soon reduced the Austrians to extremities. The
Prussian dragoons and grenadiers cleared the
entrenchments and wood, and entirely routed
the Austrian cavalry. At the same time, the
redoubts covering Reichenberg, on the left
flank of the Prussians, were captured by General
Lestewitz, and, after a brief but furious hand-
to-hand combat, the Austrians were driven
back. Königseck, however, would not readily
confess himself beaten, but made two attempts
to rally, both of which ended in discomfiture.
Finally, he was obliged to make a precipitous
retreat, leaving on the field about a thousand
dead and wounded, and in the enemy's hands
some five hundred prisoners, together with
guns and standards. At the close of the action
(which terminated at eleven A.M.), the Prussians
had seven officers and one hundred men killed,
fourteen officers and a hundred and fifty men
wounded. The far greater loss of the Austrians
is extraordinary, considering that their infantry
fought behind entrenchments, all of which the
Prussians had to carry. There was no needle-
gun in those days to account for the discrepancy,
and one can only explain it on the supposition
that the greater impetus of the Prussians
carried them unscathed through dangers
before which the more stolid Austrians fell.
Königseck, moreover, seems to have been
disheartened by the non-arrival of a detachment
under General Macguire, an Irish subordinate
of his. On the other hand, the Prussian commander
was obliged to detach eight thousand of
his army to watch Macguire, and keep him off;
which they did so effectually that the Irishman
has been made the subject of much satirical
comment, reflecting on his ability, or his courage,
or both. Whatever the cause, however, the
Austrians were as completely beaten as they
were again and again in the late war, and the
Prince of Bevern was enabled to effect a junction
with the third column of the invading army
under Marshal Schwerin, who rapidly made
himself master of the circle of Buntzlau, and
joined the forces under Frederick. The battle
of Reichenberg, though not a great fight in
itself, was thus instrumental in preparing the
way for Frederick's brilliant triumph at Prague,
on the 6th of May.

Comparing the battle of Reichenberg with
the recent battles fought on nearly the same
ground and between the same Powers, we find
some points of similarity which are worth noting.
The Prussians of to-day have exhibited the
same vigorous initiative as that by which their
forefathers achieved so many successes under
the leadership of the Great Frederick and his
lieutenants. The Austrians of to-day are as
were the Austrians of 1757—courageous, devoted,
not deficient in good generalship according
to the set rules of war, yet constantly liable
to be scattered by the superior dash and animation
of their Northern foes. In the eighteenth
century, as in the nineteenth, the Austrian
cavalry was among the best in the world; but
it appears to have done nothing of importance
at Reichenberg, while at Sadowa it was hardly
employed at all, though ready to hand. Dr.
Russell, in his picturesque and vivid account of
the latter engagement, furnished by him to the
Times newspaper as its Special Correspondent,
says that even at the last the day would
probably have been saved to the Austrians had
they brought their cavalry into action; but, as
we have seen, the cavalry of 1757 was rolled up
and dissipated by the fury of the Prussian
charge, and so might that of 1866 have been.
It should be observed that the ground on which
both battles were fought (to compare great
things with small) was very similar in
character. The chief features of the country
round Sadowa are, according to Dr. Russell,
"undulating plains fretted with wooded knolls
(generally sites of villages), vast corn-fields
studded with substantial farm-houses and
hamlets, and watered by inconsiderable rivulets,
by the side of which now and then rises a tall
factory or mill chimney. It is not so much
wooded in the immediate proximity of the fortified
city as it is to the west; but there are trees
around every village and every farm-house, and
the roadside, and even paths across the
cornfields, are lined with them." At Sadowa, as at
Reichenberg, the Austrians cut down trees to
defend their position; but they made no other
entrenchments—an omission which Dr. Russell
is inclined to blame.

Of dissimilarities, over and above the different
magnitude of the battles, there are of course
many. The modern development of artillery,
and the greater range and power of the needle-
gun, have revolutionised the art of war; and we
now probably kill ten men where formerly we
killed but one—sad triumph of a civilisation
which has not yet learnt how to supplant
organised murder by reasonable discussion. One
difference, however, between the Seven Years'
War and that of the present summer, may or
may not in the end prove to the greater credit
of our era. The former struggle left the
European system at its close exactly what it had
found it at the commencement; the modern
war may lead to changes of which it is
impossible as yet to foretel the limits, or estimate
the worth.

SCHOOL-DAYS AT SAXONHURST.

I. SAXONHURST.

MY last memories of school were very
pleasant. It is no wonder that I took away
with me, after some six years' residence there,
a soft and delightful picture.

Saxonhurst was no common pedagoguish,
neat, birching, parlour-boarding place. How
it was redeemed from that vulgar association,
will be seen in a moment. Besides, we were
more a college than a school. It was more a
patrimony—an estate on which there was a large
village, with tenants who owed allegiance to the
lords of the soil. One of the great wings of our
school was a fine Gothic church, which was a
kind of parish church, to which our tenants
came in large numbers; and to which, on certain
festivals, notably what were their guild days, they