Part 8 (2/2)
At last the comedy grew wearisome. The _avantageur_ was sent off to bed, and Frommelt had to play a cancan, to which Gropphusen and Landsberg danced. Gropphusen was supple and agile, and, with his pale, handsome, rather worn face, looked a perfect Montmartre type.
Landsberg, on the contrary, cut a grotesque figure, kicking up his long shoes in the air, and as he did so almost choking in his unduly high collar.
The company became smaller and smaller, and at last only two groups were left.
In the card-room half-a-dozen men still sat awhile at one of the tables, and in the mess-room Captain Mohr and the junior surgeon continued drinking. They had long ago given up conversation; but occasionally one of them would say ”Prosit!” and then they would both drink. When at last they left their seats they found the orderly in the ante-room half-asleep, half drunk, fallen from his chair, and lying snoring on the ground.
Growling ”d.a.m.ned swine!” the a.s.sistant-surgeon kicked the man till he rose, and with an effort stood upright.
When the last two officers had left the mess-house he locked the doors, drank the end of a bottle of champagne, and lay down to sleep on the sofa in the smoking-room.
The sofa-cover was a sacred relic, a present to the mess-house from an officer in the East African forces, who had formerly belonged to the regiment. It was a magnificent specimen of Oriental art. The orderly found the thick gold embroidery very uncomfortable to his cheek; but then it certainly was a fine thing to scratch his head with!
When Reimers, who had left early, reached his quarters, he was surprised to find his servant waiting up for him.
”Why on earth are you not in bed?” he inquired.
Gahler answered respectfully, ”Beg pardon, sir, on such occasions the count used sometimes to need me; he often went out again.”
”Well, I don't. So remember that in future,” enjoined Reimers.
Gahler still waited, and asked, ”Would you like some tea, sir?”
Reimers looked up. Not a bad idea that! He was too much excited to sleep, for he had been obliged to pledge his comrades far too often, and a cup of tea would be just the thing. After that he would read a few pages, and only then try to go to sleep.
”Yes, make me some tea,” he a.s.sented, ”but not too strong.”
He put on a comfortable smoking-jacket. Gahler brought his tea almost immediately, and with it a plate of anchovy sandwiches.
Reimers smiled. It certainly paid to have for one's servant the quondam groom of an elegant cavalry officer. He gave Gahler a friendly nod, and said, ”I think, Gahler, that we shall get on capitally together.”
The gunner stood at attention.
”Any other orders, sir?” he asked.
”No. Good-night.”
”Good-night, sir.”
Reimers ate a few mouthfuls as he walked up and down the room; then he carried the green-shaded lamp to his writing-table, and took down a volume of the official history of the great Franco-Prussian War.
He spread out the marvellously accurate maps, and began, as he had done so often before, to follow the various phases of his favourite battle, the three days' fight on the Lisaine. That was the only great defensive battle of the campaign, clearer and easier to follow than any other in its simple tactics, almost suggesting the typical example of a textbook, and yet what a living reality! Almost at the same moment when the German Empire was being proclaimed at Versailles, Bavarians were fighting shoulder to shoulder with East Prussians, regiments from Schleswig next those from Upper Silesia, soldiers from the Rhine-provinces side by side with soldiers from Saxony: a glorious demonstration of the newly achieved unity.
His admiration for the valiant defenders was no greater than his pity for the tragic fate of the attacking army, which, almost dying of starvation, had fought with the wild courage of despair, and had deserved a more honourable reward than to be driven along that terrible path of suffering to the Swiss frontier. Not less tragic was the fate of its commander; a fate, indeed, which Bourbaki shared with the other military leaders of the Republic. All those generals, Aurelle de Paladines, Chanzy, Faidherbe, Bourbaki, who at the brave but somewhat futile summons of the Committee of National Defence tried to arrest the victorious advance of the German army, were inevitably doomed to defeat; and even the inspiration of a military genius could not have got over the fundamental mistake that had been made, of considering the impossible possible.
Reimers looked up from the book with a glowing face. He had followed the French army as far as Pontarlier. That was the moment in which the German forces commanded the largest area. In the west the Rhinelanders were gazing astonished at the winter waves on the ca.n.a.l, while to the east, Pomeranians greeted the sentinels of the Swiss frontier.
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