so astonishing was the spectacle of three lightly-clad men, appearing suddenly on board a craft moored out on the river, that the three boatmen sat immovable, in the attitudes in which they had been sitting at the entry of these strange visitors, without uttering a word. superstitious by nature, they doubted whether there was not something supernatural in the appearance of the three strangers.
"if you cry out or make the slightest sound," fergus said, showing his knife, "you are all dead men. if you sit quiet and do as we order you, no harm will come to you. we want clothes. if you have spare ones you can hand them to us. if not, we must take those you have on. we are not robbers, and don't want to steal them. if you will fix a fair price on the things, we will pay for them. but you must in any case submit to be bound and gagged till morning; when, on going on deck, you will find no difficulty in attracting the attention of some of your comrades, who will at once release you.
"keep your hands on the table while my friends take away your knives. if one of you moves a hand, he is as good as a dead man."
his companions removed the knives from the belts of the two men sitting outside, and then fergus said to the third man:
"now, hand over your knife. that will do.
"now, which of you is the captain?"
"i am," the man sitting farthest from the door said.
"very well. now, have you spare clothes on board?"
"yes, my lord," he replied, in a tone that showed that he had not yet recovered from his first stupefaction, "we have our sunday suits."
"we don't want them," fergus said. "we want the three suits that you have on. what do you value them at?"
"anything you like, my lord."
"no, i want to know how much they cost when new."
the man asked his two comrades, and then mentioned the total.
"very well, we will give you that. then you will have no reason for grumbling, for you will get three new suits for three old ones.
"now do you--" and he touched the man nearest to him "--take off your coat, waistcoat, breeches, neck handkerchief, and boots, and then get into that bunk."
the man did as he was ordered, as did the other two, in succession. as they did so, captain ritzer had gone up on deck and returned with a coil of thin rope that he had cut off. with this they tied the men securely.
"there is no occasion to gag them, i think," fergus said. "they might shout as loud as they liked and, with this wind blowing, no one would hear them; or if anyone did hear them, he would take it for the shouting of a drunken man.
"now, look here, my men. here is the money to buy the new clothes. we have not ill treated you in any way, have we?"
"no, sir, we are quite satisfied."
"now, i should advise you, in the morning, to manage to untie each other. we shall fasten the door up as we go out, but you will have no difficulty in bursting that open, when you are once untied.
"now i ask you, as you are satisfied, to say nothing about this affair to anyone. it would only make you a joke among your comrades, and could do you no good. the best thing that you can do, when you get free, will be to dress yourselves in your sunday clothes, take your boat ashore, and buy new things in the place of those we have taken."
"that is what we shall do, sir. no one would believe us, if we told them that three men had come on board and taken our old clothes, and given us money to buy new ones in their place."
the three boatmen were all tall and brawny bavarians, and their clothes fitted fergus and his companions well. fishermen's hats completed their costume. the little cabin had been almost oppressively warm, and they had completely got over their chill when they left it, closing the door behind them.
they took their places in the boat, crossed to the opposite shore, which was to some extent sheltered from the wind, and rowed some three miles up. then they landed, pushed the boat off into the stream, kept along the bank until they came to a road branching off to the left, and followed it until it struck the main road, a few hundred yards away; and then walked west.
there had been but few words spoken since they left the barge. it had been hard work rowing against wind and stream. the oars were clumsy, and it had needed all their efforts to keep the boat's head straight. now that they were in the main road, they were somewhat more sheltered.
"well, drummond, we have accomplished what seemed to me, in spite of your confidence, well-nigh impossible. we have got out, we have obtained disguises, and we have eight or nine hours before our escape can be discovered. i shall believe anything you tell me, in future," ritzer said.
"yes," his companion agreed, "i never believed that we should succeed; though, as you had set your heart on it, i did not like to hang back. but it really did seem to me a wild scheme, altogether. i thought possibly we might get out of the fort, but i believed that your plan of getting disguises would break down altogether. the rest seemed comparatively easy.
"the rain has ceased, and the stars are coming out, which is a comfort indeed. one was often wet through, for days together, when campaigning; but after five months' coddling, an eight hours' tramp in a blinding rain would have been very unpleasant, especially as we have no change of clothes.
