203 THE SEVEN YEARS WAR, 1756-63Daun had also got his troops on the move and he trusted that the
Prussian army would not survive long into the next day. The light
detachments of Beck and Wied had the task of advancing direct on
Liegnitz town and so fixing the attention of the Prussians on this
stretch of the Katzbach. Meanwhile the main Austrian army was
making ready to cross to the north bank of the Katzbach well
upstream from Liegnitz at Dohnau. Once it had completed the
passage it was to form a line of battle facing east, and attack the
supposed Prussian camp on the near side of the Schwarzwasser.
Simultaneously Lacy was to fall on the enemy flank, having com-
pleted a long circuit to the north.
Daun had no intention of providing the Prussians with a 'golden
bridge' for their escape, in the milder traditions of eighteenth-centuiy
warfare. He assigned to Loudon the important responsibility of pas-
sing the Katzbach downstream from Liegnitz, and moving west
against Frederick's rear. In other words, Loudon was to form the
'anvil' for Daun's 'hammer', and the Prussians were to be crushed
between them in a process of annihilation more complete than
Frederick ever designed for any of his enemies. It was an ambitious
and well-thought-out scheme, and it provided for every eventuality
except Frederick's eastward change of position during the night.
At a strength of 24,000 men Loudon's corps by itself was not far
short of that of the entire Prussian army (30,000). Daun, Lacy and the
rest brought the total Austrian numbers to about 90,000.
In the darkness of the early morning of 15 August Major Hundt
and his two hundred Zieten Hussars were patrolling the lower Katz-
bach when, in the neighbourhood of Bienowitz, they ran into
Loudon's infantry already in full march on the north bank. Hundt
galloped back to the army. The first sensible man he encountered was
Saldern, who rose from his camp chair to meet him. As a newly
promoted and ambitious major-general Saldern had kept himself
constantly informed of Frederick's whereabouts during the night, and
he was able to point Hundt in the right direction. It was about 3 a.m.
when he reached the Rathenow Grenadiers:
Major Hundt came up at speed, yelling, 'Where is the king?
Where is the king?' He was heard by Major-General
Schenkendorff, who had dismounted some time before, and was
now engaged in poking the king's fire with his stick. 'Here he is',
he called out softly to the major. Frederick's attention was
aroused, and he asked, 'What's going on?' 'Your Majesty,' said
Hundt, 'as God is my witness the enemy are here!' 'Well then,'
the king replied, 'hold them up as long as you can. I must have a
horse!' (Anon., 1787-9, X, 32-3)