456 
ACHIEVEMENTS OF FIELD ARTILLERY. 
Then, wild with wrath the King called Seydlitz and bade him try the 
task with his horsemen. But the same withering fire burst again from 
the slopes above and the compact squadrons broke and fled before it, 
nor drew bridle till they found security beyond the lakes of Kunersdorf. 
Again the gallant infantry were called on to advance, again were 
driven back, and again returned to meet with a like fate. Three times 
did the King himself lead the assault, three horses were killed under 
him, and but for a metal box in his pocket he would have been killed. 
And in front meanwhile a like scene was being enacted. It was here 
Laudon had rallied his artillery, ana a great mass of guns spread 
destruction round it on all sides. The battalions struggled forward 
again and again, but shattered themselves to pieces against it in vain. 
Then the cavalry were once more sent round to the east, but when 
Eugene of Wiirtemberg was about to charge he found no men behind 
him. They had no stomach left to face those batteries again. 
The inevitable and final scene was now at hand. Even the bravest 
veteran at length realised that the struggle was hopeless, and the bat¬ 
talions began to fall back. But swiftly as they fled the missiles of the 
avenging batteries followed faster, and when Laudon led the Austrian 
cavalry to the charge, the Prussian army became a miserable mass of 
fugitives and melted away, leaving 172 guns as trophies in their enemy ; s 
hands; while, besides these he recovered the 150 he had himself lost 
earlier in the day. The Prussian loss amounted to 534 officers and 
17,961 men, while the Allies lost 670 officers and 15,506 respectively. 
Thus did a great mass of artillery succeed in converting what seemed fair 
to become a grave disaster into a great victory, and guns were able to 
assert the claim which since then they have more than once made 
good, that, judiciously placed, they have nothing to fear from the 
onslaught of even the best soldiers of the other arms. 
So far we have shown guns either preparing the way for the attack 
of the other arms, or displaying their own power of defence. A nobler 
role than even these, which from the times when guns could move with 
any ease has fallen to artillery, remains however to be illustrated, and 
it is with this one that we would next deal. Great as is the exultation 
with which artillery is justly fired, when it can move forward in the 
pride of power to deliver some great blow that will level the opposition 
before it, and just as is the triumph with which it may look back on a 
position stoutly held, and the fierce surges of attack breaking uselessly 
on its iron front, its highest and most legitimate satisfaction is experi¬ 
enced when the spirit of self-sacrifice has animated its efforts, and it 
has been able to stand between its comrades and destruction. Guns 
well lost are as proud a boast as captured colours, and the glory gained 
in the hour of defeat shines sometimes brighter than that which 
illumines the close of a victorious day. Frederick, crafty warrior as he 
was, had often to feel the anguish of a lost battle, and like his great 
successor, Napoleon, sometimes with a headstrong confidence in himself, 
compromised his safety by risking enterprises which men with less 
imagination would have recognised as so dangerous as not to be worth 
attempting. In the battle we have just described he lost all by play¬ 
ing for too high stakes, in the one we are now to deal with he also 
