; and so is obliged to wind round
again, to northward, and finally straight westward, the
way he came, or parallel to the way he came; and has
effected that great Horse-shoe Hollow we heard of
lately. An extremely pretty Hollow, and curious to
look upon; pretty villas, gardens, and a "Belvedere
Park," laid out in the bottom part; with green mountain-
walls rising all round it, and a silver ring of river at
the base of them: length of Horse-shoe, from heel to
toe, or from west to east, is perhaps a mile; breadth,
from heel to heel, perhaps half as much.
Having ar-
rived at his old distance to west, Moldau, like a re-
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? 32 SEVEN-YEARS WAR RISES TO A HEIGHT, [book Xvm.
6th May 1757.
pentant prodigal, and as if ashamed of his frolic, just
over against the old point he swerved from, takes
straight to northward again. Straight northward; and
quarries out that fine narrow valley, or Quasi-High-
land Strath, with its pleasant busy villages, where he
turns the overshot machinery, and where Friedrich and
his men had their pontoons swimming yesterday.
It is here, on this broad back of the Ziscaberg, that
the Austrians now lie; looking northward over to the
King, and trying cannon-shots upon him. There they
have been encamping, and diligently entrenching them-
selves for four days past; diligent especially since
yesterday, when they heard of Friedrich's crossing the
River. Their groups of tents, and batteries at all the
good points, stretch from near the crown of Ziscaberg
eastward to the Villages of Hlaupetin, Kyge, and their
Lakes, near four miles; and rearward into the interior
one knows not how far; -- Prince Karl, hardly awake
yet, lies at Nussel, near the Moldau, near the Wischerad
or south-eastmost point of Prag; six good miles west-
by-south of Kyge, at the other end of the diagonal
line. About the same distance, right east from Nussel,
and a mile or more to south of Kyge over yonder, is
a littery Farmstead named Sterbohol, which is not yet
occupied by the Austrians, but will become very famous
in their War-Annals, this day! --
Where the Austrian Camp or various Tent-groups
were, at the time Friedrich first cast eye on them, is
no great concern of his or ours; inasmuch as, in two
or three hours hence, the Austrians were obliged, rather
suddenly, to take Order of Battle; and that, and not
their camping, is the thing we are curious upon. Let
us step across, and take some survey of that Austrian
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? CHAP. n. ] BATTLE OF PRAG. 33
6th May 1757.
ground, which Friedrich is now surveying from the
distance, fully intending that it shall be a battle-ground
in few hours; and try to explain how the Austrians
drew up on it, when they noticed the Prussian symptoms
to become serious more and more. By nine in the
morning, -- some two hours after Friedrich began his
scanning, and the Austrian outposts their firing of stray
cannon-shots on him, -- it is Battle-lines, not empty
Tents (which there was not time to strike), that salute
the eye over yonder.
From behind that verdant Horse-shoe Chasm we
spoke of, buttressed by the inaccessible steeps, and the
Moldau, double-folded in the form of Horse-shoe, all
along the brow of that sloping expanse, stands (by 9
a. m. "foragers all suddenly called in") the Austrian
front; the second line and the reserve, parallel to it,
at good distances behind. Ranked there; say, 65,000
regulars (Prussian force little short of the same), on
the brow of Ziscaberg slope, some four miles long.
Their right wing ends, in strong batteries, in intricate
marshes, knolls, lakelets, between Hlaupetin and Kyge:
the extreme of their left wing looks over on that Horse-
shoe Hollow, where Moldau tried to dig his way, but
could not, and had to turn back. They have numerous
redoubts, in front and in all the good places; and are
busy with more, some of them just now getting finished,
treble-quick, while the Prussians are seen under way.
As many as sixty heavy cannon in battery up and
down: of field-pieces they have a hundred and fifty.
. Excellent always with their Artillery, these Austrians;
plenty of it, well placed, and well served: thanks to
Prince Lichtenstein's fine labours, within these ten
Carlyle, Frederick the Great. X. 3
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? 34 SEVEN-YEARS WAR RISES TO A HEIGHT, [book XvIII.
