Part 48 (2/2)

After some difficulty, Ralph got a bed; and was at the agreed place at the appointed time. The old man went up to the Prussian sergeant in command, and told the tale Ralph had dictated to him. The sergeant agreed to the arrangement, with a brief nod. The old man handed Ralph his whip, and returned him the fur coat; which Ralph was glad enough to put on, for the morning was bitterly cold, and Ralph--enfeebled by his illness--felt it keenly. In another five minutes, the carts were in motion across the bridge, and then away due south.

For half an hour Ralph walked by the side of his cart and--being, by that time, thoroughly warm--he jumped up in the cart and rode, during the rest of the day; getting down and walking--for a short time only--when he found his feet getting numbed with the cold.

In the afternoon they arrived at La Ferte, some fifteen miles from Orleans. There they remained for the night. There were not very many troops here, and Ralph could have obtained a bed by paying well for it; but he feared to attract attention by the possession of unusual funds and, therefore, slept in a hay loft; afraid, in spite of his fur coat, to sleep in the open air.

The next morning the train was divided, twenty of the carts going down towards Romorantin; while the rest--now fifteen in number--kept on towards Salbris. Ralph's cart formed part of this latter division. The night after they left La Ferte, they halted at La Motte Beuvron, where there was a strong force of Germans. The following day only four carts continued their route to Salbris, Ralph happening again to be among them. He had regretted two days before that he had not formed part of the division for Romorantin, as from that place he would have been less than twenty miles from Tours, which the Prussians had not yet entered; but as he had the good fortune to go on to Salbris, he did not mind--as Salbris, like Romorantin, was one of the most advanced stations.

They arrived late in the afternoon, and the carts were at once unloaded. The sergeant in charge told them to wait, while he got their papers for them; and in ten minutes he returned.

”You will have tomorrow to rest your horses, and the next day a train will start for the north. Your work is over now, as there is nothing to go back. Here are the pa.s.ses for you, saying that you have carried goods down here for the army; and are therefore to return back, without your carts being further requisitioned.”

Ralph put up his horse and cart for an hour in the village, while he went to search for some farm house upon which no Prussian soldiers were quartered. He was unable, for some time, to find one; but at last, over a mile from the town, he found a small place which had escaped the attention of the Prussian quartermaster, and where there was a small, unoccupied stable. Ralph soon struck a bargain with its owner; returned to Salbris, mounted his cart, drove out; and was soon settled in the little farm house.

He antic.i.p.ated no great difficulty in pa.s.sing out through the outposts; as there was no French force of any importance, near, and the German troops interfered but little with the movements of the country people. The affair, however, turned out more easy than he had antic.i.p.ated for, towards morning, he was awoke by the distant sound of bugles.

”Something is up,” he said to himself; ”either a French attack, a general advance, or a recall. If it should be the latter, I am in luck.”

It turned out to be as Ralph hoped. The peasant in whose house he was stopping went into Salbris, early; and came back with the news that there was no longer a German there. Orders had come for them to fall back, towards Orleans.

”I am not at all surprised,” Ralph said, when he heard it, ”for Orleans was emptying fast of troops. This sudden march of Bourbaki for the east, and the necessity to reinforce Frederick Charles, near Vendome must try even Prussian resources to the utmost.”

Half an hour later, Ralph was jogging along on his way to Vierzon.

There he found that the railway was open to Bourges, from which town he should have no difficulty in getting on to Dijon. He soon found a purchaser for his horse and cart, at ten pounds, and the next morning started on his way home.

Chapter 21: Home.

It was a long journey from Vierzon to Dijon. At Bourges Ralph had taken advantage of a delay of some hours--necessitated by the fact that no train was going--to get some suitable clothes, instead of the peasant's suit in which he had traversed the lines. He had, of course, brought his papers with him; so that he had no difficulty, whatever, in getting on by the train. But the train itself made but slow work of it. Bourbaki had pa.s.sed west only the week before, with all his army, upon his march to the relief of Belfort; and the railway was completely choked. However, Ralph was not inclined to grumble at the cause of his delay; for it was only upon Bourbaki's approach that the Germans had evacuated Dijon--which was now held by Garibaldi's irregulars, and a considerable force of Mobiles.

So great were the delays that it was evening when the train reached Dijon. Ralph had scarcely stepped out on to the platform when Percy bounded upon him, and threw his arms round his neck.

”Dear, dear old Ralph! Thank G.o.d you are back again.”

”My dear Percy, where did you spring from?”

”I have been home five days. I was still down at Ma.r.s.eilles, when I heard that Dijon was open again; and I came straight up.

”And how are you, Ralph?”

”Oh, I am getting all right again. How are they all, at home?”

”Well--quite well--but dreadfully anxious about you.”

By this time the boys were out of the station, and were walking homeward.

”But you have not told me how you happened to be at the station.”

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