With Frederick the Great Part 22

"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 s.h.i.+ft 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 a.s.sist 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 pa.s.sed 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 s.p.a.ce 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 gra.s.s.

"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, princ.i.p.ally?"

"There is only one sort, now," the man said. "I cut f.a.ggots 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 f.a.ggots. 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 a.s.sailed 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 pa.s.sed 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 a.s.sent.

"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?"