Then came the Serbs' reply and the partial mobilisation of the Austrian
army. Everybody looked grave and the Prince became distinctly irritable.
"Just in the middle of the harvest, too! What a time of year to send
an ultimatum! How the devil do they expect me to get my harvest in, if
they take my men away? The lifting of the beets won't even begin for
six weeks yet."
"War will be finished by then," said Billy, "and Serbia will have
ceased to exist."
"And what of little Poli--the beautiful Dragoon with the sky-blue
coat?" asked Claire. "Won't you have to return to Göding and join your
regiment now?"
"This upsets all my plans for the summer," replied the soldier, "and
it's very annoying, and it's too bad of them to spring a war upon
peace-loving soldiers like this. They'll telephone to me if they want
me, and I won't move from here till they do."
"And if the telephone is out of order, as it usually is, you'll be shot
as a deserter," said Billy.
"Nevertheless, I won't go," said Poli, for the Einjährigerfreiwilliger
was a man of peace and did not appreciate a Government which enforced
days of warlike pursuits upon him each year.
But Poli had to go, for one morning about four o'clock, as the church
bells were ringing the Angelus, the order for a general mobilisation
was "drummed out"--in Hungary the town crier always uses a drum. Being
much too sleepy to grasp what he said, I promptly went to sleep again,
and in the morning discovered that I was the one person in the Schloss
who had not been at all upset by the news, and that I was regarded
by all as something approaching a monster of callousness. There was
the wildest confusion inside and outside the Schloss when I came
downstairs; all the outdoor servants had gathered in the courtyard to
say good-bye before leaving to report themselves at their "Kaders";
indoors the housemaids were crying as they went about their work, and
it was with difficulty that the Princess, Claire, and I managed at last
to get some sort of a breakfast served by a scared-looking butler. The
Prince and Billy had been up at the stables for some time, for the
officials had already arrived to claim the horses on the Government
list. "And all our riding-horses will have to go--every one of them,"
sobbed the Princess, "yes, even Hadur--nothing but Claire's little
horses, which are too young, and one other pair will be left."