Chapter 11: Leuthen.
At four in the morning on Sunday, December 4th, Frederick marchedfrom Parchwitz; intending to make Neumarkt, a small town somefourteen miles off, his quarters. When within two or three miles ofthis town he learned, to his deep satisfaction, that the Austrianshad just established a great bakery there, and that a party ofengineers were marking out the site for a camp; also that therewere but a thousand Croats in the town. The news was satisfactory,indeed, for two reasons: the first being that the bakery would beof great use for his own troops; the second, that it was clear thatthe Austrians intended to advance across the Schweidnitz Water togive battle. It was evident that they could have had no idea thathe was pressing on so rapidly, or they would never have establishedtheir bakery so far in advance, and protected by so small a force.
He lost no time in taking advantage of their carelessness, but senta regiment of cavalry to seize the hills on both sides of the town;then marched rapidly forward, burst in the gates, and hurled theCroats in utter confusion from Neumarkt, while the cavalry dasheddown and cut off their retreat. One hundred and twenty of them werekilled, and five hundred and seventy taken prisoners. In the townthe Austrian bakery was found to be in full work, and eightythousand bread rations, still hot, were ready for delivery.
This initial success, and the unexpected treat of hot bread, raisedthe spirits of the troops greatly, and was looked upon as a happyaugury.
Two or three hours before Neumarkt had been captured, the Austrianarmy was crossing the river, and presently received the unpleasantnews of what had happened. Surprised at the news that the Prussianswere so near, their generals at once set to work to choose a goodposition. This was not a difficult task, for the country wasswampy, with little wooded rises and many villages.
They planted their right wing at the village of Nypern, which waspractically unapproachable on account of deep peat bogs. Theircentre was at a larger village named Leuthen, their left atSagschuetz. The total length of its front was about six miles.
The Prussians started before daybreak next morning in four columns,Frederick riding on ahead with the vanguard. When near Borne, someeight miles from Neumarkt, he caught sight in the dim light of aconsiderable body of horse, stretching across the road in front ofhim as far as he could make out the line. The Prussian cavalry wereat once ordered to charge down on their left flank.
The enemy proved to be five regiments of cavalry, placed there toguard the army from surprise. They, however, were themselvessurprised; and were at once overthrown, and driven in headlongflight to take shelter behind their right wing at Nypern, fivehundred and forty being taken prisoners, and a large number beingkilled or wounded.
Frederick rode on through Borne, ascended a small hill called theScheuberg, to the right of the road, and as the light increasedcould, from that point, make out the Austrian army drawn up inbattle array, and stretching from Nypern to Sagschuetz. Well was itfor him that he had reviewed troops over the same ground, and knewall the bogs and morasses that guarded the Austrian front. For along time he sat there on horseback, studying the possibilities ofthe situation.
The Austrian right he regarded as absolutely impregnable. Leuthenmight be attacked with some chance of success, but Sagschuetzoffered by far the most favourable opening for attack. Theformation of the ground offered special facilities for the movementbeing effected without the Austrians being aware of what was takingplace, for there was a depression behind the swells and brokenground in front of the Austrian centre, by which the Prussianscould march from Borne, unseen by the enemy, until they approachedSagschuetz.
It was three hours after Frederick had taken up his place beforethe four columns had all reached Borne. As soon as they were inreadiness there, they were ordered to march with all speed as faras Radaxford, thence to march in oblique order against the Austrianleft.
The Austrians, all this time, could observe a group of horsemen onthe hill, moving sometimes this way sometimes that, but more thanthis they could not see. The conjectures were various, as hourpassed after hour. Daun believed that the Prussians must havemarched away south, with the intention of falling upon themagazines in Bohemia, and that the cavalry seen moving along thehills were placed there to defend the Prussians from being taken inflank, or in rear, while thus marching. General Lucchesi, whocommanded the Austrian right wing, was convinced that the cavalryformed the Prussian right wing, and that the whole army, concealedbehind the slopes, was marching to fall upon him.
