by G. A. Henty
Chapter 16: At Minden.
On the following day Fergus started, riding the new horse the counthad given him, while Karl led Tartar. The journey to Breslau wasperformed without adventure. He found on arrival that the king had,ten days before, gone to Landshut, round which place a portion ofhis army was cantoned. At Landshut he commanded the main pass intoBohemia, was in a position to move rapidly towards any point whereDaun might endeavour to break through into Silesia, and was yet buta few marches from Dresden, should the tide of war flow in thatdirection.
Already several blows had been struck at the enemy. As early as the16th of February, Prince Henry had attacked the Confederate armywhich, strengthened by some Austrian regiments, had intended tofortify itself in Erfurt, and driven it far away; while the Princeof Brunswick had made a raid into the small Federal states, andcarried off two thousand prisoners. Early in March a force fromGlogau had marched into Poland, and destroyed many Russianmagazines; while on April 13th, the very day on which Fergusarrived at Breslau, Duke Ferdinand had fought a battle with theFrench army under Broglio, near Bergen. The French, however, werevery strongly posted, and Ferdinand was unable to capture theirposition, and lost twenty-five hundred men, while the French losswas but nineteen hundred.
On the same day Prince Henry crossed the mountains, and destroyedall the Austrian magazines through the country between Eger andPrague--containing food for an army of fifty thousand for fivemonths--captured three thousand prisoners, and burnt two hundredboats collected on the Elbe, near Leitmeritz; and was back againafter an absence of but nine days. A fortnight later he was offagain, marching this time towards Bamberg, burning magazines andcarrying off supplies. He captured Bayreuth and Bamberg, tooktwenty-five hundred prisoners, and struck so heavy a blow at thelittle princelings of the Confederacy that he was able to leavematters to themselves in the west, should the king require his aidagainst Daun or the Russians.
On the 16th of April Fergus arrived at Landshut, and proceeded tothe royal quarters. On sending his name to the king, he was at onceushered in.
"So you have returned, Major Drummond," Frederick said cordially,"and in plenty of time to see the play! Though indeed, I should notbe surprised if it is some time before the curtain draws up. I hadsome hopes that you might rejoin, for after your last escape Idoubted whether any Austrian prison would hold you long. I am gladto see you back again.
"Ah! it was a heavy loss, that of our good marshal. None but myselfcan say how I miss him. He was not only, as a general, one of thebest and most trustworthy; but as a friend he was always cheery,always hopeful, one to whom I could tell all my thoughts. Ah! If Ihad but taken his advice at Hochkirch, I should not have had tomourn his loss.
"It was a heavy blow to you also, Major Drummond."
"A heavy blow indeed, your Majesty. He was as kind to me as if hehad been my father."
"I will try to supply his place," the king said gravely. "He diedin my service, and through my error.
"For my own sake, I am glad that you are here. You have somethingof his temperament, and I can talk freely with you, too, whatevercomes into my head."
"I did not know whether I did rightly in coming to report myselfdirect to you, sire; but your kindness has always been so great tome that I thought it would be best to come straight to you, insteadof reporting myself elsewhere, having indeed no fixed post orcommander."
"You did quite right. By the way, Keith's brother, the ScottishEarl Marischal, is here."
He touched a bell, and said to the officer who came in:
"Will you give my compliments to Earl Marischal Keith, and beg himto come to me for a few minutes."
Two minutes later Keith entered--a tall man, less strongly builtthan his brother, but much resembling him.
"Excuse my sending for you, Earl Marischal," the king said, "but Iwanted to introduce to you your young cousin, Major Drummond; avery brave young officer, as you may well imagine, since he hasalready gained that rank, and wears our military order of the BlackEagle. He tells me that he has not hitherto met you; but he cameover here at your brother's invitation, was a very great favouriteof his, and was deeply attached to him."
