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Rh fast as the condition of the ground would permit, keeping their lines in splendid formation, when all the circumstances are considered. The Uhlans in advance had a dishevelled and bedraggled appearance, as the flags on their lances were soaked with rain and either clung closely to the staves or flapped sluggishly against them. When the bottom of the hill was reached, the trumpets sounded, the cavalry and horse artillery pushed toward the river Bistritz, and then the movement became fully apparent to the Austrians. Their guns opened quickly upon the advancing Prussians from a battery stationed in a field near the village of Dub, where the main highway crossed the Bistritz. The great battle which was to decide the relations between Austria and Prussia was now fully begun.

The battle opened at about half-past seven o'clock in the morning. The Prussian horse artillery replied promptly to the Austrian cannon, but neither side fired rapidly, and for fully thirty minutes the encounter consisted mainly of occasional shots. The king of Prussia reached the field a little before eight o'clock, and soon after his arrival the horse artillery was strengthened by the advance of other batteries, and orders were given for a rapid fire to be opened upon the Austrians. A rain of shot and shell was poured in upon them. Immediately after the beginning of this rapid fire on the part of the Prussians, the Austrian batteries came out in great force from all directions and returned the fire quite as vigorously as it had begun. The Austrian concentration of artillery was admirable, as the batteries appeared quickly from every village and every road all along the whole front of the Austrian line, which extended from Mockrowens on the right to Benatek on the left. The flashes of fire from the mouths of the cannon formed a continuous line, and the guns were evidently aimed with great precision; the shot and shell were dropped among the Prussian guns, occasionally