Part 24 (1/2)
”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.”