f his Russians, and have got them all
pinfolded between Mutzel and Oder in that way. In the evening, he
reaches Damm and the Mill of Damm, some three or four miles higher up
the Mutzel;--and there pushes partly across at once. That is to say,
his vanguard at once, and takes a defensive position; his Artillery
and other Divisions by degrees, in the silent night hours; and, before
daybreak to-morrow, every soul will be across, and the Bridge broken
again;--and Fermor had better have his accounts settled.

Fermor's roving Cossack clouds seldom bring him in intelligence; but
only return stained with charcoal grime and red murder: up to late last
night, he had not known where Friedrich was at all; had idly thought him
busy with the Schaumburg Redoubt, on the other side of Oder, fencing
and precautioning: but now (night of the 23d), these Cossacks do come in
with news, "Indisputable to our poor minds, the Prussians are at Klossow
yonder,--captured a dozen green vagabonds of us, and have sent
us galloping!"--which news, with the night closing in on him, was
astonishing, thrice and four times important to Fermor.

Instantly he raises the siege of Custrin, any siege there was; gets his
immense baggage-train shoved off that night to Klein Kamin, Landsberg
way; summons the force from Landsberg to join him without loss of a
moment;--and in the meanwhile pitches himself in long bivouac in the
Drewitz Wood or Fir-Heath, with the quaggy Zaberngrund in front. Quaggy
Zaberngrund,--do readers remember it; one of those "Three continuous
Leakages," very important, to Fermor and us at present? This is the
safest place Fermor can find for himself; scraggy firs around, good
quagmires and Zabern Hollow in front; looking to the east, waiting what
a new day will bring. That was Fermor's posture, while Friedrich quitted
Klossow in the dawn of the 24th. Be busy, ye Cossack doggeries; return
with news, not with mere grime and marks of blood on your mouths!

Evening of the 24th, Cossacks report that Friedrich has got to Damm
Mill; has hold of the Bridge there; and may be looked for, sure as the
daylight, to-morrow. Fermor is 50,000 odd, his Landsberg forces all
coming in; one Detachment out Stettin way, which cannot come in; Fermor
finds that his baggage-train is fairly on the road to Klein Kamin;--and
that he will have to quit this bosky bivouac, and fight for himself in
the open ground, or do worse.

THESEUS AND THE MINOTAUR OVER AGAIN,--