e was fixed upon the castle-gate, through which the
courier must come. When he appeared, the crowd rushed forward toward
him in mad haste. Cries of woe and suffering were heard. The people,
with--mad with pain, beside themselves with despair, had no longer
any mercy, any pity for each other. They rushed upon the messenger
of misfortune, without regarding those who, in the midst of this wild
tumult, were cast down, and trodden under foot.

The messenger began his sad story. He repeated all that the minister had
said; he told of the deadly strife, of the bloody havoc, of the raging
advance of the Austrians, and of the roar for vengeance of the reassured
Russians. He told how the cannon-balls of the enemy had stricken down
whole ranks of Prussians; that more than twenty thousand dead and
wounded Prussians lay upon the battle-field; that all the cannon and all
the colors had fallen into the hands of the enemy.

The people received this news with tears, cries, and lamentations.
The courier spoke also of the king. He, himself, had belonged to the
body-guard of the king--had been ever near him. He had seen the king
standing in the midst of the thickest shower of balls, when his two
adjutants fell at his side. At last, a ball came and wounded the king's
horse--the Vogel--so fearfully, that the brave steed fell. Frederick
mounted another horse, but remained upon the same spot; a second ball
wounded this horse, and the king quietly mounted that of Captain Gotzen.
At this moment, a bullet struck the king in the breast, but the golden
etui which the king carried in his pocket, had turned it aside, and thus
saved his life. In vain had the generals and adjutants entreated him to
leave this place, and think of his personal safety. His answer was--"We
must seek, at this point, to win the battle. I must do my duty here with
the rest." [Footnote: The king's own words.--See Thiebault, p. 214.]

Many voices cried out--"Where is the king now?"

The courier did not answer; but the question was so fiercely, so
stormily repeated, that he was compelled to go on.

"The king, in the midst of the confusion and horror of the flight, had
called him, and commanded him to gallop to Berlin, and bear the fatal
news to Minister Herzberg. He had then galloped by him, exactly against
the enemy, as if he wished their balls to strike him; a little troop of
his most faithful soldiers had followed!"

"The king is lost! the king is a prisoner--wounded--per