not of
importance to Soubise in such posture.

This is the circular block or lump of country, on the north or northwest
side of which Friedrich now lies, and which will become, he little
thinks how memorable on the morrow. Over the heights, immediately
eastward of Friedrich, there is a kind of hollow, or scooped-out place;
shallow valley of some extent, which deserves notice against to-morrow:
but in general the ground is lazily spherical, and without noticeable
hollows or valleys when fairly away from the River. A dull blunt lump of
country; made of sand and mud,--may have been grassy once, with broom on
it, in the pastoral times; is now under poor plough-husbandry, arable or
scratchable in all parts, and looks rather miserable in winter-time. No
vestige of hedge on it, of shrub or bush; one tree, ugly but big, which
may have been alive in Friedrich's time, stands not far from Rossbach
Hamlet; one, and no more, discoverable in these areas.

Various Hamlets lie sprinkled about: very sleepy, rusty, irregular
little places; huts and cattle-stalls huddled down, as if shaken from
a bag; much straw, thick thatch and crumbly mud-brick; but looking warm
and peaceable, for the Four-footed and the Two-footed; which latter, if
you speak to them, are solid reasonable people, with energetic German
eyes and hearts, though so ill-lodged. These Hamlets, needing shelter
and spring-water, stand generally in some slight hollow, if well up the
Height, as Rorschach is; sometimes, if near the bottom, they are nestled
in a sudden dell or gash,--work of the primeval rains, accumulating from
above, and ploughing out their way. The rains, we can see, have been
busy; but there is seldom the least stream visible, bottom being too
sandy and porous. On the western slope, there is in our time a kind of
coal, or coal-dust, dug up; in the way of quarrying, not of mining; and
one or two big chasms of this sort are confusedly busy: the natives mix
this valuable coal-dust with water, mould it into bricks, and so use as
fuel: one of the features of these hamlets is the strange black bricks,
standing on edge about the cottage-doors, to drip, and dry in the sun.
For this or for other reasons, the westward slope appears to be the
best; and has a major share of hamlets on it: Rossbach is high up, and
looks over upon Mucheln, and its dim belfry and appurtenances, which lie
safe across the hollow, perhaps two miles off,--safe from Friedrich, if
there were eata