Leitmeritz, lying as it did but a short distance beyond the mouth
of the defiles leading into Saxony, was an admirably chosen
position. Supplies for the army could be brought up by the Elbe,
and a retreat was assured, should an overwhelming force advance to
the attack; while from this spot Frederick could march, at once,
either to the defence of Silesia, or to check an enemy approaching
from the west towards the defiles through the mountains.
The news of the defeat at Kolin set all the enemies of Prussia in
movement. The Russian army entered East Prussia, where there was no
adequate force to oppose it; the Swedes issued from Stralsund; the
French pressed hard upon the so-called British column of
observation, and forced the Duke of Cumberland to retreat before
them. Another French army, in conjunction with that of the German
Confederacy, threatened the western passes into Saxony.
As yet, it was impossible to say where Marshal Daun and Prince Karl
would deliver their blow, and great efforts were made to fill up
the terrible gaps created at Prague and Kolin, in the regiments
most hotly engaged, with fresh troops; who were speedily rendered,
by incessant drills and discipline, fit to take their places in the
ranks with the veterans.
The king was lodged in the cathedral close of the city. Keith with
his division occupied the other side of the river, across which a
bridge was at once thrown. Prince Maurice and Bevern had gone to
Bunzlau, at the junction of the Iser and Elbe; but when, upon a
crowd of light Austrian horse approaching, the Prince sent to the
king to ask whether he should retreat, he was at once recalled, and
the Prince of Prussia appointed in his stead.
On the 2nd of July came news which, on the top of his other
troubles, almost prostrated Frederick. This was of the death of his
mother, to whom he was most fondly attached. He retired from public
view for some days; for although he was as iron in the hour of
battle, he was a man of very sensitive disposition, and fondly
attached to his family.
His chief confidant during this sad time was the English
ambassador, Mitchell; a bluff, shrewd, hearty man, for whom the
king had conceived a close friendship. He had accompanied Frederick
from the time he left Berlin, and had even been near him on the
battlefields; and it was in no small degree due to his despatches
and correspondence that we have obtained so close a view of
Frederick, the man, as distinct from Frederick the king and
general.
The Prince of Prussia, however, did no better than Prince Maurice.
The main Austrian army, after much hesitation, at last crossed the
Elbe and moved against him; thinking, doubtless, that he was a less
formidable antagonist than the king. The prince fell back, but in
such hesitating and blundering fashion that he allowed the
Austrians to get between him and his base, the town of Zittau,
where his magazines had been established.
Zittau stood at the foot of the mountain, and was a Saxon town. The
Austrians had come to deliver Saxony, and they began the work by
firing red-hot balls into Zittau, thereby laying the whole town in
ashes, rendering 10,000 people homeless, and doing no injury
whatever to the Prussian garrison or magazines.
The heat, however, from the ruins was so terrible that the five
battalions in garrison there were unable to support it and,
evacuating the town, joined the prince's army; which immediately
retired to Bautzen on the other side of the mountains, leaving the
defiles to Saxony and Silesia both unguarded.
As messenger after messenger arrived at Leitmeritz, with reports of
the movements of the troops, the astonishment and indignation of
Frederick rose higher and higher. The whole fruits of the campaign
were lost, by this astounding succession of blunders; and on
hearing that Zittau had been destroyed, and that the army had
arrived at Bautzen in the condition of a beaten and disheartened
force, he at once started, with the bulk of the army, by the Elbe
passes for that town; leaving Maurice of Dessau, with 10,000 men,
to secure the passes; and Keith to follow more slowly with the
baggage train and magazines.
On his arrival at Bautzen Frederick refused to speak to his
brother, but sent him a message saying that he deserved to be
brought before a court martial, which would sentence him and all
his generals to death; but that he should not carry the matter so
far, being unable to forget that the chief offender was his
brother. The prince resigned his command, and the king, in answer
to his letter to that effect, said that, in the situation created
by him, nothing was left but to try the last extremity.