"now, commanding officer, what is to be our next tale?"
"that is simple enough," fergus said with a laugh. "we have been down with a raft of timber from the mountains, and are on our way back. that must be our story till we have passed ratisbon. there is but one objection, and that is a serious one. as raftsmen we should certainly speak the bavarian dialect, which none of us can do. for that reason i think it would be safer to leave the danube at passau, and make down through munich. we should be at passau tomorrow morning, and can put up at any little place by the riverside. two days' walking will take us to munich.
"certainly no one would suspect us of being escaped prisoners. we can get some other clothes tomorrow morning, and finish the rest of our journey as countrymen.
"the principal thing will be to get rid of these high boots. i think in other respects there is nothing very distinctive about our dress. it will be more difficult to concoct a story, but we must hope that we sha'n't be asked many questions, and i see no reason why we should be. we shall look like peasants going from a country village to a town, but if we could hit upon some story to account for our not speaking the dialect, it would of course be a great advantage."
they walked along in silence for some time. then he went on:
"i should say we might give out that we are three saxons who, having been forced at pirna to enter the prussian army, had been taken prisoners at hochkirch and had been marched down with the others to vienna; and that there, on stating who we were and how we had been forced against our will into frederick's army, we were at once released, and are now on our way back to saxony; and are tramping through bavaria, so as to avoid the risk of being seized and compelled to serve either in the austrian army or the prussian; and that we are working our way, doing a job wherever we can get a day or two's employment, but that at present, having worked for a time at vienna, we are able to go on for a bit without doing so.
"i think with that story we could keep to the plan of going up through ratisbon. it would be immensely shorter, and the story would be more probable than that we should make such a big detour to get home."
"yes, i should think that would do well," ritzer said, "and will shorten the way by two hundred miles. but after leaving passau, i should think that we had better not follow the direct road until we get to ratisbon.
"i grant that as far as that town we ought to be quite safe, for there is no chance of their finding out that we have escaped until eight o'clock in the morning; then our colonel will have to report the matter to the commandant in the town. no doubt he will send off a small party of cavalry, by the freyberg road to budweis, to order the authorities there to keep a sharp lookout for three men passing north. but i doubt very much whether they will think of sending in this direction. the escape of three prussian officers is, after all, no very important matter. still, one cannot be too careful, for possibly the commandant may send to munich, ratisbon, and vienna.
"it is more likely, however, that the search will be made principally in and round linz. they will feel quite sure that we cannot possibly have obtained any disguises, and must have gone off in our undergarments; and they will reckon that we should naturally have hidden up in some outhouse, or country loft, until we could find some opportunity for obtaining clothes. most likely the barge went on this morning, before the alarm had been given; but even if it didn't, boatmen would not be likely to hear of the escape of three prisoners.
"no, i think beyond passau we shall be quite safe, as far as pursuit goes; but it will be best to halt there only long enough to take a good meal, and then to go on for a bit, and stop at some quiet riverside village."
"i don't think i shall be able to go very far," ritzer said. "these boots are a great deal too large for me, and are chafing my feet horribly. the road is good and level; and i was thinking, just now, of taking them off and carrying them."
"that would be the best way, by far," fergus said. "i should think at passau we are sure to find a boat going up to ratisbon, and that will settle the difficulty."
the distance was some thirty miles and, making one or two halts for a rest, they reached passau just as morning was breaking. in a short time the little inns by the river opened their doors, and the riverside was astir. they went into one of the inns and ate a hearty meal, then they went down to the waterside, and found that there were several country boats going up the river. they soon bargained for a passage, and had just time to buy a basket of bread, sausage, and cheese, with half a dozen bottles of wine, before the boat started. there were no other passengers on board and, telling the story they had agreed upon, they were soon on good terms with the boatmen.
including the windings of the river, it was some eighty miles to ratisbon. the boat was towed by two horses, and glided pleasantly along, taking three days on the passage. they bought food at the villages where the craft lay up for the night, and arrived at ratisbon at nine o'clock in the evening. there they found no difficulty in obtaining a lodging at a small inn, where no questions, whatever, were asked.
a short day's journey took them to neumarkt, a tramp of upwards of twenty miles. it was a longer journey on to bamberg, and two days later, to their satisfaction, they entered coburg.
