rd,--whither the Battalion Margraf-Karl had flung themselves;
the poor Village soon taking fire about them. Soon taking fire, and
continuing to be a scene of capture and recapture, by the flame-light;
while Battalion Margraf-Karl stood with invincible stubbornness, pouring
death from it; not to be compulsed by the raging tide of Austrian
grenadiers; not by "six Austrian battalions," by "eight," or by never
so many. Stood at bay there; levelling whole masses of them,--till its
cartridges were spent, all to one or two per man; and Major Lange, the
heroic Captain of it, said, "We shall have to go, then, my men; let us
cut ourselves through!"--and did so, in an honorably invincible manner;
some brave remnant actually getting through, with Lange himself wounded
to death.

I think it was not till towards six o'clock that the right wing
generally became aware what the case was: "More than a Pandourade,
yes;"--though what it might be, in the thick fog which had fallen,
blotting out all vestiges of daylight, nobody could well say. Rallied
Battalions, reinforced by this or the other Battalion hurrying up from
leftward, always charge in upon the enemy, in Hochkirch or wherever he
is busy; generally push him back into the Night; but are then fallen
upon on both flanks by endless new strength, and obliged to draw back in
turn. And Ziethen's Horse, in the mean while, do execution; breaking in
on the tumultuous victors; new Cuirassiers, Gens-d'Armes dashing up
to help, so soon as saddled, and charging with a will: so that, on the
whole, the enemy, variously attempting, could make nothing of us on that
western, or rearward side,--thanks mainly to Ziethen and the Horse. "Had
we but waited till three or four of our Battalions had got up!" say the
Prussian narrators. But it is thick mist; few yards ahead you cannot see
at all, unless it be flame; and close at hand, all things and figures
waver indistinct,--hairy outlines of blacker shadows on a ground of
black.

It must have been while Lange was still fighting, perhaps before Lange
took to the Church of Hochkirch, scarcely later than half-past six (but
nobody thought of pulling out his watch in such a business!)--about six,
or half-past six, when Keith, who has charge of this wing, and lodges
somewhere below or north of Hochkirch, came to understand that his
big Battery was taken; that here was such a Pandourade as had not been
before; and that, of a surety, said Battery must be retaken.