"Yes, indeed!" replied Count Platen, looking at a shell that had fallen unpleasantly near the king, "they are improving in their practice; but if we venture to tell him so we shall have to stay here all the longer."
"Your majesty," said General Brandis, riding up to the king, "there is a turn in the fighting, and I think your majesty would be more visible upon the hill which was first selected for your position."
"Are you quite sure, Brandis?" said the king.
"I am sure your majesty would be in a better position there," replied the general.
"Let us go then!" cried the king, touching his horse with the spur; it bounded forwards so rapidly that Major Schweppe had some difficulty in holding the guiding rein.
Their rapid pace soon brought them to the hill, near which the reserve cavalry were placed.
The king rode on to the highest point. His suite surrounded him, some dismounted, and followed the movements of the troops with field-glasses and telescopes.
The carriages were drawn up in a large semicircle.
The king stood motionless. Not a feature of his pale, noble face changed. The adjutant-general informed him of the course of the fighting as far as it could be made out, the gentlemen of the suite sometimes expressed by loud shouts the result of their observations, but generally they imparted to each other in low tones their hopes and fears.
Whilst this was going on at head-quarters, the Duke of Cambridge's dragoon regiment had been employed since the early morning in outpost duty near the village of Hemingsleben, on the road leading from Langensalza to Gotha.