In the belfry of the church at Leuthen, on the tops of windmills,and on other points of vantage, Austrian generals with their staffswere endeavouring to obtain a glimpse beyond those tiresome swells,and to discover what was going on behind them, but in vain. Therewere the cavalry, moving occasionally from crest to crest, butnothing beyond that.
Lucchesi got more and more uneasy, and sent message after messageto headquarters that he was about to be attacked, and must have alarge reinforcement of horse. The prince and Daun at first scoffedat the idea, knowing that the bogs in front of Nypern wereimpassable; but at last he sent a message to the effect that, ifthe cavalry did not come, he would not be responsible for theissue.
It was thought, therefore, that he must have some good ground forhis insistence; and Daun sent off the reserve of horse, and severalother regiments drawn from the left wing, and himself went off at atrot, at their head, to see what was the matter.
It was just as he started that the Prussians--with their musicplaying, and the men singing:
Gieb dass ich thu mit fleiss was mir zu thun gebuhret(Grant that with zeal and strength this day I do)
had passed Radaxford and reached Lobetintz, and were about toadvance in an oblique line to the attack. The king saw with delightthe removal of so large a body of horse from the very point againstwhich his troops would, in half an hour, be hurling themselves.Nothing could have suited his plans better.
At a rapid pace, and with a precision and order as perfect as ifupon level ground, suddenly the Prussians poured over the swells onthe flank of Sagschuetz. Nadasti, who commanded the Austriansthere, was struck with astonishment at the spectacle of thePrussian army, which he believed to be far away, pouring down onhis flank. The heads of the four columns, the artillery, andZiethen's cavalry appeared simultaneously, marching swiftly andmaking no pause.
Being a good general, he lost not a moment in endeavouring to meetthe storm. His left was thrown back a little, a battery of fourteenguns at the angle so formed opened fire, and he launched hiscavalry against that of Ziethen. For the moment Ziethen's men werepushed back, but the fire from an infantry battalion, close by,checked the Austrian horse. They fell back out of range, andZiethen, making a counter charge, drove them away.
In the meantime the Prussian infantry, as they advanced, poured astorm of fire upon the Austrian line, aided by a battery of tenheavy guns that Prince Maurice, who commanded here, had planted ona rise. A clump of fir trees, held by Croats in advance of theAustrian line, was speedily cleared; and then the Prussians brokedown the abattis that protected the enemy's front, chargedfuriously against the infantry, and drove these before them,capturing Nadasti's battery.
In ten minutes after the beginning of the fight, the position ofthe Austrian left was already desperate. The whole Prussian armywas concentrated against it and, being on its flank, crumpled theline up as it advanced. Prince Karl's aides-de-camp galloped at thetop of their speed to bring Daun and the cavalry back again, andAustrian battalions from the centre were hurried down to aidNadasti's, but were impeded by the retreating troops; and theconfusion thickened, until it was brought to a climax by Ziethen'shorse, which had been unable to act until now. But fir wood,quagmire, and abattis had all been passed by the Prussians, andthey dashed into the mass, sabring and trampling down, and takingwhole battalions prisoners.
Prince Karl exerted himself to the utmost to check the Prussianadvance. Batteries were brought up and advantageously posted atLeuthen, heavy bodies of infantry occupied the village and itschurch, and t
ook post so as to present a front to the advancingtide. Another quarter of an hour and the battle might have beenretrieved; but long before the dispositions were all effected, thePrussians were at hand.
[Map: Battle of Leuthen]
Nevertheless, by great diligence the Austrians had to some extentsucceeded. Leuthen was the centre of the new position. Lucchesi washastening up, while Nadasti swung backwards and tried, as hearrived, to form the left flank of the new position. All this wasbeing done under a storm of shot from the whole of the Prussianartillery, which was so terrible that many battalions fell intoconfusion as fast as they arrived.
