The effect was frightful. In a short time nearly all the brave grenadiers were shot down. Their places were filled by fresh regiments and the cavalry was ordered to advance, but it was useless. Nothing could withstand that murderous fire. In the meantime Frederick himself was exposed to the greatest danger. Shots ploughed up the earth so near him that his horse was very restive. At last he had to make a show of composure. He rode from the first rank to the second, and came to a dragoon regiment. “Well, children, how goes it? ” he asked. Some answered, “Badly, Your Majesty; we are standing here letting them shoot us down, and we cannot defend ourselves.” “Wait a little,” said the King to them, “the firing will soon cease; then we will attack them.” While saying these words a cannon-ball came so close to him that his horse jumped to one side, knocked over a drum, and seemed about to run away with him. The King smiled, and said to the drummer: “You tell the Austrians if they don’t soon march off, I will take their guns away from them.” A new attack was ordered, but the Austrians resumed their destructive fire. At this crisis the King noticed there was a great gap on the right wing, between the _Garde du Corps_ and the _gens d’armes_. He rode where the shots were falling thickest, to strengthen the weak spot. When this had been done, he remained there a short time, watching with his glass one of the batteries which was playing havoc with the _Garde du Corps_. A corporal of the fourth company remarked to a guard: “If we have got to stand here and be shot at, because they won’t let us attack, give me a pinch of snuff.” The guard took his box from his pouch, and as he was lifting the cover, a cannon-ball shot off his head. In the most cold-blooded way, the corporal turned to his second neighbor and said: “Well, now, you give me a pinch; that one has gone to the d—l.” While Lieutenant von Byern, who afterward became leader of a cuirassier regiment, was speaking with the man about the accident, another ball killed his horse. The King, who had been watching them closely, rode up to the lieutenant, and then said to the corporal: “You have the proper coolness of a soldier. I shall remember you.” The corporal was overjoyed because the King had honored him by addressing him, which aroused his hope of promotion. The _Garde du Corps_ suffered greatly in this battle, for they were exposed to the fire of the battery already mentioned, and every discharge killed some of them. The King greatly deplored it, but he could not relieve them right away. He rode up to them and said in a tone of deep sympathy: “Children, only have patience for a few minutes. Things will quickly change.” At that instant a shot came close to the King and killed the file leader of the fourth company of the second squadron. His next neighbor said to the King: “Be careful of yourself, Your Majesty, and ride to a safer place. It is more important you should live than we.”