6th May 1757,
years past. * The villages, the farmsteads, are occupied;
every rising ground especially has its battery, -- Ho-
moly Berg, Tabor Berg, "Mount of Tabor;" say Knoll
of Tabor (nothing like so high as Battersea Rise, hardly
even as Constitution Hill), though scriptural Zisca
would make a Mount of it; -- these, and other Berijg
of the like type.
That is the Austrian Battle Order (as it stood about
nine, though it had still to change a little, as we shall
see): their first line, straight or nearly so, looking north-
ward, stands on the brow of the Zisca Slope; their second
and their third, singularly like it, at the due distances
behind; -- in the intervals, their tents, which stand scat-
tered, in groups wide apart, in the ample interior to
southward. The cavalry is on both wings; left wing,
behind that Moldau Chasm, cannot attack nor be at-
tacked, -- except it were on hippogriffs, and its enemy
on the like, capable of fighting in the air, overhead of
these Belvedere Pleasure-grounds: perhaps Prince Karl
will remedy this oversight; fruit of close following of
the orthodox practice? Prince Karl, supreme Chief,
commands on the left wing; Browne on the right, where
he can attack or be attacked, not on hippogriffs. As
we shall see, and others will! Light horse, in any
quantity, hang scattered on all outskirts. With foot,
with cannon batteries, with horse, light or heavy, they
cover in long broad flood the whole of that Zisca Slope,
to near where it ceases, and the ground to eastward
begins perceptibly to rise again.
In this latter quarter, Zisca Slope, now nearly,
ended, begins to get very swampy in parts; on the
eastern border of the Austrian Camp, at Kyge, Hosta-
* (Euvres de Frederic (in several places); sec Hormayr, ? Lichtenstein.
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? CHAP. H. ] BATTLE OF PRAG. 35
6th May 1757.
witz, and beyond it southward, about Sterbohol and
Michelup, there are many little lakelets; artificial fish-
ponds, several of them, with their sluices, dams and
apparatus: a ragged broadish lacing of ponds and
lakelets (all well dried in our day) straggles and zigzags
along there, connected by the miserablest Brook in
nature, which takes to oozing and serpentising forward
thereabouts, and does finally get emptied, now in a
rather livelier condition, into the Moldau, about the
toe-part of that Horse-shoe or Belvedere region. It
runs in sight of the King, I think, where he now is;
this lower livelier part of it: little does the King know
how important the upper oozing portion of it will be to
him this day. Near Michelup are lakelets worth
noticing; a little under Sterbohol, in the course of this
miserable Brook, is a string of fish-ponds, with their
sluices open at this time, the water out, and the mud
bottom sown with herb-provender for the intended carps,
which is coming on beautifully, green as leeks, and
nearly ready for the fish getting to it again.
Friedrich surveys diligently what he can of all this,
from the northern verge. We will now return to
Friedrich: and will stay on his side, through the terrible
Action that is coming. Battle of Prag, one of the
furious Battles of the World; loud as Doomsday; --
the very Emblem of which, done on the Piano by
females of energy, scatters mankind to flight who love
their ears! Of this great Action the Narratives old
and modern are innumerable; false some of them, un-
intelligible well nigh all. There are three in Lloyd,
known probably to some of my readers. Tempelhof,
with criticisms of these three, gives a fourth, -- perhaps
the one Narrative which human nature, after much
3*
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? 36 SEVEN-YEARS WAR RISES TO A HEIGHT, [book XVIII.
6th May 1757.
study, can in some sort understand. Human readers,
especially military, I refer to that as their finale. * Other
interest than military-scientific the Action now has not
much. The stormy fire of soul that blazed that day
(higher in no ancient or modern Fight of men) is ex-
tinct, hopeless of resuscitation for English readers. Ap-
proximately what the thing to human eyes might be
like; what Friedrich's procedure, humour and phy-
siognomy of soul was in it: this, especially the latter
head, is what we search for, -- had lazy Dryasdust
given us almost anything on this latter head! What
little can be gleaned from him on both heads let us
faithfully give, and finish our sad part of the combat.