"I must go and give battle," he wrote, "and if we cannot conquer,
we must all of us get ourselves killed."
Frederick, indeed, as his letters show, had fully made up his mind
that he would die in battle, rather than live beaten. The animosity
of his enemies was, to a large extent, personal to himself; and he
believed that they would, after his death, be inclined to give
better terms to Prussia than they would ever grant, while he lived.
For three weeks the king vainly tried to get the Austrians to give
battle, but Prince Karl and Daun remained on the hill from which
they had bombarded Zittau, and which they had now strongly
fortified.
Their barbarous and most useless bombardment of Zittau had done
their cause harm; for it roused a fierce cry of indignation
throughout Europe, even among their allies; excited public feeling
in England to the highest point in favour of Frederick; and created
a strong feeling of hostility to the Austrians throughout Saxony.
As soon as Keith and the waggon train arrived, bringing up the
Prussian strength to 56,000, the king started, on the 15th August
(1757), for Bernstadt; and then, to the stupefaction of the
Austrians--who had believed that they had either Saxony or Silesia
at their mercy, whenever they could make up their mind which ought
first to be gobbled up--so rapidly did the Prussian cavalry push
forward that Generals Beck and Nadasti were both so taken by
surprise that they had to ride for their lives, leaving baggage
coaches, horses, and all their belongings behind them.
On the 16th, Frederick with the army marched and offered battle to
the Austrians; but although so superior in numbers, they refused to
be beguiled from their fortified hill. At last, after tempting them
in vain, Frederick was forced to abandon the attempt and return to
Saxony, bitterly disappointed. He had wanted, above all things, to
finish with the Austrians; so as to be able to move off to the
other points threatened.
He now arranged that Bevern and Winterfeld should take the command
in his absence, watch the Austrians, and guard Silesia; while he,
with 23,000 men, marched on the 31st of August from Dresden, with
the intention of attacking the combined French and German
Confederacy force, under Soubise, that had already reached Erfurt.
Keith accompanied the king on his harassing march.
Since the arrival of the army at Leitmeritz, Fergus had been
incessantly engaged in carrying despatches between that town and
Dresden; and worked even harder while the king was trying, but in
vain, to bring about an engagement with the Austrians. For the
first few days after starting for Erfurt, he had a comparatively
quiet time of it. The marshal was now constantly the king's
companion, his cheerful and buoyant temper being invaluable to
Frederick, in this time of terrible anxiety. Fergus would have
found it dull work, had it not been for the companionship of
Lindsay, who was always light hearted, and ready to make the best
of everything.
"I would rather be an aide-de-camp than a general, at present,
Drummond," he said one day. "Thank goodness, we get our orders and
have to carry them out, and leave all the thinking to be done by
others! Never was there such a mess as this. Here we are in
October, and we are very much as we were when we began in March."
"Yes, except that all our enemies are drawing closer to us."
"They are closer, certainly, but none of them would seem to know
what he wants to do; and as for fighting, it is of all things that
which they most avoid. We have been trying, for the last two
months, for a fight with the Austrians, and cannot get one. Now we
are off to Erfurt, and I will wager a month's pay that the French
will retire, as soon as we approach; and we shall have all this
long tramp for nothing, and will have to hurry back again, as fast
as we came."
"It is unfortunate that we had to come, Lindsay. Things always seem
to go badly, when the king himself is not present. The princes make
blunder after blunder, and I have no faith in Bevern."
"No," Lindsay agreed, "but he has Winterfeld with him."
"Yes, he is a splendid fellow," Drummond said; "but everyone knows
that he and Bevern do not get on well together, and that the duke
would very much rather that Winterfeld was not with him; and with
two men like that, the one slow and cautious, the other quick and
daring, there are sure to be disagreements. We are going to attack
a force more than twice our own strength, but I am much more
certain as to what will be the result, than I am that we shall find
matters unchanged when we get back here."
