heir mind which ought
first to be gobbled up--so rapidly did the Prussian cavalry push
forward that Generals Beck and Nadasti were both so taken by
surprise that they had to ride for their lives, leaving baggage
coaches, horses, and all their belongings behind them.

On the 16th, Frederick with the army marched and offered battle to
the Austrians; but although so superior in numbers, they refused to
be beguiled from their fortified hill. At last, after tempting them
in vain, Frederick was forced to abandon the attempt and return to
Saxony, bitterly disappointed. He had wanted, above all things, to
finish with the Austrians; so as to be able to move off to the
other points threatened.

He now arranged that Bevern and Winterfeld should take the command
in his absence, watch the Austrians, and guard Silesia; while he,
with 23,000 men, marched on the 31st of August from Dresden, with
the intention of attacking the combined French and German
Confederacy force, under Soubise, that had already reached Erfurt.
Keith accompanied the king on his harassing march.

Since the arrival of the army at Leitmeritz, Fergus had been
incessantly engaged in carrying despatches between that town and
Dresden; and worked even harder while the king was trying, but in
vain, to bring about an engagement with the Austrians. For the
first few days after starting for Erfurt, he had a comparatively
quiet time of it. The marshal was now constantly the king's
companion, his cheerful and buoyant temper being invaluable to
Frederick, in this time of terrible anxiety. Fergus would have
found it dull work, had it not been for the companionship of
Lindsay, who was always light hearted, and ready to make the best
of everything.

"I would rather be an aide-de-camp than a general, at present,
Drummond," he said one day. "Thank goodness, we get our orders and
have to carry them out, and leave all the thinking to be done by
others! Never was there such a mess as this. Here we are in
October, and we are very much as we were when we began in March."

"Yes, except that all our enemies are drawing closer to us."

"They are closer, certainly, but none of them would seem to know
what he wants to do; and as for fighting, it is of all things that
which they most avoid. We have been trying, for the last two
months, for a fight with the Austrians, and cannot get one. Now we
are off to Erfurt, and I will wager a month's pay that the French
will retire, as soon as w