"Mother, I want mother!" screamed little Hans, while the baby's wails were incessant.
Bearing August in his arms, Hans and Bettina at his side, the old man appeared again in the kitchen of the farmhouse.
"Gott im Himmel!" cried Frau Schmelze, wringing her hands and weeping. "I knew it! I knew it! You need not tell me. Conrad, husband! Ulrich! Come! Quick! It is Anna! Our dear, dear Anna!"
As for Hans, he went on like a madman, railing at Napoleon and blaming the French. Only Bettina could quiet him.
No, he would not stay there with the children. He would return to the Forest House where he had left the soldier.
So the farmer went with him, and Ulrich fetched Kaspar's father.
Hans insisted that he would nurse the wounded Prussian.
"Let him alone," said the soldier, who announced that he must march on towards Erfurt. "It will take his mind off his trouble."
"The children will stay here for the present," insisted Frau Schmelze when Hans reappeared that evening.
He nodded.