‘What, obey a Pekin! take the mot d’ordre from a civilian that never handled a firelock!’ shouted three or four in derision.
‘I have served, and with distinction, too, my lads,’ said I calmly; ‘and if I have not handled a firelock, it is because I wielded a sabre, as an officer of hussars. It is not here, nor now, that I am going to tell why I wear the epaulette no longer. I’ll render account of that to my superiors and yours! If you reject my offer (and I don’t press you to accept it), let us at least part good friends. As for me, I can take care of myself.’ As I said this, I slung over my shoulder the cross-belt and carbine of one of the fugitives, and selecting a strongly built, short-legged black horse as my mount, I adjusted the saddle, and sprang on his back.
‘That was done like an old hussar, anyhow,’ said a soldier, who had been a cavalry man, ‘and I ‘ll follow you, whatever the rest may do.’ He mounted as he spoke, and saluted as if on duty. Slight as the incident was, its effect was magical. Old habits of discipline revived at the first signal of obedience, and the corporal having made his men fall in, came up to my side for orders.
‘Select the best of these horses,’ said I, ‘and let us press forward at once. We are about eighteen miles from the village of Wangheim; by halting a short distance outside of it, I can enter alone, and learn something about the state of the country, and the nearest French post. The cattle are all fresh, and we can easily reach the village before daybreak.’
Three of my little ‘command’ were tolerable horsemen, two of them having served in the artillery train, and the third being the dragoon I have alluded to. I accordingly threw out a couple of these as an advanced picket, keeping the last as my aide-de-camp at my side. The remainder formed the rear, with orders, if attacked, to dismount at once, and fire over the saddle, leaving myself and the others to manoeuvre as cavalry. This was the only way to give confidence to those soldiers, who in the ranks would have marched up to a battery, but on horseback were totally devoid of self-reliance. Meanwhile I imparted such instructions in equitation as I could, my own old experience as a riding-master well enabling me to select the most necessary and least difficult of a horseman’s duties. Except the old corporal, all were very creditable pupils; but he, possibly deeming it a point of honour not to discredit his old career, rejected everything like teaching, and openly protested that, save to run away from a victorious enemy, or follow a beaten one, he saw no use in cavalry.
Nothing could be in better temper, however, nor more amicable than our discourses on this head; and as I let drop, from time to time, little hints of my services on the Rhine and in Italy, I gradually perceived that I grew higher in the esteem of my companions, so that ere we rode a dozen miles together, their confidence in me became complete.
In return for all their anecdotes of ‘blood and field,’ I told them several stories of my own life, and, at least, convinced them that if they had not chanced upon the very luckiest of mankind, they had, at least, fallen upon one who had seen enough of casualties not to be easily baffled, and who felt in every difficulty a self-confidence that no amount of discomfiture could ever entirely obliterate. No soldier can vie with a Frenchman in tempering respect with familiarity; so that while preserving towards me all the freedom of the comrade, they recognised in every detail of duty the necessity of prompt obedience, and followed every command I gave with implicit submission.
It was thus we rode along, till in the distance I saw the spire of a village church, and recognised what I knew to be Dorf Wangheim. It was yet an hour before sunrise, and all was tranquil around. I gave the word to trot, and after about forty minutes’ sharp riding, we gained a small pine wood, which skirted the village. Here I dismounted my party, and prepared to make my entry alone into the Dorf, carefully arranging my costume for that purpose, sticking a large bouquet of wild flowers in my hat, and assuming as much as I could of the Tyrol look and lounge in my gait. I shortened my stirrups, also, to a most awkward and inconvenient length, and gripped my reins into a heap in my hand.
It was thus I rode into Wangheim, saluting the people as I passed up the street, and with the short dry greeting of ‘Tag,’ and a nod as brief, playing Tyroler to the top of my bent. The ‘Syndicus,’ or the ruler of the village, lived in a good-sized house in the ‘Platz,’ which, being market-day, was crowded with people, although the articles for sale appeared to include little variety, almost every one leading a calf by a straw rope, the rest of the population contenting themselves with a wild turkey, or sometimes two, which, held under the arms, added the most singular element to the general concert of human voices around. Little stalls for rustic jewellery and artificial flowers, the latter in great request, ran along the sides of the square, with here and there a booth where skins and furs were displayed—more, however, as it appeared, to give pleasure to a group of sturdy Jagers, who stood around, recognising the track of their own bullets, than from any hope of sale. In fact, the business of the day was dull, and an experienced eye would have seen at a glance that turkeys were ‘heavy,’ and calves ‘looking down.’ No wonder that it should be so, the interest of the scene being concentrated on a little knot of some twenty youths, who, with tickets containing a number in their hats, stood before the syndic’s door. They were fine-looking, stalwart, straight fellows, and became admirably the manly costume of their native mountains; but their countenances were not without an expression of sadness, the reflection, as I soon saw, of the sadder faces around them. For so they stood, mothers, sisters, and sweethearts, their tearful eyes turned on the little band. It puzzled me not a little at first to see these evidences of a conscription in a land where hitherto the population had answered the call to arms by a levy en masse, while the air of depression and sadness seemed also strange in those who gloried in the excitement of war. The first few sentences I overheard revealed the mystery. Wangheim was Bavarian; although strictly a Tyrol village, and Austrian Tyrol, too, it had been included within the Bavarian frontier, and the orders had arrived from Munich at the Syndicate to furnish a certain number of men by a certain day. This was terrible tidings; for although they did not as yet know that the war was against Austria, they had heard that the troops were for foreign service, and not for the defence of home and country, the only cause which a Tyroler deems worthy of battle. As I listened, I gathered that the most complete ignorance prevailed as to the service or the destination to which they were intended. The Bavarians had merely issued their mandates to the various villages of the border, and neither sent emissaries nor officers to carry them out. Having seen how the ‘land lay,’ I pushed my way through the crowd, into the hall of the Syndicate, and by dint of a strong will and stout shoulder, at length gained the audience-chamber, where, seated behind an elevated bench, the great man was dispensing justice. I advanced boldly, and demanded an immediate audience in private, stating that my business was most pressing, and not admitting of delay. The syndic consulted for a second or two with his clerk, and retired, beckoning me to follow.
‘You’re not a Tyroler,’ said he to me, the moment we were alone.