Had he been a wiser man, our course of procedure would have been very different, but as it was he was fooled completely, and the more fooled he was the more pressing he became in his demands.
At last we could hold him off no longer, even if we had wished to; and he was recalled upon war being declared.
CHAPTER XIII
So war had come, and I, for one, thanked God that it had not found us unprepared.
The first shot of the war was fired at Ruln. It took the enemy three days, and cost them many lives, to drive our small force out of that place. It was on that day that they made their first move from the north, and it is with this attack that I will deal first.
A thousand men seized Melanov, driving out a small force of ill-equipped Rudarlians. These retired with every appearance of panic and surprise. It was Captain von Essens who was responsible for this move, and he had chosen his men for their intelligence; they must have acted their part extremely well.
The enemy advanced rapidly, their cavalry reached Nardal and occupied that place without resistance. On the other flank they reached half-way to Villatov. The ground, however, in that direction was eminently unsuited for cavalry work, and a small body of Rudarlians held them there successfully.
At Viritz, their main force met with considerable resistance, as we determined to make them bring up as large a number of troops as possible. Our old guns were conspicuous, and in spite of their age did considerable damage. Again we lost ground, retiring, before an overwhelming force, some seven miles, to a range of hills where we were heavily entrenched. We left Viritz in a hurry, leaving behind us a number of obsolete guns carefully rendered useless; I had given them to the Bornians as I had promised.
They occupied Viritz, and I heard with great satisfaction that they were congratulating themselves on the easiness with which they were progressing. They made the fatal blunder of under-estimating an adversary. It was what I had wished and schemed for. The concentration of their troops at Viritz, preparatory to a final rush through to Karena, gave us time to complete our defences on the hills, and there we sat and waited.
The three roads which led from Viritz to Karena, Romlitz, and Kelbna ran through the hills at places where, strangely enough, minerals had been found; between these roads, linking them up, were our troops. The roads were also joined by a military road, on the side nearest to Karena. This had been built especially for the movements of troops.