“No, sir; but I was thinking that one might make an artificial fog.”

“How do you mean?” the king asked quickly.

“Your majesty has great stacks of straw here, collected for forage for the cattle.  No doubt a good deal of it is damp, or if not, it could be easily wetted.  If we were to build great piles of it, all along on the banks here, and set it alight so as to burn very slowly, but to give out a great deal of smoke, this light wind would blow it across the river into the faces of the Saxons, and completely cover our movements.”

“You are right!” the king exclaimed.  “Nothing could be better.  We will make a smoke that will blind and half smother them;” and he hurried away.

An hour later, orders were sent out to all the regiments that, as soon as it became dusk, the men should assemble at the great forage stores for fatigue duty.  As soon as they did so, they were ordered to pull down the stacks, and to carry the straw to the bank of the river, and there pile it in heavy masses, twenty yards apart.  The whole was to be damped, with the exception of only a small quantity on the windward side of the heaps, which was to be used for starting the fire.

In two hours, the work was completed.  The men were then ordered to return to their camps, have their suppers, and lie down at once.  Then they were to form up, half an hour before daybreak, in readiness to take their places in the boats, and were then to lie down, in order, until the word was given to move forward.

This was done, and just as the daylight appeared the heaps of straw were lighted, and dense volumes of smoke rolled across the river, entirely obscuring the opposite shore from view.  The Saxons, enveloped in the smoke, were unable to understand its meaning.  Those on the watch had seen no sign of troops on the bank, before the smoke began to roll across the water, and the general was uncertain whether a great fire had broken out in the forage stores of the Swedes, or whether the fire had been purposely raised, either to cover the movements of the army and enable them to march away and cross at some undefended point, or whether to cover their passage.

The Swedish regiments, which were the first to cross, took their places at once in the boats, the king himself accompanying them.  In a quarter of an hour the opposite bank was gained.  Marshal Steinau, an able general, had called the Saxons under arms, and was marching towards the river, when the wind, freshening, lifted the thick veil of smoke, and he saw that the Swedes had already gained the bank of the river, and at once hurled his cavalry against them.

The Swedish formation was not complete and, for a moment, they were driven back in disorder, and forced into the river.  The water was shallow, and the king, going about among them, quickly restored order and discipline, and, charging in solid formation, they drove the cavalry back and advanced across the plain.  Steinau recalled his troops and posted them in a strong position, one flank being covered by a marsh and the other by a wood.  He had time to effect his arrangements, as Charles was compelled to wait until the whole of his troops were across.  As soon as they were so, he led them against the enemy.