Lucchesi, with
vivacity, persistency,--to his own ill luck, but evidently with approval
from Prince Karl. Everybody sees, this is the way to Prince Karl's favor
at present. "Have not I reconquered Silesia?" thinks Prince Karl to
himself; and beams applause on the high course, not the low prudent one.
[Kutzen, pp. 45-48.] In a word, the Austrians decide on stepping out to
meet Friedrich in open battle: it was the first time they ever did so;
and it was likewise the last.

Sunday, December 4th, at four in the morning, Friedrich has marched
from Parchwitz, straight towards the Austrian Camp; [Muller, p. 26.]
he hears, one can fancy with what pleasure, that the Austrians are
advancing towards him, and will not need to be forced in their strong
position. His march is in four columns, Friedrich in the vanguard;
quarters to be Neumarkt, a little Town about fourteen miles off. Within
some miles of Neumarkt, early in the afternoon, he learns that there are
a thousand Croats in the place, the Austrian Bakery at work there, and
engineer people marking out an Austrian Camp. "On the Height beyond
Neumarkt, that will be?" thinks Friedrich; for he knows this ground,
having often done reviews here; to Breslau all the way on both hands,
not a rood of it but is familiar to him. Which was a singular advantage,
say the critics; and a point the Austrian Council of War should have
taken more thought of.

Friedrich, before entering Neumarkt, sends a regiment to ride quietly
round it on both sides, and to seize that Height he knows of. Height
once seized, or ready for seizing, he bursts the barrier of Neumarkt;
dashes in upon the thousand Croats; flings out the Croats in extreme
hurry, musketry and sabre acting on them; they find their Height beset,
their retreat cut off, and that they must vanish. Of the 1,000 Croats,
"569 were taken prisoners, and 120 slain," in this unexpected sweeping
out of Neumarkt. Better still, in Neumarkt is found the Austrian Bakery,
set up and in full work;--delivers you 80,000 bread-rations hot-and-hot,
which little expected to go such a road. On the Height, the Austrian
stakes and engineer-tools were found sticking in the ground; so hasty
had the flight been.

How Prince Karl came to expose his Bakery, his staff of life so far
ahead of him? Prince Karl, it is clear, was a little puffed up with high
thoughts at this time. The capture of Schweidnitz, the late "Malplaquet"
(poorish Anti-Bevern Malplaquet), captur