Now I must tell you about our return to Phalsburg.
You may suppose that my wife and children, after seeing me take my gun
and go away, were in a state of great anxiety. About five o'clock
Sorle went out with Zeffen to try to learn what was going on, and only
then they heard that I had started for Mittelbronn with a detachment of
veterans.
Imagine their terror!
The rumor of these extraordinary proceedings had spread through the
city, and quantities of people were on the bastion of the artillery
barracks, looking on from the distance. Burguet was there, with the
mayor, and other persons of distinction, and a number of women and
children, all trying to see through the darkness. Some insisted that
Moses marched with the detachment, but nobody would believe it, and
Burguet exclaimed: "It is not possible that a sensible man like Moses
would go and risk his life in fighting Cossacks--no, it is not
possible!"
If I had been in his place I should have said the same of him. But
what can you do, Fritz? The most prudent of men become blind when
their property is at stake; blind, I say, and terrible, for they lose
sight of danger.
This crowd was waiting, as I said, and soon Zeffen and Sorle came, as
pale as death, with their large shawls over their heads. They went up
the rampart and stood there, with their feet in the snow, too much
frightened to speak.