All which Finck does; avoiding, as his orders were, any firing, or serious commencement of business, till the King reappear out of the woods.

The Russians give Finck and his General Officers a cannon salvo, here and there, without effect, and get no answer.

"The King does not see his way, then, after all ?" think the Russians.

Their Cossacks go scouring about; on the southern side, "burn Schwetig and Reipzig," without the least advantage to themselves: most of the Cavalry, and a regiment or two of excellent Austrian Grenadiers, are with Loudon, near the Red Grange, in front of the Russian extreme left;--but will have stept over into Big Hollow at a moment of crisis! The King's march, through the Forest of Reppen, was nothing like so expeditious as had been expected.

There are thickets, intricacies, runlets, boggy oozes; indifferent to one man well mounted, but vitally important to 30,000 with heavy cannon to bring on.