68 THE SILESIAN WARS, 1740-5
so afraid of their men deserting that they dare not place their
pickets any distance into the country. There is not a post which
is more than one hundred paces out from the army, and they
make no attempt to send out patrols between one outpost and
the next. (Valori, 1820,1, 244-5)At five o'clock on the foggy morning of 18 September the army
re-crossed to the left bank of the Elbe at Jaromiersch and resumed its
northward march. Two days later the Prussians climbed a tree-
covered slope, and emerged onto an undulating plateau. The
Konigreich-Wald had fallen away to their left, and its birches and
mighty conifers presented an agreeable border to the open fields of red
earth. In front, the ground rose slightly before it dipped away to the
wide valley of Trautenau, and ahead of that again rose the blue wall
of the border hills. Here was a good site for the last of Frederick's
foraging camps, before the Prussians made the final bound to Silesia.
The foragers and convoy escorts from this 'Camp of Staudenz'
faced their endless battle with the Croats and hussars, but Frederick
began for the first time to look forward to his return to Potsdam,
where the garden-palace of Sans Souci was a-building. He wrote on 24
September to his valet Michael Gabriel Fredersdorf:I want the fire screen to be sent to Potsdam, together with the
table, the two statues, and the four portraits by Watteau which
Count Rothenburg has sent from Paris. These are to be stored in
my chambers until I arrive. I labour under many burdens and
sorrows at the moment, but I shall be glad to see Knobelsdorff
again. (Frederick, 1926, 51; Knobelsdorff was the architect of
Sans Souci)The Austrians had other plans for Frederick. On the same day
Prince Charles examined the Prussian camp from a hilltop, and he
saw the potential for a surprise attack. Not only did the Konigreich-
Wald provide an impenetrable cover for a left-flanking approach
march around to the west of the camp, but a short push from the trees
would be enough to carry the allies to the summit of the Graner-
Koppe, a broad, smooth mound which dominated the open country to
the east and south. Through a terrible oversight on Frederick's part,
the right flank of the camp of Staudenz terminated in a damp hollow
one thousand paces short of the hill.
In the course of 29 September and the early hours of the ensuing
night the Austrians and Saxons made the difficult passage of the
Konigreich-Wald, and began to emerge on the open ground along a
wide front. The main allied forces were arrayed south of the Graner-
Koppe, but the mound itself was jammed with a concentration of ten