they were now out of bavaria, and had escaped all difficulties as to the dialect far better than they had anticipated, never having been asked any questions since they left the boat at ratisbon. they had now only to say that they were on their way to join the confederate army that was again being gathered; but they preferred avoiding all questions, by walking by night and resting at little wayside inns during the day. avoiding all towns, for the troops were beginning to move, they crossed the saxon frontier three days after leaving coburg, and then travelled by easy stages to dresden.
here they went straight to the headquarters of the commandant of the town, and reported themselves to him. fergus had personal acquaintances on his staff, and had no difficulty in obtaining, for himself and his companions, an advance of a portion of the pay due to them, in order that they might obtain new outfits.
this took a couple of days, and the two captains then said goodbye to fergus, with many warm acknowledgments for the manner in which he had enabled them to regain their freedom--expressions all the more earnest since they heard that the austrians had decided that, in future, they would make no exchanges whatever of prisoners--and started to rejoin their regiments.
fergus felt strangely lonely when they had left him. the king was at breslau. keith was lying dead in hochkirch. what had become of lindsay he knew not, nor did he know to whom he ought to report himself, or where karl might be with his remaining charger and belongings. hitherto at dresden he had felt at home. now, save for count eulenfurst and his family, he was a stranger in the place.
naturally, therefore, he went out to their chateau. here he was received with the same warmth as usual.
"of course we heard of your capture at hochkirch," the count said, "though not for many weeks afterwards. we were alarmed when the news came of the marshal's death, for as it was upon his division that the brunt of the battle had fallen, we feared greatly for you. at last came the list the austrians had sent in of the prisoners they had taken, and we were delighted to see your name in it; though, as the austrians have been so chary of late of exchanging prisoners, we feared that we might not see you for some time. however, remembering how you got out of spielberg, we did not despair of seeing you back in the spring.
"thirza was especially confident. i believe she conceives you capable of achieving impossibilities. however, you have justified her faith in you.
"supper will be served in a few minutes, and as no doubt your story is, as usual, a long one, we will not begin it until we have finished the meal. but tell us first, how were you captured?"
"i was riding through the mist to find the marshal; whom i had not seen for two hours, as i was with the regiment that defended the church at hochkirch, and then cut its way out through the austrians. the mist was so thick that i could not see ten yards ahead, and rode plump into an austrian battalion. they fired a volley that killed poor turk, and before i could get on my feet i was surrounded and taken prisoner--not a very heroic way, i must admit."
"a much pleasanter way, though, than that of being badly wounded, and so found on the field by the enemy," the countess said; "and you were fortunate, indeed, in getting through that terrible battle unhurt."
"i was, indeed, countess; but i would far rather have lost a limb than my dear friend and relation, the marshal. i was allowed to attend his funeral the next day. the austrians paid him every honour and, though i have mourned for him most deeply, i cannot but feel that it was the death he would himself have chosen. he had been ailing for some months, and had twice been obliged to leave his command and rest. it would, in any case, probably have been his last campaign; and after such a wonderfully adventurous life as he had led, he would have felt being laid upon the shelf sorely."
"his elder brother--earl marischal in scotland, is he not?--who has been governor for some years at neufchatel, is with the king at breslau, at present. they say the king was greatly affected at the loss of the marshal who, since schwerin's death, has been his most trusted general."
"i have never seen the marshal's brother," fergus said, "though i know that they were greatly attached to each other. i hope that he will be at breslau when i get there. i shall go and report myself to the king, after i have had a few days' rest here. at present i seem altogether unattached. the marshal's staff is, of course, broken up; but as i served on the king's own staff twice, during the last campaign, i trust that he will put me on it again."
"that he will do, of course," the count said. "after saving his life at zorndorf, he is sure to do so."
supper was now announced, and after it had been removed and the party drew round the fire, fergus told them the story of his escape.
"it was excellently managed," the count said, when he had finished. "i do not know that it was quite as dramatic as your escape from spielberg, but i should think that, of the two, the escape from linz must have seemed the most hopeless. the plan of getting the shutters open and of swimming the moat might have occurred to anyone; but the fact that you were in uniform, and that it would have been impossible to smuggle in a disguise, would have appeared to most men an insuperable obstacle to carrying out the plan.
