145 THE SEVEN YEARS WAR, 1756-63when Prince Ferdinand of Brunswick set out to assume command of
the Hanoverian army. Over the following years his combined force of
Hanoverians, British, German auxiliaries and Prussian cavalry was
to draw on itself the entire French effort in Germany.
Meanwhile Frederick could think of nothing but the account he
still had to settle with the Austrians in the east - 'strictly speaking,
the battle of Rossbach merely afforded me the freedom to go in search
of new dangers in Silesia' (Oeuvres, IV, 156). The royal army
therefore followed in the tracks of the French and the Reichsarmee for
only two days. Frederick then devoted his entire attention to arrang-
ing the march back to Lusatia and on to Silesia, where the Austrians
appeared to be carrying all before them. Frederick planned to allow
only one day of rest in every four, and he ordered his troops to live off
their hosts whenever they halted in towns and villages, so as to
relieve some of the problems of supply. This was a late time of year to
embark on a fresh campaign, but Frederick was assisted by the
remarkably mild weather which prevailed from the middle of Octo-
ber until the beginning of December (Mitchell, 1850, II, 305).
On 13 November Frederick began the eastward march from
Leipzig with eighteen battalions and twenty-three squadrons. A force
of equivalent size was entrusted to Field-Marshal Keith, who made a
diversionary invasion of north Bohemia. This might have seemed an
expensive detachment, but it attained the desired effect of drawing
the Austrian corps of Marschall from Lusatia. On 21 November
Frederick learnt that the route to Silesia by way of Gorlitz was now
free.
Every report from Silesia made Frederick's arrival more urgent.
He already knew that the key fortress of Schweidnitz had fallen. On
the 24th he reached Naumburg, at the gates of the province. Two days
earlier the ominous sounds of heavy gunfire had carried across the
plain from the east, and he was now told that the main Austrian army
had stormed the Duke of Bevern's entrenched camp outside Breslau,
the fortress-capital of Silesia, and that the Prussians had retreated
across the Oder. Frederick was determined to retrieve this army, and
he sent Lieutenant-General Kyau (later replaced by Zieten) to bring
the troops back across the river and rejoin him at the Katzbach
crossing at Parchwitz. Frederick resumed his march on the 26th, and
the next day he learnt at Lobedau that the isolated garrison of Breslau
had capitulated to the Austrians. He was left with no accessible base
in Silesia.
Frederick reached Parchwitz on 28 November. He stayed there
until 4 December, gathering in the scattered Prussian forces and
making the physical and psychological preparations for the great
blow that was intended to deliver Silesia. He arranged to have the