53 THE SILESIAN WARS, 1740-5sive stands of conifers and vast empty fields. The hills of the Bohmer-
Wald stood out ever more clearly along the horizon, confirming the
isolation of this remote corner of Bohemia, but of the enemy main
force there was nothing to be seen. In fact Prince Charles was
twenty-five miles distant at Mirotitz. He had already united with
Batthy^ny, which gave him a force of 50,000 troops, but he (or rather
his adviser, old Field-Marshal Traun) wisely withheld the Austrians
from more positive action until they had been joined by the Saxons.
Frederick had passed the culminating point of this year's cam-
paigning. His line of communication was tenuous in the extreme,
and on 9 October he began a slow retreat in the direction of Tabor and
Prague, hoping all the time to seize the opportunity of bringing the
Austrians to battle. The enemy did not allow themselves to be drawn,
but gave notice, by gathering in fodder and planting a depot at
Beneschau, that they might be interested in establishing themselves
athwart Frederick's communications with Prague. On 17 October
Nassau and Schwerin averted the immediate danger by pouncing on
the Beneschau magazine. Frederick arrived on the scene the next day,
and arrayed the army behind a chain of lakes between Konopischt
and Bistritz. The weather was by now bitterly cold, and the soldiers
gave themselves what shelter they could by building crude huts, or
covering their tents with straw.
On the 22nd the balance of numbers turned to the advantage of
the enemy, when Prince Charles was joined by the Saxon contingent,
giving him a superiority of 10,000 troops over the Prussians. Charles
and Traun saw that the time had come for a show of force, and on the
night of 23 October they advanced to a position within six miles of
Frederick's camp. On the 24th Frederick's army executed a short but
tedious march as far as the heights between Sajetschi and Lang-
LhoHa, close enough to the enemy for their camp fires to be clearly
made out on the cold and moonlit night that followed. Frederick was
warming himself by a fire when his quartermaster, Carl C. von
Schmettau, returned from a patrol to announce that the allied
position was impregnable. Frederick rarely gave credit to unwelcome
news, and on the 25th he rode out on reconnaissance with a party of
grenadiers and hussars, while the whole army marched slowly up
behind.
The allied position became known as the Camp of Marschowitz,
and it was set in a central Bohemian sceneiy of round bosky hills and
broad undulating fields, interspersed with rivulets, rows of ponds and
little woods. The enemy camp formed a pronounced salient to the
north, where the lines sloped back on both sides at steep angles,
which rendered it impossible for Frederick to grasp the extent of the
position from a single standpoint.