193 THE SEVEN YEARS WAR, 1756-63prise of Daun against his flanks and rear.
Now that operations on the Oder were at an end, Lieutenant-
General Hiilsen set out from Glogau for Saxony with 16,000-17,000
troops on 5 November. Hiilsen's arrival brought the army in the
electorate to a strength of 60,000 men, which was by far the highest
concentration of force which the Prussians had effected during this
year. Frederick followed at a more leisurely pace, since he was too ill
to accompany the troops in person, and on 13 November he joined his
brother on the west bank of the Elbe near Meissen.
Daun appeared to be every bit as unwilling to renew Frederick's
acquaintance as Saltykov had been, and it was regarded as a personal
triumph for Old Fritz when on 14 November the Austrians abandoned
their position at the Katzenhauser. Frederick at once pushed his army
forward, and that night he slept better than at any time since the
battle of Kunersdorf. Three days later a further retreat carried Daun
to the immediate proximity of Dresden, where he arranged his army
behind the Plauensche-Grund.
Frederick was confident that he would soon have the Austrians
out of Dresden and the small area of Saxony remaining to them. The
winter promised to be early and hard, which would block the naviga-
tion of the Elbe with ice, and since the neighbourhood of Dresden was
thoroughly eaten-out Daun was heavily dependent for his supplies on
the long and vulnerable route which stretched from Bohemia through
the Erz-Gebirge. Frederick concluded that the Austrians would be
very sensitive to any threats against their communications.
The little raiding corps of Colonel Friedrich Wilhelm von Kleist
('Green Kleist', not to be confused with the dead Ewald Christian)
roamed destructively around north Bohemia, wrecking the magazine
at Aussig, and disturbing the Austrian officers at their ablutions at
Teplitz spa. More important still, the king dispatched Lieutenant-
General Finck with a corps to the immediate rear of the Austrian
army, for the purpose of threatening the route which led from
Bohemia by way of the Nollendorf passage and Berggiesshiibel. Fried-
rich August von Finck had actually commanded the royal army after
Kunersdorf. He now had 15,000 troops with him, and he enjoyed the
support of distinguished major-generals like Rebentisch and Wunsch.
On 18 November Finck took up station on the plateau of Maxen,
which formed a number of small bare hillocks rising eerily from a
tangled countiy of forests and steep valleys. The extensive and nearly
trackless Tharandter-Wald separated him from the king's new head-
quarters at Wilsdruff, and the dangerous avenue of the Miiglitz ran
past his rear - all of which rendered him vulnerable to any counter-
stroke from the Austrian army nearby along the Plauensche-Grund.
Prince Henry and many other officers of the royal army dreaded this