With Frederick the Great Part 24

"Ah, you speak our language!" the soldier said. "I am glad to exchange a word with someone. It is hot here, especially when one's time is up, and one ought to have been relieved, an hour ago."

"Yes, I can understand that. I expect you have been forgotten."

"Well, it does not make much difference. I shall get off my next guard, in consequence."

"You will have to wait some time before you are relieved, if you stop here."

"What do you mean?" the soldier asked.

"I mean that when I left Erfurt your army was all moving west, and as I rode along I met several troops of cavalry, galloping to join them."

"That is strange news. Nothing whatever was known, when I came out here."

"No, the news only arrived at Erfurt, this morning, that Frederick's army is within a day's march; and I saw the troops march out, and the baggage waggons on their way before I started. I don't say that your troop may have gone. They may have stopped to form a post of observation."

"Well, at any rate I shall go into the village and see. I ought to have been relieved an hour ago; and if they had such news as that, and had remained there, they would have been sure to have sent, to order all videttes to use special vigilance. We have only been posted here as a sort of practice, for we did not think that there was an enemy within a hundred and fifty miles; and now, if the news is true, we may have the Prussian cavalry coming along at any moment.

"Well, thank you for warning me," and turning his horse, he went off at a gallop.

As the outposts would not have been set, except by the party most in advance, Fergus knew that there was now no more risk of falling in with the enemy; unless a cavalry force had been sent forward, to endeavour to get an idea of the force of the Prussians. But as the generals had so precipitately decided upon a retreat, it was not likely that they would have ordered any reconnaissance of this kind to be made.

He therefore presently regained the main road and, riding fast, arrived at the place where the Prussians had pitched their camp, thirty miles from Erfurt, having made a twenty-miles march that day. He dismounted at the house where Keith had established his quarters.

"I have bad news for you, sir," he said. "Word of your coming reached Erfurt, at eight o'clock this morning; and by eleven the whole army were on their march westward, bag and baggage."

"That is bad news, Fergus. You could hardly have brought worse. The king had hoped to have struck a heavy blow, and then to be off again to face the Austrians. What strength were they?"

"About fifty thousand."

"How did they get the news of our coming?"

"That I cannot say, sir. I had gone into Erfurt soon after five, and had already picked up a good deal of news, from the talk of a party of French non-commissioned officers who were taking breakfast at a small inn; and who, not imagining that I could understand them, talked very freely over affairs. They sat over their meal some time, and I did not go out until they had left.

"Just as I did so, a mounted officer galloped past, at a speed that showed he was the bearer of an important despatch. I followed him to Soubise's headquarters. While there, I noticed several mounted officers rode out in great haste. A quarter of an hour later, several general officers arrived. There was a consultation for half an hour, and then officers rode off in all directions; and in a few minutes trumpets were sounding, and drums beating, all over the town.

"In a very short time a movement began towards the western gate. By ten o'clock the tents were all struck round the town, the waggons loaded, and they were on their way west. An hour later, and the whole force was in movement in that direction; and as I issued from the town on this side, I met the cavalry that had been scattered among the villages, galloping in. I don't think that there is, at the present moment, an enemy within ten miles of Erfurt."

"You were in no danger, yourself?"

"None at all, sir. I pa.s.sed the night at a friendly peasant's hut, five miles this side of the town, inside their advanced posts. I left my horse in a wood, and my peasant guided me by bypaths to the town. I did not exchange a word with anyone, except the landlord of the hotel where I breakfasted. He was bitterly hostile to the enemy.

"I also spoke to a solitary French vidette who had, in the hurry of their retreat, been left behind; and told him that he had best be off, as the whole army was in full march for the west."

"Well, if you breakfasted at six this morning, you must be hungry.

My dinner will be ready in half an hour, and you had better share it with me. I must go now, and tell the king the news that you have brought. I said nothing to him about my having sent you."

In twenty minutes the marshal returned.

"The king wishes to see you, Fergus. Of course he is vexed, but he always takes bad news well, unless it is the result of the blunder of one of the officers. He does not say much, even then; but it is very bad for that officer when he sees him. Frederick never forgives a blunder."

"Well, Captain Drummond, so you have been playing the spy for us?"

"I have been doing my best, your majesty."

"And the French are gone, bag and baggage?"

"Yes, sire, they have gone off west."

"To perch themselves somewhere among the mountains, I suppose.

Perhaps they will get bolder, presently, when they hear that they are more than double my strength. Did you learn anything more than what Marshal Keith has told me?"

