25 THE SILESIAN WARS, 1740-5the Silesian plain, would be complete before the Austrians could feed
reinforcements into this most northerly of their possessions. No
Habsburg had set foot in Silesia for 130 years past, and Frederick
expected to meet resistance only from the isolated garrisons of the
fortress towns, of which the most immediately important was Glo-
gau, barring the access up the Oder to Breslau, the main city of
Silesia. To this operation Frederick devoted a little over 27,000 troops,
comprising about 20,400 infantry, 6,600 cavalry, and a small comple-
ment of gunners.
At noon on 14 December Frederick reached Crossen. This was the
last town in Brandenburg, and it was set on a height overlooking the
Oder, flowing purposefully from Silesia. The superstitious towns-
people were in a state of some alarm, for the king's advent coincided
with the fall of the bell in the great church, but Frederick assured
them that the omen was an auspicious one, signifying the collapse of
the House of Habsburg.
On 16 December Frederick and the leading troops marched through a
zone of woodland and crossed the Silesian border. One of his lieu-
tenants made for Griinberg, and seized the town key from the thun-
derstruck burgomaster, sitting with the municipal fathers in the
Rathaus. The king himself was met just inside Austrian territory by
two black-cloaked figures who stood by the roadside like crows. These
were Protestant clergymen from Glogau, come to beg Frederick to
spare the heretical churches in case of bombardment. The king
greeted them as the first of his Silesian subjects.
Frederick spent that night in a baronial house at Schweinitz, and
he wrote to Berlin: 'My dear Podewils, I have crossed the Rubicon
with flying colours and beating drums. My troops are full of enthusi-
asts the officers are fired by ambition, and our generals are avid for
glory' (PC 208).
The further advance across the plain took the Prussians to
Herrendorf, hard by Glogau. Bad weather set in on 18 December. The
baggage and artillery dragged far behind, and the soldiers marched in
mud and water up to their knees, ruining their white gaiters. Glogau
proved to be rather better fortified than had been expected, and
although the Austrian commandant declined to take the initiative in
opening hostilities the Prussian invasion threatened to bog down a
few miles inside the Silesian border. Frederick was all the more
anxious to press on to Breslau because he knew that the city author-
ities, although riddled with Prussian sympathisers, were engaged in
talks to admit an Austrian garrison. Frederick accordingly left Glogau
under blockade by an improvised 'II Corps', and on 28 December he
set off for Breslau with the advance guard of the main body.