“He was not waked, that you may depend upon. He was no doubt up and on horseback by five o’clock. But his headquarters are two miles away, and it must have taken him some little time to form a plan of defence, for he could not tell at first that he was being attacked on all sides at once.”
“It is said that when Marwitz, his adjutant, was called upon to mark off the post Tuesday evening, he flatly refused to do it, saying he would have no part in marking off a post so dangerous, and the King promptly ordered him under arrest.”
“He was to get away from here this afternoon, only Marshal Daun was, for once, beforehand with him—a—a—ah!” for at this a Prussian battery wheeled in front of them and opened up with vigour.
“Forward!” rang out, and the regiment moved as if on parade, the trot down hill increasing to a gallop up the hill, after they had crossed the stream.
From that on Gavin saw nothing of the battle except the furious mêlée just around him. The Prussians held the village stubbornly, and with a battery of artillery and a few regiments of infantry stood like rocks, while the Austrians poured infantry and cavalry upon them. Gavin, at the head of his troop, dashed again and again at the Prussian lines, only to be repulsed. He heard himself as in a dream shouting:
“Come on! Their ammunition can’t last forever!”
And as the Austrians came on, an endless, steady stream, never ceasing, he saw riding out of the mist, which was slowly melting before the rising sun, the figure of the King of Prussia. He dashed among the struggling Prussian infantry, and as if by magic a line of bayonets was formed around him, against which the Austrians threw themselves like an avalanche of fire and steel. Then came a Titanic struggle, men, guns, and horses inextricably mixed, no man having time to load and fire, but steel to steel, sabres and bayonets, and a fearful and hideous din drowning the roar of cannon and shriek of musketry. No man asked or gave quarter, but with powder-blackened faces and grim eyes and distorted features sought death or gave it.
It lasted a short ten minutes, but it seemed hours. Gavin Hamilton, in the midst of it, whirling his sabre like a flail, found himself, he knew not how, on the ground, with his riderless horse plunging wildly near him, a forest of Austrian bayonets behind him, and a steady line of Prussian steel in front of him. Sometimes that line wavered, sometimes it broke, but it always formed again. And suddenly the line of glittering steel parted for a moment, and he saw the King of Prussia for one moment erect on his horse, and the next the horse staggered and fell, and Gavin, running forward, with his strong left arm seized Frederick by the arm, shrieking:
“You took me prisoner once; now it is my turn!”
Their eyes met for one brief instant, and the glance that Frederick gave him made Gavin forget the battle, the uproar, the danger—all, except those steel-blue eyes, sparkling with the light of battle; that slight, wiry figure, with one uplifted arm, and the singular music of that voice, ringing out above the shouting and the clash of arms: