be prepared, and he too started
with his army, so that the three forces moved eastward at a
comparatively short distance apart.

Although hampered by the obstacles in their way, and by a train of
two thousand wagons, the Prussians moved rapidly and covered a
hundred miles in five days. Daun made what was, for him, prodigious
efforts also, and kept the lead he had gained.

On the 7th of August Frederick was thirty miles west of Liegnitz.
Here he halted for a day, and on the 9th marched to the Katzbach
valley, only to find that Daun was securely posted on the other
side of the river, and Lacy on the hills a few miles off. The next
morning Frederick marched down the bank of the Katzbach to
Liegnitz, Daun keeping parallel with him on the other side of the
river.

Knowing that Daun had been joined during the night by Loudon, and
that they were vastly too strong to be attacked, Frederick started
at eleven at night, and at daybreak was back on his old camping
ground. He crossed the river, hoping to be able to fall upon Lacy;
but the latter had moved off, and Frederick, pressing on, would
have got fairly ahead of his enemies if it had not been for the
heavy baggage train, which delayed him for five hours; and by the
time it came up he found that Lacy, Daun, and Loudon were all round
him again.

The situation seemed desperate. The army had but four days'
provisions left, and a scout sent out on the 12th reported that the
roads over the hills were absolutely impassable for baggage. At
eight o'clock the army set out again, recrossed the Katzbach, and
again made for Liegnitz, which they reached after a sixteen hours'
march. Here the king halted for thirty hours, and his three enemies
gathered round him again.

They were ninety thousand strong, while he was but thirty. Daun
made elaborate reconnaissances, and Frederick had no doubt that he
would be attacked, that night or early the next morning. After dark
the army marched quietly away, and took up its position on the
heights of Torberger, its fires being left burning brightly, with
two drummers to beat occasionally.

Daun's and Lacy's fires were clearly visible; but they, like his
own, were deserted, both having marched to catch him, as they
hoped, asleep at Liegnitz; but it chanced that Loudon had been
ordered to take post just where Frederick had halted, and his
troops came suddenly upon the Prussians in the dark.

A battalion was despatched at once, with some cannon,