It was determined therefore to seize the Weinberg at once,
and the execution of this step was committed to Horn.
The choice was most unfortunate. The service was one upon the
prompt carrying out of which victory depended, and Horn, though a
brave and capable commander, was slow and cautious, and particularly
unfitted for executing a service which had to be performed in a
dark night across a country with which he was not familiar. Taking
with him four thousand chosen musketeers and pikemen and twelve
guns he set out at nine o'clock, but the rough road, the dikes,
and ditches which intercepted the country impeded him, and the fact
that he was unacquainted with the general position of the country
made him doubly cautious, and it was not until midnight that he
reached the foot of the hill.
Here, unfortunately, he came to the conclusion that since he had
encountered such difficulties in crossing the flat country he should
meet with even greater obstacles and delays in ascending the hill
in the dark; he therefore took the fatal resolution of remaining
where he was until daylight, and accordingly ordered the column to
halt. Had he continued his march he would have reached the summit
of the Weinberg unopposed, and the fate of the battle on the following
day would have been changed. But the Imperialist leaders, Gallas
and Cardinal Infanta Don Fernando, had not been unmindful of the
commanding position of the hill upon which Horn was marching, and
had given orders that it should be occupied before daylight by four
hundred Spaniards.
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