The foreboding was very quickly confirmed. A day or two later came
the news that the Austrians had suddenly attacked an advanced
position called the Jakelsberg; where Winterfeld, who commanded the
van of Bevern's army, had posted two thousand grenadiers. Prince
Karl undertook the operation by no means willingly; but the
indignation, at Vienna, at his long delays had resulted in
imperative orders being sent to him, to fight. Nadasti was to lead
the attack, with fifteen thousand men; while the main army
remained, a short distance behind, ready to move up should a
general battle be brought on.
The march was made at night, and at daybreak a thousand Croats, and
forty companies of regular infantry, rushed up the hill. Although
taken by surprise, the Prussians promptly formed and drove them
down again. Winterfeld was some miles behind, having been escorting
an important convoy; and rode at a gallop to the spot, as soon as
he heard the sound of cannon; and brought up two regiments, at a
run, just as the grenadiers were retiring from the hill, unable to
withstand the masses hurled against them.
Sending urgent messages to Bevern, to hurry up reinforcements,
Winterfeld led his two regiments forward, joined the grenadiers
and, rushing eagerly up the hill, regained the position. But the
Austrians were not to be denied, and the fight was obstinately
sustained on both sides. No reinforcements reached Winterfeld and,
after an hour's desperate fighting, he was struck in the breast by
a musket ball and fell, mortally wounded.
The Prussians drew off, slowly and in good order, at two o'clock in
the afternoon; and soon afterwards the Austrians also retired,
nothing having come of this useless battle save heavy loss to both
sides, and the killing of one of Frederick's best and most trusted
generals. It was not, however, without result; for Bevern, freed
from the restraint of his energetic colleague, at once fell back to
Schlesien, where he was more comfortable, near his magazines.
Keith sent for Fergus, on the evening when this bad news had
arrived.
"I want you, lad, to undertake a dangerous service. Now that
Winterfeld has been killed, the king is more anxious than ever as
to the situation. It is enough to madden anyone. It is imperative
that he should get to Erfurt, and fight the French. On the other
hand, everything may go wrong with Bevern while he is away, to say
nothing of other troubles. Cumberland is retreating to the sea; the
Russians are ever gaining ground in East Prussia; there is nothing,
now, to prevent the remaining French army from marching on Berlin;
and the Swedes have issued from Stralsund. It may be that by this
time Soubise has moved from Erfurt; and this is what, above all
things, we want to know.
"You showed so much shrewdness, in your last adventure, that I
believe you might get through this safely. Doubtless there are
cavalry parties, far in advance of Erfurt, and these would have to
be passed. The point is, will you undertake this mission, to go to
Erfurt to ascertain the force there, and if possible their
intentions, and bring us back word?"
"I shall be glad to try, marshal. There should be no difficulty
about it. I shall, of course, go in disguise. I should not be
likely to fall in with any of the enemy's cavalry patrols, till
within a short distance of Erfurt; but should I do so, there would
be little chance of their catching me, mounted as I am.
"I could leave my horse within a short distance of the town. Two or
three hours would be sufficient to gather news of the strength of
the force there, and the movements of any bodies of detached
troops."
"Yes, you should have no great difficulty about that. A large
proportion of the population are favourable to us and, being so
near the frontier of Hanover, your accent and theirs must be so
close that no one would suspect you of being aught but a townsman.
"Of course, the great thing is speed. We shall march from eighteen
to twenty miles a day. You will be able to go fifty. That is to
say, if you start at once you can be there in the morning; and on
the following morning you can bring us back news."
An hour later Fergus, dressed as a small farmer, started. It was a
main line of road, and therefore he was able to travel as fast, at
night, as he would do in the day. There was the advantage, too,
that the disparity between his attire and the appearance of the
horse he rode would pass unnoticed, in the darkness. He had with
him a map of the road, on a large scale; and beneath his cloak he
carried a small lantern, so as to be able to make detours, to avoid
towns where detachments of the enemy's cavalry might be lying.
