discharged on them a shower of shot.  At the same moment, the heavy cavalry rushed forward into the openings which the artillery had made in the close ranks of the assailants, and divided them; till the intrepid band, conquered by the strength of nature and of man, took to flight, leaving a hundred dead upon the field.  To Germans had Gustavus yielded this post of honor.  Exasperated at their retreat, he now led on his Finlanders to the attack, thinking, by their northern courage, to shame the cowardice of the Germans.  But they, also, after a similar hot reception, yielded to the superiority of the enemy; and a third regiment succeeded them to experience the same fate.  This was replaced by a fourth, a fifth, and a sixth; so that, during a ten hours’ action, every regiment was brought to the attack to retire with bloody loss from the contest.  A thousand mangled bodies covered the field; yet Gustavus undauntedly maintained the attack, and Wallenstein held his position unshaken.

In the mean time, a sharp contest had taken place between the imperial cavalry and the left wing of the Swedes which was posted in a thicket on the Rednitz, with varying success but with equal intrepedity and loss on both sides.  The Duke of Friedland and Prince Bernard of Weimar had each a horse shot under him; the king himself had the sole of his boot carried off by a cannon ball.  The combat was maintained with undiminished obstinacy, till the approach of night separated the combatants.  But the Swedes had advanced too far to retreat without hazard.  While the king was seeking an officer to convey to the regiments the order to retreat, he met Colonel Hepburn, a brave Scotchman, whose native courage alone had drawn him from the camp to share in the dangers of the day.  Offended with the king for having, not long before, preferred a younger officer for some post of danger, he had rashly vowed never again to draw his sword for the king.  To him Gustavus now addressed himself, praising his courage and requesting him to order the regiments to retreat.  “Sire,” replied the brave soldier, “it is the only service I cannot refuse to your Majesty; for it is a hazardous one”—­and immediately hastened to carry the command.  One of the heights above the old fortress had, in the heat of the action, been carried by the Duke of Weimar.  It commanded the hills and the whole camp.  But the heavy rain which fell during the night rendered it impossible to draw up the cannon; and this post, which had been gained with so much bloodshed, was also voluntarily abandoned.  Diffident of fortune, which forsook him on this decisive day, the king did not venture the following morning to renew the attack with his exhausted troops; and vanquished for the first time, even because he was not victor, he led back his troops over the Rednitz.  Two thousand dead which he left behind him on the field, testified to the extent of his loss; and the Duke of Friedland remained unconquered within his lines.