ood prospect for us there: better ground for us on
their left yonder, at Leuthen, even at Sagschutz farther south, whither
they are stretching themselves. Attempt their left wing; try our
"Oblique Order" upon that, with all the skill that is in us; perhaps
we can do it rightly this time, and prosper accordingly! That is
Friedrich's plan of action. The four columns once got to Borne
shall fall into two; turn to the right, and go southward, ever
southward:--they are to become our two Lines of Battle, were they once
got to the right point southward. Well opposite Sagschutz, that will be
the point for facing to left, and marching up,--in "Oblique Order," with
the utmost faculty they have!

"The Oblique Order, SCHRAGE STELLUNG," let the hasty reader pause to
understand, "is an old plan practised by Epaminondas, and revived by
Friedrich,--who has tried it in almost all his Battles more or less,
from Hohenfriedberg forward to Prag, Kolin, Rossbach; but never could,
in all points, get it rightly done till now, at Leuthen, in the highest
time of need. "It is a particular manoeuvre," says Archenholtz, rather
sergeant-wise, "which indeed other troops are now [1793] in the habit of
imitating; but which, up to this present time, none but Prussian troops
can execute with the precision and velocity indispensable to it. You
divide your line into many pieces; you can push these forward stairwise,
so that they shall halt close to one another," obliquely, to either
hand; and so, on a minimum of ground, bring your mass of men to the
required point at the required angle. Friedrich invented this mode
of getting into position; by its close ranking, by its depth, and the
manner of movement used, it had some resemblance to the "Macedonian
Phalanx,"--chiefly in the latter point, I should guess; for when arrived
at its place, it is no deeper than common. "Forming itself in this way,
a mass of troops takes up in proportion very little ground; and it
shows in the distance, by reason of the mixed uniforms and standards, a
totally chaotic mass of men heaped on one another," going in rapid
mazes this way and that. "But it needs only that the Commander lift
his finger; instantly this living coil of knotted intricacies develops
itself in perfect order, and with a speed like that of mountain rivers
when the ice breaks,"--is upon its Enemy. [Archenholtz, i. 209.]

"Your Enemy is ranked as here, in long line, three or two to one. You
march towards him, bu