He had started two hours after the troops halted, and had four
hours of daylight still before him, which he made the most of, and
by sunset he was within fifteen miles of Erfurt. So far, he had not
left the main road; but he now learned, from some peasants, that
there was a small party of French hussars at a place three miles
ahead. He therefore struck off by a byroad and, travelling slowly
along, turned off two hours later to a farmhouse, the lights from
which had made him aware of its proximity.
He dismounted a hundred yards from it, fastened his horse loosely
to a fence, and then went forward on foot, and peeped in cautiously
at the window. It was well that he had taken the precaution, for
the kitchen into which he looked contained a dozen French hussars.
He retired at once, led his horse until he reached the road again,
and then mounted.
Presently he met a man driving a cart.
"My friend," he said, "do you know of any place where a quiet man
could put up, without running the risk of finding himself in the
midst of these French and Confederacy troops?"
"'Tis not easy," the man replied, "for they are all over the
country, pillaging and plundering. We are heartily sick of them,
and there are not a few of us who would be glad, if the King of
Prussia would come and turn them out, neck and crop."
"I don't care what sort of a place it is, so that I could put my
horse up. It is a good one and, like enough, some of these fellows
would take a fancy to it."
"I don't think that it would be safe in any farmhouse within ten
miles of here; but if you like to come with me, my hut stands at
the edge of a wood, and you could leave him there without much
risk."
"Thank you, very much; that would suit me well. It is just what I
had intended to do, but in the darkness I have no great chance of
finding a wood.
"How far are we from Erfurt, now?"
"About five miles."
"That will do very well. I have some business to do there, and can
go and come back by the afternoon."
In a quarter of an hour they arrived at the man's house. It was but
a small place.
"Not much to rob here," his host said grimly. "They have taken my
two cows, and all my poultry. My horse only escaped because they
did not think him fit for anything.
"This is a stranger, wife," he went on, as a woman rose, in some
alarm, from a stool upon which she was crouching by the fire. "He
will stop here for the night and, though there is little enough to
offer him, at least we can make him welcome."
He took a torch from the corner of the room, lighted it at the
fire, and went out.
"You are right about your horse, my friend," he said; "and it is
small chance you would have of taking him back with you, if any of
these fellows set eyes on him. I see your saddlery hardly matches
with your horse."
Fergus had indeed, before starting, taken off his saddle and other
military equipments; and had replaced them with a common country
saddle and bridle, adding a pair of rough wallets and the commonest
of horse cloths, so as to disguise the animal as much as possible.
"I am sorry that I cannot give you a feed for the animal," the man
went on; "but I have none, and my horse has to make shift with what
he can pick up."
"I have one of my wallets full. I baited the horse at inns, as I
came along. He may as well have a feed, before I take him out into
the wood."
He poured a good feed onto a flat stone. As he did so, the
peasant's horse lifted up his head and snuffed the air.
"You shall have some too, old boy," Fergus said; and going across,
was about to empty some on to the ground before it, when its owner,
taking off his hat, held it out.
"Put it into this," he said. "It is seldom, indeed, that he gets
such a treat; and I would not that he should lose a grain."
Fergus poured a bountiful feed into the hat.
"Now," he said, "I can supplement your supper, as well as your
horse's;" and from the other wallet he produced a cold leg of pork,
that Karl had put in before he started; together with three loaves;
and two bottles of wine, carefully done up in straw.
The peasant looked astonished, as Fergus took these out and placed
them upon the table.
"No, no, sir," he said, "we cannot take your food in that way."
"You are heartily welcome to it," Fergus said. "If you do not
assist me to eat it, it will be wasted. Tomorrow I shall breakfast
at Erfurt, and maybe dine, also. I will start as soon as I get
back."
"Well, well, sir, it shall be as you please," the man said; "but it
seems that we are reversing our parts, and that you have become the
host, and we your guests."
