hey would have been more astonished
still, for they would have seen Frederick with his staff and general
officers dining at leisure and with the utmost coolness and
indifference. There was no appearance of haste in their movements, and
no more in those of their men, whose whole concern just then seemed to
be the getting of a good meal.

The hour passed on, the French came nearer, their trumpet clangor was
close at hand, every moment seemed to render the peril of the Prussians
more imminent, yet their inertness continued; it looked almost as though
they had given up the idea of defence. The confidence of the French must
have grown rapidly as their plan of surrounding the Prussians with their
superior numbers seemed more and more assured.

But Frederick had his eye upon them. He was biding his time. Suddenly
there came a change. It was about half-past two in the afternoon. The
French had reached the position for which he had been waiting. Quickly
the staff officers dashed right and left with their orders. The trumpets
sounded. As if by magic the tents were struck, the men sprang to their
ranks and were drawn up in battle array, the artillery opened its fire,
the seeming inertness which had prevailed was with extraordinary
rapidity exchanged for warlike activity; the complete discipline of the
Prussian army had never been more notably displayed.

The French, who had been marching forward with careless ease, beheld
this change of the situation with astounded eyes. They looked for
heaviness and slowness of movement among the Germans, and could scarcely
believe in the possibility of such rapidity of evolution. But they had
little time to think. The Prussian batteries were pouring a rain of
balls through their columns. And quickly the Prussian cavalry, headed by
the dashing Seidlitz, was in their midst, cutting and slashing with
annihilating vigor.

The surprise was complete. The French found it impossible to form into
line. Everywhere their columns were being swept by musketry and
artillery, and decimated by the sabres of the charging cavalry. In
almost less time than it takes to tell it they were thrown into
confusion, overwhelmed, routed; in the course of less than half an hour
the fate of the battle was decided, and the French army completely
defeated.

Their confidence of a short time before was succeeded by panic, and the
lately trim ranks fled in utter disorganization, so utterly broken that
many of the fugitives