Peter, good fellow, has lost his all at dice.--RÉGNIER.
The regiment of musketeers from Munkholm was on the march through the
narrow passes lying between Throndhjem and Skongen. Sometimes it moved
along the brink of a torrent, and the long line of bayonets crept
through the ravine like a huge serpent with glittering scales; sometimes
it wound around a mountain, making it look like one of those triumphal
columns about which curves an army of heroes in bronze.
The soldiers marched with trailing weapons and cloaks dragging in the
dust, looking surly and tired, for these noble fellows are averse to
anything but battle or inaction. The coarse banter and threadbare jests
which delighted them but yesterday had lost their savor. The air was
chill, the sky clouded. Nothing would raise a laugh in the ranks, unless
one of the sutler-women should get an awkward tumble from her little
Barbary horse, or a tin saucepan should happen to roll over the
precipice and rebound from rock to rock.
To while away the monotony of the journey, Lieutenant Randmer, a young
Danish baron, accosted old Captain Lory, who had risen from the ranks.
The captain, moody and silent, moved with a heavy but confident step;
the lieutenant, light and agile, played with a twig which he had plucked
from the bushes that lined the read.
“Well, Captain, what ails you? You seem depressed.”
“And I should say I had good cause,” replied the old officer, without
raising his eyes.
“Come, come, no regrets! Look at me. Am I depressed? And yet I would
wager that I have quite as much cause as you.”
“I doubt it, Baron Randmer; I have lost all I possessed; I have lost
everything I loved.”
“Captain Lory, our misfortunes are precisely the same. It is not a
fortnight since Lieutenant Alberick won my castle and estate at a single
deal of the cards. I am ruined; but am I the less gay?”
The captain answered in a very melancholy tone: “Lieutenant, you have
only lost your castle; but I have lost my dog.”
At this answer the light-minded baron seemed uncertain whether to laugh
or sympathize; but he said: “Be comforted, Captain. Only think, I, who
have lost my castle--”