The armies are on the march! Violations of the Bohemian frontier reported! Prussians pillaging peasants! Full report to follow from our Special Correspondent!
The flood of northern blue swept over the hills of the borderland late in April. Maurice, having relocated to Dresden, took but a brief respite from marching before throwing his force swiftly down the road to Pirna and thence seizing the town of Karbitz, halting to rest beneath the spire of the Church of the Nativity of the Virgin Mary.
Frederick, chasing Arenberg, marched swiftly through the mountains and into the city of Saaz, where his troops had a wary reception from the German, but Catholic, population.
Further east, a tidy minuet took place. The armies of Prince Henry and FM Schwerin converged on Münchengrätz (the former through Reichenberg, the latter by way of Tratenau and Turnau), seeking to bring Koenigsegg to battle.
But the wary Koenigsegg had already retired on Jungbunzlau, leaving his enemies grasping at the dusty air of his passage.
Frederick led his men on a swift and bold march through the mountains, but after his passage and that of Arenberg before him, those sandstone hills will surely become known as die RäuberHügel from all the desperate deserters and broken men who fill the hollows and glens. Hundreds, perhaps thousands of men have fallen away from the colours during the passage of those two mighty armies and haunt the backcountry, looking for opportunities to fall upon helpless travelers and seize their goods.
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