Instructions in writing: where
each was to post himself; with what detachments; how to proceed. There
are to be three Attacks: one up stream, coming on with the River to its
right; one down stream, River to its left; and a third from the landward
side, perpendicular to the other two. The very captains that shall go
foremost are specified; at what hour each is to leave quarters, so that
all be ready simultaneously, waiting in the posts assigned;--against
what points to advance out of these, and storm Rampart and Wall. Places,
times, particulars, everything is fixed with mathematical exactitude:
'Be steady, be correct, especially be silent; and so far as Law of
Nature will permit, be simultaneous! When the big steeple of Glogau
peals Midnight,--Forward, with the first stroke; with the second, much
more with the twelfth stroke, be one and all of you, in the utmost
silence, advancing! And, under pain of death, two things: Not one shot
till you are in; No plundering when you are.'--In this manner is
the silent three-sided avalanche to be let go. Whereupon", says my
Dryasdust, "the Generals retired; and had, for one item, their fire-arms
all cleaned and new-loaded." [_Helden-Geschichte,_ i. 823; ii. 165.]

Without plans of Glogau, and more detail and study than the reader would
consent to, there can no Narrative be given. Glogau has Ramparts, due
Ring-fence, palisaded and repaired by Wallis; inside of this is an old
Town-Wall, which will need petards: there are about 1,000 men under
Wallis, and altogether on the works, not to count a mortar or two,
fifty-eight big guns. The reader must conceive a poor Town under
blockade, in the wintry night-time, with its tough Count Wallis; ill-off
for the necessaries of life; Town shrouded in darkness, and creeping
quietly to its bed. This on the one hand: and on the other hand,
Prussian battalions marching up, at 10 o'clock or later, with the utmost
softness of step; "taking post behind the ordinary field-watches;" and
at length, all standing ranked, in the invisible dark; silent, like
machinery, like a sleeping avalanche: Husht!--No sentry from the walls
dreams of such a thing. "Twelve!" sings out the steeple of Glogau; and
in grim whisper the word is, "VORWARTS!" and the three-winged avalanche
is in motion.

They reach their glacises, their ditches, covered ways, correct as
mathematics; tear out chevaux-de-frise, hew down palisades, in the given
number of minutes: Swift, ye Regiment's