With Frederick the Great Part 34

The two officers were silent when Ronsfeldt concluded.

"We have made fools of ourselves," Stauffen said at last, "and we must apologize, Ritzer."

"Certainly we must," the other agreed heartily. "It seemed to us that his trying to make us put aside the respect due to his rank was a sort of affectation, and really impressed it more disagreeably upon us. We took him for an upstart favourite; though we might have known, had we thought of it, that the king never promotes unduly. Who could possibly have believed that a young fellow, not yet twenty, I should say, could have so distinguished himself? It will be a lesson to us both not to judge by appearances."

The day was cold and cheerless, and after an hour spent on the rampart most of the party were glad to return to the casemates.

Fergus was one of the last to go back. To his disgust the two officers rose and saluted formally, as he came in.

"We wish," Captain Stauffen said, "to express to you our deep regret at the unworthy way in which we received your request, this morning, to lay aside the distinction of rank while we are prisoners here. We were both under an error. Our regiments having only joined from Berlin a short time before the king marched with us to Hochkirch, we were altogether ignorant of the manner in which you had gained your rank, and had thought that it was the result of favouritism. We now know your highly distinguished services, and how worthily you have gained each step; and we both sincerely hope that you will overlook our boorish conduct, and will endeavour to forget the manner in which we received your kindly advances."

"Say no more about it, gentlemen," Fergus replied heartily. "I have had luck, and availed myself of it, as a.s.suredly you would have done had the same opportunities occurred to you. I can quite understand that it seemed to you monstrous that, at my age, I should be your senior officer. I feel it myself. I am often inclined to regret that I should thus have been unduly pushed up.

"However, let us say no more about it. I do hope that we shall be as three good comrades together; and that, within this casemate at any rate, there will be no question whatever of rank, and that you will call me Drummond, as I shall call you both by your names.

"Now, let us shake hands over the bargain. Let us draw our stools round the stove and have a comfortable talk.

"I have been speaking to Major Leiberkuhn about ordering things. He tells me that the commandant says that one list must be made. On this the orders of each of the casemates must be put down separately. A sergeant will go out every day with it. Money must be given to him to cover the full extent of the orders. He will return the change, each day, when he hands in the articles required.

"I have ordered some tobacco, some better cigars than these, and three bottles of good Hungarian wine. The sergeant is going in half an hour, so we shall be able to enjoy our chat this evening. I always take the precaution of carrying twenty golden Fredericks, sewn up in the lining of my tunic. It comes in very useful, in case of an emergency of this kind."

"I am afraid that neither of us has imitated your forethought,"

Ritzer said with a laugh. "I have only my last month's pay in my pocket, and Stauffen is no better off."

"Ah, well! With thirty pounds among us, we shall do very well,"

Fergus said. "We must be careful because, if we do make our escape, we shall want money to get disguises."

"You are not really in earnest, Drummond," Stauffen said, "in what you say about escaping?"

"I am quite in earnest about getting away, if I see a chance; though I admit that, at present, the matter seems a little difficult."

"Perhaps if you will tell us about your escape from Spielberg, we shall be able to get a hint from it."

They now drew up their seats round the stove, and Fergus told them in detail the manner of his escape, omitting only the name of the n.o.blemen at Vienna who had a.s.sisted him.

"It was excellently done," Ritzer said warmly. "Your making off in that Austrian uniform, at the only moment when such a thing could be done, was certainly a masterly stroke."

"So was the taking of the post horses," Stauffen agreed, "and your getting a disguise from the postmaster. I should like to have seen the Austrian's look of surprise, when he got his uniform back again.

"I am afraid that your adventures do not afford us any hint for getting away from here. Even you will admit that three Austrian uniforms could not be secured, and the tale by which you procured the post horses would hardly hold good in the case of three."

"No, if we get away at all it must be done in an entirely different manner. The place is not so difficult to get out of as Spielberg was, for with patience we could certainly manage to cut off the rivet heads of the bars. But I don't see, at present, how we could cross this wide moat, with a sentry pacing up and down thirty feet above us; nor climb up the brick wall on the other side, without making a noise. That done, of course we could, on a dark night, cross the glacis and swim the outer moat. All that accomplished, the question of disguises will come in. Just at present it is not very easy to see how that is to be managed.

"Can you swim?"

Both officers replied in the affirmative.

"Well, that is something gained. As to the rest, we need not bother about it, at present. We are not uncomfortable where we are, and if we get back in time for the next campaign, that is all that really matters."

The others laughed at the confident tone in which he spoke, but after hearing the details of the prior attempt, it seemed to them that their companion was capable of accomplishing what almost seemed to be impossibilities. They had, they knew, very slight chance of being exchanged so long as the war lasted. A few general officers, or others whose families possessed great influence, were occasionally exchanged; but it was evidently the policy of Austria to retain all prisoners. In the first place she desired to reduce Frederick's fighting force, and in the second, the number of Austrians taken had been very much larger than that of the Prussians captured, and the support of some fifteen or twenty thousand prisoners of war added to the drain on Frederick's resources. Three campaigns had pa.s.sed without materially altering the position of the combatants, and as many more might elapse before the war came to an end. Indeed, there was no saying how long it might last, and the prospect was so unpleasant that the two officers were inclined to run a very considerable risk in attempting to obtain freedom.

A week later the snow began to fall heavily, and the moat froze.

"There is no getting across that without being seen, even on the darkest night," Fergus said, as he walked up and down the rampart with his two companions, "unless the sentry was sound asleep; and in such weather as this, that is the last thing likely to happen.

