ag. Austrian Bathyani, summoned hastily
out of his Bavarian posts, to succor in this pressing emergency,
has arrived in these neighborhoods,--some 12,000 regulars under him,
preceded by clouds of hussars, whom Ziethen smites a little, by way of
handsel;--no other Austrian force to speak of hereabouts; and we are now
between Bathyani and Prag.

"SEPTEMBER 1st, To Mickowitz, near Welwarn, twenty miles from Prag.
September 2d, Camp on the Weissenberg there." [ _Helden-Geschichte,_ i.
1080.]

And so they are all assembled about Prag, begirdling the poor
City,--third Siege it has stood within these three years (since that
moonlight November night in 1741);--and are only waiting for their heavy
artillery to begin battering. The poor inhabitants, in spite of three
sieges; the 10,000 raw militia-men, mostly of Hungarian breed; the 4,000
regulars, and Harsch and old Ogilvy, are all disposed to do their best.
Friedrich is naturally in haste to get hold of Prag. But he finds, on
taking survey: that the sword-in-hand method is not now, as in 1741,
feasible at all; that the place is in good posture of strength; and
will need a hot battering to tear it open. Owing to that accident at
Tetschen, the siege-cannon are not yet come up: "Build your batteries,
your Moldau-bridges, your communications, till the cannon come; and
beware of Bathyani meddling with your cannon by the road!"

"Bathyani is within twenty miles of us, at Beraun, a compact little Town
to southwest; gathering a Magazine there; and ready for enterprises,--in
more force than Friedrich guesses. 'Drive him out, seize that Magazine
of his!' orders Friedrich (September 5th); and despatches General
Hacke on it, a right man,"--at whose wedding we assisted (wedding to
an heiress, long since, in Friedrich Wilhelm's time), if anybody now
remembered. "And on the morrow there falls out a pretty little 'Action
of Beraun,' about which great noise was made in the Gazettes PRO and
CONTRA: which did not dislodge Bathyani by airy means; but which might
easily have ruined the impetuous Hacke and his 6,000, getting into
masked batteries, Pandour whirlwinds, charges of horses 'from
front, from rear, and from both flanks,'--had not he, with masterly
promptitude, whirled himself out of it, snatched instantly what best
post there was, and defended himself inexpugnably there, for six
hours, till relief came." [DIE BEY BERAUN VORGEFALLENE ACTION (in
Seyfarth, _Beylage,_ i. 136, 137).] Brilli