It was a pleasant meal by the torch light. Many a month had passed
since the peasants had tasted meat; and the bread, fresh from the
Prussian bakeries, was of a very different quality to the black
oaten bread to which they were accustomed. A horn of good wine
completed their enjoyment.
When the meal was done, the man said:
"Now, master, I will guide you to the wood."
There was no occasion to lead the horse; for it, as well as its
companion, had been trained to follow their master like dogs, and
to come to a whistle. The wood was but two or three hundred yards
off, and the peasant led the way through the trees to a small open
space in its centre. The saddle and bridle had been removed before
they left the cottage; and Fergus tethered the horse, by a foot
rope, to a sapling growing on the edge of the clearing. Then he
patted it on the neck, and left it beginning to crop the short
grass.
"It won't get much," the peasant said, "for my animal keeps it
pretty short. It is his best feeding place, now; and I generally
turn it out here, at night, when the day's work is done."
"What is its work, principally?"
"There is only one sort, now," the man said. "I cut faggots in the
forest, and take a cart load into Erfurt, twice a week. I hope, by
the spring, that all these troubles will be over, and then I
cultivate two or three acres of ground; but so long as these
French, and the Confederacy troops, who are as bad, are about, it
is no use to think of growing anything.
"Now, sir, is there anything that I can do for you?" he went on,
after they returned to the cottage, and had both lit their pipes
and seated themselves by the fire.
"I can see that you are not what you look. A farmer does not ride
about the country on a horse fit for a king, or put up at a cottage
like this."
"Yes; you can help me by leading me by quiet paths to Erfurt. I
tell you frankly that my business, there, is to find out how strong
the French and Confederacy army is, in and around the town; also
whether they are taking any precautions against an attack, and if
there are any signs that they intend to enter Hanover, or to move
towards Dresden."
"I daresay I can learn all that for you, without difficulty; for I
supply several of the inns with faggots. There are troops quartered
in all of them, and the helpers and servants are sure to hear what
is going on. Not, of course, in the inns where the French are
quartered, but where the German men are lodged. They speak plainly
enough there, and indeed everyone knows that a great many of them
are there against their will. The Hesse and Gotha and Dessau men
would all prefer fighting on the Prussian side, but when they were
called out they had to obey.
"At what time will you start?"
"I should like to get to Erfurt as soon as the place is astir."
"That is by five," the man said. "There is trumpeting and drumming
enough by that time, and no one could sleep longer if they wanted
to."
"Then we will start at dawn."
The peasant would have given up his bed to Fergus, but the latter
would not hear of it, and said that he was quite accustomed to
sleeping on the ground; whereupon the peasant went out, and
returned with a large armful of rushes; which, as he told Fergus,
he had cut only the day before to mend a hole in the thatch. Fergus
was well content, for he knew well enough that he should sleep very
much better, on fresh rushes, than he should in the peasant's bed
place, where he would probably be assailed by an army of fleas.
As soon as the man and his wife were astir in the morning, Fergus
got up; bathed his head and face in a tiny streamlet, that ran
within a few yards of the house; then, after cutting a hunch of
bread to eat on their way, the two started.
They did not come down upon the main road until within a mile and a
half of the town, and they then passed through a large village,
where a troop of French cavalry were engaged in grooming their
horses. They attracted no attention whatever, and entered Erfurt at
a quarter-past five. They separated when they got into the town,
agreeing to meet in front of the cathedral, at eleven o'clock.
Fergus went to an eating house, where he saw a party of French
non-commissioned officers and soldiers seated. They were talking
freely, confident that neither the landlord, the man who was
serving them, nor the two or three Germans present could understand
them.
It was evident that they had very little confidence in Soubise.
"One would think," a sergeant said, "that we were going to change
our nationality, and to settle down here for life. Here we have
some fifty thousand men, and there is nothing to stop our going to
Dresden, except some ten thousand or twelve thousand Prussians.
They say that Daun has an army that could eat up Frederick, and it
is certain that he could not spare a sergeant's guard to help bar
the way.
