where or whitherward? For the peasants are all against us;
our very guides desert, and become spies. 'Push to the left, over the
Hochwald top, must not we?' thinks Einsiedel: 'that is Lausitz, a Saxon
Country; and Saxony, though the Saxons stand intrenched here, with the
knife at our throat, are not at war with us, oh no, only allies of her
Majesty of Hungary, and neutral otherwise!' And here, it is too clear,
the Chevalier de Saxe stands intrenched behind his trees and snow; and
it is the fourteenth hour, men deserting by the hundred, without fire
and without salt; and Nassau is coming,--God knows by what road!

"Einsiedel pushes to the left, the Hochwald way; finds, in the Hochwald
too, a Saxon Commandant waiting him, with arms strictly shouldered.
'And we cannot pass through this moor skirt of Lausitz, say you, then?'
'Unarmed, yes; your muskets can come in wagons after you,' replies the
Saxon Commandant of Lausitz. 'Thousand thanks, Herr Commandant; but we
will not give you all that trouble,' answer Einsiedel and his Prussians;
'and march on, overwhelming him with politenesses,' says Friedrich;--the
approach of Nassau, above all, being a stringent civility. Of course,
despatch is very requisite to Einsiedel; the Chevalier, with his force,
being still within hail. The Prussians march all night, with pitch-links
flaring,--nights (I think) of the 13th-15th December, 1744, up among the
highlands there, rugged buttresses of the Silesian Combs: a sight enough
to astonish Rubezahl, if he happened to be out! As good chance would
have it, Nassau and Einsiedel, by preconcert, partly by lucky guess of
their own, were hurrying by the same road: three heaven-rending cheers
(December 16th) when we get sight of Nassau; and find that here is land!
December 16th, we are across,--by Ruckersdorf, not far from Friedland
(Bohmisch Friedland, not the Silesian town of that name, once
Wallenstein's);--and rejoice now to look back on labor done."
[ _Helden-Geschichte,_ ii. 1181-1190, 1191-1194;--Feldzuge,--i.
278-280.]

These were intricate strange scenes, much talked of at the time:
Rothenburg, ugly Walrave, Hacke, and other known figures, concerned in
them. Scenes in which Friedrich is not well informed; who much blames
Einsiedel, as he is apt to do the unsuccessful. Accounts exist, both
from the Prussian and from the Saxon side, decipherable with industry;
not now worth deciphering to English readers. Only that final scene
of the pitch