by H M Hozier
Fifteen miles from Neustadt, where it had halted the night before, the headquarter staff turned aside from the road, followed a rough country lane for two miles, and then plunged by a rugged, winding path into a deep ravine formed by one of the feeders of the Schwarzawa. On the side of the ravine over which the path led through a thick wood, perched high on a prominent rock, and rising above fir-trees, stood the old Schloss of Bernstein, where it had been considered advisable to fix headquarters for the night. The battlements and loop-holed walls of the old castle strongly lighted up by the sun, the steep ravine below sunk in shade, the helmets of the escort, the line of armed and mounted men, formed a scene which savoured more of romance than of modern war.
The Prince Frederick Charles and his staff turned down the twisting path, crossed the river by a wooden bridge close to a water-mill, and, by a more easy ascent on the other side, gained the gate, which still bore the marks of where a portcullis had been. But in the yard within every-day life was rudely recalled. The spare horses of the officers had already arrived, and indignant grooms were anathematising fiercely because they could get no stabling for their charges; the steep road forbade the approach of the forage waggons, and neither hay nor corn were to be found in the antiquated building. The appearance of the commander-in-chief for a few moments hushed the clamour, but when he rode on each aggrieved domestic made a rush at his master, and loudly poured forth the tale of his sorrows. A compromise was effected, for hay and corn had been provided at a farmhouse near at hand; and when the servants were assured that the horses should have food, they bore with resignation that they must be all night without cover.
But attention was soon called away from both the scenery and the horses by the arrival of an Uhlan officer from the advanced guard, who rode up the yard at a gallop, and, jumping off his horse before the commander-in-chief, with his hand to his forehead, delivered a hurried report.
The advanced guard had found the enemy’s cavalry in strong force at Tischnowitz, and the Duke of Mecklenburg had sent him to Prince Frederick Charles to report the fact and receive his orders. The orders were soon written, and Major von Capprivi, a staff-officer, who has a high reputation in this army, was entrusted to deliver them to the commander of the advanced guard.
Major Capprivi’s horse was tired with a long march, and Tischnowitz lay fifteen miles off, but he had no choice but to carry the order, and in a few minutes he was ready to start. With him went three officers, who had been employed as aides-de-camp at headquarters, but whose regiments were in the advanced guard, and who went to join them for the action which was expected. Revolvers were inspected, and the priming carefully looked to, for Austrian patrols were expected to be on the road, and it was just possible that the little band might have to ride for their lives. But they started in high spirits, for the excitement of probable battle nerved them, and two hours of a sharp trot brought them to Tischnowitz.
Here, in a small town on the banks of the Schwarzawa, the Austrian cavalry had taken up their position. The road leading to the town goes straight along the valley, and keeping a direct course is obliged some three or four times to cross by wooden bridges the channel of the stream, which is here about fifty feet wide. When the Duke of Mecklenburg, with the advanced guard, was approaching Tischnowitz, he perceived that the enemy was in the town, and in strong force of cavalry with artillery in the plain beyond, where he occupied a position which could not be turned by cavalry on account of the rugged nature of the hills on either flank.
But the Austrians, besides the horsemen in the town and on the far side, had thrown out three squadrons in the direction of Tischnowitz, of which the centre one was in the road and between the bridges, and the right and left were thrown into the cornfields on either side. The Prussian troopers, few in number, who formed the advance of the advanced guard, had ridden forward toward the bridges, and had almost begun to cross the first before they perceived the hostile cavalry. Then they found that both their flanks were exposed to attack, and that the squadron in the road in front of them was getting ready to charge. The Prussian advanced guard was from the 2nd regiment of dragoons of the Guard; the Austrian squadrons were lancers, and it seemed that the skirmish of the previous day between sword and lance would be repeated with the weapons in opposite hands.
But the lieutenant commanding the small Prussian advanced guard, seeing that he was too weak to force his way, and fearing to be surrounded and cut off, retreated a short distance to where a slight rise in the ground gave him a certain advantage of position, and there drawing up his little force awaited an attack, but with no intention of meeting it with the sword. While his men were yet retiring, they were unbuckling their carbines, and before they had turned to stand, their quickly-loaded arms, constructed on the same principle as the needle-gun, were ready to fire. And not too soon, for the Austrians had begun to advance quickly, and were defiling over the bridge, prepared to form line and charge, when a sudden volley from the Prussian carbines made them pull up sharp, half surprised, half frightened to find that a carbine could be of any use, except to make noise or smoke, in the hands of a mounted man.
But the Prussians did not wait to observe the discomfiture of their enemies; their officer only noticed that they were in too strong force to be allowed to get near his much smaller band, and again he retreated a little distance; and so quick were the dragoons with their loading that their carbines were almost ready to fire again before they turned to retire. The Austrians again formed to charge, and again before they had settled into their stride a rapid volley stopped their career. Again the Prussians retired, and again faced about ready to fire another volley. Again the Austrians came on, and again the fire of the dragoons stopped them short; but this was the last time, for the whole of the first squadron of the dragoons were now up, and had formed line beside the few who had hitherto prevented the advance of the lancers.
