105 THE SEVEN YEARS WAR, 1756-63d'armes (C 10) and two squadrons of Prinz von Preussen (C 2) soon
discovered the presence of the Austrians for themselves. During the
advance the Garde du Corps veered sharply to its left, in order to avoid
the musketry fire from Sullowitz, and by this movement they exposed
the right flank of the Prussian force to a counter-attack by the
Austrian Erherzog Joseph Dragoons (D 1). Frederick had raised
himself in the saddle, and when the first clash came he sat back and
exclaimed, 'Now they are off!'(Westphalen, 1859-72, I, 157). The
Prussian Bayreuth Dragoons (D 5) intervened to rescue the cuiras-
siers, whereupon the Austrian horse withdrew swiftly and expertly
behind their batteries, exposing the Prussians to a devastating fire of
roundshot and canister.
The broken Prussian squadrons streamed back towards the
Homolka in disarray, but Frederick saw that one of the Garde du
Corps, bleeding and hatless, had forced his horse about and was
making back towards the Austrian positions. ' "Wait a moment!"
said the king. He drew his handkerchief from his pocket, and an
adjutant took it to the cavalryman to enable him to bandage his
head. "My thanks", replied the Garde du Corps. "You won't see it
again, but I'll get my own back on the enemy and make them pay for
it!" ' (Anon., 1787-9, XI, 19). With this he spurred away.
Frederick had rather less sympathy for the rest of Kyau's force,
and he told the Alt-Anhalt musketeers, 'Pay attention to what the
officers order you to do. Don't let the cavalry through. Shoot them
down if you have to' (Urkundliche Beitrage, 1901,1, Heft 2, 3). In the
event the survivors re-formed on the remainder of the Prussian
cavalry (forty-three squadrons), which had meanwhile filtered
through the intervals of the infantry and formed two disorderly lines.
These 10,000 troopers became restless under the Austrian cannonade,
and^without waiting for any command they surged towards the
Austrian positions. Frederick exclaimed, 'My God, what is my caval-
ry doing! They're attacking a second time, and nobody gave the
order!' (Brunswick, 1902, I, Heft 4, 37).
The attack divided into two main masses. The Austrian grena-
diers and Croats made rapidly to either side as the left-hand group
broke across the sunken road, and the Prussians were badly shot up by
artillery and musketry, and hit by a counter-attack of three regiments
of Austrian cuirassiers.
To the right, a number of regiments spilled into the Morellen-
Bach. Kalkreuth writes that 'many horses were too weak to struggle
up the high bank from the swampy hollow. I remember seeing a
Schonaich Hussar lying dead in the lines of the Austrian infantry. A
lot of the cavalry stuck fast in the mud on the far side, and they lost a
great number of dead and wounded' (1840, II, 129). Colonel Seydlitz