Leuthen, a straggling hamlet of over a mile in length, and with twoor three streets of scattered houses, barns, farm buildings, andtwo churches, was crowded with troops; ready to fight but unable todo so, line being jammed upon line until sometimes a hundred deep,pressed constantly behind by freshly arriving battalions, and infront by the advancing Prussians. Some regiments were almostwithout officers.
Into this confused, straggling, helpless mass, prevented fromopening out by the houses and inclosures, the Prussians, everkeeping their formation, poured their volleys with terrible effect;in such fashion as Drake's perfectly-handled ships poured theirbroadsides into the huge helpless Spanish galleons at Gravelines.With a like dogged courage as that shown by the Spanish, theAustrian masses suffered almost passively, while those occupyingthe houses and churches facing the Prussians resisted valiantly anddesperately. From every window, every wall, their musketry fireflashed out; the resistance round the churchyard being speciallystubborn. The churchyard had a high and strong wall, and soterrible was the fire from the roof of the church, and other spotsof advantage, that the tide of Prussian victory was arrested for atime.
At last they made a rush. The churchyard gate was burst in, and theAustrians driven out. Leuthen was not yet won, but Frederick nowbrought up the left wing, which had till this time been held inreserve. These came on with levelled bayonets, and rushed into thefight.
The king was, as always, in the thick of the battle; giving hisorders as coolly as if at a review, sending fresh troops whererequired, changing the arrangements as opportunity offered, keepingthe whole machine in due order; and by his presence animating allwith the determination to win or die, and an almost equal readinessto accept either alternative.
At last, after an hour's stubborn resistance, the Austrians werehurled out of Leuthen, still sternly resisting, still contestingevery foot of the ground. Lucchesi now saw an opportunity ofretrieving, with his great cavalry force, the terrible consequencesof his own blunder, and led them impetuously down upon the flank ofthe Prussians. But Frederick had prepared for such a stroke; andhad placed Draisen, with the left wing of the cavalry, in a hollowsheltered from the fire of the Austrian batteries, and bade him donothing, attempt nothing, but cover the right flank of the infantryfrom the Austrian horse. He accordingly let Lucchesi charge downwith his cavalry, and then rushed out on his rear, and fellsuddenly and furiously upon him.
Astounded at this sudden and unexpected attack, and with theirranks swept by a storm of Prussian bullets, the Austrian cavalrybroke and fled in all directions, Lucchesi having paid for hisfault by dying, fighting to the last. His duty thus performed,Draisen was free to act, and fell upon the flank and rear of theAustrian infantry; and in a few minutes the battle was over, andthe Austrians in full retreat.
They made, however, another attempt to stand at Saara; but it washopeless, and they were soon pushed backwards again and, hotlypressed, poured over the four bridges across the Schweidnitz river,and for the most part continued their flight to Breslau. Until theAustrians had crossed the river the Prussian cavalry were on theirrear, sabring and taking prisoners, while the infantry were haltedat Saara, the sun having now set.
Exhausted as they were by their work, which had begun at midnightand continued until now without pause or break, not yet was theirtask completely done. The king, riding up the line, asked if anybattalion would volunteer to follow him to Lissa, a village on theriver bank. Three battalions stepped out. The landlord of thelittle inn, carrying a lantern, walked by the king's side.
As they approached the village, ten or twelve musket shots flashedout in the fields to the right. They were aimed at the lantern, butno one was hurt. There were other shots from Lissa, and it wasevident that the village was still not wholly evacuated.
The infantry rushed forward, scattered through the fields, anddrove out the lurking Croats. The king rode quietly on into thevillage, and entered the principal house. To his astonishment, hefound it full of Austrian officers, who could easily have carriedhim off, his infantry being still beyond the village. They had buta small force remaining there and, believing that the Prussians hadhalted for the night at Saara, they were as much astonished asFrederick at his entrance. The king had the presence of mind tohide his surprise.
"Good evening, gentlemen!" he said. "Is there still room left forme, do you think?"