Then the dragoons advanced to charge, and the Austrians, glad to exchange the chance of close quarters for the fire of the carbines, came forward to meet them. Both sides advanced steadily: the lancers, with their spears in rest, came on in an apparently impenetrable line; but the dragoons, with their sword-points to the front and their horses well in hand, bore steadily down upon them, in the last few yards let their horses go, and dashed in through the points of the lances. Their commander. Major von Shack, went down, grievously wounded, but his men thought of his fall only to avenge it, and rushed in so close to the lancers that their spears were useless, smiting them heavily with their keen bright swords. A few moments only the mêlée lasted; then the lancers, turning, flew towards the town.
The dragoons pursued, but their officer kept them well in hand, and they did not lose their order. When the street was gained the lancers turned again, the swordsmen thundered down upon them, and by sheer weight and strength of blows bore them backwards along the street. The fight was long and hard. The men, too close together to use their weapons, grappled with one another; the horses, frightened and enraged, snorted, plunged, reared, and struck out But the Prussians had superior weight and strength, and pressed their antagonists back along the streets to a wider space in the centre of the town, where a high image of the Madonna, carved in stone, looked down upon the fray. Here an Austrian officer, hurled from his saddle by a tall Prussian dragoon, had his brains dashed out against the foot of the monument, and another Austrian, bent backwards over the cantle of his saddle, had his spine broken by the strength of his assailant.
The light Austrian men and horses had no chance in this close conflict, and soon they were obliged to turn, and fled down the street to where their supports were drawn up behind the town. Here there was a strong force of Austrian cavalry, and a battery of horse artillery was placed so as to sweep the road. But the cavalry drew off without waiting for an attack, and the artillery retired without firing a shot; which can only be accounted for by believing, as the country people said, that there was no ammunition with the guns. The Prussian supports came up and pushe
d two miles beyond the town, but the Austrians had drawn off too quickly to again allow an engagement; and the outposts were placed here for the night.
Then the Duke of Mecklenburg made his arrangements for his advance to Brünn the next morning; and when he had given a general sketch of his plans, Major von Capprivi and Captain von Bergmann, the staff officer attached to the advanced guard, retired to a back room in the small country inn of Tischnowitz, and, by the light of a single tallow candle, discussed till late into the night, and sketched upon their maps, the details of the occupation of the capital of Moravia.
The march was ordered for four o’clock in the morning, for it was expected that the Austrian cavalry would defend the approach to the town, and it was intended to surprise them before they had made their dispositions. It was after midnight that the two staff officers threw themselves on some trusses of straw to catch a few short hours of sleep before the commencement of an operation which might perhaps have been one of the most decisive of the campaign, for the plans were skilfully laid, and it seemed that if the Austrians attempted to stand in front of the town a great part of their cavalry would have been captured. All that the staff appeared to fear was that the cavalry would draw off through the town before daylight, and too early for the dispositions for their capture to be carried out—for the infantry who were required to invest the further side of Brünn had marched far in the day, and were too tired to be sent forward before daybreak.
At three o’clock on the morning of the 12th July, the soldiers of the advanced guard of the First Prussian Army were roused from their billets, and began making their preparations for the march. Horses were saddled; the cloaks in which the men had been sleeping were rolled up and buckled on the pommels, girths and bridle reins carefully inspected, and the troopers, before they mounted, drew their hands along the edges of their swords to test the sharpness of their weapons. The officers looked to the loading of their revolvers, and buckled their pistols round their waists, so that they might be easily got at in case of need; and it was expected that they would be required, for three divisions of Austrian cavalry were reported to be between the small town where the advanced guard halted the previous night and Brünn, and the Duke of Mecklenburg had only three cavalry regiments with him.
At a quarter before four, before the sun was up, the troops began marching out of Tischnowitz, and in three-quarters of an hour formed up before the little village of Hradschau, which the most advanced outposts had occupied during the former night Here the Duke of Mecklenburg called his principal officers round him, and told them that he expected to find three divisions of the enemy’s cavalry, forming together a force of twelve regiments, in front of him; but that his orders were to occupy Brünn if possible, and that he intended to advance immediately. The troops were then formed in the order in which they were to move behind a ridge of rising ground, over which the Brünn road rises and falls, about a quarter of a mile beyond Hradschau. The 2nd dragoons of the Guard led; they were followed by the Ziethen Hussars and a battery of horse artillery; then came a battalion of Jägers, followed by the rest of the infantry and artillery, and a regiment of lancers closed the rear.
As soon as the formation was complete, the dragoons sent out their scouts, and in a few minutes the top of the ridge was studded with mounted men who showed out clear against the morning sky. Every horseman carried his carbine in his right hand, ready to fire; but the staff listened in vain for the sharp crack which would tell that the enemy was in sight; and the scouts, after peering forward for a few moments, dipped down behind the ridge, and were hidden. Then the dragoons advanced along the road. When their leading troops gained the top of the ascent they spread out right and left, and pushed across the fields that lay on either side of the way.
