even to Werner (22d
June, at Coslin, forty miles to eastward); after which his advance (such
waiting for the ships, for the artilleries, the this and the that)
was slower than ever; and for about eight weeks more, he haggles along
through Coslin, through Corlin, Belgard again, flowing slowly forward
upon Werner's outposts, like a summer glacier with its rubbishes; or
like a slow lava-tide,--a great deal of smoke on each side of him (owing
to the Cossacks), as usual. Romanzow's progress is of the slowest;
and it is not till August 19th that he practically gets possession of
Corlin, Belgard and those outposts on the Persante River, and comes
within sight of Colberg and his problem. By which time, he finds Eugen
of Wurtemberg encamped and intrenched still ahead of him, still nearer
Colberg, and likely to give him what they call "DE LA TABLATURE," or
extremely difficult music to play.

"It was on AUGUST 19th [very eve of Friedrich's going into Bunzelwitz]
that Romanzow,--Werner, for the sake of those poor Towns he holds,
generally retiring without bombardment or utter conflagration,--had got
hold of Corlin and of the River Persante [with "Quetzin and Degow," if
anybody knew them, as his main posts there]: and was actually now within
sight of Colberg,--only 7 or 8 miles west of him, and a river more or
less in his way:--when, singular to see, Eugen of Wurtemberg has rooted
himself into the ground farther inward, environing Colberg with a
fortified Camp as with a second wall; and it will be a difficult problem
indeed!

"But Sea Armaments, Swedish-Russian, with endless siege-material and
red-hot balls, are finally at hand; and this pitiful Colberg must be
done, were it only by falling flat, on it, and smothering it by weight
of numbers and of red-hot iron. The day before yesterday, August 17th,
after such rumoring and such manoeuvring as there has been, six Russian
ships-of-war showed themselves in Colberg Roads, and three of them tried
some shooting on Heyde's workpeople, busy at a redoubt on the beach; but
hit nothing, and went away till Romanzow himself should come. Romanzow
come, there is utmost despatch; and within the eight days following,
the Russian ships, and then the Swedish as well, have all got to their
moorings,--12 sail of the line, with 42 more of the frigate and gunboat
kind, 54 ships in all;--and from August 24th, especially from August
28th, bombardment to the very uttermost is going on. [Tempelhof, v.
311.