Friedrich, with his Schwerin and Winterfeld, sur-
veying these things from the northern edge, admits that
the Austrian position is extremely strong; but he has
no doubt that it must be, by some good method, at-
tacked straightway, and the Austrians got beaten. In-
disputably the enterprise is difficult. Unattackable
clearly, the Austrians, on that left wing of theirs; not
in the centre well attackable, nor in the front at all,
with that stiff ground, and such redoubts and points
of strength: but round on their right yonder; take them
* In Lloyd, I. 38 et seq. (the Three): in Tempelhof, 1. 123 (the Fourth)
ib. i. 144 (strength of each Army), 105-149 (remarks of Tempelhof). The
"History" or Series of Lectures on the Battles, &c. of this War, "by the
Royal Staff-Offcers" -- which, for the last thirty or forty years, is used as
Text-Book, or Military Euclid, in the Prussian Cadet-Schools, -- appears
to possess the fit professorial lucidity and amplitude; and, in regard to
all Official details, enumerations and the like, is received as of canonical
authority: it is not accessible to the general Public, -- though liberally
enough conceded in special cases; whereby, in effect, the main results of
it are now become current in modern Prussian Books. By favour in high
quarters, Iihad once possession of a copy, for some months; but not, at
that time, the possibility of thoroughly reading any part of it.
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? CHAP. II. ] BATTLE OP PRAG. Zf
6lh May 1757.
in flank, -- cannot we? On as far as Kyge, the Three
have ridden reconnoitring; and found no possibility
upon the front; nor at Kyge, where the front ends in
batteries, pools and quagmires, is there any. "Diffi-
cult, not undoable," persists the King: "and it must
be straightway set about, and got done. " Winter-
feld, always for action, is of that opinion, too; and,
examining farther down along their right flank, reports
that there the thing is feasible.
Feasible perhaps: "but straightway? " objects
Schwerin. His men have been on foot since midnight,
and on forced marches for days past: were it not better
to rest for this one day? "Rest: -- and Daun, coming
on with 30,000 of reinforcement to them, might arrive
this night? Never, my good Feldmarschall;" -- and
as the Feldmarschall was a man of stiff notions, and
had a tongue of some emphasis, the Dialogue went on,
probably with increasing emphasis on Friedrich's side
too, till old Schwerin, with a quite emphatic flash of
countenance, crushing the hat firm over his brow, ex-
claims: "Well, your Majesty: the fresher fish the better
fish (frische Fische, gute Fische): straightway, then! "
and springs off on the gallop southward, he too, seeking
some likely point of attack. He too, -- conjointly or
not with Winterfeld, I do not know: Winterfeld him-
self does not say; whose own modest words, on the
subject, readers shall see before we finish. But both
are mentioned in the Books as searching, at hand-
gallop, in this way: and both, once well round to south,
by the Podschernitz quarter,* with the Austrian right
flank full in view, were agreed that here the thing was
* "Podschernitz," is pronounced Pots/iernilz (should we happen to
mention it again); "Kyge," Kcega.
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? 38 SEVEN-YEARS WAR RISES TO A HEIGHT, [book XVni.
6th May 1757.
possible. "Infantry to. push from this quarter towards
Sterbohol yonder, and then plunge into their redoubts
and them! Cavalry may sweep still farther southward,
if found convenient, and even take them in rear. " Both
agree that it will do in this way: ground tolerably
good, slightly downwards for us, then slightly upwards
again; tolerable for horse even: -- the intermediate
lacing of dirty lakelets, the fishponds with their sluices
drawn, Schwerin and Winterfeld either did not notice
at all, or thought them insignificant, interspersed with
such beautiful "pasture-ground," -- of unusual verdure
at this early season of the year.