"My brother mentioned you frequently, in his letters to me," Keithsaid, holding out his hand to Fergus. "I knew but little of yourmother, first cousin as she is; for being ten years older than mybrother, she was but a little child in my eyes when I last saw her.Were it not that I am past military work, I would gladly try tofill my brother's place to you; but if I cannot aid you in yourprofession, I can at least give you a share of my affection."
"As to his profession, Keith, that is my business," the king said."He saved my life at Zorndorf, and has in so many ways distinguishedhimself that his success in his career is already assured. He is, bymany years, the youngest major in the service; and if this war goeson, there is no saying to what height he may rise.
"He has just returned from an Austrian prison where, as I told youwhen you joined me, he was carried after Hochkirch. I don't knowyet how he escaped. He must dine with me this evening, andafterwards he shall tell us about it. Mitchell dines with us, also.He, too, is a friend of this young soldier, and has a high opinionof him."
That evening after dinner Fergus related to the party, whichconsisted only of the king, Keith, and the British ambassador, howhe had escaped from prison.
"The next time the Austrians catch you, Major Drummond," the kingsaid when he had finished, "if they want to keep you, they willhave to chain you by the leg, as they used to do in the old times."
For months the Prussian and Austrian armies lay inactive. Daun hadsupposed that, as the king had begun the three previous campaignsby launching his forces into Bohemia, he would be certain to followthe same policy; and he had therefore placed his army in an almostimpregnable position, and waited for the king to assume theoffensive. Frederick, however, felt that with his diminished forceshe could no longer afford to dash himself against the strongpositions so carefully chosen and intrenched by the enemy; and mustnow confine himself to the defensive, and leave it to the Austriansto attempt to cross the passes and give battle. The slowness withwhich they marched, in comparison with the speed at which thePrussian troops could be taken from one point to another, gave himgood ground for believing that he should find many opportunitiesfor falling upon the enemy, when in movement.
It was a long time before the Austrian general recognized thechange in Frederick's strategy, still longer before he could bringhimself to abandon his own tactics of waiting and fortifying, anddetermine to abandon his strongholds and assume the offensive. WhenJuly opened he had, by various slow and careful marches, plantedhimself in a very strong position at Marklissa; while Frederick, asusual, was watching him. Daun was well aware that Frederick, of allthings, desired to bring on a battle; but knowing that theRussians, one hundred thousand strong, under Soltikoff, weresteadily approaching, he determined to wait where he was, and toallow the brunt of the fighting, for once, to fall on them.
Fergus, by this time, was far away. The long weeks had passed asslowly to him as they had to the king, and he was very glad indeedwhen, on the 2nd of June, Frederick said to him:
"I know that you are impatient for action, Major Drummond. Yourblood is younger than mine, and I feel it hard enough to bepatient, myself. However, I can find some employment for you. DukeFerdinand has now, you know, twelve thousand English troops withhim. He has written to me saying that, as neither of hisaides-de-camp can speak English, he begs that I would send him anofficer who can do so; for very few of the British are able tospeak German, and serious consequences might arise from themisapprehension of orders on the day of battle. Therefore I haveresolved to send you to him, and you can start tomorrow, atdaybreak. I will have a despatch prepared for you to carry to theduke; who of course, by the way, knows you, and will, I am sure, beglad to have you with him. Later on I must send another of myScottish officers to take your place with him, for I like havingyou with me. However, at present you are wasting your time, and may
as well go."
"We are off again tomorrow morning, Karl," Fergus said, in highspirits, as he reached his quarters.
"That is the best news that I have heard since the count'smessenger brought me word, at Erfurt, that you had returned, major.It has been the dullest six weeks we have had since we firstmarched from Berlin; for while in winter one knows that nothing canbe done, and so is content to rest quietly, in spring one is alwaysexpecting something, and if nothing comes of it one worries andgrumbles."
"It is a long ride we are going this time, Karl."
"I don't care how how long it is, major, so that one is moving."
"I am going to join the Duke of Brunswick's staff."
