Fergus remained at Torgau for six weeks. He had, two days after the
battle, sent Karl off to carry a letter to Thirza; telling her that
he had been wounded, but that she need have no uneasiness about
him; the surgeon saying that the wound was going on well, and that,
should it not break out bleeding in the course of another week, he
would make a quick cure, and would be fit for service again, long
before the spring.
Karl had not found his horse again, but had bought, for a trifle,
an Austrian officer's horse that was found riderless; and had
become the prize of a trooper, who was glad to part with it at a
quarter of its value. He took with him the disguise of a
countryman, to put on when he approached the ground held by the
Austrians near Dresden; and, leaving his horse fifteen miles away,
had no difficulty in making his way in on foot. Karl went round to
the back of the house. The servants recognized him as soon as he
entered.
"Will one of you ask the count to see me? Let him have the message
quietly, when he is alone."
"Your master is not killed?" one of the women exclaimed, in
consternation.
"Killed! No, Colonel Drummond is not so easily killed," he replied
scornfully. "I have a letter from him in my pocket. But he has been
somewhat hurt, and it were best that I saw the count first, and
that he should himself give the letter to the Countess Thirza."
In two or three minutes the man returned, and led Karl to a room
where the count was awaiting him, with a look of great anxiety on
his face.
"All is well, your excellency," Karl said, in answer to the look.
"At least, if not altogether well, not so bad as it might be. The
colonel was hit at Torgau. A cannonball took off his left arm at
the elbow. Fortunately, there were surgeons at work a quarter of a
mile away, and he was in their hands within a very few minutes of
being hit; so they made a job of his wound, at once. They had not
taken the bandages off, when I came away; but as there had been no
bleeding, and no great pain or fever, they think it is going on
well. They tell him that he will be fit for service, save for his
half-empty sleeve, in the spring.
"Here is a letter for the Countess Thirza. It is not written by his
own hand, except as to the signature; for the surgeons insist that
he must lie perfectly quiet, for any exertion might cause the wound
to break out afresh. He is quite cheerful, and in good spirits, as
he always is. He bade me give this note into your hands, so that
you might prepare the young countess a little, before giving it to
her."
"'Tis bad news, Karl, but it might have been much worse; and it
will, indeed, be a relief to us all; for since we heard of that
desperate fight at Torgau, and how great was the slaughter on both
sides, we have been anxious, indeed; and must have remained so, for
we should have had little chance of seeing the list of the Prussian
killed and wounded.
"Now, do you go into the kitchen. They all know you there. Make
yourself comfortable. I will give orders that you shall be well
served."
He then proceeded to the room where Thirza and her mother wore
sitting. The former was pale, and had evidently been crying.
"Some news has come," he said. "Not the very best, and yet by no
means the worst. Drummond is wounded--a severe wound, but not, it
is confidently believed, a dangerous one."
Thirza ran to her father and threw her arms round his neck, and
burst into a passion of tears. He did not attempt to check them for
some little time.
"Now, my dear," he said at last, "you must be brave, or you won't
be worthy of this lover of yours. There is one bad point about it."
She looked up in his face anxiously, but his smile reassured her.
"You must prepare yourself for his being somewhat disfigured."
"Oh, that is nothing, father; nothing whatever to me! But how is he
disfigured?"
"Well, my dear, he has lost his left arm, at the elbow."
Thirza gave a little cry of grief and pity.
"That is sad, father; but surely it is no disfigurement, any more
than that sabre scar on his face. 'Tis an honour, to a brave
soldier, to have lost a limb in battle. Still, I am glad that it is
his left arm; though, had it been his right and both his legs, it
would have made no difference in my love for him."
"Well, I am very glad, Thirza, that your love has not been tested
so severely; as I confess that, for my part, I would much prefer
having a son-in-law who was able to walk about, and who would not
have to be carried to the altar. Here is a letter to you from
him--that is to say, which has been written at his dictation, for
of course the surgeons insist on his lying perfectly quiet, at
present."
Thirza tore it open, and ran through its contents.
