He had escaped them more than once
before; this time they had him, as they believed.
His camp was on a height, near the Saale. Towards it the French
advanced, with flying colors and sounding trumpets, as if with purpose
to strike terror into the ranks of their foes. That Frederick would
venture to stand before them they scarcely credited. If he should, his
danger would be imminent, for they had laid their plans to surround his
small force and, by taking the king and his army prisoners, end at a
blow the vexatious war. They calculated shrewdly but not well, for they
left Frederick out of the account in their plans.
As they came up, line after line, column after column, they must have
been surprised by the seeming indifference of the Prussians. There were
in their ranks no signs of retreat and none of hostility. They remained
perfectly quiet in their camp, not a gun being fired, not a movement
visible, as inert and heedless to all seeming of the coming of the
French as though there were no enemy within a hundred miles.
There was a marked difference between the make-up of the two armies,
which greatly reduced their numerical odds.
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