Part 50 (1/2)
As Karl was helping Fergus into his uniform, he asked:
”How long were you in coming here, count?”
”We did it in a day. I sent on relays of horses, two days before; and as the carriage is of course on runners, and the snow in good order, we made quick work of it. Your man went on with the horses, and rode with us from the last place where we changed. I did most of the journey sitting by the coachman; which gave them more room inside, and was more pleasant for me, also.”
In a few minutes they reached the hotel, and the count led Fergus to a door.
”You will find Thirza alone there. We thought that you had best see her so, at first.”
Half an hour later, the count and countess entered the room.
”He looks very pale and thin, mother,” Thirza said, after the countess had affectionately embraced Fergus.
”You would hardly have expected to find him fat and rosy,” the count laughed. ”A man does not lose his arm, and go about as if the matter was not worth thinking of, a few weeks afterwards. He is certainly looking better than I expected to find him.
”That empty sleeve is a sad disfigurement, though,” he added slyly.
”How can you say so, father?” Thirza exclaimed indignantly. ”I think quite the contrary, and I feel quite proud of him with it.”
”Well, there is no accounting for taste, Thirza. If you are satisfied, I have no reason to be otherwise.
”And now, Drummond, we want to hear all about Liegnitz and Torgau; for we have only heard the Austrian accounts. Dresden illuminated over Daun's first despatch from Torgau, saying that the Prussian attacks had been repulsed with tremendous slaughter, and a complete victory gained. The next morning there came, I believe, another despatch, but it was not published; and it was not until we heard that Daun and Lacy were both within a few miles of the town that we knew that, somehow or other, there had been a mistake about the matter, a mistake that has not yet been cleared up, at Dresden.”
”The defeat part of the business I can tell you from my personal observation, the victory only from what I heard. Certainly, when I came to my senses, after the surgeons had seen to my wounds, I had no thought of anything but a disastrous defeat. Never did the Prussians fight more bravely, or more hopelessly. They had to mount a steep ascent, with four hundred cannon playing upon them; and an army, more than three times their number, waiting at the top to receive them.”
He then proceeded to tell them the whole story of the battle.
”Ziethen seems to have blundered terribly,” the count said.
”I believe that that is the king's opinion, too; but Ziethen himself defends his action stoutly, and maintains that he could never have succeeded in a direct attack, in broad daylight. Anyhow, as the matter came out all right in the end, the king was too well satisfied to do no more than grumble at him.
”The other was a hard-fought battle, too.”
”The news of that was a relief to us, indeed,” the count said. ”It seemed to everyone that Frederick was so completely caught in the toils that he could not hope to extricate himself. As you know, in this war I have, all along, held myself to be a neutral. I considered that the plot to overthrow Frederick and part.i.tion the kingdom was a scandalous one, and that the king disgraced himself and us by joining in it; but since that time, my sympathies have become more and more strongly with Frederick. It is impossible not to admire the manner in which he has defended himself. Moreover, the brutality with which the Confederates and Austrians, wherever their armies penetrated Saxony, treated the Protestants, made one regard him as the champion of Protestantism.
”He was wrong in forcing the Saxons to take service with him in his army, after their surrender at Pirna; and the taxes and exactions have, for the last three years, weighed heavily on Saxony, but I cannot blame him for that. It was needful that he should have money to carry on the war, and as Saxony had brought it on herself, I could not blame him that he bore heavily upon her.
”Then, too, Thirza has, for the last two or three years, become a perfect enthusiast for the Prussians. Whether it was the king's gracious manner to herself, or from some other cause, I cannot say; but she has certainly become an ultra-Prussian.
”And now lunch must be ready, and you look as if you wanted it, Drummond; and I am sure Thirza does. She was too excited to eat supper, when we got here last night; and as for her breakfast, it was altogether untouched.”
”No doubt you think, Drummond,” Count Eulenfurst said, when he called the next morning, ”that you have done your duty fairly to Prussia.”
”How do you mean, count?” Fergus replied, somewhat puzzled by the question.
”I mean that you have served five campaigns, you have been twice made a prisoner, you were wounded at Zorndorf, you nearly died of fever last winter, now you have lost your arm at Torgau; so I think that you have fully done your duty to the king under whom you took service, and could now retire with a thoroughly clear conscience.
”My own idea is that the war has quite spent its strength. France is practically bankrupt. Austria and Russia must be as tired of the war as Prussia, and this last defeat of their hopes cannot but discourage the two empresses greatly. I hear, from my friends in Vienna, that in the capital and all the large cities they are becoming absolutely disgusted with the war; and though it may go on for a while, I believe that its fury is spent.
”At any rate, I think you have earned a right to think of yourself, as well as others. You certainly have nothing to gain by staying longer in the service.”