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RIESBECK’S TRAVELS THROUGH GERMANY. 133
guard, Prince! my guard!’? To which the other made anfwer, ‘* My regiment, Your
Majefty! my regiment!’ He thought, that as his regiment had been cut off, there
was nothing worth faving.
Now it may probably have been a fault in the King not to have had any cavalry in
his left wing; but if it was fo, it arofe from the unevennels of the ground. If the Auf-
trians had not had the great advantage of having their right wing on an eminence, and
the reft of their army fecure, in all probability the Pruffians, who notwithftanding thefe
difadvantages, made the vi€tory dubious for a great while, would have got the day be-
fore Daun could have fupported the attacked part with his cavalry, and in that cafe no
perfon would have thought of a failure of cavalry on the Pruflian part. The King, too,
could not obferve the motions of the German horfe, whofe fudden appearance from the
hollow was the more formidable, from its being entirely unexpected, and what @ priort
muft have feemedvery improbable to the King.
Others fay, that the King purpofed to do nothing with his left wing, but intended to
alter his mode of battle, and charge with his right, whilft the prince of Deflau was
amufing the enemy. In that cafe his fank would have been fecured from the attack of
the enemy’s cavalry, and he would have had nothing to fear from the Auftrian left
wing on this fide the deep ditch. But, fay thofe who maintain this opinion, the prince
of Deflau, inftead of amufing the enemy, made fo lively and ferious an attack, that the
King was obliged to fupport him, out of apprehenfion, that if the Prince was repulfed,
the whole army might have been brought into diforder by the flight of his regiment. 1
take this likewife to be one of thofe after. thoughts which fhew what a man fhould have
done, but not what he did, or had a mind to do. Others think, that the King trufting
folely to his good fortune, which had done fuch great things for him a little before at
the battle of Prague, had neglected fome neceflary arrangements, particularly the bring-
ing up his cavalry. But this feems one of the obfervations which a fenfible writer
makes after the time, to give himfelf the air of appearing to know more than other peo-
ple. A man like the King of Pruflia, who gives continual proofs that he does not fuf-
fer himfelf to be deprefled by any reverfe of fortune, is not likely to have been too
much raifed by his fuccefs.
Being now beaten, for the firft time, after fo many fuccefsful battles, Frederick re-
treated in the beft order poffible to Saxony, through Lewtmeri/s and Aufig. Deprefled
he was not, but a little out of humour, as his oldeft brother, fince dead, who carried
part of the army back into Saxony, by Gabel, experienced. But, no doubt, you are
well acquainted with this wonderful retreat, and the anecdotes concerning it, to be found
in the book entitled, Recuil de. Lettres de Sa Majepé le Roi de Pruffe, regardant le derniere
guerre. If the King had gained this battle he would have been matter of all Bohemia.
All Auftria would have ftood open to him, and Ol/mutz only would have prevented his
going to Vienna. In this cafe he would have dictated to his enemies the conditions of
peace, whereas the mifcarriage was followed by fix years of bloody war..
The King commanded this action from the window of an upper ftory of a public
houfe, which ftands alone, and is very near the road. It was with inexpreflible plea-
fure that we dined in the room, which commands a view of the field of battle on both
fides. Every thing here appeared facred to me; as I ftood in the place occupied by the
_King, in the window which dire¢tly fronts the eminence which occafioned his deteat, I
felt all the mortification he muft have experienced, when he found his troops giving
way. There were fome marks of cannon-balls in the walls of this houfe, and the King
was not altogether fafe,
Kolin
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