Unless something altogether unexpected occurs, we shall have to postpone action till spring comes.

"Now that we have bought some books we can pa.s.s the time away comfortably. It was a happy thought of Major Leiberkuhn that each of us should buy one book, so that altogether we have got some forty between us; which, taking our reading quietly, will last us for a couple of months. They mayn't be all equally interesting; but as the sergeant bought them second-hand, at about half a franc a volume, we can lay in another stock without hurting ourselves, whenever we choose."

A few days later they bought several sets of draughts, chessmen, and dominoes, and a dozen packs of cards. This had been arranged at a general meeting, held in the major's casemate. Strict rules had been laid down that there should be no playing for money. Several of the prisoners had had only a few marks in their pockets when captured.

They agreed to meet at three o'clock, in two of the casemates by turn, as one would not hold the whole number. This made a great break in their day. It would have been better if the meeting had been held in the evening; but the regulation that, during the winter months, they were locked up at five, prevented this being adopted. So the cold weather pa.s.sed not altogether unpleasantly.

The strict rule that every case in which the slightest difference of opinion arose should, at once, be submitted to the adjudication of Major Leiberkuhn and the senior officer of the casemate in which it occurred, effectually prevented all disputes and quarrels over the cards and other games; and their good fellowship remained, therefore, unbroken.

In March the sun gained power, the snow and ice began to melt, and Fergus again began to think how an escape could be effected.

"I can think of only one plan," he said to his two companions, one evening. "It is clear that it is altogether hopeless to think of getting out by the door but, as we agreed, it would be possible to chip off the heads of the rivets, unbar the shutters, and let ourselves down into the moat. If we were to make our way along at the foot of the wall, the chance of our being seen by the sentry above would be very slight; for of course we should choose a night when the wind was blowing hard, and the water ruffled. In that case any splash we might make would not be heard.

"Swimming along to the corner of this face of the fort, we would turn and keep along until we reached the spot where the cut runs to the river. Crossing the moat to that would be the most dangerous part of the business, and we ought, if possible, to dive across.

There is a low wall there, and a cheval-de-frise on the top of it.

We should have to get out by the side of that, and then either swim along the cut, or crawl along the edge of it till we get to the river.

"Then we must crawl along under the shelter of its banks towards the town, till we get to a boat hauled up, or swim to one moored a little way out in the stream. Then we must row up the river for some distance, and land."

"That all seems possible enough, Drummond," Captain Ritzer said; "but what about our uniforms?"

"We must leave them behind, and swim in our underclothes. I should say we should take a couple of suits with us. We could make them up into bundles, and carry them on our heads while we swim. Of course, if we take them we shall not be able to dive; but must swim across the moat to the cut, and trust to the darkness for the sentries not seeing us. Then, once on board a boat, we could take off our wet things and put the dry ones on."

"But we can hardly wander about the country in shirts and drawers, Drummond," Stauffen suggested.

"Certainly not. My idea is that, as soon as we are a mile or two away, we should either board some boat where we see a light, and overpower the boatmen and take their clothes, if they will not sell them to us; or else land at some quiet house, and rig ourselves out. There should be no great difficulty about that. Once rigged out we must make south, for as soon as our escape is found out the next morning, cavalry will scour the country in every direction on this side of the river, and give notice of our escape at every town and village.

"After lying up quiet for a time, we must journey at least fifty miles west. We might make for Munich if we like; or strike the Isar at Landshut, and then work up through Ratisbon, and then through the Fichtel Mountains to Bayreuth, and so into Saxony; or from Landshut we can cross the Bohmerwald Mountains into Bohemia; or, if we like, from Munich we can keep west into Wuertemberg, up through Hesse-Darmstadt and Ca.s.sel into Hanover; or, lastly, we can go on to Mannheim and down the Rhine, and then come round by sea to Hamburg."

The others laughed.

"It looks a tremendous business, anyhow, Drummond, and I should never think of attempting it by myself," Ritzer said; "but if you a.s.sure me that you think it will be possible, I am ready to try it."

"I think that there is every chance of success, Ritzer. I really do not see why it should fail. Of course there is risk in it, but once fairly on the other side of the moat, and on the river bank, it seems comparatively safe. We can see that there are always a lot of boats moored in the stream, this side of the bridge; and by taking a small boat, we might put off to one of them and get our change of clothes, at once bind and gag the crew--there are not likely to be above two or three of them--give them a piece of gold to pay for the clothes, and then row straight up the river and land a mile or two away. That would make it plain sailing.

"Of course we should push the boat off when we landed, and it would float down past the town before daylight. The chances are that the boatmen, finding that they are no losers by the affair, would make no complaint to the authorities; but even if they did, we should be far beyond their reach by that time. All we have got to do is to choose a really dark night, with wind and rain.

"The first job to be done is to get the heads off these rivets. I have examined them carefully. They are roughly done, and I don't fancy that the iron is very hard; and our knives will, I think, make a comparatively short job of it."

"We could not work at night," Ritzer said. "The sentry in front would hear the noise."

"I think of sawing the heads off," Fergus said. "With the help of a little oil, I fancy the steel will cut through the iron. Yesterday I tapped the edge of my knife against the edge of the stone parapet--it is good steel, but very brittle--and I managed to make a pretty fair saw of it. Tomorrow I will do yours, if you like."

All carried clasp knives for cutting their food with, when serving in the field. They had oil which they had bought for dressing salads with, and Fergus at once attacked one of the rivets.