"I heard a great deal of talk among a party of French non-commissioned officers, sire. They expressed great dissatisfaction with their general, and at the long delays. They also spoke with absolute contempt of the Confederacy army, both officers and men; and said that, if it had not been for the drilling by the Austrian non-commissioned officers, they would be nothing better than a rabble."

"I daresay Soubise is of the same opinion," the king said, "and wants them to have a few weeks' more drill before he sets them in line of battle. However, I have no doubt we shall manage to bring him to book, before we return.

"Well, I am obliged to you for your zeal, Captain Drummond; and although Keith tells me that you got in without being questioned, such business is always dangerous. Mayhap next time you will have a better opportunity for distinguishing yourself. As you managed to pa.s.s so freely among them, after you made your escape from prison, you can clearly be trusted on work of this kind."

Fergus saluted, and retired.

The next morning the troops started, as usual, at daybreak. They were to make but a short march, for they had no longer any occasion for speed, and they had made the hundred and fifty miles at a very rapid pace; but when they halted, Frederick with the cavalry rode straight on into Erfurt.

"Don't wait to put on your uniform now," Keith said to Fergus, on his return from the royal quarters; "dinner is waiting; and I am ready, if you are not. Lindsay is going to dine with me, too."

"Well, Lindsay," the marshal said, as the latter entered, "you see the advantages of this young fellow being able to speak German well. If you had been taken prisoner at Lobositz, you would have been fast in Spielberg at present; and you see he is now able to undertake perilous missions, and peril means promotion."

"I quite see that, marshal," Lindsay said with a smile; "but though I can get on with French fairly enough, my tongue doesn't seem to be able to form these crack-jaw German words; and you see, marshal, it is not the only one that does not. I think, sir, that bad as my German is, it is not much worse than your own, and you have been here much longer than I have."

The marshal laughed.

"You are right. I cannot say half a dozen German words; but you see I have not had your motive for acquiring it, and cannot very well get promotion. And again, it would not do for me to speak better German than the King of Prussia; who, beyond a few words necessary for animating his troops on occasion, knows very little German himself. For general work here French is amply sufficient, because every officer speaks it; but as you see, German is very useful, too, to a young officer who wishes to push himself forward, and is willing to undertake special work of this kind."

"But even then, marshal, he would have no advantage over a Prussian officer who speaks French."

"It depends a good deal upon the Prussian officer. The greater portion of them are mere machines--splendid fighting machines, no doubt; but of no great use outside their own work. Anyone could detect, with half an eye, nineteen out of twenty of them; dress them how you would, disguise them as you like. They step the regulation length, bring their foot down in the regulation way, are as stiff as if they had swallowed a ramrod. They have neither suppleness nor adaptability. They are so accustomed to obey that they have almost lost the power of originating, and would be taken and shot before they were in the enemy's lines ten minutes. Now, Fergus has the advantage of knowing both languages, and of being quick-witted and sharp."

The next two months were pa.s.sed in marches to and fro. Seidlitz, with some cavalry, took possession of Gotha, to the great satisfaction of the duke and d.u.c.h.ess; and the king himself rode over and dined with them.

While Seidlitz remained there as governor, with a couple of regiments of horse, a strong body of French and Austrian hussars, grenadiers, and artillery marched against Gotha. Seidlitz, having so few men to oppose them, evacuated the place, and the enemy marched into it in triumphant procession. The duke and d.u.c.h.ess made the best of matters, and invited all the princ.i.p.al officers to a banquet.

Just as they were sitting down to this, Seidlitz with his Prussians reappeared; his men being so artfully scattered about that they appeared a great deal stronger than they were. The enemy were seized with panic. Soubise and his generals mounted in great haste, and in a few minutes the whole were retreating at top speed; Seidlitz pursuing for some distance, killing thirty and taking sixty prisoners, with a large amount of baggage and plunder, and then returning to Gotha to eat the dinner prepared for the enemy.

Ferdinand of Brunswick, with his division, had been sent off to check, if possible, the movements of the French army under Richelieu, near Magdeburg.

In October came the startling news that Berlin itself was threatened, and that a force, said to be fifteen thousand strong, under General Hadd.i.c.k, was in rapid motion towards it. Prince Maurice was ordered to hasten to its defence, and the king also moved in that direction.

The invading force was but four thousand strong. Their numbers, however, were so magnified by rumour that the governor of Berlin, who had but four thousand troops, did not venture to oppose them, but sent the royal family and archives away under a strong escort.

Hadd.i.c.k occupied a suburb of the city, but knowing that as soon as his real force was known he would be hotly opposed, and receiving news that Prince Maurice was rapidly approaching, demanded a ransom of 45,000 pounds; and finally accepted 27,000 pounds, and then hurried away. Prince Maurice arrived twenty-four hours later.