137 THE SEVEN YEARS WAR, 1756-63smoker' (Kalkreuth, 1840, III, 177). At Dresden on 30 August
Frederick met the army which had retreated from Bohemia west of
the Elbe, which gave him a force of 25,000 troops with which to seek
out the French and the Reichsarmee.
The further march west across Saxony was by no means so
agreeable. The soldiers are greatly fatigued, as it has rained constant-
ly since we left Dresden, and the roads are extremely bad; many of the
Saxons incorporated into the Prussian troops have deserted, but this is
no real loss' (Mitchell, 6 September, PRO SP 90/70). As always
Frederick was close up with Seydlitz and the powerful advance guard,
and they repeatedly pushed the Austrian hussar brigade of Szecheny
out of their path. Seydlitz burst through the little town of Pegau on 7
September, and on the 13th he and Frederick bluffed their way into
Erfurt, where the people crowded around the king to kiss his hands,
his coat-tails and even his horse. A new spell of fine weather had
begun on the 6th. The desertion among the troops considerably
abated, and 'as they flatter themselves with the hope of going into
Alsace to beat the French, they bear the fatigues of the continual
marches with great alacrity and cheerfulness' (Mitchell, 17 Septem-
ber, PRO SP 90/70).
On 15 September Seydlitz swept away the enemy outposts from
Gotha, and Frederick entered the town at the head of the Meinecke
Dragoons. His admirers among the people found that all of the
celebrated traits of his character were gratifyingly reflected in his
startling eyes, his straight nose, and the lines etched on his face. 'His
complexion and the state of his clothing and shirt serve to confirm
what is generally said of him, that in the field he makes himself no
more comfortable than the least of his officers' (quoted in Wiltsch,
1858, 15).
Frederick left Gotha on 16 September, and the next day the allied
commanders Soubise and Hildburghausen arrived there on a recon-
naissance in force with nine or ten thousand men. Seydlitz arranged
his 1,500 troopers outside in a thin but impressive-looking line, and
sent a 'deserter' and some peasants into the town to announce that
Frederick was on his way with the main army. The allies evacuated
Gotha in some alarm. Eighty soldiers were captured by the Prussian
hussars, together with a huge booty of clerks, lackeys, cooks, ladies,
perfumes, dressing gowns and parrots.
Frederick's outward cheerfulness, and the army's enjoyment of
the comedy at Gotha, gave no hint of the disintegration in Prussia's
wider strategic affairs. First of all on 10 September the king learnt that
Lehwaldt had been defeated by the Russians at Gross-Jagersdorf. Then
on the 14th we discover Frederick addressing a letter to his confidant
Winterfeldt, whom he had left with Bevern's army facing the Aus-