"you certainly are wonderfully full of resource. as a rule, i should think that it is much more difficult for two men to make their escape from a place than it is for one alone; but it did not seem to be so, in this case."
"it certainly did not add to the difficulty of getting out of the fort, count. indeed, in one respect it rendered it more easy. there were three of us to work at the heads of the rivets, and it certainly facilitated our getting clothes from the boatmen, besides rendering the journey much more pleasant than it would have been for one of us alone.
"on the other hand, it would have been impossible to carry out the escape from spielberg in the manner i did, if i had had two officers with me in the cell. we could not have hoped to obtain three uniforms, could hardly have expected all to slip by the sentry unnoticed. lastly, the three of us could not have got post horses. still, it is quite possible that we might have escaped in some other manner."
"then you have not the most remote idea where you will find your servant and horse?"
"not the slightest. if captain lindsay got safely through the battle of hochkirch, i should say that my man would stick by him. his servant, a tough scotchman, and karl are great chums; and i have no doubt that, unless he received positive orders to the contrary, karl has kept company with him."
"of course you can find out, from the authorities here, who has taken command of marshal keith's division; and might possibly hear whether he took over the marshal's personal staff, or whether he brought his own officers with him."
"yes, i should think i might do that, count. i think i shall in any case report myself to the king; but if lindsay were stationed at any place i could pass through, on my way to breslau, i would pick up karl and my horse."
"i shall of course send you another horse tomorrow," the count said. "no, no, it is of no use your saying anything against it. it was settled that i should supply you with mounts, while the war lasted, and i intend to carry that out fully. i don't know that i have another in my stables here that is quite equal to the other pair, but there are two or three that approach them very nearly. if you can get a mounted orderly, well and good; if not, i will lend you one of my men. any of my grooms would be delighted to go with you, for all regard you as the saviour of our lives.
"i am afraid, my friend, you will not be able to pay us many more visits. your king is a miracle of steadfastness, of energy, and rapidity; but even he cannot perform impossibilities. leave out the russians, and i believe that he would be more than a match for the austrians, who are hampered by the slowness of their generals; but russia cannot be ignored. in the first campaign she was non-existent, in the second she annexed east prussia. this year you have had a deadly tussle with her, next year she may be still more formidable; and i do not believe that frederick with all his skill, and with the splendid valour his troops show, can keep the russians from advancing still further into the country, and at the same time prevent the austrians and the federal army from snatching dresden from his grasp.
"i myself should regret this deeply. prussia, although she taxes the population heavily, at least permits no disorders nor ill treatment of the people, no plundering of the villages; while the austrians, croats, and pandoors will spread like a swarm of hornets over the land, and the state of the saxons under their so-called rescuers will be infinitely worse than it has been under their conquerors."
"it would be a heavy blow to the king to lose dresden," fergus agreed, "but i am by no means sure that he would not be better without it; except, of course, that it would bring the enemy so much nearer to berlin, otherwise the loss of saxony would be a benefit to him. during all his movements, and in all his combinations, he is forced to keep an eye on dresden. at one moment it is soubise, with his mixed army of french, austrians, and confederate troops, who have to be met and, leaving all else, frederick is forced to march away two or three hundred miles, and waste two or three precious months before he can get a blow at them. then he has to leave a considerable force to prevent them gathering again, while he hurries back to prevent daun from besieging dresden, or to wrest silesia again out of his hands. saxony lost, he could devote his whole mind and his whole power to the russian and austrian armies; who will no doubt, at the next campaign, endeavour to act together; and the nearer they are to each other, the more easily and rapidly can he strike blows at them alternately."
"perhaps you are right," the count said, "and certainly the austrians would have to keep a considerable force to garrison dresden and hold saxony; for they would be sure that, at the very first opportunity, frederick would be among them raining his blows rapidly and heavily. as to any advance north, they would not dare attempt it; for frederick, who can move more than twice as fast as any austrian army, would fall on their flank or rear and annihilate them.
"still, the blow would be undoubtedly a heavy one for the king, inasmuch as it would greatly raise the spirits of his enemies, and would seem to show them that the end was approaching."
