First, however, several of the regiments
were ordered to fall out, and to cut down bushes and make fascines,
to enable the troops to cross the ditches.
The intrenchment was a formidable one, being provided with parapets
armed with chevaux de frise, and flanked by strong exterior works,
while several batteries had been placed to sweep the ground across
which an enemy must advance.
The right column, under General Welling, was to march to a point
nearly in the centre of the great semicircle; while the left, under
General Rhenschild, was to assault a point about halfway between
the centre and the river, where one of the largest and most
powerful of the enemy's batteries was placed. The king himself was
with this wing, with his bodyguard, and he hoped that here he might
meet the czar commanding in person. The Russian emperor had,
however, left the camp that morning, to fetch up forty thousand men
who were advancing from Plescow, and the command of the army had
been assumed by the Duke of Croy.
The Swedish left wing had with it a battery of twenty-one guns,
while sixteen guns covered the attack on the right. It was two
o'clock in the afternoon when two guns gave the signal for the
advance. Hitherto the weather had been fine, but it had become
gradually overcast, and, just as the signal was given, a tremendous
storm of snow and hail began.
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