The Austrian officers, supposing, of course, that he had a largeforce outside, bowed deeply, escorted him to the best room in thehouse, and then slipped out at the back, collected what troops theycould as they went, and hurried across the bridge. The Prussianswere not long in entering, and very speedily cleared out the restof the Austrians. They then crossed the bridge, and with a few gunsfollowed in pursuit.
The army at Saara, on hearing the firing, betook itself again toarms and marched to the king's assistance, the twenty-five thousandmen and their bands again joining in the triumphant hymn, "Nundanket alle Gott," as they tramped through the darkness. When theyarrived at Lissa they found that all was safe, and bivouacked inthe fields.
Never was there a greater or more surprising victory, never one inwhich the military genius of the commander was more strikinglyshown. The Austrians were in good heart. They were excellentsoldiers and brave, well provided with artillery, and stronglyplaced; and yet they were signally defeated by a force little overone-third their number. Had there been two more hours of daylight,the Austrians would have been not only routed but altogethercrushed. Their loss was ten thousand left on the field, of whomthree thousand were killed. Twelve thousand were taken prisoners,and one hundred and sixteen cannon captured.
To this loss must be added that of seventeen thousand prisonerstaken when Breslau surrendered, twelve days later, together with avast store of cannon and ammunition, including everything taken soshortly before from Bevern. Liegnitz surrendered, and the whole ofSilesia, with the exception only of Schweidnitz, was again wrestedfrom the Austrians. Thus in killed, wounded, and prisoners the lossof the Austrians amounted to as much as the total force of thePrussians.
The latter lost in killed eleven hundred and forty one, and inwounded about five thousand. Prince Maurice, upon whose divisionthe brunt of the battle had fallen, was promoted to the rank offield marshal.
Fergus Drummond had been with the king throughout that terribleday. Until the battle began his duties had been light, beingconfined to the carrying of orders to Prince Maurice; after whichhe took his place among the staff and, dismounting, chatted withhis acquaintances while Karl held his horse.
When, however, the fir tree wood was carried, and the king rodeforward and took his place there during the attack upon theAustrian position at Sagschuetz, matters became more lively. Theballs from the Austrian batteries sung overhead, and sent branchesflying and trees crashing down. Sagschuetz won, the king followedthe advancing line, and the air was alive with bullets and caseshot.
The roar of battle was so tremendous that hishorse was well-nigh unmanageable]
After that Fergus knew little more of the battle, being incessantlyemployed in carrying orders through the thick of it to generalscommanding brigades, and even to battalions. The roar of battle wasso tremendous that his horse, maddened with the din and the sharpwhiz of the bullets, at times was well-nigh unmanageable, andoccupied his attention almost to the exclusion of other thoughts;especially after it had been struck by a bullet in the hindquarters,
and had come to understand that those strange andmaddening noises meant danger.
Not until after all was over was Fergus aware of the escapes he hadhad. A bullet had cut away an ornament from his headdress, one ofhis reins had been severed at a distance of an inch or two from hishand, a bullet had pierced the tail of his coatee and buried itselfin the cantle of his saddle, and the iron guard of his claymore hadbeen pierced. However, on his return to the king after carrying adespatch, he was able to curb his own excitement and that of hishorse, and to make the formal military salute as he reported, in acalm and quiet voice, that he had carried out the orders with whichhe had been charged.
It was with great gratification that he heard the king say thatevening, as he and his staff supped together at the inn at Lissa:
"You have done exceedingly well today, Captain Drummond. I am verypleased with you. You were always at my elbow when I wanted you,and I observed that you were never flurried or excited; thoughindeed, there would have been good excuse for a young soldier beingso, in such a hurly burly. You are over young for furtherpromotion, for a year or two; but I must find some other way oftestifying my satisfaction at your conduct."
And, indeed, when the list of promotions for bravery in the fieldwas published, a few days later, Fergus's name appeared among thosewho received the decoration of the Prussian military order, anhonour fully as much valued as promotion.
