‘What is Ney doing?’ Napoleon fumed.‘What is that fool up to? He has no orders to advance yet. He can’t attack by himself.’
Behind the Emperor the staff officers and messengers stood silently and watched helplessly as Ney’s men closed on the enemy and began to deploy as the first of the Prussian guns ahead of them opened fire, orange flames stabbing through puffs of smoke that looked like tiny flowers at a distance. Through Napoleon’s telescope the effect on the delicate-looking lines of French soldiers was all too real, however, as round shot swept away whole files of men at a time. With painstaking steadiness Ney’s men completed the manoeuvre and advanced towards the enemy line. The bright colours of each battalion’s standard led the way and the waving swords of the officers glittered like far-off stars as they caught the morning sun. The enemy cannon continued to cut scores of men down as the French advanced and then, as they closed up on the Prussian line, they halted and made ready to fire.
There was a pause, then a final volley flashed out from the Prussian guns.An instant later, Ney’s men replied. Scores of men fell on each side, and then Ney’s infantry charged through the musket smoke and made for the enemy artillery positions.There was no time for the Prussians to reload and they fled from their guns, abandoning them to the French.
Berthier clapped his hands. ‘They’ve done it! They have the guns!’
‘Yes.’ Napoleon nodded. ‘And at what cost? The fool has advanced too far, and has no support. Look there, now Ney will really have his battle.’
Napoleon pointed out the dense mass of enemy cavalry already edging forward from the rear of the Prussian lines. They had been moving forward to counter Lannes’s attack, but the Prussian general had seen his chance to crush Ney’s isolated formation and the long lines of mounted men closed in on the French infantry. Ney did the only thing that he could under the circumstances, and Napoleon watched the distant infantry hurriedly form squares and prepare to receive the charge of the enemy cavalry.The Emperor had little doubt that Ney and his men would hold off the Prussian horsemen, but they were not the real danger.While Ney’s corps held off the cavalry the Prussians would bring forward more guns and infantry to blast the static French formations to pieces.They could not possibly endure such punishment for long, and the squares would break down. At that point they would be entirely at the mercy of the Prussians.
Napoleon frowned bitterly.‘Ney has forced my hand.We have to save that Gascon fool and his men.’ Napoleon turned away from the scene, his mind swiftly conceiving the necessary orders. ‘We need cavalry. Where is Murat?’
‘Still on the road to Jena, sire,’ Berthier replied.‘His advance elements have just begun to cross the Saale.We only have two cavalry regiments in the reserve.’
‘Then we must use them. Send them forward to support Ney.’
Berthier’s eyes widened. ‘Two regiments against that host, sire? They won’t stand a chance.’
‘Neither will Ney if we don’t act at once. I will not lose Ney’s corps,’ Napoleon stated firmly. ‘Send those two regiments forward immediately. And order Lannes and Augereau to advance and take position on either flank of Ney’s corps.’
‘Yes, sire.’
Napoleon turned back towards Ney’s embattled corps and saw that the enemy cavalry had now engulfed the squares. Each pocket of blue was surrounded by thick smoke amid which the dashing shadows of Prussian cavalry galloped past, their riders firing pistols at point blank range, and threatening to charge any weak points in the French lines. Napoleon’s heart was heavy with a mixture of dread for the fate of his men, cut off from the rest of the army and threatened with annihilation, and rage at Ney for his hot-headedness. Bravery was one thing, and Ney was as brave as they came, Napoleon conceded, but rashness was irresponsible at best and a positive peril at worst. If Ney survived the battle, there would be words spoken about his cavalier approach to orders.
Napoleon dismissed his anger towards his subordinate and concentrated his attention on the battlefield once again. For the moment, the initiative had passed to the Prussians and they had the opportunity to crush Ney, and force the entire French line back to the foot of the Landgrafenberg, if they acted quickly. Already Napoleon could see a dense mass of enemy infantry moving towards Lannes and as the two sides came together in a fury of musket flashes and plumes of smoke the overwhelming numbers of the enemy began to tell. Lannes’s men were forced back on to a small hamlet halfway across the plateau. Napoleon could see at once that there was no chance that the Prussians could be halted there, and he cursed the speed at which his other corps were marching towards the battle. If only there was one more corps here to throw into the fight, to stabilise the line long enough for more men to arrive and swing the balance in favour of the French. He cursed Ney once more, and then Murat for failing to have his cavalry on hand, and then the enemy general for having the temerity to be a good enough soldier to seize the advantage.
‘Who would have thought that a Prussian general would take the initiative?’ he muttered to himself.
It was Berthier who noticed it first. He stared over the battlefield for a moment, and then frowned as he spoke. ‘Sire, the enemy have halted.’
‘What?’
Napoleon strained his eyes to make out the details of the battlefield to Lannes’s front. There was still a good deal of smoke obscuring both sides. But then he could see that Berthier was right.The enemy line had indeed halted, and even as Napoleon raised his telescope to look more closely he could make out the sergeants dressing the Prussian formations as if they were on a parade ground. As French fire plucked men out of the line, so they dressed ranks again and stood to attention, waiting.
‘What on earth are they playing at?’ asked Berthier. ‘Why don’t they continue to advance?’
‘God knows,’ Napoleon replied, and then swung his telescope across the battlefield. Ney was barely holding his own against the enemy cavalry but the Prussian artillery and infantry that had been advancing to trap his corps had also halted and were standing still, almost within musket range of the nearest French square. At first Napoleon could not understand it. Why would the Prussians throw away such a splendid opportunity to send the French line reeling back? Why delay? What were they waiting for?
Napoleon swept his telescope across the landscape, and then steadied it on a fresh mass of Prussian soldiers approaching the battlefield from the west. He estimated their strength to be at least ten thousand, and smiled as he realised what was happening. The enemy general was waiting for reinforcements before he launched what he hoped would be the decisive attack on the battered French line. So, the Prussians were performing true to form, Napoleon mused. Still the same cautious, plodding foe. Well, they would pay for their foolishness. Indeed, they already were. Lannes’s men sheltering in the buildings of the hamlet were pouring a withering fire on the smartly dressed Prussian lines. As soon as Lannes became aware that the enemy had halted he had given the order for his artillery to unlimber in range of the Prussians and open fire. Now, blast after blast of case shot smashed into the enemy lines, leaving ten or more men dead and wounded with each discharge. Napoleon watched with a grudging sense of admiration as the enemy stood their ground in the face of such fire. All the time they were being steadily cut down by French fire, each battalion contracting amid the carnage dealt by the cones of heavy iron balls blasted at them from the muzzles of the French guns.