l back under this first shock, coming downhill
upon them; and would have fared badly, had not the clump of infantry
instantly opened fire on the Nadasti visitors, and poured it in such
floods upon them, that they, in their turn, had to reel back. Back they,
well out of range;--and leave Ziethen free for a counter-attack shortly,
on easier terms, which was successful to him. For, during that first
tussle of his, the Prussian Infantry, to left of Ziethen, has attacked
the Sagschutz Firwood; clears that of Croats; attacks Nadasti's line,
breaks it, their Brummer battery potently assisting, and the rage
of Wedell and everybody being extreme. So that, in spite of the fine
ground, Nadasti is in a bad way, on the extreme left or outmost point
of his POTENCE, or tactical KNEE. Round the knee-pan or angle of his
POTENCE, where is the abatis, he fares still worse. Abatis, beswept by
those ten Brummers and other Batteries, till bullet and bayonet can act
on it, speedily gives way. "They were mere Wurtembergers, these; and
could not stand!" cried the Austrians apologetically, at a great rate,
afterwards; as if anybody could well have stood.

Indisputably the Wurtembergers and the abatis are gone; and the
Brandenburgers, storming after them, storm Nadasti's interior battery of
14 pieces; and Nadasti's affairs are rapidly getting desperate in this
quarter. Figure Prince Karl's scouts, galloping madly to recall that
Daun Cavalry! Austrian Battalions, plenty of them, rush down to help
Nadasti; but they are met by the crowding fugitives, the chasing
Prussians; are themselves thrown into disorder, and can do no good
whatever. They arrive on the ground flurried, blown; have not the
least time to take breath and order: the fewest of them ever got fairly
ranked, none of them ever stood above one push: all goes rolling wildly
back upon the centre about Leuthen. Chaos come on us;--and all for mere
lack of time: could Nadasti but once stretch out one minute into twenty!
But he cannot. Nadasti does not himself lose head; skilfully covers the
retreat, trying to rally once and again. Not for the first few furlongs,
till the ditches, till the firwood, quagmires are all done, could
Ziethen, now on the open ground, fairly hew in; "take whole battalions
prisoners;" drive the crowd in an altogether stormy manner; and wholly
confound the matter in this part.

Prince Karl, his messengers flying madly, has struggled as man seldom
did to put himself in s