"i think the end is a good way off still, count. even if the russians and austrians marched across prussia, they would hold little more than the ground they stood on. frederick would be ever hovering round them, attacking them on every opportunity, and preventing them from sending off detached columns; while the cavalry of ziethen and seidlitz would effectually prevent cossacks and croats from going out to gather stores for the armies, and to plunder and massacre on their own account. i doubt whether anything short of the annihilation of his army would break the king's spirit and, so far as i can see, that is by no means likely to take place."
"however, the point at present, my friend, is that if the austrians get dresden, it may be long before we see you again."
"i fancy that when the army goes into winter quarters again, if i am able to get leave of absence, i shall do myself the pleasure of paying you a visit, whether the city has changed hands or not. if one can travel twice through austria without being detected, it is hard indeed if i cannot make my way into saxony."
"but you must not run too great risks," the countess said. "you know how glad we should be to see you, and that we regard you as one of ourselves; but even a mother could hardly wish a son to run into such danger, in order that they might see each other for a short time."
"what do you say, thirza?" her father asked.
the girl, thus suddenly addressed, coloured hotly.
"i should be glad to see him, father--he knows that very well--but i should not like him to run risks."
"but he is always running risks, child; and that, so far as i can see, without so good a reason. at any rate, i shall not join your mother in protesting. what he says is very true. he has twice made his way many hundreds of miles in disguise, for the purpose of getting here in time for the first fighting; and i do not think that there will be anything like the same risk in his coming here to pay us a visit.
"at the same time, i would not say a single word to induce him to do so. there is no saying where he may be when the next winter sets in, or what may take place during the coming campaign. in times like these it is folly to make plans of any sort, three months in advance. i only say therefore that, should everything else be favourable, i think that an austrian occupation of saxony would not be a very serious obstacle to his paying us a visit, next winter.
"once here, he would be absolutely safe, and as the household know what he has done for us--and probably for them, for there is no saying whether some, at least, of them might not have been killed by those villains--their absolute discretion and silence can be relied upon.
"however, it may be that we shall see him long before that. the king may have occasion to be here many times, during the summer."
the count would not hear of fergus returning to the hotel where he had put up, and for a week he remained at the chateau, where the time passed very pleasantly. the luxurious appointments, the hospitable attentions of his host and hostesses, and the whole of his surroundings formed a strong contrast, indeed, both to his life when campaigning, and the five months he had spent in the casemate at linz.
at the end of that time he felt he ought to be on the move again. he had learnt that the officers of the marshal's staff had been dispersed, some being attached to other divisions; and that lindsay was now upon the staff of prince henry. the prince was out erfurt way, and had already had some sharp fighting with the french and the confederate army. fergus had learned this on the day after his arrival at the chateau, and also that to the east there was no sign of any movement on the part of daun or of the king. he therefore suffered himself to be persuaded to stay on for the week.
"nobody is expecting you, drummond," the count said. "no doubt they will be glad to see you, but they will be just as glad ten days later as ten days earlier. you are believed to be safe in some austrian prison, and you may be sure that no one will make any inquiries whether you spent a week, or a month, in recovering from your fatigues before taking up your duties again. at any rate, you must stay for at least a week."
the visit was, indeed, extended two days beyond that time; for the count and countess so pressed him that he was glad to give way, especially as his own inclinations strongly seconded their entreaties. on the ninth morning he was astonished when his bedroom door opened and karl came in, and gave his morning's salute as impassively as if he had seen him the evening before.
'why karl!' fergus exclaimed, 'where do you spring from--when did you arrive?'
"why, karl!" he exclaimed, "where do you spring from--how did you know that i was here--when did you arrive?"
"i arrived last night, major, but as it was late we went straight to the stable."
"who is we, karl?"
"the count's messenger, sir. he reached me at erfurt, where i was with captain lindsay, four days ago; and i started with him half an hour later. he had set out from here with a led horse, and had ridden through with but one night in bed; and we had changes of horses, coming back. and tartar is in good condition, major. i led him all the way down."
"that is most kind and thoughtful of the count," fergus exclaimed, as he began to dress.