The deployment, or "marching up (Aufmarschiren)"
of the Prussians was wonderful; in their squadrons, in
their battalions, horse, foot, artillery, wheeling, closing,
opening; strangely chequering a country-side, -- in
movements intricate, chaotic to all but the scientific
eye. Conceive them, flowing along, from the Heights
of Chaber, behind Prossik Hamlet (right wing of in-
fantry plants itself at Prossik, horse westward of them);
and ever onwards in broad many-chequered tide-stream,
eastward, eastward, then southward ("our artillery
"went through Podschernitz, the foot and horse a little
"on this westward side of it"): intricate, many-glancing
tide of coming battle; which, swift, correct as clock-
work, becomes two lines, from Prossik to near Chwala
("baggage well behind at Grbell"); thence round by
Podschernitz quarter; and descends, steady, swift,
tornado - storm so beautifully hidden in it, towards
Sterbohol, there to grip-to. Gradually, in stirring up
those old dead pedantic record-books, the fact rises on
us: silent whirlwinds of old Piatt-Deutsch fire, beauti-
fully held down, dwell in those mute masses; better
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? CHAP. II. ] BATTLE OP PRAG. 39
6:h May 1757.
human stuff there is not than that old Teutsch (Dutch,
English, Platt-Deutsch, and other varieties); and so
disciplined as here it never was before or since. "In
an hour and half," what military men may count
almost incredible, they are fairly on their ground, mo-
tionless the most of them by 9 a. m. ; the rest wheeling
rightward, as they successively arrive in the Chwala-
Podschernitz localities; and, descending diligently,
Sterbohol way; and will be at their harvest-work anon.
Meanwhile the Austrians, seeing, to their astonish-
ment, these phenomena to the north, and that it is a
quite serious thing, do also rapidly bestir themselves;
swarming like bees; -- bringing in their foraging Ca-
valry, "No time to change your jacket for a coat:"
rank, double-quick! Browne is on that right wing of
theirs: "Bring the left wing over hither," suggests
Browne; "cavalry is useless yonder, unless they had
hippogriffs! " -- and (again Browne suggesting) the
Austrians make a change in the position of their right
wing, both horse and foot: change which is of vital
importance, though unnoted in many Narratives of this
Battle. Seeing, namely, what the Prussians intend,
they wheel their right wing (say the last furlong or
two of their long Line of Battle) half round to right;
so that the last furlong or two stands at right angles
("ere potence," gallows-wise, or joiner's-square-wise to
the rest); and, in this way, make front to the Prussian
onslaught, -- front now, not flank, as the Prussians
are anticipating. This is an important wheel to right,
and formation in joiner's-square manner; and involves
no end of interior wheeling, marching and deploying;
which Austrians cannot manage with Prussian velocity.
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? 40 SEVEN-YEARS WAR RISES TO A HEIGHT, [book XVIIt.
lith M. ny 1757.
"Swift with it, here about Sterbohol at least, my men!
For here are the Prussians within wind of us! " urges
Browne. And here straightway the hurricane does
break loose.
Winterfeld, the van of Schwerin's infantry (Schwerin's
own regiment, and some others, with him), is striding
rapidly on Sterbohol; Winterfeld catches it before Browne
can. But near by, behind that important post, on the
Homoly Hill (Berg or "Mountain," nothing like so high
as Constitution Mountain), are cannon-batteries of
devouring quality, which awaken on Winterfeld, as he
rushes out double-quick on the advancing Austrians;
and are fatal to Winterfeld's attempt, and nearly to
Winterfeld himself. Winterfeld, heavily wounded,
sank in swoon from his horse; and awakening again in
a pool of blood, found his men all off, rushing back
upon the main Schwerin body; "Austrian grenadiers
"gazing on the thing, about eighty paces off, not
"venturingto follow. " Winterfeld, half-dead, scrambled
across to Schwerin, who is now come up with the main
body, his front line fronting the Austrians here. And
there ensued, about Sterbohol and neighbourhood, led
on by Schwerin, such a death-wrestle as was seldom seen
in the Annals of War. Winterfeld's miss of Sterbohol
was the beginning of it; the exact course of sequel
none can describe, though the end is well known.
The Austrians now hold Sterbohol with firm grip,
backed by those batteries from Homoly Hill. Redoubts,
cannon-batteries, as we said, stud all the field; the
Austrian stock of artillery is very great; arrangement
of it cunning, practice excellent; does honour to Prince
Lichtenstein, and indeed is the real force of the Austrians
on this occasion. Schwerin must have Sterbohol, in.
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?
