“In spite of the sombre morning and of the grey clothing, relieved only by the darker but livelier green of the Jagers and their plumed hats, the effect of the whole host wheeling, deploying, advancing, taking ground to the right or left, or marching in lengthened column, was so bright that it was difficult to believe they all, horses and men, had been sleeping out under the veiled stars of heaven, and were still dank and heavy with the night dew and the rain of the morning. But there could be no mistake about the reality of the work in which they were engaged, for the Austrians on the brow of the slope to the right were pounding away fiercely at the invincible enemy in the valley. That there was an enemy was plain enough, for the earth flew up on the slope as the answering shells glanced upwards, and then exploded among the infantry in the rear. This was about 8.30 A.M. At nine o’clock a heavy shower obscured the field, and when it drifted northwards three Austrian batteries were still busy on the slope, and several columns of infantry, deploying on its side, moved up around it and disappeared into the valley, whence there soon came masses of curling smoke, and then the batteries limbered up and moved over also, showing that the enemy were falling back. The second line on the right made a slight movement to the right and upwards, but it did not seem as if the Austrians concerned themselves much for the ground between the rear of Imilovitz and the river. The cannonade which had all this time been going on towards the right now extended towards the middle or centre; a line of batteries moving on or halting to fire could be seen on the plateau to the right of Klum, and it was evident that the enemy was in great force in that direction. It looked as if the Prussians had attacked the position almost simultaneously from left to right, for no sooner had the action developed itself on the centre than it rolled back from Nechanitz on the left, and before 9.30 the whole range of hills and valleys and slopes for nine miles and more was as if the earth had been turned into snow wreaths agitated in a wintry gale. Before 10 o’clock a thicker and darker cloud rose from the trees and the village on the right. “My God, Imilovitz is in flames,” exclaimed the guardian of the tower. The officers said “_Ja so!_” “_Hem!_” and uttered various other sounds of varied import possibly, smoked their cigars, and looked on. Imilovitz, indeed, blazed up furiously after a time, and in about a quarter of an hour more the Austrian batteries which had gone down the slope toiled up again, unlimbered, and fired from the brow. Puffs of smoke high in the air or rising from the ground showed where the Prussian fire was plying the Austrians on the right; but their guns replied vigorously, and all through that day, though sometimes ill-placed, the Austrian artillery behaved most gallantly. It was difficult to ascertain why