"That is something like a ride, major," Karl said in surprise, "forit is right from one side of Prussia to the other."
"Yes, it is over four hundred and fifty miles."
"Well, major, we have got good horses, and they have had an easytime of it, lately."
"How long do you think that we shall take?"
"Well, major, the horses can do forty miles a day, if they have aday to rest, halfway. Your horses could do more, riding them onalternate days; but it would be as much as mine could do to managethat."
"We must take them by turns, Karl. That will give each horse apartial rest--one day out of three."
"Like that they could do it, I should say, major, in about afortnight."
They rode first to Breslau, and thence to Magdeburg, passingthrough many towns on the long journey, but none of any greatimportance. At Magdeburg they heard that they must make forHanover, where they would be able to ascertain the precise positionof the duke's army, which was on the northern frontier ofWestphalia.
While the French, under the Duke of Broglio, were advancing northfrom Frankfort-on-Maine; another French army, under Contades, wasmoving against Ferdinand from the west. As it was probable thatthere would, at least, be no great battle until the two Frencharmies combined, Fergus, who had already given his horses two days'complete rest, remained for three days at Magdeburg; as it waslikely that he would have to work them hard, when he joined theduke.
Five days later he rode into the Duke of Brunswick's principalcamp, which was near Osnabrueck, where was situated his centralmagazine.
"I am glad to see you, Major Drummond," the duke said cordially,when Fergus reported himself. "I thought perhaps the king wouldselect you for the service, and I know how zealous and active youare. I am greatly in need of a staff officer who can speak English,for none of mine can do so.
"I think that we shall have some hard fighting here, soon. You seethat I am very much in the position of the king, menaced from twodirections. If I move to attack Contades, Broglio will have Hanoverentirely open to him; while if I move against him, Contades willcapture Muenster and Osnabrueck and get all my magazines, and mighteven push on and occupy the town of Hanover, before I could getback. So you see, I have nothing to do but to wait in thisneighbourhood until I see their designs.
"I have some twelve thousand of your countrymen here, and I relyupon them greatly. We know how they fought at Fontenoy. Splendidfellows they are. There is a Scotch regiment with them, whoseappearance in kilts and feathers in no slight degree astonishesboth the people and my own soldiers. Their cavalry are very fine,too. They have much heavier horses than ours, and should beterrible in a charge.
"How long have you been on the road?"
"I have been eighteen days, sir. I could have ridden faster myself,having a spare charger, but my orderly could hardly travel morerapidly; and indeed, when I got to Magdeburg, and found that it wasnot likely that there would be any engagement for some time, Iallowed the horses three days' rest, so that they should be fit forservice as soon as they arrived here."
A tent was at once erected in the staff lines for Fergus. He found,upon inquiry, that the British division was at present at Muenster.He was invited by the duke to dinner that evening, and wasintroduced to the officers of the staff; who received himcourteously, but with some surprise that one so young should notonly bear the rank of major, but the coveted insignia of the BlackEagle.
The duke, however, when the introductions were over, gave them ashort account of the newcomer's services, and after dinner beggedFergus to tell them how he escaped from Linz; and they had a heartylaugh over the manner in which he and his companions obtained theirfirst disguise.
"I have heard something of this," Colonel Zolwyn, the head of thestaff, said. "Captains Stauffen and Ritzer were both ordered here,on their arrival at Berlin; and though I have not met them, I haveheard from others of their escape from Linz, which they ascribedentirely to a major of Marshal Keith's staff, who was a fellowprisoner of theirs."
For the next three weeks Fergus was on horseback from morning tillnight. The movements of the troops were incessant. The two Frenchgenerals manoeuvred with great skill, giving no opportunity for theDuke of Brunswick to strike a blow at either. Broglio, guided by atreacherous peasant, captured Minden by surprise. Contades, withthirty thousand men, had taken up an unassailable position: hisright wing on the Weser, and his left on impassable bogs andquagmires, and with his front covered by the Bastau, a deep andunfordable brook. Thirty thousand of his troops were occupied inbesieging Muenster and Osnabrueck, and other places, and succeededin capturing the latter, containing the duke's magazines of hay andcavalry forage.
