ssuaded: "Too
questionable, I should doubt! Soltikof is 70,000, and has no end of
Artillery; we are 26,000, and know not if we can bring a single gun to
where Soltikof is!" [Tempelhof, iii. 132-134.]

Wedell's people have already, of their own accord, got to arms again;
stand waiting his orders on this new emergency. No delay in Wedell or in
them. "May not it be another Rossbach (if we are lucky)?" thinks Wedell:
"Cannot we burst in on their flank, as they march yonder, those awkward
fellows; and tumble them into heaps?" The differences were several-fold:
First, that Friedrich and Seidlitz are not here. Many brave men we have,
and skilful; but not a master and man like these Two. Secondly, that
there is no Janus Hill to screen our intentions; but that the Russians
have us in full view while we make ready. Thirdly, and still
more important, that we do not know the ground, and what hidden
inaccessibilities lie ahead. This last is judged to have been the
killing circumstance. Between the Russians and us there is a paltry
little Brook, or line of quagmire; scarcely noticeable here, but
passable nowhere except at the Village-Mill of Kay, by one poor Bridge
there. And then, farther inwards, as shelter of the Russians, there
is another quaggy Brook, branch of the above, which is without bridge
altogether. Hours will be required to get 26,000 people marched up
there, not to speak of heavy guns at all.

The 26,000 march with their usual mathematical despatch: Manteuffel and
the Vanguard strike in with their sharpest edge, foot and horse, direct
on the Head of the Russian Column, Manteuffel leading on, so soon as his
few battalions and squadrons are across. Head means BRAIN (or life)
to this Russian Column; and these Manteuffel people go at it with
extraordinary energy. The Russian Head gives way; infantry and
cavalry:--their cavalry was driven quite to rear, and never came in
sight again after this of Manteuffel. But the Russians have abundance
of Reserves; also of room to manoeuvre in,--no lack of ground open, and
ground defensible (Palzig Village and Churchyard, for example);--above
all, they have abundance of heavy guns.

Well in recoil from Manteuffel and his furies, the beaten Russians
succeed in forming "a long Line behind Palzig Village," with that
Second, slighter or Branch Quagmire between them and us; they get the
Village beset, and have the Churchyard of it lined with batteries,--say
seventy guns. Manteuffel, unsup