"It is just as you say, father. He makes very light of it, and
writes as if it were a mere nothing."
She handed the letter to her mother, and then turned to the count.
"Is there anything we can do, father?"
"Nothing whatever. With such a wound as that, he will have to lie
perfectly still for some time. You may be sure that, as one of
Frederick's personal staff, he will have every attention possible;
and were we all in the town, we could do nothing. As soon as he is
fit to be moved, it will be different; but we shall have plenty of
time to talk over matters before that.
"For some few months travelling will be dangerous. Frederick's army
is in the neighbourhood again and, as Daun and Lacy are both in
their intrenchments behind the Plauen, there is no chance of his
again besieging Dresden; but his flying columns will be all over
the country, as doubtless will the Croats, and the roads will be
altogether unsafe for travelling. No doubt, as soon as he is able
to be moved, he will be taken to Frederick's headquarters, wherever
they may be established. The king will assuredly have the hospitals
at Torgau cleared, as soon as he can; lest, when he has retired,
the Austrians might make another dash at the town."
The next morning Karl set out again, bearing a letter from the
count; and one from Thirza which was of a much less formal
character than that which he had dictated to her, and which, as he
told her afterwards, greatly assisted his cure. A month after the
battle he was pronounced fit to travel, and with a large train of
wagons filled with convalescents, and under a strong escort, he was
taken to Leipzig; where the king had just established his
headquarters, and to which all the wounded were to be sent, as soon
as they could safely be moved. Here he was established in
comfortable quarters, and Karl again carried a letter to Thirza.
Ten days later Count Eulenfurst entered his room.
"You here, count!" he exclaimed. "How kind of you! What a journey
to make through the snow!"
"I have been dragged hither," the count said, with a smile.
"Dragged hither, count?"
"Yes. Thirza insisted on coming to see you. Her mother declared
that she should accompany her, and of course there was nothing for
me to do but to set out, also."
"Are they here, then, count?" Fergus exclaimed incredulously.
"Certainly they are, and established at the Black Eagle Hotel. I
could not bring them here, to a house full of officers. You are
well enough to walk to the hotel?"
"Yes, indeed. I walked a mile yesterday."
As Karl was helping Fergus into his uniform, he asked:
"How long were you in coming here, count?"
"We did it in a day. I sent on relays of horses, two days before;
and as the carriage is of course on runners, and the snow in good
order, we made quick work of it. Your man went on with the horses,
and rode with us from the last place where we changed. I did most
of the journey sitting by the coachman; which gave them more room
inside, and was more pleasant for me, also."
In a few minutes they reached the hotel, and the count led Fergus
to a door.
"You will find Thirza alone there. We thought that you had best see
her so, at first."
Half an hour later, the count and countess entered the room.
"He looks very pale and thin, mother," Thirza said, after the
countess had affectionately embraced Fergus.
"You would hardly have expected to find him fat and rosy," the
count laughed. "A man does not lose his arm, and go about as if the
matter was not worth thinking of, a few weeks afterwards. He is
certainly looking better than I expected to find him.
"That empty sleeve is a sad disfigurement, though," he added slyly.
"How can you say so, father?" Thirza exclaimed indignantly. "I
think quite the contrary, and I feel quite proud of him with it."
"Well, there is no accounting for taste, Thirza. If you are
satisfied, I have no reason to be otherwise.
"And now, Drummond, we want to hear all about Liegnitz and Torgau;
for we have only heard the Austrian accounts. Dresden illuminated
over Daun's first despatch from Torgau, saying that the Prussian
attacks had been repulsed with tremendous slaughter, and a complete
victory gained. The next morning there came, I believe, another
despatch, but it was not published; and it was not until we heard
that Daun and Lacy were both within a few miles of the town that we
knew that, somehow or other, there had been a mistake about the
matter, a mistake that has not yet been cleared up, at Dresden."
"The defeat part of the business I can tell you from my personal
observation, the victory only from what I heard. Certainly, when I
came to my senses, after the surgeons had seen to my wounds, I had
no thought of anything but a disastrous defeat. Never did the
Prussians fight more bravely, or more hopelessly. They had to mount
a steep ascent, with four hundred cannon playing upon them; and an
army, more than three times their number, waiting at the top to
receive them."
