With Frederick the Great: A Story of the Seven Years' War

by G. A. Henty

The Austrians, all this time, could observe a group of horsemen on the hill, moving sometimes this way sometimes that, but more than this they could not see. The conjectures were various, as hour passed after hour. Daun believed that the Prussians must have marched away south, with the intention of falling upon the magazines in Bohemia, and that the cavalry seen moving along the hills were placed there to defend the Prussians from being taken in flank, or in rear, while thus marching. General Lucchesi, who commanded the Austrian right wing, was convinced that the cavalry formed the Prussian right wing, and that the whole army, concealed behind 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 staffs were endeavouring to obtain a glimpse beyond those tiresome swells, and to discover what was going on behind them, but in vain. There were the cavalry, moving occasionally from crest to crest, but nothing beyond that.

Lucchesi got more and more uneasy, and sent message after message to headquarters that he was about to be attacked, and must have a large reinforcement of horse. The prince and Daun at first scoffed at the idea, knowing that the bogs in front of Nypern were impassable; but at last he sent a message to the effect that, if the cavalry did not come, he would not be responsible for the issue.

It was thought, therefore, that he must have some good ground for his insistence; and Daun sent off the reserve of horse, and several other regiments drawn from the left wing, and himself went off at a trot, at their head, to see what was the matter.

It was just as he started that the Prussians--with their music playing, 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 to advance in an oblique line to the attack. The king saw with delight the removal of so large a body of horse from the very point against which 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 if upon level ground, suddenly the Prussians poured over the swells on the flank of Sagschuetz. Nadasti, who commanded the Austrians there, was struck with astonishment at the spectacle of the Prussian army, which he believed to be far away, pouring down on his flank. The heads of the four columns, the artillery, and Ziethen's cavalry appeared simultaneously, marching swiftly and making no pause.

Being a good general, he lost not a moment in endeavouring to meet the storm. His left was thrown back a little, a battery of fourteen guns at the angle so formed opened fire, and he launched his cavalry against that of Ziethen. For the moment Ziethen's men were pushed back, but the fire from an infantry battalion, close by, checked the Austrian horse. They fell back out of range, and Ziethen, making a counter charge, drove them away.

In the meantime the Prussian infantry, as they advanced, poured a storm of fire upon the Austrian line, aided by a battery of ten heavy guns that Prince Maurice, who commanded here, had planted on a rise. A clump of fir trees, held by Croats in advance of the Austrian line, was speedily cleared; and then the Prussians broke down the abattis that protected the enemy's front, charged furiously against the infantry, and drove these before them, capturing Nadasti's battery.

In ten minutes after the beginning of the fight, the position of the Austrian left was already desperate. The whole Prussian army was concentrated against it and, being on its flank, crumpled the line up as it advanced. Prince Karl's aides-de-camp galloped at the top of their speed to bring Daun and the cavalry back again, and Austrian battalions from the centre were hurried down to aid Nadasti's, but were impeded by the retreating troops; and the confusion thickened, until it was brought to a climax by Ziethen's horse, which had been unable to act until now. But fir wood, quagmire, and abattis had all been passed by the Prussians, and they dashed into the mass, sabring and trampling down, and taking whole battalions prisoners.

Prince Karl exerted himself to the utmost to check the Prussian advance. Batteries were brought up and advantageously posted at Leuthen, heavy bodies of infantry occupied the village and its church, and took post so as to present a front to the advancing tide. Another quarter of an hour and the battle might have been retrieved; but long before the dispositions were all effected, the Prussians were at hand.