For a time he lost the service of Karl, who had been seriouslyalthough not dangerously wounded, just before the Austrians weredriven out of Leuthen.
The news of the battle filled the Confederates with stupefactionand dismay. Prince Karl was at once recalled, and was relieved frommilitary employment, Daun being appointed to the supreme command.The Prince withdrew to his government of the Netherlands, and therepassed the remainder of his days in peace and quiet. His army washunted by Ziethen's cavalry to Koeniggraetz, losing two thousandprisoners and a large amount of baggage; and thirty-seven thousandmen only, of the eighty thousand that stood in battle array atLeuthen, reached the sheltering walls of the fortress, and those inso dilapidated and worn out a condition that, by the end of a weekafter arriving there, no less than twenty-two thousand were inhospital.
Thus, after eight months of constant and weary anxiety, Frederick,by the two heavy blows he had dealt successfully at theConfederates, stood in a far better position than he had occupiedat the opening of the first campaign; when, as his enemies fondlybelieved, Prussia would be captured and divided without thesmallest difficulty.
Frederick wintered at Breslau, whither came many visitors fromPrussia, and there was a constant round of gaieties and festivity.Frederick himself desired nothing so much as peace. Once or twicethere had been some faint hope that this might be brought about byhis favourite sister, Wilhelmina, who had been ceaseless in herefforts to effect it; but the two empresses and the Pompadour werealike bent on avenging themselves on the king, and the reversesthat they had suffered but increased their determination tooverwhelm him.
Great as Frederick's success had been, it did not blind him to thefact that his position was almost hopeless. When the war began, hehad an army of a hundred and fifty thousand of the finest soldiersin the world. The two campaigns had made frightful gaps in theirranks. At Prague he had fought with eighty thousand men, at Leuthenhe had but thirty thousand. His little kingdom could scarcelysupply men to fill the places of those who had fallen, while hisenemies had teeming populations from which to gather amplematerials for fresh armies. It seemed, even to his hopeful spirit,that all this could have but one ending; and that each success,however great, weakened him more than his adversaries.
The winter's rest was, however, most welcome. For the moment therewas nothing to plan, nothing to do, save to order that the drillingof the fresh levies should go on incessantly; in order that some,at least, of the terrible gaps in the army might be filled upbefore the campaign commenced in the spring.
1758 began badly, for early in January the Russians were on themove. The empress had dismissed, and ordered to be tried by courtmartial, the general who had done so little the previous year; hadappointed Field Marshal Fermor to command in his place, and orderedhim to advance instantly and to annex East Prussia in her name.
On the 16th of January he crossed the frontier, and six days laterentered Koenigsberg and issued a proclamation to the effect thathis august sovereign had now become mistress of East Prussia, andthat all men of official or social position must at once take theoath of allegiance to her.
East Prussia had been devastated the year before by marauders, andits hatred of Russia was intense; but the people were powerless toresist. Some fled, leaving all behind them; but the majority wereforced to take the required oath, and for a time East Prussiabecame a Russian province. Nevertheless its young men constantlyslipped away, when opportunity offered, to join the Prussian army;and moneys were frequently collected by the impoverished people todespatch to Frederick, to aid him in his necessities.
A far greater assistance was the English subsidy of 670,000 pounds,which was paid punctually for four years, and was of supremeservice to him. It was spent thriftily, and of all the enormoussums expended by this country in subsidizing foreign powers, nonewas ever laid out to a tenth of the advantage of the 2,680,000pounds given to Frederick.
In the north the campaign also opened early. Ferdinand of Brunswickbestirred himself, defeated the French signally at Krefeld, anddrove them headlong across the Rhine. Frederick, too, took thefield early, and on the 15th of March moved from Breslau uponSchweidnitz. The siege began on the 1st of April, and on the 16ththe place surrendered. Four thousand nine hundred prisoners of warwere taken, with fifty-one guns and 7000 pounds in money.
