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near Bilzem, in which we had two rest days, then on the eighteenth we made again six hours, camped at Stolp and stayed there for one day; at last on the 20th day (10th September) we reached Pirna, where we joined other regiments, and pitched a camp so vast that one could scarcely see across it, and also occupied the castle of Königstein above Pirna and that of Lilienstein on the other side of the Elbe, for in the neighbourhood of this second lay the Saxon army. We could see straight over the valley into their camp, and below us in the valley by the Elbe lay Pirna, which also was occupied by our troops.

52. Courage and the lack of it:

All the time, meanwhile, the whole army was in a state of total confusion, as is usually the case when on the march, so that I am not in a position to describe it all, and moreover, I think that such a description would serve no useful purpose. Our Major Lüderitz (for the officers watched every man individually), may often have read my lack of courage in my face. Then he would shake a menacing finger at me: "Be careful, you!" On such occasions, however, he would clap Schärer on the shoulder and smilingly call him a brave lad, for he was always cheerful and in good spirits, and would sing songs of the Masons or the cowherds, for although in his heart he had the same thoughts as myself, he was better able to conceal them. At other times, it is true, I took courage once more, thinking: God shall turn all things to good! Moreover, when I caught sight of Markoni on the march or in camp, though he bore no small share of the blame for my present unhappiness, yet it was always as though I saw my father or my best friend; when he leaned from his horse to offer me his hand and shake mine in a familiar way, and looked as it were into my heart in affectionate sympathy, saying: "How goes it, Ollrich, how goes it? Better days will come soon!" and without waiting for an answer, read it in my brimming eyes. O! wherever he may be now, dead or alive, even today I wish the man all the best in the world, for after Pirna I never set eyes on him again.

At this time we received strict orders every morning to keep our weapons ready loaded, this gave rise to a continual rumour that ran about among the older men: "Something afoot today! Today we'll see something happen!" Then all we young ones sweated at every finger's end, whenever we had to march past a thicket or a stand of trees and had to keep our ranks. Every man was silent and kept his ears pricked, expecting the fiery hail that would bring his death, and as soon as we came into the open again, looked about him on all sides to see the best way of escape, for we had always enemy cuirassiers, dragoons and infantry on both sides of us. Once, when we marched through half the night, Bachmann made an attempt to get clean away, and wandered about in the forest for several hours, but in the morning he was with us again. He even got away with this, with the excuse that in stopping to relieve himself he had lost us in the darkness. From then on the rest of us saw more clearly every day the difficulties in the way of escape, yet we were all determined not to stay for a battle, cost us what it might.

53. The camp at Pirna:

One will not expect from me a circumstantial description of our camp between Königstein and Pirna, nor of the Saxon camp that lay opposite us at Lilienstein. Such descriptions may be sought for in the history of the deeds, rule and life of Frederick the Great. I write only of what I have seen, of what passed before my eyes, and in particular, of what concerned myself. We

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I Samuel ch 7 v 12. The King had little use for religion for himself, but enforced observance in his army. Most of the chaplains were Lutherans, but Calvinists, Roman Catholics and Greek Orthodox believers were also catered for.

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