The hussars, in column of troops, followed along the highway, raising a cloud of dust which almost hid them, and from its midst rose the steady patter of horses’ feet and the jingle of steel which mark the march of cavalry. The guns rumbled behind, with rammers and sponges ready for action, and limber-boxes, unlocked, each closely followed by its mounted gunners, prepared to spring down and twist the muzzle round towards the front. Carefully beating through the corn, and covering every piece of rising ground, the dragoons steadily advanced; but no sign of an enemy was seen, and the advanced scouts reached the village of Tschepen without finding traces of even a last night’s bivouac.
Here the road ran through a narrow defile, with high banks covered with plantations, and the houses of the village standing across the pass would have formed a strong position for the Austrians to hold. On approaching the village the cavalry was halted, and the riflemen were sent for to beat through the wood and push in among the houses. The halt was not long, for in a few minutes the Jägers came up quickly with a long swinging stride, passed by the cavalry, and burst like a pack of hounds into the village and up the sides of the slopes. Now and then a dark green uniform appeared among the trees only to disappear again; and here and there among the houses the sunlight glancing back from a rifle barrel, ever further advanced, showed that the skirmishers were working forward, but the sound of no shot came back, and it was clear that the village was deserted.
The cavalry and guns then moved on, and filed along the narrow street; but the Jägers were still kept in front, for the defile did not end till the village of Gurein was passed. The dragoons then spread out again, and went peeping inquisitively into every hollow, ferreting out the inhabitants of the cottages to give information, and stopping every peasant who seemed to be in too pressing a hurry to get away in the direction in which the Austrian cavalry was supposed to lie.
The country people asserted with one accord that the Austrians had retired through Brünn the night before or early that morning, and there were no troops in front of the town; that a few dragoons and lancers had bivouacked the previous evening just outside Brünn, but had passed through at daybreak, and were already far on the road to Vienna.
The road ran over successive ridges, each of which would have been an advantageous standing-point for the Austrians had they meant to oppose the Prussian advance into the town. As position after position was covered by the scouts without finding the enemy, and as the stories of the country people were always the same, the staff began to believe that the Austrian cavalry had really retired, and that their troops would seize the place without opposition. The road from Tischnowitz strikes the high road from Zwittau to Brünn about six miles before reaching the latter town, and when this point was passed it seemed almost sure that the way was clear, and that the Austrians had drawn off; and here this assurance received a further confirmation, for at this point a dragoon came in bringing with him two travellers, who had in the morning left Brünn for Zwittau, and had been stopped on their way by the foremost Prussian patrol Glad to exchange their information for permission to proceed on their journey, they willingly told that the town was deserted by troops, and that all the Austrians had retired early in the morning.
But the march was continued, notwithstanding these reports, with even greater precaution; the scouts were as alert as before, and the main body moved through the corn land by the side of the road, prepared to form line of battle. About eight o’clock the leading troops ascended a gentle slope, from the top of which the capital of Moravia could be seen lying four miles before them. Here a halt was called, and the staff-officers went forward a little way to reconnoitre.
The sun shone brightly on the spires of the churches and on the roofs of the houses, but no swords or spear-heads glittered in its light; and on the fort of the Spielberg, on the western side of the town, no guns could be seen, and no sentinels stood upon the ramparts. White flags of truce were flying from every steeple and from every tower, and, instead of the Austrian colours, a white sheet waved from the flagstaff of the fort It was evident that the town had surrendered. In a few minutes a deputation from the magistracy arrived to announce officially that the town was deserted by the Austrian troops, and praying that it might no
t be given up to pillage. The Duke of Mecklenburg willingly promised that the property of the inhabitants should be secure to them, for there had been no intention to allow plundering. Then, after an hour’s halt, the troops again advanced, and soon got between two lines of villas which stand outside the town on each side of the road. The scouts came cantering in, and, drawing together on the road, formed an advanced guard, behind which the Duke of Mecklenburg and his staff rode. Before the actual town was reached, a deputation—the burgomaster and magistrates—were seen coming to meet the troops in cabs with white flags flying from them, and each with a broad band of white round his arm. As soon as they saw the staff they sprang out of their carriages, and, with hats in hand, came forward bowing, with many prayers for the preservation of their city from pillage. They had much wealth in the city, and they feared for their property.
The Prussian commander answered them courteously, but told them that his men had marched early and had no provisions, and that, therefore, he should be much obliged to them to furnish dinner for 8,000 soldiers, and forage for 2,500 horses. The magistrates started back to the town to procure the rations.
When the deputation was dismissed the troops again advanced the line of spectators became thicker along the side of the road, crowds of inhabitants along the side of the way courted the smiles of the soldiers, white flags hung from every window, and the inmates of many houses, with a mockery of enthusiasm, had hung out green boughs and wreaths of leaves to welcome the invaders of their country.
The dragoons were sent on in advance, and went clattering through the town to occupy the bridges on the further side; Jägers swung swiftly forward to seize the railway station, the post-office, and the telegraph bureau; and the rest of the infantry marched in with music playing, seized the Spielbeig, and took possession of the capital of Moravia.