At
last, in order to facilitate the flight, the provision-wagons were
burned, and the bread divided amongst the soldiers; the equipages
and pontoon-wagons were also burned. Exhausted by their unusual
exertions, beside themselves from pain and unheard-of suffering the
whole army was seized with a death-panic.
The soldiers had lost not only all faith in their good fortune, but
all faith in their leaders. Thousands deserted; thousands fled to
escape death, which seemed to mock at and beckon to them from every
pointed rock and every dark cavern. [Footnote: Warner's "Campaigns
of Frederick the Great"]
While one part of the army deserted or died of hunger or exhaustion,
another part fought with an intrenched enemy, for three long days,
in the narrow pass of Gabel, under the command of General von
Puttkammer. They fought like heroes, but were at last obliged to
surrender, with two thousand men and seven cannon. Utterly broken by
these losses, dead and dying from starvation and weariness, the army
drew off toward Zittau.
There was but one thought which sustained the wearied, and lent
strength to the starving. In Zittau were immense magazines of grain.
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