emi-circle four or five miles long,
with the ends resting on the river. They cannot believe that we
intend to attack them, and, if we go straight at them, we may
possibly gain a footing in their intrenchments, before the whole
army can gather to aid those at the point of attack. It will be
almost a surprise, and I think the king is right to attempt it, for
it is only by a quick and sudden stroke that we can gain a success
over so great an army."

The halt was but a short one and, as soon as the regiments had
arrived at the positions assigned to them, they advanced. As soon
as they appeared, on a rise of ground facing the intrenchments, the
enemy opened fire. The king had already reconnoitred a portion of
their position, exposing himself recklessly to their shot, and, as
soon as the troops came up, he issued orders for them to prepare to
attack in two columns. First, however, several of the regiments
were ordered to fall out, and to cut down bushes and make fascines,
to enable the troops to cross the ditches.

The intrenchment was a formidable one, being provided with parapets
armed with chevaux de frise, and flanked by strong exterior works,
while several batteries had been placed to sweep the ground across
which an enemy must advance.

The right column, under General Welling, was to march to a point
nearly in the centre of the great semicircle; while the left, under
General Rhenschild, was to assault a point about halfway between
the centre and the river, where one of the largest and most
powerful of the enemy's batteries was placed. The king himself was
with this wing, with his bodyguard, and he hoped that here he might
meet the czar commanding in person. The Russian emperor had,
however, left the camp that morning, to fetch up forty thousand men
who were advancing from Plescow, and the command of the army had
been assumed by the Duke of Croy.

The Swedish left wing had with it a battery of twenty-one guns,
while sixteen guns covered the attack on the right. It was two
o'clock in the afternoon when two guns gave the signal for the
advance. Hitherto the weather had been fine, but it had become
gradually overcast, and, just as the signal was given, a tremendous
storm of snow and hail began. It set right in the face of the
Russians, and concealed from them the movement of the Swedes, for
which, indeed, they were wholly unprepared, believing that the
small force they saw was but the advance guard of a great Swedish