Then he led the way to a spot from where they could see the battle. The sight was one never to be forgotten, and as the hours passed the hearts of the two Germans grew sick within them. They saw the Duke of Brunswick borne from the field of dead and wounded, and then began a panic worse than all else we can read of in history. Over the field flew the Prussians, whole companies taking flight as if children. Horses, freed from their riders, dashed where they would, galloping over the dead, crushing with their hoofs the dying; swords flashed against sabres; men fled as if mad; gunners deserted cannon; and still, through all the havoc and confusion, steadily, unswervingly, the cannon of Napoleon roared on. Towards late afternoon the Prussians were turning their backs in all directions, crossing each other's paths, blockading, hampering, as they struggled to escape to Erfurt, to Kolleda, to Sommerda.
The sun dropped in the west, and, as the afterglow rose like a mist of gold, the light fell on a field of such horror as blood-stained old Europe rarely has seen. The cries of the wounded, the dying, the pursued, and the victorious rent the air, and the Prussians who remained were in a confusion most awful. Only the soldiers of the Duke of Weimar fought with steadiness, and, presently, they began to retreat in order towards Erfurt.
The glorious army of Frederick the Great had disappeared like a bubble. Napoleon had but touched it with his finger of might and its many-coloured glory had vanished into nothing.
For hours, old Hans and his cousin watched the fight, and lower and lower sank the head of the old man. That he, a soldier of Frederick the Great, should see the downfall of the army!
"Ach Gott! Ach Gott! Ach Gott!" he said to the cousin.
But Herr Schmelze caught his arm, his face suddenly glowing with excitement.
"Look, cousin, look!" he cried and with a fat hand he pointed towards the field. "Look, I say, look, Hans! What courage! That Prussian is only a boy, and there are four, no, five, six, seven Frenchmen in pursuit. See him run! Bravo! Ach Himmel! Hans, at last, some courage!"
What Hans saw was a Prussian, slender, alert, quite boy-like in figure, fly before pursuing Frenchmen. To save himself he darted sideways, then rushed between two wagons close together and deserted by the Prussians.
Sheltered, he fired.
A Frenchman dropped.