Benedict showed the palm of his hand. "Can a man be killed, who has a double line of life on his hand?" And he galloped to the infantry of the line. "Fifty good marksmen for me," said he in German. A hundred presented themselves. "Come," said Benedict, "we shall not be too many." He left his horse with a hussar of the prince's regiment, and threw himself into the underwood at the head of his men, who scattered. They had scarcely disappeared among the trees, when a terrible fusillade burst forth. Two hundred men had just passed the Unstrut; but, as they were ignorant of the number of men following Benedict, they retreated fighting, supposing him to have superior forces, and leaving a dozen dead in the wood. Benedict guarded the bank of the Unstrut, and by a well-sustained fire, kept off all approach. The king had been recognized, the bullets whistled around him and even between his horse's legs. "Sire," said Major Schweppe, "perhaps it would be well to seek a place a little further from the field of battle." "Why so?" asked the king. "The bullets may reach Your Majesty!" "What does it matter! Am I not in the hands of the Lord?" The prince came up to his father. "Sire," said he, "the Prussians are advancing by great masses towards Unstrut, despite our fire." "What are the infantry doing?" "They are marching to take the offensive." "And--they march well?" "As on parade, sire." "The Hanoverian troops were once excellent troops; in Spain they held the élite of the French troops in check. To-day, when they fight before their king they will prove worthy of themselves, I trust." And, in fact, all the Hanoverian infantry, formed in column, advanced with the calm of veterans under the fire of the Prussian batteries. After having been a moment astounded at the hail of bullets which the muskets rained upon them, they continued their march, crossed the marshes of Unstrut, took the thicket of Badenwaeldschen by bayonet and struggled hand to hand with the enemy. For a moment smoke and the unevenness of the ground hid the general aspect of the battle. But at that moment a horseman was seen to emerge from the smoke and to move towards the hill where the king was stationed, riding in hot haste and mounted on the horse of a Prussian officer. It was Benedict, who had killed the rider in order to take his horse, and who was coming to say that the Prussians had commenced the attack. "Einem! Einem!" cried the king, "haste, order the cavalry to charge." The captain hastened. He was a giant of over six feet, the most vigorous and handsomest man in the army. He put his horse to the gallop, crying, "Hurrah!" A minute afterwards, a sound like a hurricane was heard. It was the cuirassiers of the guard charging.