He then proceeded to tell them the whole story of the battle.
"Ziethen seems to have blundered terribly," the count said.
"I believe that that is the king's opinion, too; but Ziethen
himself defends his action stoutly, and maintains that he could
never have succeeded in a direct attack, in broad daylight. Anyhow,
as the matter came out all right in the end, the king was too well
satisfied to do no more than grumble at him.
"The other was a hard-fought battle, too."
"The news of that was a relief to us, indeed," the count said. "It
seemed to everyone that Frederick was so completely caught in the
toils that he could not hope to extricate himself. As you know, in
this war I have, all along, held myself to be a neutral. I
considered that the plot to overthrow Frederick and partition the
kingdom was a scandalous one, and that the king disgraced himself
and us by joining in it; but since that time, my sympathies have
become more and more strongly with Frederick. It is impossible not
to admire the manner in which he has defended himself. Moreover,
the brutality with which the Confederates and Austrians, wherever
their armies penetrated Saxony, treated the Protestants, made one
regard him as the champion of Protestantism.
"He was wrong in forcing the Saxons to take service with him in his
army, after their surrender at Pirna; and the taxes and exactions
have, for the last three years, weighed heavily on Saxony, but I
cannot blame him for that. It was needful that he should have money
to carry on the war, and as Saxony had brought it on herself, I
could not blame him that he bore heavily upon her.
"Then, too, Thirza has, for the last two or three years, become a
perfect enthusiast for the Prussians. Whether it was the king's
gracious manner to herself, or from some other cause, I cannot say;
but she has certainly become an ultra-Prussian.
"And now lunch must be ready, and you look as if you wanted it,
Drummond; and I am sure Thirza does. She was too excited to eat
supper, when we got here last night; and as for her breakfast, it
was altogether untouched."
"No doubt you think, Drummond," Count Eulenfurst said, when he
called the next morning, "that you have done your duty fairly to
Prussia."
"How do you mean, count?" Fergus replied, somewhat puzzled by the
question.
"I mean that you have served five campaigns, you have been twice
made a prisoner, you were wounded at Zorndorf, you nearly died of
fever last winter, now you have lost your arm at Torgau; so I think
that you have fully done your duty to the king under whom you took
service, and could now retire with a thoroughly clear conscience.
"My own idea is that the war has quite spent its strength. France
is practically bankrupt. Austria and Russia must be as tired of the
war as Prussia, and this last defeat of their hopes cannot but
discourage the two empresses greatly. I hear, from my friends in
Vienna, that in the capital and all the large cities they are
becoming absolutely disgusted with the war; and though it may go on
for a while, I believe that its fury is spent.
"At any rate, I think you have earned a right to think of yourself,
as well as others. You certainly have nothing to gain by staying
longer in the service."
"I was thinking the same, last night, count. Certainly one man,
more or less, will make no difference to Frederick; but I thought
that, unless you spoke of it, I should let matters go on as they
are, except that I thought of asking for three months' leave to go
home."
"That you should go home for a few months is an excellent plan,
Drummond; but I think it would be better that, when you were there,
you should be able to stay five or six months, if so inclined. Go
to the king, tell him frankly that you feel that you want rest and
quiet for a time, that you have no longer any occasion in the
pecuniary way for remaining in the army, and that you want to get
married--all good reasons for resigning a commission. You see, we
have now some sort of right to have a voice in the matter. You had
a narrow escape at Torgau, and next time you might not be so
fortunate; and, anxious as we are for Thirza's happiness, we do
think it is high time that you retired from the service."
"That decides it, count. I myself have had quite enough of this
terrible work. Were I a Prussian, I should owe my first duty to the
country, and as long as the war continued should feel myself bound
to set aside all private considerations to defend her to the last;
but it is not so, and my first duty now is assuredly to Thirza, to
you, and to the countess. Therefore I will, this morning, go to the
king and ask him to allow me to resign my commission."
