114 THE SEVEN YEARS WAR, 1756-63plateau of Charwatetz, opening up a view over an immense horizon
to the east and south. Clouds of dust were rising from the plain, and
Frederick feared at first that the Austrians might be moving to attack
the Koschtitz crossing, but at noon the enemy were distinctly seen to
be retreating south-east towards Welwarn.
Frederick moved his headquarters to Charwatetz on the 28th,
and learnt on this day that Bevern and Schwerin had joined on the
Iser. His own army had found enough supplies in Budin to cany it all
the way to Prague, and on 30 April the force set out in battle order.
The British envoy Mitchell wrote:
The country is an open and fertile plain cut sometimes with
ravines but has very few trees. Along the road was spilt a great
quantity of oats occasioned by the precipitate march of the
Austrians from Budin to Welwarn, and in the market place of
Welwarn I saw about eighty large barrels of flour which they
had not the time to destroy, having only knocked out the tops
and bottoms of the barrels. (PRO SP 90/69)
On 1 May Frederick's army pushed to within a single march of
Prague. Frederick was with the advance guard, which followed close
on the heels of the Austrians, and he established his headquarters for
the night in the Jesuit house at Tuchomirschitz, standing on a bluff
with a view along a pretty wooded valley which led down to Prague,
just six miles away. He was told that Browne and the newly arrived
Prince Charles of Lorraine had only just vacated their lodgings in the
same building, and that they had argued so violently that they had
nearly come to blows.
Frederick had hoped to bring the enemy to battle on the west, or
near, side of the Moldau, but at this time the Austrians were actually
in the process of withdrawing to the far bank of the river at Prague.
They were now stationed in the strategic triangle formed by the
confluence of the Moldau and the Elbe, and they might, with more
energetic leadership, have exploited their central position in order to
fall on Frederick or Schwerin while the two Prussian armies were still
separated. Schwerin, indeed, was out of touch with Frederick for a
number of perilous days, and he crossed the Elbe at Brandeis into our
triangle only on 4 May, which was about four days later than
Frederick had supposed.
Frederick presented himself before Prague with a powerful ad-
vance guard on 2 May and discovered that the Austrians had eluded
him. The rest of the army arrived in the evening, soaked by rain and in
some disorder, and on 3 May the king allowed the troops some
much-needed rest. This day was one of heavy showers, bursts of
sunshine and rainbows, and in the clear air the Prussians could see