28 THE SILESIAN WARS, 1740-5on rearranging other people's property in the 1740s. However, what
struck observers at the time was the unique style of the Silesian
operation, which had been determined in a couple of days and carried
to completion in six weeks. The Danish envoy to Berlin, Lieutenant-
General Andreas August von Praetorius, expressed his astonishment
at the speed, energy and facility of the thing. 'As for the future', he
added, 'I am unwilling to be a prophet, but this monarch surely has
some great project in mind. He will not be content with conquering a
province, but will strive to become the arbiter of the German Empire'
(Volz, 1926-7, I, 146-7. See also the nearly identical comments of
Colonel de Beauval and Baron von Schwicheldt, ibid., 154, 180-1).
The time had not yet come for Frederick to take any useful decisions
concerning politics and strategy for 1741. So far he had no allies in his
adventure, and he even found some difficulty in identifying the
character of the Austrian leadership. Vienna was certainly proving
unexpectedly obstinate in its refusal to renounce Silesia, but
Frederick did not yet associate the source of this defiance with the
new head of the House of Habsburg, the young and inexperienced
Maria Theresa.
Meanwhile the impudent Colonel Roth had got into the habit of
kidnapping the pro-Prussian nobility who lived within range of his
raids from Neisse, and he spirited his captives away to his friend
General Maximilian von Browne, who hovered in the Moravian hills
with a screen of Austrian troops. These activities went unchecked by
the Prussian hussars, who were still but a pale imitation of the
genuine Hungarian originals in the Austrian service. The Prussian
inferiority in der kleine Krieg of ambush and surprise was brought
home directly to Frederick when he was nearly captured by a party of
Austrian hussars at Baumgarten on 27 February.
Frederick received a measure of needful cheer on 9 March, when
he learnt that the Hereditaiy Prince Leopold of Anhalt-Dessau (one
of the sons of the Old Dessauer) had taken the fortress of Glogau by a
surprise night escalade. Almost all of the open country of Silesia had
long been in the possession of the Prussians, but Glogau offered them a
solid gain, and it opened the navigation of the Oder up to the region of
Breslau.
Frederick had still settled on no firm plan to consolidate his hold
on Silesia when, at the beginning of April 1741, the initiative was
snatched from him by the Austrians. About 16,000 Austrian troops
had been assembled in Moravia, and Field-Marshal Neipperg now led
them in a boldly conceived march from the border hills, aiming to
relieve Neisse and recover the open country of Silesia. This move
found the Prussians still scattered in quarters facing the hills along a