"Do so, Drummond. I thought of saying as much to you, last year;
but the anxiety of those terrible three or four days after Torgau
decided me. If I thought that your honour was concerned in
remaining longer in the army, I should be the last to advise you to
leave it, even for the sake of my daughter's happiness; but as it
is not so, I have no hesitation in urging you to retire."
"'Tis a good time for me to leave, now. My cousin, the Earl
Marischal Keith, returned here three days ago, and I will get him
to go with me to the king."
"I shall say nothing to my wife and Thirza about it, till I see you
again, Drummond. Of course the king cannot refuse, but I should
like him to take it in good part; as indeed, I doubt not that he
will."
"I have no doubt that he will, too, count. You may think it absurd,
and perhaps vain of me; but indeed it is of the king that I am
thinking, rather than of myself. During the past three years he has
been good enough to treat me with singular kindness. He has had
trouble and care which would have broken down most men, and I think
that it has been some relief to him to put aside his cares and
troubles, for an hour or two of an evening, and to talk to a young
fellow like myself on all sorts of matters; just as he does to Sir
John Mitchell, and my cousin, the Earl Marischal."
"I have no doubt of it, Drummond, and I quite understand your
feeling in the matter. Still, we are selfish enough to think of our
feelings, too."
As soon as the count left, Fergus put on his full uniform and went
to the king's quarters. He first saw the Earl Marischal, and told
him his errand.
"You are quite right," the old man said heartily. "You have done
more than enough fighting, and there is no saying how long this war
may drag on. I told you, when I first heard of your engagement to
the young countess, that I was glad indeed that you were not always
to remain a soldier of fortune; and I am sure that the king will
consider that you have more than done your duty, by remaining in
his service for a year, after having so splendid a prospect before
you. Frederick is disengaged at present, and I will go over with
you to him, and will myself open the matter."
Fergus had not seen the king since his arrival at Leipzig.
"I am truly glad to see you on your feet again," the latter said,
as Fergus followed his cousin into the room. "I felt by no means
sure that I should ever see you again, on that day after Torgau;
but you still look very thin and pulled down. You want rest, lad.
We all want rest, but it is not all of us that can get it."
"That is what he has come to speak to you about, your majesty,"
Keith said. "I told you, a year ago, that he was engaged to be
married to the daughter of Count Eulenfurst."
The king nodded.
"I remember her, the bright little lady who received me, when I
went to her father's house."
"The same, sire. He thinks that the warning he had at Torgau was
sufficient; and that, having done his best in your majesty's cause,
he has now earned a right to think of himself and her; and so he
would beg your majesty to allow him to resign his commission, and
to retire from the service."
"He has certainly well earned the right," the king said gravely.
"He has done me right good and loyal service, even putting aside
that business at Zorndorf; and not the least of those services has
been that he has often cheered me, by his talk, when I sorely
needed cheering. That empty sleeve of his, that scar won at
Zorndorf, are all proofs how well he has done his duty; and his
request, now that fortune has smiled upon him in other ways, is a
fair and reasonable one.
"I hope, Colonel Drummond," he went on in a lighter tone, "that as
you will be settled in Saxony--and this war cannot go on for
ever--I shall someday see you and your bride at Berlin. None will
be more welcome."
"He is going home to Scotland for a few months, in the first
place," Keith said. "It is only right that he should visit his
mother and people there, before he settles here. He will, like
enough, be back again before the campaign opens in the spring."
Fergus, whose heart was very full, said a few words of thanks to
the king for the kindness that he had always shown him, and for
what he had now said; and assured him that he should not only come
to Berlin, as soon as peace was made; but that, as long as the war
lasted, he would pay his respects to him every year, when he was in
winter quarters. He then withdrew, and made his way to the hotel.
"It is done," he said to the count as he entered. "I have resigned
my commission, and the king has accepted it. He was most kind. I am
glad that I have done it, and yet it was a very hard thing to do."
Thirza uttered an exclamation of joy.
"I am glad, indeed, Fergus, that you are not going to that terrible
war again."