Three days later Frederick, with forty thousand men, was off;deceived Daun as to his intentions, entered Moravia, and besiegedOlmuetz. Keith was with him again, and Fergus had returned to hisstaff. The march was conducted with the marvellous precision andaccuracy that characterized all Frederick's movements, but Olmuetzwas a strong place and stoutly defended.
The Prussian engineers, who did not shine at siege work, openedtheir trenches eight hundred yards too far away. The magazines weretoo far off, and Daun, who as usual carefully abstained from givingbattle, so cut up the convoys that, after five weeks of vainendeavours, the king was obliged to raise the siege; partly owingto the loss of the convoy that would have enabled him to take thetown, which was now at its last extremity; and partly that he knewthat the Russians were marching against Brandenburg.
He made a masterly retreat, struck a heavy blow at Daun bycapturing and destroying his principal magazine, and then took up avery strong position near Koeniggraetz. Here he could havemaintained himself against all Daun's assaults, for his positionwas one that Daun had himself held and strongly fortified; but thenews from the north was of so terrible a nature that he was forcedto hurry thither.
The Cossacks, as the Russian army advanced, were committing mosthorrible atrocities; burning towns and villages, tossing men andwomen into the fire, plundering and murdering everywhere; and thevery small Prussian force that was watching them was powerless tocheck the swarming marauders.
Frederick therefore, evading Daun's attempts to arrest his march,crossed the mountains into Silesia again. At Landshut he gave hisarmy two days' rest; wrote and sent a paper to his brother PrinceHenry, who was commander of the army defending Saxony frominvasion, telling him that he was on the point of marching againstthe Russians and might well be killed; and giving him orders as tothe course to be pursued, in such an event.
He left Keith, in command of forty thousand men, to hold Daun incheck should the latter advance against Silesia; and he again tookFergus with him, finding the young officer's talk a pleasant meansof taking his mind off the troubles that beset him.
In nine days the army, which was but fifteen thousand strong,marched from Landshut to Frankfort-on-Oder. Here the king learnedthat though Kuestrin, which the Russians were besieging, still heldout, the town had been barbarously de
stroyed by the enemy.
In fierce anger the army pressed forward. The Russian army itself,officers and men, were indignant in the extreme at the brutalitiescommitted by the Cossacks, but were powerless to restrain them; forindeed these ruffians did not hesitate to attack and kill anyofficer who ventured to interfere between them and their victims.
The next morning, early, Frederick reached the camp of his generalDohna; who had been watching, although unable to interfere with theRussians' proceedings. The king had a profound contempt for theRussians, in spite of the warning of Keith, who had served withthem, that they were far better soldiers than they appeared to be;and he anticipated a very easy victory over them.
Early on the 22nd of August the army from Frankfort arrived.Dohna's strength was numerically about the same as the king's, andwith his thirty thousand men Frederick had no doubt that he wouldmake but short work of the eighty thousand Russians, of whom sometwenty-seven thousand were the Cossack rabble, who were not worthbeing considered, in a pitched battle. Deceiving the Russians as tohis intentions by opening a heavy cannonade on one of theirredoubts, as if intending to ford the river there, he crossed thatevening twelve miles lower down and, after some manoeuvring, facedthe Russians, who had at once broken up the siege on hearing of hispassage.
Fermor sent away his baggage train to a small village calledKleinkalmin, and planted himself on a moor, where his front wascovered by quagmires and the Zaborn stream. Hearing, late at nighton the evening of the 24th, that Frederick was likely to be uponthem the next morning, the Russian general drew out into the openground north of Zorndorf, which stands on a bare rise surrounded bywoods and quagmires, and formed his army into a great square, twomiles long by one broad, with his baggage in the middle--aformation which had been found excellent by the Russians in theirTurkish wars, but which was by no means well adapted to meetFrederick's methods of impetuous attack. Being ignorant as to theside upon which Frederick was likely to attack, and having decidedto stand on the defensive, he adopted the methods most familiar tohim.
