148 THE SEVEN YEARS WAR, 1756-63some encouraging reports that the Austrians might be abandoning
their entrenched position at Breslau.
In the evening Frederick retired to his quarters in a corner house
in the square at Neumarkt. Here he learnt that the Austrians had
indeed crossed the Lohe and the Schweidnitzer-Wasser, and that they
were bivouacking in open ground on the near side. According to one
account the report came from a Lieutenant Hohenstock, who had
been posted within sight of the Schweidnitzer-Wasser, and who was
able to count the standards of the cavalry of the Austrian right as they
were carried across the stream (Kalkreuth, 1840, IV, 118-19).
If Frederick attacked early the next day, he could catch the
Austrians at a time when they were labouring under all the disadvan-
tages of the defensive without the usual compensations of a prepared
position and fresh troops. In one respect, however, the risks were
greater than Frederick knew, for Prince Charles of Lorraine had no
less than 65,000 men under his command, whereas the king had put
the numbers of the Austrians at 39,000, after the rigours of their
Silesian campaign (PC 9553).The fifth of December was to be the most celebrated day in Frederick's
military career. Before daybreak he rode from the right wing of the
cavalry to the Garde du Corps:
The weather was fine but very cold. The troopers were standing
by their horses and clapping their hands to keep warm. 'Good
morning, Gardes du Corps!' 'The same to you. Your Majesty!'
replied an old cavalryman. 'How goes it?' enquired the king.
'Well enough, but it's bloocly cold!' 'Have a little patience, lads,
today is going to be a little too hot!' (Hildebrandt, 1829-35, II,
39)The army rose in silence at 4 a.m., and by five or six it was on the
march by columns in two great wings of infantry, with a wing of
cavalry on either side. A powerful advance guard strode in front, and
ahead of that again Frederick scouted the way with three free
battalions, the foot jaegers, and all the hussars of the army. The sun
now climbed through a mist into a cloudless sky and revealed a wide
and open landscape. The ground was mantled in a light covering of
snow, but Frederick and many of his generals were familiar with
eveiy tiny rise and hollow of this plain, for this was where they held
their grand autumn manoeuvres in peacetime.
Just short of the low scattered houses of the village of Borne the
king advanced his hussars against a line of cavalry that could be
distinguished through the mist. This was a force of Austrian hussars
and Saxon chevaulegers, who were promptly put to rout. Six hundred