"I cannot understand it, comrades. This leisurely way of making war
may suit some people, but it is not our way."
"And we must admit that it is not the Prussians' way," another
said. "They are our enemies; though why, I am sure I don't know.
That is not our business. But the way that they dash out, and set
the Austrians dancing, is really splendid. I wish that our own
generals had a little of Fritz's energy and go."
There was a general murmur of assent.
"Here we are, September beginning, and next to nothing done. Now
there would be enough to do, if Fritz could get away from Daun and
dash off in this direction."
"Yes," another said, "there would be plenty to do, but I would not
mind wagering that we should not wait for him; and after all, I am
not sure if it would not be the best thing to do, for these Germans
with us are little better than a rabble."
"That is so, Francois; but, mixed up with us as they would be, they
would have to fight whether they liked it or not. At any rate, if
we don't mean to fight, what are we here for?"
"That I cannot say," another laughed; "but I own I am not so eager
to fight as you seem to be. We are very comfortable. We ride about
the country, we take pretty well what we like. It is better than
being in barracks, at home.
"While, on the other hand, it is no joke fighting these Prussians.
The fights are not skirmishes, they are battles. It is not a
question of a few hundred killed, it is a question of ding-dong
fighting, and of fifteen or twenty thousand killed on each side--no
joke, that. For my part, I am quite content to take it easy at
Erfurt, and to leave it to the Austrians to settle matters with
these obstinate fellows."
So they continued talking, and Fergus saw that, so far, no news
whatever of Frederick's march against Erfurt had reached them. He
learned, too, that although there were some outlying bodies to the
north, the main bulk of the force lay in and around Erfurt.
The contempt with which the French soldiers spoke of the German
portion of the army was very great. Each little state had, by the
order of the Council of the Confederacy, been compelled to furnish
a contingent, even if its representatives in the council had
opposed the proposal; therefore very many of the men had joined
unwillingly, while in other cases the French declared that the levy
had been made up by hiring idlers and ne'er-do-wells in the towns,
so as to avoid having to put the conscription into force in the
rural districts.
The officers were declared to be as incapable as the men, and had
it not been that an Austrian contingent some five thousand strong
had been joined with them, and the drilling largely undertaken by
the non-commissioned officers of this force, nothing approaching
order or discipline could have been maintained. All the Frenchmen
lamented their fortune in having to act with such allies, instead
of being with the purely French army that was gradually pressing
the Duke of Cumberland to the seaboard.
Fergus waited until the party had left the inn, when the landlord
himself came across to hand him his reckoning.
"Bad times, master," he said. "Bad times," shaking his head
ruefully.
"Yes, they are bad enough, landlord; but I should say that you must
be doing a good trade, with all these soldiers in the town."
"A good trade!" the landlord repeated. "I am being ruined. Do you
not know that, in addition to levying a heavy contribution on the
town, they issued a regulation settling the prices at which the
troops were to be served, at beer shops and inns: breakfast--and
you saw what those fellows ate--4 pence; a tumbler of wine, 1
pence; dinner, 5 pence. Why, each item costs me more than double
that; and as nobody brings in cattle, for these might be seized on
the way, and no compensation given, so meat gets dearer. We are
waiting until there is none to be had, on any terms; and then we
shall send representatives to the general, to point out to him that
it is absolutely impossible for us to obey the regulations.
"Ah, these are terrible times! We could not have suffered more than
this, had Coburg joined Frederick; though they say that Richelieu's
French army is plundering even worse, in Hanover and the country
beyond it, than Soubise is doing here.
"Moreover, one would rather be plundered by an enemy than by
fellows who pretend to come hither as friends. If Frederick would
march in here, I would open my house free to all comers, and would
not grudge the last drop of wine in my cellar."
"There is never any saying," Fergus replied. "The King of Prussia
always appears when least expected, and more unlikely things have
happened than that he should appear here, some fine morning."