Frederick had cut all the bridges across the rivers Warta and Oder,and believed that he should, after defeating the Russians, drivethem into the angle formed by the junction of these two streams,and cause them to surrender at discretion. Unfortunately, he hadnot heard that the great Russian train had been sent toKleinkalmin. Had he done so he could have seized it, and so havepossessed himself of the Russian stores and all their munitions ofwar, and have forced them to surrender without a blow; for theCossacks had wasted the country far and wide, and deprived it ofall resources. But he and his army were so burning withindignation, and the desire to avenge the Cossack cruelties, thatthey made no pause, and marched in all haste right round theRussian position, so as to drive them back towards the junction ofthe two rivers.
[Map: Battle of Zorndorf]
Fermor's Cossacks brought him in news of Frederick's movements,which were hidden from him by the forests; and seeing that he wasto be attacked on the Zorndorf side, instead of from that on whichhe had expected it to come, he changed his front, and swung roundthe line containing his best troops to meet it.
On arriving at Zorndorf, Frederick found that the Cossacks hadalready set the village on fire. This was no disadvantage to him,for the smoke of the burning houses rolled down towards theRussians, and so prevented them from making observation of thePrussian movements. The king rode up to the edge of the Zabornhollow and, finding it too deep and boggy to be crossed, determinedto attack at the southwest with his left and centre, placing hiscavalry in rear, and throwing back his right wing.
The first division marched forward to the attack, by the west endof the flaming village. The next division, which should have beenits support, marched by the east end of Zorndorf. Its road was alonger one, and there was consequently a wide gap between the twodivisions. Heralded by the fire of two strong batteries--whichswept the southwestern corner of the Russian quadrilateral, theircrossfire ploughing its ranks with terrible effect--the firstdivision, under Manteufel, fell upon the enemy.
The fire of the Prussian batteries had sorely shaken the Russians,and had produced lively agitation among the horses of the lightbaggage train in the centre of the square; and, heralding theiradvance with a tremendous fire of musketry, the Prussian infantryforced its way into the mass. Had the second division been close athand, as it should have been, the victory would already have beenwon; but although also engaged it was not near, and Fermor pouredout a torrent of horse and foot upon Manteufel's flank and front.Without support, and surrounded, the Prussians could do nothing,and were swept back, losing twenty-four pieces of cannon; while theRussians, with shouts of victory, pressed upon them.
At this critical moment Seidlitz, with five thousand horse, dasheddown upon the disordered mass of Russians, casting it intoirretrievable confusion. At the same time the infantry rallied andpressed forward again.
In fifteen minutes the whole Russian army was a confused mass.Fermor, with the Russian horse, fled to Kratsdorf and, had not thebridge there been burnt by Frederick, he would have made off,leaving his infantry to their fate. These should now, according toall rules, have surrendered; but they proved unconquerable save bydeath. Seidlitz's cavalry sabred them until fatigued by slaughter,the Prussian infantry poured their volleys into them, but theystood immovable and passive, dying where they stood.
At one o'clock in the day the battle ceased for a moment. ThePrussians had marched at three in the morning and, seeing thatalthough half the Russian army had been destroyed, the other halfhad gradually arranged itself into a fresh front of battle,Frederick formed his forces again, and brought up his right wingfor the attack on the side of the Russian quadrilateral which stillstood. Forward they went, their batteries well in advance; butbefore the infantry came within musket range, the Russian horse andfoot rushed forward to the attack, and with such force that theycaptured one of the batteries, took a whole battalion prisoners,and broke the centre.
Here were the regiments of Dohna, perfectly clean and wellaccoutred; but, being less accustomed to war than Frederick'sveterans, they gave way at once before the Russian onslaught and,in spite of Frederick's efforts to prevent them, fled from thefield and could not be rallied until a mile distant from it.
The veterans stood firm, however; until Seidlitz, returning frompursuit, again hurled his horsemen upon the Russian masses, brokethem up, and drove their cavalry in headlong flight before him.