The army had left its cantonments in order to proceed to Gotha: but at ten in the morning, the vanguard, as it arrived on the banks of the Unstrut, was attacked by two Prussian regiments, commanded by the Generals Flies and Seckendorff. They were able to mount nearly a thousand men, both troops of the guard and _landwehr_. Among these regiments of the guard was that of Queen Augusta, one of the élite. The rapidity of the Prussian fire showed at once that they must be armed, at least the greater part of them, with quick-firing rifles. The king put his horse to the gallop in order to arrive as soon as possible on the spot where the battle had begun. The little village of Merscleben was on a hill to the left: behind the village, on higher ground than the Prussian artillery posts, they placed four batteries which at once opened fire. The king desired to be informed of the disposition of the field. In front of him, running to the right and left was the Unstrut and its marshes; then a great thicket, or rather, a wood called Badenwaeldschen; and behind the Unstrut, upon the steep slope of the mountain, the Prussian masses advancing, preceded by formidable artillery which fired as it came. "Is there a higher point whence I can direct the battle?" asked the king. "There is a hill half a kilometre from the Unstrut, but it is under the fire of the enemy." "That is the place for me," said the king. "Come, gentlemen." "Pardon, sire," said the prince, "but half a gun-shot away from the hill where Your Majesty wishes to establish your camp, there is a sort of wood of alders and aspens stretching to the river. We must search that wood." "Order fifty skirmishers to go down to the river." "That will be unnecessary, sire," said Benedict, "there is no need for more than one man for that." And he went off at a gallop, crossed the wood in every direction and reappeared. "There is no one there, sire," said he, saluting. The king put his horse to the gallop and posted himself on the top of the little hill. His horse was the only white one, and served as a target for bullets and balls. The king wore his uniform as general of the forces, blue, turned up with red; the prince his uniform of the hussars of the guard. Battle was joined. The Prussians had driven back the Hanoverian outposts, who had recrossed the river, and a hot cannonade was exchanged between the Hanoverian artillery before Merscleben, and Prussians on the other side of the Unstrut. "Sire," said Benedict, "don't you fear that the Prussians will send men to hold the wood which I searched just now, and will fire on the king as at a target from its outskirts, only three hundred metres away?" "What would you suggest?" asked the prince. "I propose, monseigneur, to take fifty men and go to guard the wood. Our fire will protect you as the enemy approach." The prince exchanged a few words with the king, who nodded approvingly. "Go," said Prince Ernest; "but for heaven's sake don't get killed."