red fields. Turkish instruments of music figured
among the troops, and the captive horse-tails were conspicuous in more
than one corps, which had plucked down the pride of the Moslem. The
richness and variety of this extraordinary spectacle struck me as so
perfectly Oriental, that I might have imagined myself suddenly
transferred to Asia, and looked for the pasha and his spahis; or even
for the rajah, his elephants, and his turbaned spearmen. But all this
gay splendour has long since been changed. The Croats are now
regulars, and all the rest have followed their example.

My admiration was so loud, that it caught the ear of the duke. He
turned his quick countenance on me, and said--"Tell our friends at
home, M. Marston, what you have seen to-day. I presume you know that
Maria Theresa was a first-rate soldier; or, at least, she had the
happy art of finding them. You may see Laudohn's hand in her
battalions. As for the light troops, Europe can show nothing superior
in their kind. Trenk's Pandours, and Nadasti's hussars were worth an
army to Austria, from the first Silesian war down to the last shot
fired in Germany. But follow me, and you shall see the work of another
great master."

We spurred across the plain to the mouth of a deep, wooded defile,
through which the Prussian grand _corps d'armee_ were advancing. The
brigades which now met our view were evidently of a different
character from the Austrian; their uniforms of the utmost simplicity;
their march utterly silent; the heads of the columns observing their
distances with such accuracy, that, on a signal, they could have been
instantly formed in order of battle; every movement of the main body
simply directed by a flag carried from hill to hill, and even the
battalion movements marked by the mere waving of a sword. Even their
military music was of a peculiarly soft and subdued character. On my
observing this to Varnhorst, his reply was--"That this was one of the
favourite points of the Great Frederick. 'I hate drums in the march,'
said the king, 'they do nothing but confuse the step. Every one knows
that the beat at the head of the column takes time to reach the rear.
Besides, the drum deafens the ear. Keep it, therefore, for the battle,
when the more noise the better.' He also placed the band in the centre
of the column. 'If they are fond of music,' said he, 'why should not
every man have his share?'"

The steady advance, the solid force, and the sweet harmony,