ad up at will, Height after Height, to the
very Zobtenberg on that eastern side, and render Schweidnitz an
impossibility. The plan, people say, was good; but required rapidity of
execution,--a thing Daun is not strong in.

Bevern's behavior, too, upon whom the edge of the matter fell, was very
good. Bevern, coming on from Neisse and Upper Silesia, had been much
manoeuvred upon for various days by Beck; Beck, a dangerous, alert
man, doing his utmost to seize post after post, and bar Bevern's
way,--meaning especially, as ultimate thing, to get hold of a Height
called Fischerberg, which lies near Reichenbach (in the southern
Schweidnitz vicinities), and is preface to Koltschen Height and to the
whole Enterprise of Daun. In most of which attempts, especially in this
last, Bevern, with great merit, not of dexterity alone (for the King's
Orders had often to be DISobeyed in the letter, and only the spirit of
them held in view), contrived to outmanoeuvre Beck; and be found (August
13th) already firm on the Fischerberg, when Beck, in full confidence,
came marching towards it. "The Fischerberg lost to us!" Beck had to
report, in disappointment. "Must be recovered, and my grand Enterprise
no longer put off!" thinks Daun to himself, in still more disappointment
("Laggard that I am!").--And on the third day following, the BATTLE OF
REICHENBACH ensued. Lacy, as chief, with abundant force, and Beck and
Brentano under him: these are to march, "Recover me that Fischerberg; it
is the preface to Koltschen and all else!" [Tempelhof, vi. 144.]

MONDAY, AUGUST 16th, pretty early in the day, Lacy, with his Becks and
Brentanos, appeared in great force on the western side of Fischerberg;
planted themselves there, about the three Villages of Peilau (Upper,
Nether and Middle Peilau, a little way to south of Reichenbach), within
cannon-shot of Bevern; their purpose abundantly clear. Behind them, in
the gorges of the Mountains, what is not so clear, lay Daun and most of
his Army; intending to push through at once upon Koltschen and seize the
key, were this of Fischerberg had. Lacy, after reconnoitring a little,
spreads his tents (which it is observable Beck does not); and all
Austrians proceed to cooking their dinner. "Nothing coming of them till
to-morrow!" said Friedrich, who was here; and went his way home, on this
symptom of the Austrian procedures;--hardly consenting to regard them
farther, even when he heard their cannonade begin.

Lacy, th