"I can understand your feelings, Drummond," the count said, putting
his hand upon his shoulder. "I know that it must have been a wrench
to you, but that will pass off in a short time. You have done your
duty nobly, and have fairly earned a rest.
"Now, let us talk of other things. When do you think of starting
for Scotland?"
"To that I must reply," Fergus said with a smile, "'How long are
you thinking of stopping here?' Assuredly I shall not want to be
going, as long as you are here. And in any case, I should like my
mother to have a week's notice before I come home; and I think
that, in another fortnight, my wound will be completely healed."
"I was thinking," the count said, "that you will want to take a
nurse with you."
"Do you mean, count," Fergus exclaimed eagerly, "that Thirza could
go with me? That would be happiness, indeed."
"I don't quite see why she should not, Drummond. There are churches
here, and clergymen.
"What do you say, Thirza?"
"Oh, father," the girl said, with a greatly heightened colour, "I
could never be ready so soon as that!
"Could I, mother?"
"I don't know, my dear. Your father was talking to me an hour ago
about it, and that was what I said; but he answered that, although
you might not be able to get a great many clothes made, there will
be plenty of time to get your things from home; and that, in some
respects, it would be much more convenient for you to be married
here than at Dresden. Your marriage, with one who had so lately
left the service of Prussia, would hardly be a popular one with the
Austrians in Dresden. So that, altogether, the plan would be
convenient. We can set the milliners to work at once and, in
another fortnight, get your bridal dress ready, and such things as
are absolutely necessary.
"Of course, if you would rather remain single for another three or
four months, your father and I would not wish to press you unduly."
"It is not that, mother," she said shyly; "but it does seem so very
quick."
"If a thing is good, the sooner it is done the better," the count
said; and Thirza offered no further objection.
The next day an order appeared, that Colonel Fergus Drummond had
been advanced another step in the order of the Black Eagle,
following which came:
"Colonel Fergus Drummond, having lost an arm at the battle of
Torgau, has resigned his commission; which has been accepted with
great regret by the king, the services of Colonel Drummond having
been, in the highest degree, meritorious and distinguished."
The king, having heard from the Earl Marischal that Fergus was to
be married at Leipzig before leaving for Scotland, took great
interest in the matter; and when the time came, was himself present
in the cathedral, together with a brilliant gathering of generals
and other officers of the army in the vicinity, and of many Saxon
families of distinction who were acquainted with Count Eulenfurst.
Fergus had obtained Karl's discharge from the army--the latter, who
had long since served his full time, having begged most earnestly
to remain in his service.
On the following day Fergus started with his wife for Scotland,
drove to Magdeburg and, four days later, reached Hamburg; where
they embarked on board a ship for Edinburgh, Karl of course
accompanying them.
It was a day to be long remembered, in the glen, when Colonel
Drummond and his Saxon wife came to take possession of his father's
estates; where his mother had now been established for upwards of a
year, in the old mansion. It was late when they arrived. A body of
mounted men with torches met them, at the boundary of the estate;
and accompanied them to the house, where all the tenants and
clansmen were assembled. Great bonfires blazed, and scores of
torches added to the picturesque effect. A party of pipers struck
up an air of welcome as they drove forward, and a roar of cheering,
and shouts of welcome greeted them.
"Welcome to your Scottish home!" Fergus said to his wife. "'Tis a
poor place, in comparison with your father's, but nowhere in the
world will you find truer hearts and a warmer greeting than here."
His mother was standing on the steps as he leapt out, and she
embraced him with tears of joy; while after him she gave a warm and
affectionate greeting to Thirza. Then Fergus turned to the
clansmen, who stood thronging round the entrance, with waving
torches and bonnets thrown wildly in the air; and said a few words
of thanks for their welcome, and of the pleasure and pride he felt
in coming again among them, as the head of the clan and master of
his father's estates.
Then he presented Thirza to them as their mistress.
"She has brought me another home, across the sea," he said, "but
she will soon come to love this, as well as her own; and though I
shall be absent part of the time, she will come with me every
summer to stay among you, and will regard you as her people, as
well as mine."
