hweidnitz prove unattainable, is forty-five long miles northwestward.
"Let us lean upon Glogau withal," thinks Friedrich; "and let us be out
of this straightway! March to-night; towards Parchwitz, which is towards
Glogau too. Army rest till daybreak on the Heights of Pfaffendorf
yonder, to examine, to wait its luck: let the empty meal-wagons jingle
on to Glogau; load themselves there, and jingle back to us in Parchwitz
neighborhood, should Parchwitz not have proved impossible to our
manoeuvrings,--let us hope it may not!"--Daun and the Austrians having
ceased reconnoitring, and gone home, Friedrich rides with his Generals,
through Liegnitz, across the Schwartzwasser, to the Pfaffendorf Heights.
"Here, Messieurs, is our first halting-place to be: here we shall halt
till daybreak, while the meal-wagons jingle on!" And explains to them
orally where each is to take post, and how to behave. Which done, he too
returns home, no doubt a wearied individual; and at 4 of the afternoon
lies down to try for an hour or two of sleep, while all hands are busy
packing, according to the Orders given.

It is a fact recorded by Friedrich himself, and by many other people,
That, at this interesting juncture, there appeared at the King's Gate,
King hardly yet asleep, a staggering Austrian Officer, Irish by nation,
who had suddenly found good to desert the Austrian Service for the
Prussian--("Sorrow on them: a pack of"--what shall I say?)--Irish
gentleman, bursting with intelligence of some kind, but evidently deep
in liquor withal. "Impossible; the King is asleep," said the Adjutant
on duty; but produced only louder insistence from the drunk Irish
gentleman. "As much as all your heads are worth; the King's own safety,
and not a moment to lose!" What is to be done? They awaken the King:
"The man is drunk, but dreadfully in earnest, your Majesty." "Give him
quantities of weak tea [Tempelhof calls it tea, but Friedrich merely
warm water]; then examine him, and report if it is anything." Something
it was: "Your Majesty to be attacked, for certain, this night!" what his
Majesty already guessed:--something, most likely little; but nobody to
this day knows. Visible only, that his Majesty, before sunset, rode
out reconnoitring with this questionable Irish gentleman, now in a very
flaccid state; and altered nothing whatever in prior arrangements;--and
that the flaccid Irish gentleman staggers out of sight, into dusk, into
rest and darkness, after this