ACHIEVEMENTS OF FIELD ARTILLERY. 
455 
position could be safely assaulted it was necessary to wait for guns 
to come up. But the roads through the woods were difficult, and 
Finck’s guns stuck fast again and again as they tried to cross the 
Hiinerfliess, almost impassable for the guns of that period. The success 
first gained ought to be followed up at once, and his beloved Grenadiers 
were falling fast from fire to which they could make no reply. Chafing 
at delay, and confident in the powers of his splendid infantry, therefore 
Frederick disregarded the teachings of experience, and sent his men to 
the attack without waiting for the help of the sister arm. 
The village of Kunersdorf was in flames and impeded the advance of 
his left, and he had to fall back, therefore, on a frontal attack. For 
three hours a desperate struggle raged, but at length the Prussians 
made their way across the valley. At what a price, however, had 
success been won ! The rules of tactics cannot be broken with im¬ 
punity, and in this case, if the Prussians gained ground, it was on the 
dead bodies of comrades that they trod. Their splendid discipline 
and training, however, in the end prevailed, and they slowly forced 
the enemy back before them. Frederick said that here more than 
100 guns fell into his hands, but Decker thinks the number was 
nearer 80. In any case, splendid success had crowned the King’s 
daring, and the battle was all but won. 
There is much virtue, however, in that “ but.”—• 
“ ’Tis an old tale ; Jove strikes the Titans down, 
Not when they set about their mountain-piling, 
But when another rock would crown their work.” 
Forty Russian cannon stood firm still on the Great Spitzberg. In 
front of them, not the abrupt valleys which had impeded the full 
sweep of the fire of the others, but gently sloping ground stretching 
like a glacis to the front. To their left a little behind them, too, 
Laudon had rallied the Austrian guns, and a great mass of artillery 
posted so as to put forth all its strength still stood between Frederick 
and complete victory. Seydlitz and his other Generals recognised 
their opponent’s strength, and begged their master to be content 
with success already great. News was brought to him, however, 
at this moment that the enemy were retreating across the river at 
Frankfort, and his anger rose as he saw the chances of converting a 
victory into a decisive rout slipping from his grasp. He could not be 
content to do well when he might do better. The tiresome, slow guns 
were not yet come up in anything like adequate force, but in his 
impatience and pride he flung prudence to the winds, ordered some 
pieces to fire on the bridge to check the retreat, and then sent his tired 
battalions to attack again without waiting for their comrades to come 
up and co-operate. Those of the left wing had not as yet been 
engaged, and they it was who now were sent to scale the Spitzberg. 
But chastisement followed swiftly on the fault, and, as Decker says, 
the arm whose services in his blindness he thought he could dispense 
with was the instrument which in his enemy’s hands was to bring upon 
him all the mortifications which fate ordained he was to suffer. As his 
infantry attempted to climb the slope of the Spitzberg such a storm of 
case shot struck them that they were hurled headlong to the bottom. 
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