The cavalry, which had
charged the black cuirassiers of Wallenstein, was less successful. They
were repulsed, and the cuirassiers fiercely charged the Swedish infantry
in flank, driving it back beyond the trenches.
This repulse brought on the great disaster of the day. Gustavus, seeing
his infantry driven back, hastened to their aid with a troop of horse,
and through the disorder of the field became separated from his men,
only a few of whom accompanied him, among them Francis, Duke of
Saxe-Lauenburg. His short-sightedness, or the foggy condition of the
atmosphere, unluckily brought him too near a party of the black
cuirassiers, and in an instant a shot struck him, breaking his left arm.
"I am wounded; take me off the field," he said to the Duke of Lauenburg,
and turned his horse to retire from the perilous vicinity.
As he did so a second ball struck him in the back. "My God! My God!" he
exclaimed, falling from the saddle, while his horse, which had been
wounded in the neck, dashed away, dragging the king, whose foot was
entangled in the stirrup, for some distance.
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