The officer's face brightened. With a military salute he turned sharply round, sprang into the saddle, and galloped off.
"And now forwards! gentlemen," cried the king.
"Father, have a new-laid egg!" And the crown prince, hurrying up, offered the king a plate, on which was a specimen of his cooking.
"Eat it, your majesty," said General Brandis; "there is no saying when or where you may get anything else." And he handed the king an egg, after breaking the shell with the hilt of his sword.
The king ate it and turned to the horses.
They mounted and set out; dragoons preceded them and acted as a guard; the carriages and the led horses followed.
As the king rode out of the village of Thamsbrück, the artillery duel had already fully commenced.
From the hill above they saw the lines of the enemy's skirmishers before the town of Langensalza. The enemy's batteries were on the farther side of the Unstrut, and kept up an energetic fire, to which the Hanoverian artillery replied from the opposite bank. The infantry were engaged before the town, and the Hanoverian cavalry were seen on one side slowly withdrawing.
"Where shall we ride?" asked the king.
"To a hill behind Merxleben, from whence we can overlook the whole battle-field, your majesty," replied the adjutant-general.