[Illustration: As Fergus was sallying out, a mounted officer
dashed by at a gallop]
Having paid his reckoning, he went to the door. As he was sallying
out, a mounted officer dashed by at a headlong gallop; his horse
was flecked with foam, and it was evident that he had ridden far
and fast, on an important errand.
Having nothing to do until he should meet the peasant, Fergus
followed the officer at a leisurely pace; and in five minutes came
up with the horse, held by a soldier at the entrance gate of a very
large house. Sentries were pacing up and down in front of it, and
officers going in and out.
"Is that the headquarters of the French general?" he asked a
townsman.
"Yes," and the man walked on with a muttered malediction.
A few minutes later several mounted officers rode out, and dashed
off in haste in various directions.
"There is evidently something up," Fergus said to himself. "Perhaps
they have got news of the Prussian approach."
In a quarter of an hour several general officers arrived, and
entered the house. It was evident that a council of war had been
summoned. Half an hour elapsed, and then a number of aides-de-camp
and staff officers rode off in haste. A few minutes later, a
trumpet sounded a regimental call, and then the assembly.
Before it had died away, similar calls echoed from all parts of the
town. Soldiers ran hastily through the streets, mounted officers
dashed in every direction, and the citizens came to their doors, in
surprise at this sudden movement.
Fergus had no longer any doubt about the cause of the stir. The
great thing, now, was to ascertain whether the army would advance
to take up some strong position outside the town and oppose the
Prussian advance, or whether they would march away.
Being fifty thousand in number, the former would appear to be the
natural course for a general to adopt; as Frederick had with him
but twenty-three thousand men. Of this fact, however, Soubise would
be ignorant, and might only have heard that the Prussian army was
marching to annihilate him.
Before long baggage waggons began to clatter through the streets.
They were being driven westward, and it was in the same direction
that the regiments made their way.
Fergus followed them to the plain outside the town. The tents had
already been struck; the troops, as they arrived from the town and
camp, were marshalled in order; a long train of baggage waggons
were already making their way westward; and there was no longer any
grounds for doubt that Soubise was retreating.
It was just eleven o'clock when Fergus returned to the cathedral.
The peasant was awaiting him.
"They all seem on the move," the latter said. "I have heard much
about them."
"It does not matter, now," Fergus replied. "I must get back to your
place, as quickly as I can."
Not a word was spoken, until they had left the town.
"They must be going up into Hanover, to join the French army
there," the peasant said.
"They are running away. Frederick will be here tomorrow night, or
at any rate next day."
"The news seems too good to be true, master. How have you learnt
it?"
"I have learnt it from no one here. I am one of the king's
officers, and I came on here to find out whether the enemy would be
likely to come out and fight, or would bolt when they heard of his
advance."
"The Lord be praised!" the man said piously, taking off his hat as
he spoke. "I thought, sir, that there was something curious in your
having such a horse; and still more so, in your wanting to find out
all about the force of the enemy here. But it was no business of
mine; and I felt that you must be a friend for, had you been
Austrian or French, you would have ridden boldly into the town."
As they went along the road they were met by several troops of
cavalry, riding at full speed.
"Is the way we came this morning the shortest?"
"Yes, sir, by a good mile."
"Then we will return by it," said Fergus.
As soon as they left the main road they went at a run for some
distance, and then broke into a fast walk. In an hour from the time
of leaving Erfurt, they arrived at the hut.
"I will run along and fetch your horse, sir," the peasant said.
"No, I will go myself. He does not know you, and might refuse to
let you come near him."
In a few minutes, Fergus returned with his horse. The saddle,
bridle, and wallets were quickly put on. Fergus dropped his pistols
into his saddlebags, and buckled on the sword he had brought with
him. It was not his own, but one he had bought at starting--a good
piece of steel, but with a battered and rusty sheath that showed
that it had been lying for weeks, possibly for months, on some
field of battle before being picked up.
Then, with a word of adieu and thanks to the peasant and his wife,
and slipping a crown piece into the hand of the latter, he mounted
and rode off.