ing, swagging and swaying is conceivable, in this Sterbohol
problem! And after long scanning, I rather judge it was in the wake of
that first repulse, and not of some other farther on, that the veteran
Schwerin himself got his death. No one times it for us; but the fact is
unforgettable; and in the dim whirl of sequences, dimly places itself
there. Very certain it is, "at sight of his own regiment in retreat,"
Feldmarschall Schwerin seized the colors,--as did other Generals, who
are not named, that day. Seizes the colors, fiery old man: "HERAN, MEINE
KINDER (This way, my sons)!" and rides ahead, along the straight dam
again; his "sons" all turning, and with hot repentance following. "On,
my children, HERAN!" Five bits of grape-shot, deadly each of them, at
once hit the old man; dead he sinks there on his flag; and will never
fight more. "HERAN!" storm the others with hot tears; Adjutant von
Platen takes the flag; Platen, too, is instantly shot; but another
takes it. "HERAN, On!" in wild storm of rage and grief:--in a word,
they manage to do the work at Sterbohol, they and the rest. First line,
Second line, Infantry, Cavalry (and even the very Horses, I suppose),
fighting inexpressibly; conquering one of the worst problems ever seen
in War. For the Austrians too, especially their grenadiers there, stood
to it toughly, and fought like men;--and "every grenadier that survived
of them," as I read afterwards, "got double pay for life."
Done, that Sterbohol work;--those Foot-chargings, Horse-chargings; that
battery of Homoly Hill; and, hanging upon that, all manner of redoubts
and batteries to the rightward and rearward:--but how it was done no
pen can describe, nor any intellect in clear sequence understand. An
enormous MELEE there: new Prussian battalions charging, and ever new,
irrepressible by case-shot, as they successively get up; Marshal Browne
too sending for new battalions at double-quick from his left, disputing
stiffly every inch of his ground. Till at length (hour not given), a
cannon-shot tore away his foot; and he had to be carried into Prag,
mortally wounded. Which probably was a most important circumstance, or
the most important of all.
Important too, I gradually see, was that of the Prussian Horse of the
Left Wing. Prussian Horse of the extreme left, as already noticed, had,
in the mean while, fallen in, well southward, round by certain lakelets
about Michelup, on Browne's extreme right; furiously charging
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