The duke's position became very grave, and the French believedthat, in a very short time, they would be masters of all Hanover.Broglio's force of twenty thousand men was on the east side of theWeser, and Ferdinand was unable to move to strike a blow at thedetached force of Contades; for had he done so, Broglio would havecaptured the city of Hanover, which lay perfectly open to himwithin a day's march.
Fergus had been specially employed in carrying despatches to theBritish division, and had made many acquaintances among theofficers. As the army gradually concentrated, when the Frenchforces drew closer together, he often spent the evening in theirtents when the day's work was done.
In the Scotch regiment he was soon quite at home. The fact that hewas related to Marshal Keith, of whom every Scotchman was proud,and had been one of his aides-de-camp, sufficed in itself to renderhim at once popular. The officers followed with eager interest theaccounts of the various battles he had witnessed, and little bylittle extracted from him some account of the manner in which hehad won his steps so rapidly in the Prussian service. He found thatthey, and the British troops in general, had a profound dislike forLord Sackville; who commanded them, but who was especially incommand of their cavalry. All described him as a heavy, domineeringfellow, personally indolent and slow, on ill terms with the Duke ofBrunswick, whom in a quiet and obstinate way he seemed bent onthwarting.
"He is an ill-conditioned brute," one of the officers remarked."The only thing to be said for him is that he is not deficient inpersonal courage. He has fought several duels, into which hebrought himself by his overbearing temper."
Although he had frequently carried despatches to Sackville, Fergushad not exchanged a word with him. The English general had takenthe paper from his hand, barely acknowledging his salute; and notindeed glancing at him, but turning on his heel and walking off toread the contents of the despatch, which generally appeared todisplease him, judging by the manner in which he spoke to hisofficers. Then he would go into his tent, and one of hisaides-de-camp would shortly come out with a letter containing hisreply.
Fergus naturally came to regard the English commander with the samedislike that his own officers felt for him. One day, when handinghim a despatch, he omitted the usual salute. Sackville noticed itat once.
"Why do you not salute, sir?" he said, raising his head, and forthe first time looking at the duke's aide-de-camp.
"This is the twelfth time, sir, that I have brought despatches fromthe Duke of Brunswick. Upon each occasion I have made the militarysalute. By the regulations of the army, I believe that the superiorofficer is as much bound to return a salute as the inferior officeris to render it. As
you have not chosen, upon any one of thosetwelve occasions, to return my salute, I see no reason why I shouldcontinue to give it."
Sackville looked at him as he shouted in English, with astonishmentand rage:
"And who the devil are you?"
"I am Major Fergus Drummond, a companion of the order of the BlackEagle, and an aide-de-camp of the King of Prussia."
"The deuce you are!" Sackville said insolently. "I did not knowthat the King of Prussia promoted lads to be majors, chose them forhis aides-de-camp, and made them companions of his order."
"Then, sir, you know it now," Fergus said quietly; "and for anexplanation of my rank, I beg to refer you to the Duke ofBrunswick; who will, I doubt not, be not unwilling to explain thematter to you."
"I shall report your insolence to the duke, at any rate, sir. Wereit not for my position here, I would myself condescend to give youthe lesson of which you seem to me to be in want."
"I should doubt, sir, whether I could receive any lesson at yourhands; but after this affair has terminated, I shall be happy toafford you an opportunity of endeavouring to do so."
Lord Sackville was on the point of replying, when the colonel ofhis staff, whom Fergus had met at dinner at the duke's, and whospoke German fluently, came up and said:
"Pardon me, general. Can I speak to you for a moment?"
Fergus reined back his horse a length or two, while the officerspoke rapidly to Lord Sackville.