"well, i am heartily glad to see you again, karl. i was by no means sure that you had got off safely at hochkirch. i looked round for you, directly i had been captured; but could see nothing of you, and knew not whether you had ridden off, or had been killed by that volley that finished poor turk, and brought about my capture."
"it was a bad business, major, and i have never forgiven myself that i was not by your side; but the thing was so sudden that i was taken altogether by surprise. my horse was grazed with a bullet, and what with that and the sudden flash of fire, he bolted. i had just caught sight of you and turk, going down in a heap, as my horse spun round; and it had galloped a full hundred yards before i could check it.
"then i did not know what was best to do. it seemed to me that you must certainly be killed. if i had been sure that you had been wounded and taken prisoner i should have gone back; but even then i might, more likely than not, have been shot by the austrians before i could explain matters. but i really thought that you were killed; and as, from the shouting and firing, it seemed to me that the enemy had it all their own way there, i rode back to the farmhouse.
"luckily the austrians had not got there, so i took tartar and rode with him to the king's quarters, and left him with his grooms, who knew him well enough; and then later on, having nothing else to do, i joined seidlitz, and had the satisfaction of striking many a good blow in revenge for you.
"late in the afternoon when the fighting was over i found captain lindsay, and told him about your loss. he comforted me a bit by saying that he did not think you were born to be shot, and said that i had better stay with donald till there was news about you. two days later he told me they had got the list of the prisoners the austrians had taken, and that you were with them, and unwounded.
"then, major, i was furious with myself that i had not been taken prisoner, too. i should have been more troubled still if captain lindsay had not said that, in the first place, tartar would have been lost if i had not come back straight to fetch him; and that, in the second place, it was not likely you would have been able to keep me with you had i been a prisoner, and we might not even have been shut up in the same fortress.
"i asked him what i had better do, and he said:
"'i am going west to join prince henry. you had better come with me. you may be sure that there will be no questions asked about you, one way or the other. i have no doubt major drummond will be back in the spring. he is sure to get out, somehow.'
"it seemed to me that that was the best plan too, major. if i had been sent back to my regiment, i don't know what i should have done with your horse; and then, if you did return, i might not have heard about it, and you would not have known what had become of me. once or twice during the last month captain lindsay has said to me:
"'your master ought to have been here before this, karl. i quite reckoned on his arriving by the end of march.'
"i said perhaps you had not been able to get out, but he would not hear of it. he said once:
"'if you were to head up the major in a barrel, he could find a way out of it somehow. he will be back soon.'
"he seemed so positive about it that i was not a bit surprised when the messenger came, and said that you were at the count's here, and that i was to ride with him post haste, so as to catch you before you started to join the king at breslau.
"captain lindsay was as pleased as i was. he was just mounting when the messenger came in, but wrote a line on the leaf of his pocket book. here it is, sir."
the slip of paper merely contained the words:
"a thousand welcomes, my dear drummond! i have been expecting you for some time. i wish you had turned up here, instead of at dresden. hope to see you again soon."
by this time fergus had dressed.
"my dear count," he exclaimed, as he entered the room where the count and his wife and daughter were already assembled, "how can i thank you for your great kindness, in taking such pains to fetch karl and my horse down for me."
"i had no great pains about the matter," the count replied, with a smile. "i simply wrote to my steward that a messenger must be sent to erfurt, at once; to order major drummond's soldier servant to come here, at all speed, with his master's horse and belongings.
"'make what arrangements you like,' i said, 'for relays of horses; but anyhow, he must get to erfurt in three days, and i will give him four for coming back again with the man. he is to be found at the quarters of captain lindsay, who is on the staff of prince henry. if captain lindsay himself is away, you must find out his servant.'
"that was all the trouble that i had in the matter. you have really to thank thirza, for it was her idea. directly you had left the room, after your telling us that lindsay was with prince henry and most likely at erfurt, she said:
"'i should think, father, that there would be time to fetch major drummond's servant and horse. it is not so very far, and surely it might be done in a week.'
"'well thought of!' i said. 'it is a hundred and seventy miles. a courier with relays of horses could do it in three days, without difficulty; and might be back here again, with drummond's servant, in another four days. i will give orders at once. we can manage to get drummond to delay his departure for a day or two.'
"so the thing was done."
