458 
ACHIEVEMENTS OF FIELD ARTILLERY. 
At 4 o'clock on the 14th the Austrians were all in the positions 
assigned to them, while their watch-fires remained burning brightly 
and deceived the Prussian sentries. At 5 o'clock the attack on*the 
Prussian right began, and soon the woods were re-echoing with 
musketry. Gradually Frederick's men awoke to the consciousness that 
no ordinary affair of outposts was going on, but that a serious effort was 
being made on their camp. Heavy mist and fog shrouded their view on 
all sides, and they could neither see where their enemies were nor how 
strong was their force. The account reads very much like that of 
Inkerman, although the sequel was very different. 
The Austrians outnumbered the whole of that portion of the Prussian 
army under the King's command. His battalions were surrounded 
and cut up in detail. The guns fired aimlessly into the mist and dark¬ 
ness, and were captured ere long. Then brave Keith led one battalion 
up the hill again, and drove the enemy away from their trophies. But 
his weak force was soon surrounded and overwhelmed, and he himself 
fell dead, shot through the heart. 
Meanwhile Frederick began to realise that old Daun had developed 
more enterprise than he had given him credit for, and that he himself 
was fighting for the very existence of his army. He hurried what rein¬ 
forcements he could spare to his right, but they too were repulsed, and 
Moritz of Dessau, who led them, fell wounded into the hands of the 
Austrians. Then the King himself rushed into the fight, but he could 
not make any headway, his horse was shot under him, and as the mist 
lifted he saw that his right was hopelessly hemmed in, and that all on 
that part of the field at any rate was lost. The Prussian front was also 
now assailed, and it became plain that the only chance of saving any 
portion of the army was to concentrate what remained unbroken, and 
retreat as best he could by the Pass of Drehsa along the stream. Two 
batteries on the heights near Drehsa, and another of ten heavy pieces, 
directed by the King himself, nearer to the thirty gun battery which, 
as has been said, had guarded the Prussian left, were hastily got 
together and placed in position to cover the retreat. 
And well did these masses of guns respond to the call made upon them. 
The Austrian left wing, closing in with triumphant strides, was heldfin 
check by the two great batteries in front of it, while the thirty gun 
battery, like some great rock that alone braves the rising flood, stood 
almost alone in their way on the Prussian left. Twice it repulsed the 
attack of the Austrians and gave time for the defeated infantry to rally. 
But at length, about 9 o'clock, the gathering tide of advance over¬ 
whelmed it, unsupported as it was, and it was captured. Yet it had done 
its work. Its sacrifice had gained safety for the infantry. The guns it is 
true were lost, but meanwhile the King had formed a fresh line and 
could hold his foe once more at bay. His extreme left, under Eetzow, 
had also managed to escape under the covering fire of two batteries which 
skilfully and firmly resisted the pursuit, and now joined the remainder 
with Frederick. A general retreat was ordered, what guns were left 
to the Prussians covered the movement with the same gallantry they 
had already displayed, and the Austrians did not care to try conclusions 
with them at too close a range. Thus the relics of the force were 
