59 THE SILESIAN WARS, 1740-5inside Bohemia - namely a contingent of 19,000 Saxons, and Prince
Charles with his 40,000 Austrians. On 26 May Frederick received from
Colonel Winterfeldt the news that the enemy were at last on the
march to invade Silesia. In his new camp at Frankenstein the king
accordingly assembled 42,000 infantry, 14,500 cuirassiers and dra-
goons, 2,300 hussars and a train of fifty-four heavy pieces, making up
a force of about 59,000 men. He had summoned up all the troops from
the side theatres, for the campaign of 1744 had taught him 'that the
man who tries to hang onto everything ends up by holding nothing.
Your essential objective must be the hostile army' ('Principes G6n6r-
aux', 1748, Oeuvres, XXVIII, 37-8).
Frederick's immediate concern was to tempt the allies down from
the hills. He had a double spy, an Italian, in Charles's headquarters,
who told the Austrians that Frederick was intent on falling back
under the guns of Breslau. The mobile detachments of Winterfeldt
and Du Moulin were ordered to spread the same report, and they lent
colour to this story by retreating in the sight of the Austrians to
Schweidnitz.
On 1 June Frederick arranged his army between Schweidnitz and
Alt-Jaueraick. On this day and the two following mornings he rode
to the low swells of the Ritter-Berge, near Striegau, from where he
had a view across an expanse of flat ground to the wooded folds
of the Riesen-Gebirge foothills at Freyburg, Hohenfriedeberg and
Kauder.
The first of the Austrian troops put in an appearance on 2 June,
and in the evening Prince Charles and the Saxon commander, the
Duke of Weissenfels, made their way to the gallows hill to the west of
Hohenfriedeberg. They could see little of interest, since Frederick had
hidden most of his troops behind the Nonnen-Busch or in hollows in
the ground. The allies were therefore encouraged to venture into the
plain the next day.
Early on 3 June Frederick made his usual ride to the Ritter-Berge,
and he noticed that the enemy soldiers had already lit their cooking
fires, from which he concluded that the allied army would soon be on
the move. Frederick returned briefly to the Prussian camp, and he was
back at his viewpoint in the afternoon. Towards 4 p.m. he
saw a cloud of dust which arose in the hills, and then advanced
and descended towards the plain, snaking forward from Kauder
to Fehebeutel and Rohnstock. The dust disappeared, and we
now had a clear view of the Austrian army which was
debouching from the hills in eight great columns ... to the
sound of drums, trumpets and all those militaiy instruments
which appeal so much to the Germans. This pleasing harmony,