"I don't care a fig," the latter burst out passionately.
The officer continued to speak. The general listened sullenly, thenturning to Fergus, he said:
"Well, sir, we shall leave the matter as it is. As soon as thisbattle is over, I shall waive my rank and meet you."
"I shall be ready at any time," Fergus said; and then, formallysaluting, he rode away.
"I suppose you have no answer, Major Drummond," the duke said, whenhe returned to his quarters; "but indeed, there is none needed."
"I have no answer, sir, and indeed did not wait for one. LordSackville and I had a somewhat hot altercation;" and he related,word for word, what had passed.
"It is a pity, but I cannot blame you," the duke said, when Fergushad finished. "The man has given me a great deal of trouble, eversince he joined us with his force. He is always slow in obeyingorders. Sometimes he seems wilfully to misunderstand them, andaltogether he is a thorn in my side. I am glad, indeed, that theBritish infantry division are entirely under my control. With themI have no difficulty whatever. He was entirely in the wrong in thismatter; and I certainly should address a remonstrance to him, onthe subject of his manner and language to one of my staff, but ourrelations are already unpleasantly strained, and any open breachbetween us might bring about a serious disaster."
"I certainly should not wish that you should make any allusion tothe matter, sir. Possibly I may have an opportunity of teaching himto be more polite, after we have done with the French."
By two sudden strokes the duke, in the third week of July, obtainedpossession of Bremen, thereby obtaining a port by which stores andreinforcements from England could reach him; and also recapturedOsnabrueck, and found to his great satisfaction that the French hadalso established a magazine there, so that the stores were evenlarger than when they had taken it from him.
The great point was to induce Contades to move from his impregnableposition. He knew that both Contades and Broglio were as anxious ashe was to bring about a battle, did they but see an advantageousopportunity; and he took a bold step to tempt them.
On the 30th of July he sent the Hereditary Prince, with a force often thousand men, to make a circuit and fall upon Gohfeld, tenmiles up the Weser; and so cut the line by which Contades broughtup the food for his army from Cassel, seventy miles to the south.Such a movement would compel the French either to fight or to fallback. It was a bold move and, had it not succeeded, would have beendeemed a rash one; for it left him with but thirty-six thousand mento face the greatly superior force of the French.
The bait proved too tempting for the French generals. It seemed tothem that the duke had committed a fatal mistake. His left, leaningon the Weser was, by the march of the force to Gohfeld, leftunsupported at a distance of three miles from the centre; and itseemed to them that they could now hurl themselves into the gap,destroy the duke's left, and then crush his centre and right, andcut off whatever remnant might escape from Hanover.
On Tuesday evening, July 1st, the French got into motion as soon asit was dark. During the night Contades crossed, by nineteen bridgesthat he had thrown across the Bastau; while at the same timeBroglio crossed the Weser, by the bridge of the town, and took uphis position facing the Prussian left wing, which rested on thevillage of Todtenhausen, intending to attack him early in themorning, and to finish before the duke could bring the centre tohis assistance.
Feeling sure that the French would fall into the trap, the dukeordered his cavalry to mount at one o'clock in the morning, andmoved in with his troops from the villages around which they wereencamped; closing in towards Minden, whereby the centre graduallycame into touch with the left, the whole forming a segment of acircle, of which Minden was the centre.
The French also formed a segment of a similar circle, nearer toMinden. Contades was a long time getting his troops into position,for great confusion was caused by their having crossed by so manybridges, and it took hours to range them in order of battle.
Broglio was in position, facing the duke's left, at five o'clock inthe morning. He was strong in artillery and infantry; but as theground on both flanks was unfavourable for the action of cavalry,these were all posted in the centre. The cavalry, indeed, was thestrongest portion of the force. They numbered ten thousand, andwere the flower of the French army.
