The King asked me at about this time what I thought of the prospects of the battle. I replied, "Your Majesty to-day will not only win the battle, but decide the war."
It could not be otherwise.
We had the advantage in numbers,[86] which in war is never to be despised; and it was certain that our IInd Army must finally appear on the flank and rear of the Austrians.
At about 1.30 a white cloud was seen on the height, crowned with trees, and visible from afar, on which our field-glasses had been centred. It was indeed not yet the IInd Army, but the smoke of the fire which, directed thereon, announced its near approach. The joyful shout, "The Crown Prince is coming!" ran through the ranks. I sent the wished-for news to General von Herwarth, who meanwhile had carried Problus, in spite of the heroic defence of the Saxons.
The IInd Army had started at 7.30 in the morning; only the Ist Corps had delayed till about 9.15. The advance by bad roads, in part across the fields, had taken much time. The hill-road stretching from Horenowes to Trotina, if efficiently held, could not but be a serious obstacle. But in its eager pressure on Fransecky's Division the enemy's right wing had made a wheel to the left, so that it lay open to some extent to the attack on its rear now impending.
The Crown Prince's progress was not yet visible to us, but at about half-past three the King ordered the advance of the Ist Army also.
As we emerged from the wood of Sadowa into the open we found still a part of the great battery which had so long prevented us from debouching here, but the teams and gunners lay stretched by the wrecked guns. There was nothing else to be seen of the enemy over a wide distance.
The Austrian retreat from the position grasped by us on two sides, had become inevitable, and had, in fact, been effected some time before. Their admirable artillery, firing on to the last moment, had screened their retreat and given the infantry a long start. The crossing of the Bistritz seriously delayed the advance, especially of the cavalry, so that only isolated detachments of it yet came up with the enemy.
We rode at a smart gallop across the wide field of battle, without looking much about us on the scene of horror. Finally, we found our three armies which had at last pushed on into a circumscribed space from their several directions, and had got much mixed. It took twenty-four hours to remedy the confusion and re-form the bodies; an immediate pursuit was impossible, but the victory was complete.
The exhausted men now sought resting-places in the villages or the open field as best they might. Anything that came to hand by way of food was of course taken; my wandering ox probably among the rest. The death-cries of pigs and geese were heard; but necessity knows no law, and the baggage-waggons were naturally not on the spot.