At Custozza Magyar hussars, Croats from the Military Frontier, and Tirolese sharpshooters had fought side by side.
Polkinghorne uses the parable to try to prove that God has created universal laws which are analogous to a miraculous preservation from sharpshooters.
Cannon and musketry, mingling together, thundered on the right and in the center, while the capotes of Lannes' sharpshooters were already seen crossing the milldam and forming up within twice the range of a musket shot.
Behind these were some Russian sharpshooters.
But at that moment the French who were attacking, suddenly and without any apparent reason, ran back and disappeared from the outskirts, and Russian sharpshooters showed themselves in the copse.