Among the dependents ranged in the hall was Wulf, with whom Fergus
shook hands warmly.
"I should never have got on as well as I have, Wulf," he said, "had
it not been for your teaching, both in German and in arms. I
commend to your special care my servant Karl, who speaks no
English, and will feel strange here at first. He has been my
companion all this time, has given me most faithful service, and
has saved my life more than once. He has now left the army to
follow me."
Fergus remained three months at home. Thirza was delighted with the
country, and the affection shown by the people to Fergus; and
studied diligently to learn the language, that she might be able to
communicate personally with them, and above all with Mrs. Drummond,
to whom she speedily became much attached.
At the end of April they returned to Saxony, and took up their
abode on the estate the count had settled on them, at their
marriage.
For two years longer the war continued, but with much diminished
fury, and there was no great battle fought. The king planted
himself in a camp, which he rendered impregnable, and there
menacing the routes by which the Saxon and Russian armies brought
their supplies from Bohemia, paralysed their movements; while
General Platen made a raid into Poland, and destroyed a great
portion of the Russian magazines in that direction, so that the
campaign came to naught. Ferdinand, with the aid of his English,
defeated Broglio and Soubise at Villingshausen; Soubise remaining
inactive during the battle, as Broglio had done at Minden.
At the beginning of 1762 a happy event for the king took place. The
Empress of Russia died; and Peter, a great admirer of Frederick,
came to the throne. The Prussian king at once released all the
Russian prisoners, and sent them back; and Peter returned the
compliment by sending home the Prussian prisoners and, six weeks
after his accession, issued a declaration that there ought to be
peace with the King of Prussia, and that the czar was resolved that
the war should be ended. He at once gave up East Prussia and other
conquests, and recalled the Russian army. He not only did this, but
he ordered his General Czernichef to march and join the king.
The news caused absolute dismay in Austria, and hastened the Swedes
to conclude a peace with Frederick. They had throughout the war
done little, but the peace set free the force that had been
watching them; and which had regularly, every year, driven them
back as fast as they endeavoured to invade Prussia on that side.
In July, however, the murder of Peter threw all into confusion
again; but Catherine had no desire to renew the war, and it was
evident that this was approaching its end. She therefore recalled
her army, which had already joined that of the king. England and
France, too, were negotiating terms of peace; and it was clear that
Austria, single handed, could not hope to win back Silesia.
The king gained several small but important successes, and
recaptured the important fortress of Schweidnitz. Then came long
negotiations and, on the following February, a general peace was
signed by all the Powers; Prussia retaining her frontiers, as at
the beginning of the war.
From this time Fergus Drummond's life passed uneventfully. Every
year he went to his old home with his wife, and as time went on
brought his children to Scotland; and every winter he spent a
fortnight at Berlin. When his second son reached the age of twelve,
he sent him to school in England, and there prepared him to succeed
to the Scottish estate. This he did not do for many years, entering
the British army and winning the rank of colonel in the Peninsular
war; and it was not until some years after the battle of Waterloo
that, at the death of his father, he retired and settled down on
the Scottish estates that were now his.
The rest of Colonel Drummond's family took their mother's
nationality.
Fergus did not come in for the whole of the Eulenfurst estates,
until thirty years after his marriage. He then took up his abode,
with his wife, at the mansion where they had first met, near
Dresden; and retaining a sufficient share of the estates to support
his position, divided the remainder among his children, considering
that the property was too large to be owned with advantage by any
one person. His descendants are still large landowners in various
parts of Saxony.
The king survived the signature of the peace for twenty-five years,
during which he devoted himself to repairing the damage his country
had suffered by the war; and by incessant care, and wise reforms,
he succeeded in rendering Prussia far wealthier and more prosperous
than it had been when he succeeded to the throne. Lindsay rose to
the rank of general in the Prussian service, and his friendship
with Fergus remained close and unbroken. The old Earl Marischal
survived his younger brother for twenty years; and was, to the
last, one of the king's dearest and most intimate friends.