venture so very near, our gunners on the north battery give them a blast
of satisfactory grape-shot; one and then another, four blasts in all,
satisfactory to the gunner mind,--till the King's self, with a look,
with a voice, came galloping: "Silence, will you!" The Russians took no
offence; still considering Finck to be the main thing and Friedrich some
scout party,--till at last,

Half-past eleven, everything being ready on the Walck Hill, Friedrich's
batteries opened there, in a sudden and volcanic way. Volcanically
answered by the Russians, as soon as possible; who have 72 guns on this
Muhlberg, and are nothing loath. Upon whom Finck's battery is opening
from the north, withal: Friedrich has 60 cannon hereabouts; on the
Walckberg, on the LITTLE Spitzberg (called SEIDLITZ HILL ever since);
all playing diligently on the head and south shoulder of this Muhlberg:
while Finck's battery opens on the north shoulder (could he but get near
enough). Volcanic to a degree all these; nor are the Russians wanting,
though they get more and more astonished: Tempelhof, who was in it, says
he never, except at Torgau next Year, heard a louder cannonade. Loud
exceedingly; and more or less appalling to the Russian imagination:
but not destructive in proportion; the distance being too
considerable,--"1,950 paces at the nearest," as Tempelhof has since
ascertained by measuring. Friedrich's two batteries, however, as they
took the Russians in the flank or by enfilade, did good execution.
"The Russian guns were ill-pointed; the Russian batteries wrong-built;
batteries so built as did not allow them sight of the Hollow they were
meant to defend." [Tempelhof, iii. 186, 187.]

After above half an hour of this, Friedrich orders storm of the
Muhlberg: Forward on it, with what of enfilading it has had! Eight
grenadier Battalions, a chosen vanguard appointed for the work (names of
Battalions all given, and deathless in the Prussian War-Annals), tramp
forth on this service: cross the abatis, which the Russian grenadoes
have mostly burnt; down into the Hollow. Steady as planets; "with
a precision and coherency," says Tempelhof, "which even on the
parade-ground would have deserved praises. Once well in the Hollow,
they suffer nothing; though the blind Russian fire, going all over their
heads, rages threefold:" suffered nothing in the Hollow; nor till they
reached almost the brow of the Muhlberg, and were within a hundred steps
of the Russian guns.