The duke placed six regiments of British infantry in his centre.They were the 12th, 20th, 23rd, 25th, 37th and 51st. Some regimentsof Hanoverians were in line behind them. The British cavalry wereon the duke's right. The morning was misty, and it was not untileight o'clock that both sides were ready, and indeed even thenContades' infantry was not finally settled in its position.
The battle began with an attack by some Hessian regiments on thevillage of Hahlen, and by a very heavy fire of artillery on bothsides. The orders to the English regiments had been, "March toattack the enemy on sound of drum," meaning that they were to movewhen the drums gave the signal for the advance. The English,however, understood the order to be, "You are to advance to thesound of your drums." They waited for a time, while the attack onHahlen continued. It was repulsed three times before it succeeded,but before this happened the English regiments lost patience, andsaid, "We ought to be moving." The drums therefore struck up and,to the astonishment of the Hanoverians, these English battalionsstrode away towards the enemy. However, the regiments of the secondline followed.
As the British stepped forward, a tremendous crossfire of artilleryopened upon them, thirty guns on one side and as many on the other;but in spite of this the six regiments pressed on unfalteringly,with their drums beating lustily behind them. Then there was amovement in their front, and a mighty mass of French cavalry poureddown upon them. The English halted, closed up the gaps made by theartillery, held their fire until the leading squadrons of theFrench were within forty paces, and then opened a tremendous filefire. Before it man and horse went down. At so short a distanceevery bullet found its billet and, for the first time in history, aline of infantry repulsed the attack of a vastly superior body ofcavalry.
Astonished, and hampered by the fallen men and horses of theirfirst line, the French cavalry reined up and trotted sullenly backto reform and repeat the charge. The British drums beat furiouslyas the French rode forward again, only to be repulsed as before.Six times did the cavalry, with a bravery worthy of theirreputation, renew the charge. Six times did they draw backsullenly, as the leading squadrons withered up under the storm ofshot. Then they could do no more, but rode back in a broken andconfused mass through the gaps between their infantry, throwingthese also int
o partial confusion.
"Ride to Lord Sackville, and tell him to charge with his cavalry,at once," the duke said to Fergus; and then checking himself said,"No, I had better send someone else," and repeated the order toanother of his staff.
Sackville only replied that he did not see his way to doing so. Asecond and then a third officer were sent to him, with a likeresult, and at last he himself left his cavalry and rode to theduke and inquired:
"How am I to go on?"
The duke curbed his anger at seeing the fruits of victory lost. Hereplied quietly:
"My lord, the opportunity is now past."
Harassed only by the fire of the British and Hanoverian guns, andby that of the British infantry, Contades drew off his army by thenineteen bridges into his stronghold. Broglio, who had done nothingsave keep up a cannonade, covered the retreat with his division.The total amount of loss on the duke's side was two thousand eighthundred and twenty-two, of which more than half belonged to theBritish infantry. The French loss was seven thousand andeighty-six, with their heavy guns and many flags; but had Sackvilledone his duty, their army would have been annihilated, pent up asit was with the river on each flank, convergent to each other atMinden; a perfect rat trap from which no army could have escaped,had it been hotly pressed by cavalry.
The feat performed by the British infantry astonished Europe, whowere at first almost incredulous that six regiments in line couldhave repulsed, over and over again, and finally driven off thefield, ten thousand of the best cavalry of France.
While the battle was raging, the Hereditary Prince had done hisshare of the work, had fallen upon Gohfeld, crushed the Frenchdivision guarding it, cutting the French from their magazines andrendering their position untenable. They received the news thatevening, and at once commenced their retreat, Broglio towardsFrankfort and Contades straight for the Rhine. The latter wasobliged to abandon all his baggage, and many of his guns; and hisarmy, by the time it had reached the Rhine, had become a mererabble. The general was at once recalled in disgrace, and Broglioappointed commander-in-chief; although by failing to carry out theorders he had received, to fall upon the allies left at five in themorning, he had largely contributed to the defeat that had befallenContades.