26th Aug.-2d Sept. 1758.

lay, and there makes his bivouac in the wood, safe under the fir-trees, with the Zabern ground to front of him. By the above reckoning, 28 or 29,000 still hang to Fermor, or float vaporously round him; with Friedrich, in his two lines, are some 18,000:-in whole, 46,000 tired mortals sleeping thereabouts; near 12,000 others have fallen into a deeper sleep, not liable to be disturbed;—and of the wounded on the field, one shudders to imagine.

Next day, Saturday 26th, Fermor, again brought into some kind of rank, and safe beyond the quaggy Zabern ground, sent-out a proposal, "That there be Truce of Three Days for burying the dead!"-Dohna, who happened to be General in command there, answers, "That it is customary for the Victor to take charge of burying the slain; that such proposal is surprising, and quite inadmissible, in present circumstances." Fermor, in the mean while, had drawn himself out, fronting his late battlefield and the morning sun; and began cannonading across the Zabern ground; too far off for hitting, but as if still intending fight to which the Prussians replied with cannon, and drew-out before their tents in fighting order. In both armies there was question, or talk, of attacking anew; but in both there was want of ammunition,' want of real likelihood. On Fermor's side, that of "attacking" could be talk only, and on Friedrich's, besides the scarcity of ammunition, all creatures, foot and especially horse, were so worn-out with yesterday's work, it was not judged practically expedient. A while before noon, the Prussians retired to their Camp again; leaving only the artillery to respond, so far as needful, and bow-wow across the Zabern ground, till the Russians lay down again.

Friedrich's Hussars knew of the Russian Wagenburg, or general baggage reservoirs, at Klein Kamin, by this time. The Hussars had been in it, last night; rummaging extensively, at discretion for some time; and had brought away much money and portable plunder. Why Friedrich, who lay direct between Fermor and his Wagenburg, did not, this day, extinguish said Wagenburg, I do not know; but guess it may have been a fault of omission, in the great welter this was now grown to be to the weary mind. Beyond question, if one had blown-up Fermor's remaining gunpowder, and carried-off or burnt his meal-sacks, he must have cowered away all the faster towards

Landsberg to seek more.

26th Aug.-2d Sept. 1758. Or perhaps Friedrich now judged

it immaterial, and a question only of hours?

About midnight of Saturday-Sunday, there again rose bowwowing, bellowing of Russian cannon; not from beyond the Zabern ground this time, nor stationary anywhere, but from the south some transient part of it, and not far off;-one ball struck a carriage near the King's tent, and shattered it. Thick mist mantles everything, and it is difficult to know what the Russians have on hand in their sylvan seclusions. After a time, it becomes manifest the Russians are on retreat; winding round, through the southern woods, behind Zorndorf and the charred Villages, to Klein Kamin, Landsberg way. Friedrich, following now on the heel of them, finds all got to Klein Kamin, to breakfast there in their Wagenburg refectory,— sharply vigilant, many flèches (little arrow-shaped redoubts, sonamed) and much artillery round them. Nothing considerable to be done upon them, now or afterwards, except pick-up stragglers, and distress their rear a little. The King himself, in the first movement, was thought to be in alarming peril, such a blaze of case-shot rose upon him, as he went reconnoitering foremost of all.15

And this was, at last, the end of Zorndorf Battle; on the third day this. Was there ever seen such a fight of Theseus and the Minotaur ! Theseus, rapid, dextrous, with Heaven's lightning in his eyes, seizing the Minotaur; lassoing him by the hinder foot, then by the right horn; pouring steel and destruction into him, the very dust darkening all the air. Minotaur refusing to die when killed; tumbling to and fro upon its Theseus; the two lugging and tugging, flinging one another about, and describing figures of 8 round each other for three days before it ended. Minotaur walking off on his own feet, after all. It was the bloodiest battle of the Seven-Years War; one of the most furious ever fought; such rage possessing the individual elements; rage unusual in modern wars. Must have altered Friedrich's notion of the Russians, when he next comes to speak with Keith. It was not till the fourth day hence (August 31st), so unattackably strong was this position at Klein Kamin, that the Russian Minotaur would fairly get to

15 Tempelhof, ii. 216-38; Tielcke, ii. 79-154; Archenholtz, i. 253-64: HeldenGeschichte, v. 156-79 (with many Lists, private Letters and the like details); &c. &c.

e again rose bowfrom beyond the where, but from ar off;-one ball ittered it. Thick

know what the

usions. After a I retreat; wirdid Zorndorf and rg way. Friedall got to Klein g refectory,d redoubts, sog considerable pick-up stragng himself, in ng peril, such econnoitering

1

26th Aug.-2d Sept. 1758.. its feet a second time, and slowly stagger off, in real earnest, Landsberg way and Königsberg way;-Friedrich right glad to leave Dohna in attendance on it; and hasten off (September 2d) towards Saxony and Prince Henri, where his presence is now become very needful.

Fermor, walking off in this manner,- -not till the third day, nay not conclusively till the seventh day, after Zorndorf,strove at first to consider himself victorious. "I passed the night on the field of battle" (or not far from it, for good reasons, Mützel being bridgeless): may not I, in the language of enthusiasm, be considered conqueror? Here are 26 of their cannon, got when I cried 'Arah' prematurely. (Where the 103 pieces of my own are, and my 27 flags, and my Armychest and sundries? Dropped somewhere; they will probably turn-up again!)" thinks Fermor, —or strives to think, and says. So that, at Petersburg, at Paris and Vienna, in the next three weeks, there were Te-Deums, Ambrosian chantings, fires-ofjoy; and considerable arguing among the Gazetteers on both parts, till the dust settled, and facts appeared as they were. To the effect: Te Deum NON laudamus; alas no, we must retract; and it was good gunpowder thrown after bad!"

On always homewards, but at its own pace, waited-on by Dohna, goes the Russian Monster: violently case-shotting if you prick into its rearward parts. One Palmbach,—under Romanzow, I think, who had not taken part in the Battle, being out Stettin way, and unable to join till now,-Palmbach, with a Detachment of 15,000, which was thought sufficient for the object, did try to make a dash on Colberg,-how happy had we any port on the Baltic, to feed us in this Country! But though Colberg is the paltriest crow's-nest (bicoque), according to all engineers, and is defended only by 700 militia (the Colonel of them, one Heyde, a gray old Half-pay, not yet renowned in the soldier world, as he here came to be), Palmbach, with his best diligence, could make nothing of it; but, after battering, bombarding, even scalading, and in all ways blurting and blazing at a mighty rate for four weeks, and wasting a great deal of gunpowder and 2,000 Russian lives, withdrew on those remarkable terms.16 And did then, as tail of Fermor, what Fermor and the Russian Monster was universally

16 In Helden-Geschichte, v. 349-365 ('3d-31st October 1758'), a complete and minute Journal of this First Siege of Colberg, which is interesting to read of, as all the Three of them are.