their
left, and the Village of Hermsdorf, two miles distant, on which their
right wing is to lean, there proves not to be room enough; [_OEuvres de
Frederic,_ ii. 73.] and then, owing to mistake of Schulenburg (our old
pipe-clay friend, who commands the right wing of Horse here, and is
not up in time), there is too much room. Not room enough, for all the
Infantry, we say: the last three Battalions of the front line therefore,
the three on the utmost right, wheel round, and stand athwart; EN
POTENCE (as soldiers say), or at right angles to the first line;
hanging to it like a kind of lid in that part,--between Schulenburg and
them,--had Schulenburg come up. Thus are the three battalions got rid of
at least; "they cap the First Prussian line rectangularly, like a lid,"
says my authority,--lid which does not reach to the Second Line by a
good way. This accidental arrangement had material effects on the right
wing. Unfortunate Schulenburg did at last come up:--had he miscalculated
the distances, then? Once on the ground, he will find he does not reach
to Hermsdorf after all, and that there is now too much room! What his
degree of fault was I know not; Friedrich has long been dissatisfied
with these Dragoons of Schulenburg; "good for nothing, I always told
you" (at that Skirmish of Baumgarten): and now here is the General
himself fallen blundering!--In respect of Horse, the Austrians are
more than two to one; to make out our deficiency, the King, imitating
something he had read about Gustavus Adolphus, intercalates the
Horse-Squadrons, on each wing, with two Battalions of Grenadiers, and
SO lengthens them;--"a manoeuvre not likely to be again imitated," he
admits.

All these movements and arrangements are effected above a mile from
Mollwitz, no enemy yet visible. Once effected, we advance again with
music sounding, sixty pieces of artillery well in front,--steady,
steady!--across the floor of snow which is soon beaten smooth enough,
the stage, this day, of a great adventure. And now there is the Enemy's
left wing, Romer and his Horse; their right wing wider away, and not
yet, by a good space, within cannon-range of us. It is towards Two of
the afternoon; Schulenburg now on his ground, laments that he will not
reach to Hermsdorf;--but it may be dangerous now to attempt repairing
that error? At Two of the clock, being now fairly within distance, we
salute Romer and the Austrian left, with all our sixty cannon; and the
sound